Duelist Twilight
by Lux-Nero
Summary: Duelist...a player for the great game of duel monsters. Schools set up these duelists to be successful and learn new experiences. Yet the schools are tough and the students are tougher on each other.
1. Chapter 1: This Is the Prologue!

Vyser D: First off, I don't own Yugioh GX! If I did…would I really need a disclaimer? Second off, I just felt like writing this as a…side story…enjoy.

_/--/-/-/-//-/--/_

_Duel…_

_In layman's terms, it means an honorable fight._

_But if you're a duelist…It can mean something totally different._

_Duelists…_

_A player of the widely famous trading card game…Duel Monsters…_

_In this game, honor is often found among the players, friends are made, respect is earned, and sometimes…_

…_Even love can sprout from a duel._

_Though as in life, people have turned this innocent game into means of achieving selfish goals or to hurt the lives of others._

_Since ancient times, these games were used to determine many things…and in a sense, they still are._

_Those who don't understand often mock the ones who do from that mocks plant the seed of hatred slowing growing with each passing moment. _

_Humans are interesting creatures…they often don't realize it but from what history has proven, people have brought their own downfall._

_And soon…that downfall will appear once more…_

_However…three souls will arise to strike down this evil. Though the souls be separate and completely different. They are the only ones who can save us…_

_Now you're thinking…'Who is this guy and what the hell is he rambling about?'_

_Well…for what I am talking about…that will just wait till another day…_

_As for who I am…you already may know that answer…_

_-/-//-/--/-//-/--/_

Yugioh GX

Dueling Twilight

/--/-/-//-/-

Chapter 1

This Is the Prologue!

/-/-/-/--/--//--/

Today was the day…

The sun had risen over the city that never sleeps, New York. From the window of a small apartment…it was the most beautiful sight in the world to the eyes that gazed upon the event.

She could barely contain herself…from her bed next to the window, she knew that today was her day for recognition.

Leaping from underneath the covers, the girl landed on the cold wooden floor that met her feet. A small smile couldn't help but appear on her face as she moved her long chestnut hair from her glee-filled dark green eyes. "…It's finally here!"

With an elegant walk towards the bathroom, the door slowly closed keeping the girl in the room for several minutes.

The door opened immediately allowing the young brunette to exit. Her hair waved slightly from her movements showing off the red tips at her bangs and end of long hair, flowing past her shoulders. Her petite body allowed the white shirt she was wearing to flow over her baggy khaki shorts.

Without a moment's notice the girl ran to the desk that sat next to her bed, and quickly grabbed the blue jacket and black backpack that were resting on the desktop. '_Nothing's going to stop me from this…'_

That's when the girl's eyes spotted the clock on the wall to the right… "It's noon!?!"

"Hey little sis! Your breakfast is getting cold!"

Turning her body with a spin, the girl quickly ran towards the door that led out of the room and quickly ran down the hall. Reaching the opening, she was met by a great big hug from the muscular figure that jumped out at the last minute surprising her. "About time you got out here Rena!"

Rena began to try to break free from the powerful bear hug from the blonde sportsman she happened to call her brother. "Guy! I…can't…breathe!"

Releasing his death hug, Guy couldn't help but look down and smile at Rena. "Sorry sis…but I gotta make sure that hug lasts as long you stay at the academy!"

"Well…I hope I can get in…" Rena replied rubbing the back of her head.

"No sweat…you've been working hard!" Guy laughed slapping his hand on Rena's back sending her to the ground. "…Whoops! Forgot you're not as strong as me…"

Rubbing her back, Rena stood up. When she was finally standing up straight, an instant thought popped into her head. "…I see dad isn't here…"

"He got called into work today," Guy answered before turning to the clock. "But…you'll have to go! You've got somewhere to be!"

That's when Rena's eyes landed on the clock and immediately sending her into frenzy. "AGH! I'm going to miss my bus! I'm late!"

And with that…Rena quickly ran out the door of the apartment with a piece of toast between her teeth. Guy just sat down and shook his head. "…Wish you luck little sis."

-/-//-/-/-/--/-/-/-

Even during the morning hours, New York was overcrowded as usual and people were usually walking down the streets going to work, minding their own business, without a care for the rest of the world.

At this moment however, Rena was wishing that the rest of the world would get out of her way. Running past many people, only to keep bumping into several businessmen. '_Dang it! I really need to stop relying on the sun to wake me up!_'

Rena's eyes lit up as she looked forward, only a few yards were all that remained between her and the bus stop with the bus to the exam site waiting for all the passengers to board. '_Almost there!_'

"Klein! Look out!"

SLAM!!!!!!!!!

Some unknown force knocked down Rena down to her bottom. The force had sent the toast that was in her mouth flying into the air. "Oh…I feel like I was just tackled by Guy when he was playing football…"

"Nice…"

"You okay Klein?"

"Now's not the time Koji! Let's get out of here!"

Snapping back to her senses, Rena just turned towards the bus to see two short teenaged guys, one with greased spiky black hair and the other with a brown bowl cut, running onto the door closing bus. "What!?! No wait!"

Running after the bus was more of a challenge than it was said. From the back window she could see the two short teens that had just gotten on the bus at the back. The greased haired teen had his tongue out and was pulling down his lower eyelid at Rena, while the bowl cut haired teen who was apparently wearing coke bottle glasses just stared at his companion.

After the bus was ten blocks ahead of Rena, she lowered her head and began to catch her breath. That was then her second wind came to her. "I won't let this stop me! I didn't finish that written exam two weeks ago just to be left behind!"

-/-//-- _30 Minutes Later… -//--//-_

"I…finally…made…it…" Rena panted with her hands on her knees. The large sight before her was the Atlantic Duel academy's exam area. Two weeks earlier, this sight was filled with students that were going to the academy and wanted to get the written exam out of the way.

Wiping off the beads of sweat that had appeared on her head, Rena began to run directly through the doors when suddenly for the third time of the day, Rena was knocked to the ground.

"Ouch…Sorry!" Rena apologized nervously closing her eyes. When she opened them, they were met with pristine blue eyes. The eyes belonged to a young man with wild dark gray hair. He wore a black shirt with a gray sleeveless jacket and jeans. A black backpack was slung over his broad shoulders.

For some reason, Rena couldn't help but stare into the narrowing eyes of this teen…it wasn't love at first sight because of what the guy's words were…

"…Dumb ass."

Rena quickly jumped to her feet and was about to reply to the rude boy, when he just turned around and walked away from the steaming Rena. Placing her hands on her hips, Rena glared at the teen. "Hey! I apologized!"

"All duelists applying to the academy who haven't dueled yet please report to the stadium. I repeat…All duelists applying to the academy who haven't dueled yet please report to the stadium."

Shaking her head, Rena calmly walked through the building seeing many other duelists trading cards, or practicing dueling. "No!"

/--/-//---/-/-//

Walking down the steps of the arena, Rena could easily see that many duels were taking place. From a distance, she couldn't tell who the duelists were, but she sure recognized some of the monsters.

"Wow…its even more exciting than I thought," Rena gasped looking at the multiple duels going on.

"Everything must amaze you…"

That's when Rena's eyes turned to see the same guy who had insulted her just minutes ago just sitting down lazily in one of the seats of the arena. '_It's the rude duelist!'_ Charging towards the rude man, Rena stood up next to him starring daggers at him. "HEY! You owe me an apology!"

The rude gray haired boy just ignored her yelling at him and continued watching the duel that was taking place in the arena directly in front of him.

"ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?!" Rena yelled as flames appeared in her eyes. "At least say something!"

The boy just watched the duel in silence.

A blood vessel appeared on Rena head, but then took a deep breath and tried to at least make amends. "What are you watching anyway?" Rena just blinked as she turned towards the dueling arena.

At the dueling arena stood a tall, handsome boy with short spiked up brown hair with a hint of class and his eyes seemed to be deep amber of a roaring flame. His build was athletic and his face was perfectly cleared of any blemishes. The field before him was cleared and he only had two cards in his hand. (NDLP: 700)

Turning slightly, Rena noticed the large machine with purple and green metal (3000/2300). It was shaped in the form of a demonic monster and whenever it moved, the gears inside the mechanical fiend could be heard through out the entire arena. The duel Procter…had a large afro and was wearing the standard issue Obelisk blue overcoat that came when one had entered the school. At his arm was a duel academy issued duel disk. (DPLP: 2900)

The Proctor just smiled at the fact that his opponent didn't seem scared at all. "I'm surprised to see you calm newbie…most people who face off against my Metalzoa usually are scared because of its size."

"Well, I guess I'm not like most people," the noble duelist replied closing his eyes. Snapping the top card from his deck he just smiled. "And since you used up all the cards in your hand for that last move, I can only assume that it's my turn…"

Looking at the card, the noble duelist just stood there with composure but then smiled with a little trace of evil through his lips. "It is amazing to see how you managed to summon a powerful monster that rivals a certain dragon…too bad it's such a pity…"

"A pity?" The Duel Proctor questioned in an annoyed tone. "Look at the scores again and tell me what you think!"

"…Oh I'm not looking at the scores…" The noble duelist replied sliding his newly drawn card. "I'm looking at the cards! So I'll activate the spell card Graceful Charity!"

A blinding bright light showered over the noble duelist as he pulled three cards from his deck. After looking at the cards momentarily, he smiled and slid two of the cards into his graveyard. "Now then…I summon one of my favorite monsters, go Mudora (1500/1800)!"

The lights flew up in front of the duelists allowing the Egyptian fairy to appear, his golden mask shining in the light as he drew his two curved swords from his sides.

The afro duel proctor didn't seem impressed. "You'll have to do a lot better than that if you aim to get in this academy."

"Ah, I know that, but you don't seem to realize Mudora's special ability," the noble duelist replied making his graveyard glowing brilliantly. All of a sudden, multiple images of previous monsters that must have been played in the duel materialized behind the Mudora. "For each fairy in my graveyard, he's granted an additional two hundred attack points…"

The Afro duel proctor just stepped back as the ghostly fairies flew into their comrade, strengthening him with a loud battle cry! (1500/1800 + 200(x 9)/0 3300/1800)

"Still not enough to defeat me!" The Afro proctor pointed out.

The noble duelist just smiled as he lifted another card from his hand, this time fitting it into his duel disk. All of a sudden, a small machine appeared on the chest of the Metalzoa. "Which is why I'm out fitting your rust bucket with Nitro Unit…and now…Mudora attack!"

The Egyptian fairy leapt into the air then quickly brought its blades down on the head of the Metalzoa. At first the attack did nothing, but then the swords began to cut right through the metal like a hot knife through butter.

The Afro proctor's jaw just dropped as the Mudora landed in front of him and jumped back to the noble duelist's field. Turning his head slightly, he saw his Metalzoa shattering into pixels. "You may have taken down my best monster…but you're still far from winning!" (DPLP: 2600)

"Actually no… you see that's where my Nitro Unit comes into play," the noble duelist explained as the Nitro unit fell onto the Duel Proctor's chest. "You see…if I destroy the equipped monster, than you take direct damage equal to the equipped monster's attack points…"

"Uh oh…" the duel proctor gulped listening a click sound…

BOOM! (DPLP: 0)

The noble boy just smirked walking off of the platform, with Mudora disappearing in the process and with the now dazed duel proctor emerging from the holographic explosion. "…Guess I was too much of a duelist for him…"

Rena's eyes were as wide as possible. "That's somewhat scary…"

"Meet candidate number one, fresh from the duel prep school, Mr. Leonardo Childsman, the so called noble duelist," A male voice commented.

Rena turned her head to the right to see a young man smiling at her, his dark blue spiky hair was held up with a wave like blue headband. His legs were on top of the seat in front of him showing off his khaki cargo pants and black shirt that were baggy over his body. "Although…with a move like that, its pretty interesting as well."

Holding out his hand, the teen just smiled once more. "The name's Van Tenka…though I prefer to be called Van."

Rena warmly smiled back and shook Van's hand slightly. "I'm Rena Akira, you're the first guy this morning who didn't knock me down today."

Raising an eyebrow at the comment, Van just shook it off and turned his eyes back at the dueling arenas to see a young duelist summoning massive rust covered robot. "Okay… interesting."

Rena just turned her head to see Leonardo slowly walking up the stairs. "Anyway, you said he was the number one candidate, he must be a scary guy with a finish like that…"

"Actually he's a nice guy from what I heard," Van stated before lowering his head. "And like I said earlier, he's the number one candidate…while I on the other hand am number one hundred and sixty-two…"

A small sweatdrop appeared on the back of Rena's head as she placed her hand on Van's shoulder. "Um…take it easy? Rank isn't everything…right?"

"Nice try…" Van sighed.

Leonardo finally reached the same stair level as Rena and Van, Rena took the chance and turned towards him. "Hey! Nice duel there."

Smiling towards Rena, Leonardo kindly spoke. "Why thank you miss, I enjoy nice compliments…"

'_Wow…I guess Van was right, he's not that bad of a person,_' Rena thought while holding her hands together. "Leonardo right? I'm Rena, candidate number seventy-seven!"

Leonardo just raised and eyebrow as pocketed his hands. "Really, number seventy-seven? I'm sorry I missed your duel…"

"Well, I just got here in the middle of your duel," Rena replied scratching the back of her head. "I kind of missed the bus."

"Really? What a shame…" Leonardo sighed slowly closing his concerned eyes.

Rena just stood there very confused. "Huh?"

"The duels for candidates seventy through eighty just ended a minute ago," Van pointed out.

That when a chord snapped inside of Rena's head. At first she seemed completely calm…

A moment later…

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOO!" Rena cried holding onto her head getting weird looks from everyone else in the immediately area.

"Whoa! I bet if you talked to an instructor, you probably could still duel," Leonardo suggested before Rena ran directly past him making his hair and clothes fly in the breeze. "…Man she's fast…"

"GOOD LUCK!" Van shouted and waved towards Rena.

Amused by the weird girl's antics, Leonardo chuckled to himself until he felt a cold glare at him. Slightly turning to his right, he made looked directly into the narrowing eyes that were aimed directly at him.

Leonardo on the other hand. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance, my name is Leonardo…yours?"

The cold teenage guy just growled and walked past Leonardo, pushing him slightly to the side.

"My, what a rude lad…" Leonardo chuckled to himself before he took a nearby seat.

-/-/-//--/-//-

"Come on! You've got to give me a chance!" Rena pleaded at the duel proctor's desk.

"…Miss, please have some dignity," the sarcastic instructor sighed with his street accent, he definitely looked like a street person. His shaggy black hair went past his chin, but was apparent to have blond highlights in his hair. His yellow duel academy teacher's uniform was unzipped showing off the completely black shirt and pants…with the exception of the red belt. "You were late, and our academy doesn't really tolerate tardiness…unlike our sister school, the Pacific duel academy…"

"But…it wasn't my fault! Can't you make an exception?" Rena asked placing her hands on the desk. "Just give me a chance to duel!"

The instructor stood up at that question and sighed loudly. "Miss…In order to become a duelist, you need to be creative, intelligent and know how to be on time… and besides, if I gave you a break, I would have to give a break to everyone else who showed up late as well…"

A small tear appeared in Rena's eye, but she quickly brushed it away. "…Not fair…"

"Lesson one about life…it's never fair…" the Professor stated sitting back down.

"Now, now, now Professor Kryancelo, don't you think you're being a little over dramatic?" A lovely female voice sounded through the air.

Rena turned towards the professor that turned her down to see that his face had turn goofy and a slight blush appeared over his face. Turning her head, she saw what was the cause.

In front of Rena was a beautiful woman standing in front of her, the golden blonde hair flowed pass her shoulders that were covered with a large red overcoat. The black dress underneath her overcoat showed a decent amount of cleavage and her voluptuous figure. "Are you being mean to the applicants again?"

Professor Kryancelo just stood up and gulped deeply. "Professor Maria…I thought you were dueling Mr. Drei?"

"I was, but he got accepted," Professor Maria stated before she walked on the other side of the desk and stood directly with Kryancelo. "…But enough about that…shouldn't you really give this girl a real chance?"

"But…but…standard procedure dictates that…" Kryancelo gulped before Maria grabbed onto his right arm.

"Oh, come on…can't you bend the rules this one time?" Maria asked before placing her hand on his chest. "Please?"

Kryancelo just gulped deeply and began shakily respond. "W...well…o-okay, but on three conditions."

Stepping from Maria, Kryancelo just coughed and pulled a duel disk from underneath the desk. "First…she has to duel me and my real deck…"

"Second, she'll still be in the Slifer Red dorms, since you have an interest in her Maria…"

Maria and Rena just stared at Kryancelo as his blush seemed to grow. Rena took a chance and asked. "And the third?"

Raising his hand towards Maria, Kryancelo just closed his eyes. "You'll have to grab a cup of coffee with me when we're on the boat…Maria…"

'…_That's pathetic…_' A sweatdrop appeared on Rena's head. "…but I'll take it…"

"Looks like she accepts, so I'll gladly get a cup of coffee with you," Maria stated.

Kryancelo just turned towards Rena once more and raised his duel disk. "Well, then, get your deck out and we'll get this duel on with!"

Rena just nodded her head and reached into her pants pocket to pull out her deck.

Only to find that her pocket was empty!

'_My deck! Where's my deck?'_ Rena started to panic as she searched for her deck in her other pockets.

"No! I lost my deck," Rena moaned with tears appearing in her eyes.

"Well then…I guess this goes to show ya that life isn't fair…" Kryancelo sighed taking off his duel disk. "Now then…please leave…"

"Hey…" A cool, yet stern voice sounded.

Everyone turned to see the same cold duelist that Rena had bumped into earlier standing in front of them. Rena wiped some of the tears away from her eyes. "You…"

"You talking to me?" Kryancelo asked raising an eyebrow at this guy.

"Do you see any other Goth geeks?" The guy mocked not removing his glare from Kryancelo.

Kryancelo narrowed his eyebrows at this rude punk, even though he dressed in dark clothes and had a somewhat mean disposition, he wasn't gothic. "Who are you showing disrespect to an academy professor? Its intolerable!"

"Better a jerk than a Goth nerd," The rude boy commented with a slight snicker in his voice.

"Again with the Goth jokes!" Kryancelo roared pulling his hair.

"Oh have a sense of humor Kryancelo!" Maria giggled holding her hand to her face.

"That does it!" Kryancelo yelled, suddenly he noticed that the rude guy had a duel academy issued duel disk strapped to his arm. "Wait a second…if you have that duel disk, then that means that you're already in the academy…why would you risk it defending this girl?"

The rude boy just scoffed to the side and closed his eyes. "I really couldn't care less about the flat-chested dumb ass…"

'_My what language…'_ Maria thought looking at Rena.

A slight blush appeared on Rena's face as she crossed her arms. '_That stings…'_

When the boy opened his eyes, they seemed to burn furiously with hatred to anyone who was looking directly into them. "I just don't care for a person who does anything mindlessly and has an attitude like yours!"

"Big talk for rude little punk," Kryancelo retorted as a blood vessel appeared on his forehead. "Kids like you need to be punished!"

"Sounds like a challenge…" The rude boy commented as his duel disk began to fold out.

"Very well…however, even though you don't care, the same wagers will apply to you as well as your little girlfriend right there," Kryancelo replied slipping on his duel disk. "Though I'm giving you fair warning that you can't really win…"

"Shove it where the sun don't shine Goth man," the boy replied shrugging.

Kryancelo twitched his eyebrow, then an plan was placed into his head. "…I'm going to make you eat those words! Cause when you lose, your enrollment will be canceled and I'll make sure you won't be allowed to enter this academy!"

Rena quickly ran up to the cold-hearted boy. "Don't risk that! You're already in the academy!"

"………….I should care…why?" The rude boy yawned loudly.

Twitching her forehead, Rena glared directly at him. "Because! He's using his real deck and he's a teacher!"

"…If history serves right, a certain hero duelist managed to defeat a professor with his real deck…" the rude boy retorted before pushing Rena to the side. "And this guy isn't even half as good as that professor…and that's not saying much…"

"I just don't understand boys," Rena sighed loudly as a hand was placed on her shoulder. Turning towards the hand, Rena saw that Maria was smiling down at her. "Huh?"

"You'll get it someday," Maria replied turning towards the duel at hand.

"Now then…as an added bonus…should you win, you can stay at the academy and I'll give full admittance to the tardy candidate…"

Stars appeared in Rena's eyes, she was totally taken by surprised by this event. "Really?"

"Enough yaking ya gothic bastard," the rude duelist mocked as he slid his deck into the tray.

"Hold up little man, since you're facing an actual employee, rather than a proctor, we'll be dueling with eight thousand life points instead of the other schools using four thousand," Kryancelo explained activating his duel disk. "Are you ready?" (KLP: 8000)

The rude boy just sighed loudly and then cracked his neck. "Why do you keep talking?" (RDLP: 8000)

Kryancelo twitched his eyebrow as the holographic imagers began to activate. "DUEL!"

The rude duelist drew a single card from his duel disk and looked at it. "I summon The Six Warmasters - Yaichi (1300/800)…"

A surge of water erupted from the ground and then fell once more to reveal a Japanese warrior stood in front of the rude duelist. The warrior sported sea green samurai like armor and held onto a powerful green long bow. The warrior just glared at Kryancelo as he reached for an arrow.

Two vertical face down cards materialized behind the warrior. "And I'll wrap this turn with a couple of cards face down…"

'_Is he really planning something?'_ Rena thought as Kryancelo drew his next card.

"Draw! I'll show you how a real duelist works!" Kryancelo announced looking at his newly drawn card. "Like this! I'll place this card face down… and activate the spell card Blasting Vein!"

Just as the set card appeared before Kryancelo, a powerful explosion erupted from it making anyone watching it to cover his or her eyes. The blast seemed to have also called multiple duelists to watch. "Hey! Rena!"

"Van!" Rena shouted as Van walked up to her.

Van scratched his head…that's when he noticed Professor Maria. "Whoa! I'll enjoy classes here this semester…"

"I think your friend has something to say little boy," Maria replied before Van shook his head.

"Yeah…sorry about that Rena…" Van replied trying to take his eyes off of Maria. "Um, anyway, did you actually get to duel?"

"No…but that guy's dueling for me," Rena answered pointing towards the rude duelist staring at the cannon aiming towards him. "And if he loses, he'll get kicked out of the academy!"

"What!?!" Van questioned turning towards the duel. "We've got to stop this thing!"

"I wouldn't if I were you…" A sinister voice spoke.

Rena noticed the newest observer of the duel. "Leonardo?"

"As a duelist, you should know that you should never interrupt a duel," Leonardo explained combing his hair with his hand. "Sides…this will be an interesting duel…"

"Next, my combo comes into effect! First my Blasting Vein gives me two new draws!" Kryancelo continued as two cards flew into his hand, and then green smoke began to fly up around him. "And then, my face down card was Statue of the Wicked! Providing me with a Wicked Token (1000/1000)!"

The smoke began to form into a large golden demonic snake that roared loudly at the sight of the two warriors. Kryancelo then slapped another card from his hand onto his duel disk. "Then, I'll summon my UFO Turtle (1400/1200)!"

Before Kryancelo, a large metallic turtle floated right next to the Wicked Token with a shell that resembled an old sci-fi spaceship. "Now! UFO Turtle attack his Warmaster!"

The turtle began to glow with extreme heat before it flew at a high speed directly into Japanese archer, shattering him after he yelled in pain. (RDLP: 7900)

"Next up, Wicked Token! Attack directly!" Kryancelo commanded as his token slammed right into the rude duelist, sending him directly into the graveyard. (RDLP: 6900)

A smile crept onto his face. "Already my first turn is over, and you've almost lost a quarter of your life points…"

"…You're right…so I should take this duel to the next level!" The rude duelist announced as his face down card flipped up to show the Silent and Mystic swordsmen helping each other up. "I activate the trap card, Warrior's Will! Now for each warrior monster that was sent to graveyard this turn, I draw one card."

'_He anticipated the move…interesting…_' Kryancelo thought as two face down cards materialized in front of him. "I'll just set this two cards down and let you take from here…"

The rude guy just drew his next card, and then motioned to his other face down card. The purple-bordered card flipped up to show a ghostly spirit rising from a tombstone, at the same time Yaichi (1300/800) reappeared raising his bow with a scowl at Kryancelo. "Call of the Haunted brings back my Warmaster…"

"…Wait, why did he have that card come back?" Rena asked with a question mark appearing over her head.

"It would have to be that he's planing on sacrificing," Leonardo explained crossing his arms. '_However…I've seen this deck before, and I have a feeling that another monster is going to show up…_'

Slapping his card onto his duel disk, the rude duelist glared directly at Kryancelo. "I summon Six Warmasters – Kamon (1500/1000)!"

A powerful flame erupted from the ground next to Yaichi, and just like with the fountain, a feudal Japanese warrior appeared. This warrior however was wearing dull red armor and held onto a powerful cannon in his right arm.

"…Warmasters?" Van questioned scratching the top of his head. "There's more than one?"

"Why yes, in fact there's a set of cards based on that and are very powerful," Leonardo explained with a smirk.

"I'm not really impressed," Professor Kryancelo scoffed before his eyes turned to his duel disk. '_Especially with what I have planned…_"

"I activate Yaichi's special ability!" The rude duelist stated making Yaichi pull back on his bow. A powerful blue arrow made of pure energy formed in the bow. "By sacrificing his attack this turn, he can destroy one of your set cards! Go!"

Releasing the energy arrow, Yaichi struck Kryancelo's face down card on the left revealing it to be a Mirror Force. "…Lucky…"

The rude duelist just ignored Kryancelo's comment and raised his right hand to Kamon. "Attack the UFO Turtle!"

Kamon knelt down on his right knee and then pulled the trigger, releasing a powerful blast of fire that exploded on contact with the UFO Turtle. When the smoke disappeared a powerful flame shot from Kryancelo's now flipped up trap card, and crashed into the rude duelist. (KLP: 7900) (RDLP: 6400)

"Ha! You activated Backfire! And this little trap card proves there's more than one way to light a fire, by blasting five hundred points of damage from ya when you destroy a fire monster," Kryancelo laughed reaching for his deck. "And let's not forget about my Turtle's ability, I can summon a fire attribute monster from my deck, and I choose Raging Flame Sprite (100/200)!"

A small spark exploded in the air before Kryancelo exposing a small fire fairy giggling at the remaining sparks in the air.

The rude duelist just slipped another card from his hand into his duel disk and frowned at Kryancelo. "Aw…is the rude punk getting annoyed?"

"This is nuts!" Van stated holding his head, but then rubbed his chin in amazement. "Yet…strangely awesome…"

"Whose side are you on Van?" Rena asked narrowing her eyes at Van.

"Now then, I draw," Kryancelo snickered looking at his next card. "And I'll switch my token to defense mode…"

The golden token curled up into a small golden wheel, growling as it did so. "…then send my Flame Sprite to attack you directly!"

The little sprite winked at the rude duelist before snapping her fingers, sending a small spark to fly into the duelist. The rude duelist just blew the spark away with a scoff, making the sprite look down in disappointment. (RDLP: 6300)

"Oh well, now she can enact her special ability, power up my monster!" Kryancelo shouted making a powerful flame surround his sprite, allowing her to grow into a teenaged version of herself (1100/200). "And I'll end my turn with a face down card…"

"…Draw…"

The rude duelist snapped his next card from his deck and nodded to himself. "I summon Six Warmaster – Nisan (1400/700)!"

A powerful storm emerged on the field before a third feudal Japanese warrior appeared wearing dark green armor and wielding two glowing katanas in both of his hands. "Next, I'll use Kamon's effect!"

Kamon knelt down and lifted up his glowing cannon towards Kryancelo's Backfire trap. Then the warrior pulled the trigger firing a powerful fire blast that shattered the trap card into multiple pixels. Kryancelo waved the pixels from his face and narrowed his eyes. "What the hell was that?"

"Kamon can destroy a face up spell or trap card on the field," Leonardo politely explained.

"Thanks…" Kryancelo muttered.

"Now then, Yaichi, attack…" the rude duelist commanded. The feudal archer pulled back on his bow creating a powerful blue arrow, which he quickly fired towards the token. When the pierced the token's skull, the monster roared loud in pain. "Nisan…charge!"

The newest warrior disappeared into a small storm and then appeared right in front of the Raging Flame Sprite scaring the sprite. That's when Nisan slashed his sword right through the crying sprite, the cute monster shattered into pixels. (KLP: 7600)

"It'll take a lot more than that to beat me you ruffian," Kryancelo laughed before noticing something. "Hey…how come your Warmaster is still standing here?"

"Cause my attack isn't over!" the rude duelist shouted before Nisan quickly slammed the handles of his two katanas into Kryancelo's abdomen. "Cause, Nisan can attack twice…"

"Damn it…" Kryancelo muttered holding his stomach. (KLP: 6200)

"He finally took the lead!" Rena cheered with a bright smile appearing on her face.

"The duel isn't over yet and I think Kryancelo still has a few tricks up his sleeve," Leonardo replied combing back some of his hair.

A card materialized behind the rude duelist's Warmasters, which just left him and his Warmasters shooting death glares at Kryancelo.

"You may have had a luck streak," Kryancelo stated pulling his next card into his hand. "But I highly doubt you'll be able to pull that off once more…"

"Stop talking you gothic coot…" the rude duelist interrupted closing his eyes.

"What?!? Now you're calling me old?!?" Kryancelo growled before slapping a card onto his duel disk. "I'll teach you some manners! I'll set a monster on guard and set a couple cards face down!"

"Okay…he's got the professor on guard, that has to be a good sign right?" Van asked.

"That really depends on our rude duelist's next move," Maria answered as the rude duelist snapped his next card from his deck.

'_This card…I drew it…_' The rude duelist just slapped his next card onto his duel disk allowing a blank monster card appeared before him. "I summon Wandering Samurai!"

The card shattered allowing a young man with his long dark brown hair tied up in a large upward tail flailing all over to jump out in. His white gi covered his dark blue muscle shirt, leaving his arms almost barren except for the red gloves and yellow bracelets. In his right hand held normal sized Katana while tied on his back was a large sword that seemed to be his body width (1600/1000).

"Big deal…" Kryancelo as a card shot out of the rude duelist's deck and into his hand. "Huh?"

"What's happening here?" Rena asked as the samurai drew his great oar like sword.

Everyone turned towards Leonardo who just raised his eyebrows in surprise. "What? Am I supposed to know every card that was made?"

"Well…you've explained a lot of the cards here so we thought…" Van stated before he received a powerful slap to the back.

"Relax my friend! His samurai allows an equip card from the player's deck onto the samurai," Leonardo explained flicking back some of his hair.

The Wandering Samurai lifted his great oar sword and aimed it towards Kryancelo as his initial attack strength grew to two thousand. "Wandering Samurai, attack the face down monster with Great Oar Slash!"

The rough looking samurai jumped into the air over the face down card. Kryancelo just smirked as his face down card revealed a familiar turtle with a spaceship for a shell. The Samurai brought its oar like sword down on the turtle, slicing the monster in two.

Kryancelo just laughed pulling out his deck. "Good job! That was my second UFO Turtle so I get another fire attribute monster from my deck…and I'm thinking this one!"

The card slapped onto the duel disk making a large flame erupt from the ground in front of the Goth like professor. From the flame emerged an extremely long serpent that was completely made molten flames and with a dragon face with yellow fire erupting from its head (1500/1000). The monster roared loudly as the dragon flew around Kryancelo's body. "Solar Flare Dragon!"

"Damn…" the rude duelist cussed under his breath taking another card from his diminishing hand and slid it into his duel disk.

"Seems you're losing your cool, so allow me to turn the heat up more," Kryancelo stated pulling the top card from his deck. "I summon my second Solar Flare dragon (1500/1000)!"

A second pillar of fire erupted on the field quickly forming into a second molten serpent that resembled the first one. A card materialized behind the two monsters. "And I'll end my turn activating my dragons' abilities!"

At the exact same moment the professor ended his turn, the two dragons roared loudly and began to encircle the boy. The heat began make the boy growl in protest before the dragons just flew away from him. (RDLP: 5300)

"Oh man…those dragons are murder…" Van flinched turning his head away.

"They inflicted the thousand point damage?" Rena asked as the rude duelist drew his next card.

"Yes…and also if there is another pyro type monster on the field, the dragon can't be attacked," Leonardo commented before turning his head to the right. "And both of those dragons are pyro types…"

"Then that means…" Rena realized.

"The kid's trapped," Maria finished.

As the rude duelist just growled at his hand, Leonardo glanced at the pair of heads from the stands that were watching the duel. '_Interesting…'_

"Nothing eh?" Kryancelo smirked looking at his next card. "Well…I'll play my spell card, Meteor of Destruction!"

A large fireball appeared over Kryancelo's head before it flew directly into the rude duelist's torso sending him to the ground. "It takes a thousand points from you as long as you have over three thousand when I play it…" (RDLP: 4300)

The rude duelist just stood up with a glare when Kryancelo just crossed his arms. "But that won't last for too long, I'll end my turn right now…and I think you know what happens next…"

Once again the two Solar Flare Dragons began to wrap themselves around the boy, however, the searing heat couldn't melt the cold look in his eyes away that wrapping around his body. When the dragons flew away from him, his entire body was steaming. (RDLP: 3300)

"This is insane!" Rena shouted.

"Yeah, how's that guy going to comeback from this?" Van asked when the rude duelist drew his next card.

"I summon the Six Warmasters – Yariza (1000/500)!"

The ground opened up to allow another Japanese warrior to appear only this one had dark bluish silver armor holding onto a long glowing pike in his right hand. At the sight of the two dragons, the new warrior roared into the air raising his weapon up high. "Activate spell card Rush Recklessly on Yariza (1000/500 + 700/0)!"

"Why did he waste that spell card? He can't attack those dragons…" Rena stated as Yariza began to run across the field.

"Ah, but Yariza doesn't aim for the monsters…" Leonardo explained when Yariza jumped into the air. "…He targets the player…"

Yariza slammed the blunt end of his pike into Kryancelo's head making him stumble backwards due to the pain. "Y-you'll pay for that…" (KLP: 4500)

The rude duelist just sighed as he glared at Kryancelo. "Oh now you shut up!"

At the sight of his next card, Kryancelo just smirked. "Not that it matters…I'll just set a card face down…and let my dragons finish my turn!"

For a third time the two dragons wrapped around the rude duelist making him grunt in pain…but this was the last time those dragons would burn him. (RDLP: 2300)

"Draw!"

The rude duelist slipped his newly drawn card into his duel disk making a small dark aura surround him. "Activate spell card, Cursed Blade!"

The dark aura formed into beautifully shaped katana before it fired itself and pierced one of Kryancelo's Solar Flare Dragons (1500/1000 – 200/0) right in the head sending the beast to the ground. The monster roared in pain. "What in the world is that thing?!?"

Everyone except the cold-hearted boy turned towards Leonardo who was busy combing his hair. "…It's a spell card called Cursed Blade. It equips to any monster, lowers its attack points by two hundred and negates its effect...a pretty good card..."

"So…that means that dragon loses its protection," Rena realized as the cold-hearted duelist raised his hand towards the weakened dragon.

"Kamon! Blast that monster!" The rude duelist ordered as the cannon wielding warrior fired a powerful blast of fire that shattered the weakened Solar Flare dragon. (KLP: 4200)

"Wandering Samurai…take out the other Solar Flare Dragon!" The samurai quickly ran towards the dragon with both of his swords ready to strike. With a quick slice, the head of the Dragon flew off, shattering the rest of the monster's body. (KLP: 3700)

"Now the guy's wide open! He won't be able to survive this onslaught!" Van shouted with a victory v pose taking his fingers.

"Nisan! Direct attack!"

The dual sword wielding warrior charged directly towards Kryancelo before he raised his hand over his face down card. "Not so fast! Since I don't have any monsters out on the field, and all of your monsters' combined attack points are higher than my life points, I can activate Hyper Refresh! Which doubles my life points!" (KLP: 7400)

"Still won't save you from my monster's double attack!"

Nisan slashed downwards on Kryancelo's body in an X formation making him step backwards. (KLP: 4600)

"Yaichi! Yariza! Attack as well!"

Yaichi fired another arrow made of energy that shot right through Kryancelo's leg and Yariza jabbed his pike through the fire goth's leg making him grunt in pain. (KLP: 3300)

"He almost had him too!" Van snapped his fingers before lowering his head that's when he noticed another face down card behind the Japanese warriors.

"It's time I put an end to this!" Kryancelo yelled drawing his next card. "It'll start like this! Go Graceful Charity!"

A light flew over Kryancelo as he drew three cards, then slid two of them into his graveyard. "Next I play the spell card, Monster Reborn! To revive one of the monsters I discarded…"

A holy Egyptian cross-appeared before Kryancelo before exploding into a violent flame. From the flame stepped out a muscular tan man wearing baggy red and blue clothes, his arms seemed to be bursting with fire, yet they didn't burn his clothes (1500/1600). "Meet my Flame Ruler! And when he's used for a sacrifice, if the monster I summon happens to be a fire attribute…then he counts as two monsters!"

On cue, the Flame Ruler erupted into an extremely large flame that covered the entire field in front of Kryancelo. The flames began to dance until they fully became one huge monster in the shape of a large sphinx made entirely of fire. Two wings of blazing glory flew from the monster's back as the monster let out a horrible roar from its lion like head (2700/1600). "My Infernal Flame Emperor rises from coals of my weaker monsters and lights the way to victory! And by removing the three fire monsters in my graveyard…I can easily destroy the three spell or trap cards you have out on the field!"

"Not good at all!" Van shouted as one of the cold duelist just glared at Kryancelo.

The Infernal Flame Emperor blasted a powerful fury of flame that crashed directly into the three set cards on the rude duelist's field incinerating them all. Kryancelo just smiled as he fitted the last card into his duel disk. "Now…I play my spell card, Infernal Rage!"

The spell emerged on the field, showing off the Infernal Flame Emperor emerging from the top of a volcano, the molten lava shooting every where. At the sight of card, the Infernal Flame Emperor began to surge its flame like body. "At the cost of my next draw phase, I can double the attack of my Emperor (5400/1600)!"

"He just needs to attack any monster and…" Rena gasped before Leonardo tapped her shoulder. "Huh?"

Leonardo pointed towards the rude duelist, and when Rena got a good look at the duelist, she saw the determined look in his narrowed eyes.

"Infernal Flame Emperor! Attack that Wandering Samurai!" Kryancelo ordered raising his arm into the air. The mighty fire beast began to form a powerful fire ball in its hands.

The Wandering Samurai didn't even blink as the Flame Emperor threw the mighty fireball at him. Instead the warrior just held both of his swords in the air just as the attack was about to hit.

BOOM!!!!!!!

Holographic smoke flooded the area making everyone but Kryancelo cover his or her eyes. Although he couldn't see his opponent, the professor knew that he was victorious, nothing could have stopped that attack. Kryancelo turned towards Rena and chuckled. "I guess you'll have to apply somewhere else…"

Rena's eyes started to tear up…first her deck was missing, and now her one chance to enter the academy was burned to ashes…literally.

"…no…"

Everyone turned towards where the attack had landed to see that the smoke was starting to be blown away. When the smoke was fully gone, everyone noticed that the Wandering Samurai was spinning his two swords protecting the rest of the four Warmasters from harm. (RDLP: 1150)

"B…but how?" Kryancelo questioned as the Wandering Samurai sheathed his two swords.

"The Great Oar allows me to negate one attack at the cost of half my life points…" The rude duelist explained as the Wandering Samurai grinned widely with evil in his eyes.

"D-damn it…" Kryancelo cursed under his breath. "End turn…"

The powerful fire monster roared loudly dropping its attack points back to twenty-seven hundred as the rude duelist drew his next card. All of a sudden, an articulate pot appeared with green and blue paint expressing a grinning face, the pot allowed the Rude duelist to draw two cards from the top of his deck and his eyes widened at one of the cards. "I sacrifice Yariza and Yaichi to summon…"

The two Japanese warriors nodded to each other before they disappeared into pixels. The pixels then formed once more into an older samurai wearing tattered black and dark gray clothes. Multiple scars raced down his face, displaying the determined look plastered on his face. His black hair was tied up into a ponytail and his long katana was held between his hands (2600/2200). "Dishonored Samurai – Kyu!"

"Impressive monster…to bad its not strong enough to attack!" Kryancelo breathed a sigh of relief, slowly wiping the sweat off his forehead.

"Activate equip card! Divine Sword Phoenix Blade!"

Kryancelo's eyes just widened as the Dishonored Samurai's katana was a sharp golden sword with a hilt that resembled a phoenix (2900/2200).

"What? No!" Kryancelo shouted before the Samurai threw down his new weapon to the ground shattering it and decreasing his attack points back to twenty-six hundred. "Wait…what the?"

"What just happened here?" Rena asked when suddenly the Dishonored Samurai jumped into the air.

"Just watch…" Leonardo replied as the Samurai began to fall towards the Infernal Flame Emperor.

Just as the Samurai was about to collide with the Flame Emperor, the warrior's long katana appeared in his hand at the last second allowing the Samurai to slice right through the monster. The sword cut directly through the monster's flame like body, shattering it with a painful roar floating in the air. "My…my monster…"

"The Dishonored Samurai can destroy an equip card on itself, and in return, it can destroy on card on the opponent's field," Leonardo explained as the Samurai walked back to the rude duelist's field. "However, that monster can't attack the turn that effect was used…but its hardly needed…"

"Wandering Samurai! Kamon! Nisan! Charge!" The rude duelist shouted as all three of his monsters ran and jumped towards Kryancelo.

Kamon led the attack by firing a powerful fire blast into Kryancelo's torso making him step back holding onto his chest. (KLP: 1800)

Then Nisan dived behind Kryancelo so he could perform a second cross slash on the Professor's back, this time sending him forward towards the final attack that was coming from above. (KLP: 400)

Last but not least, the Wandering Samurai began to bring down both of his swords on top of Kryancelo's shoulders, sending him straight to the ground a little dazed. "…Ow…" (KLP: 0)

Van's eyes were as wide as dinner plates as the holograms began to disappear. " Whoa…he actually defeated a real teacher…"

As the holograms disappeared, Maria walked over to Kryancelo and began to help him up to his feet. "You okay Kryancelo?"

"That depends…are we still up for coffee?" Kryancelo asked with a weakened smile.

Rena however, her eyes were centered on the boy putting away his deck.

Leonardo scratched his chin before turning around to see the two peeping heads pull back at the last second. '_Most interesting…I think I'll like this academy…however, I'm more concerned with those two peepers._'

The boy combed his hair back as he switch off his duel disk, that's when Rena appeared before him. "Wait!"

"Get lost…" The boy just gave Rena the cold shoulder before he began to walk away.

"Can you at least give me your name?" Rena questioned actually making the boy stop in his tracks.

Slowly, the rude boy with dark gray hair turned his head towards Rena. "…Ganryu Dashinben …"

_-/-//-/--/-//-/-/-_

_Card Stats_

Blasting Vein / Spell / Effect: Destroy one Spell or Trap card set on your side of the field. Draw two cards from your deck.

Image: Two crossing rings of fire over a duel monster card.

_Austin O'Brien used this card in the third season of Yugioh GX. Names and effects are subject to change._

Hyper Refresh / Instant Spell / Effect: This card can only be activated when you have no monsters on your side of the field and the total combined attack of each monster on your opponent's side of the field is more than your total life points. Double your life points.

Image: A shadowed man holding up a bottle of energy drink.

_Joey Wheeler used this card in the original series._

**Warrior's Will / Trap /Effect:** During the turn this card is activated, you may draw one card for each warrior type monster that was destroyed this turn.

**Image:** The Mystic Swordsman helping up the Silent Swordsman.

**The Six-Warmasters - Yaichi / Water/ 3/1300/800/Warrior/Effect**: As long as there are monster(s) on your side of the field with "The Six-Warmasters" in their name excluding "The Six-Warmasters - Yaichi", once per turn, you can destroy 1 set Magic or Trap card. This monster cannot declare an attack in the turn this effect is used. If this card is destroyed, you can destroy a monster with "The Six-Warmasters" in its name, excluding this card, instead.

**Description**: A Japanese warrior sported sea green samurai like armor and held onto a powerful green long bow

**The Six-Warmasters - Kamon / Fire/3/1500/1000/Warrior/Effect**: As long as there are monster(s) on your side of the field with "The Six-Warmasters" in their name excluding "The Six-Warmasters - Kamon", once per turn, you can destroy 1 face-up Magic or Trap card. This monster cannot declare an attack in the turn this effect is used. If this card is destroyed, you can destroy a monster with "The Six-Warmasters" in its name, excluding this card, instead.

**Description**: a feudal Japanese warrior wearing dull red armor and held onto a powerful cannon in his right arm

**The Six-Warmasters - Nisan / Wind/ 3/1400/700/Warrior/Effect**: As long as there are monster(s) on your side of the field with "The Six-Warmasters" in their name excluding "The Six-Warmasters - Nisan", this card can attack twice during the same Battle Phase. If this card is destroyed, you can destroy a monster with "The Six-Warmasters" in its name, excluding this card, instead.

**Description**: A feudal Japanese warrior wearing dark green armor and wielding two glowing katanas in both of his hands

**The Six-Warmasters - Yariza / Earth / 3/1000/500 Warrior/Effect**: As long as there are monster(s) on your side of the field with "The Six-Warmasters" in their name excluding "The Six-Warmasters - Yariza", this card can attack the opposing player directly. If this card is destroyed, you can destroy a monster with "The Six-Warmasters" in its name, excluding this card, instead.

**Description**: A Japanese warrior with dark bluish silver armor holding onto a long glowing pike in his right hand

The preceding four cards will be released in 'Strike of Neos' that has yet to come out yet.

**Dishonored Samurai - Kyu / Dark / LV. 7 / ATK: 2600 / DEF: 2200 / Warrior/Effect:** By sending one equipped card that is equipped to this monster to the graveyard, you may destroy one card on your opponent's field. This monster cannot during the turn this effect was used.

**Description:** An older samurai wearing tattered black and dark gray clothes. With multiple scars racing down his face, he has a determined look plastered on his face. His black hair is tied up into a ponytail and his long katana is held between his hands.

**Wandering Samurai / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 1600 / DEF: 1000 / Warrior/Effect:** When this card is successfully summoned to your side of the field, take one equip spell card from your deck and equip it to this card.

**Description:** A young man with crazy brown hair that is like lightning in the back. A pair of black goggles keeps the crazy hair from his eyes and compliments his sharp eyes. His tight black muscle shirt connects to his khaki pants with multiple red belts attached to the legs. In his right hand is a regular katana while on his back is large oar like sword.

**Great Oar / Equip Spell / Effect:** This card can only be equipped to a monster with 'Samurai' or 'Fencer' in the card's name. Increase the attack points of the equipped monster by 400 points. During your opponent's battle phase while this card is equipped to your monster, you may negate one attack by cutting your life points in half.

**Image:** A large multi metal sword in the shape of an oar.


	2. Chapter 2: The True Beginning

_**Well, here I am, at the Atlantic duel academy. **_

_**The view is breathtaking, the dorms are nice (even if mine is Slifer Red), and the school looks promising, even a few of the students I've met seem nice, though weird…**_

_**Though…I'm not sure I earned the right to be here. **_

_**It was thanks to him that I was able to get in, but I don't know what to make of him. He insults me, and then he helps me…what is with that?**_

_**One thing is certain though…I need to find him and thank him.**_

…_**I just wish I knew where my deck was…**_

_**/-/-/--/-/-//-**_

**_Chapter 2_ **

_**The True Beginning **_

**/--/-/-/-//--//-/-**

"Are you sure you don't see it there Guy?" Rena asked holding onto the phone.

"Sorry sis…no dice, I can't find your deck here" Guy responded over the phone. "I'm pretty sure you did take it with ya…you sure you didn't lose it?"

Rena closed her eyes and thought really hard about the question. "Well…"

_---_

_Rena's eyes lit up as she looked forward, only a few yards were all that remained between her and the bus stop with the bus to the exam site waiting for all the passengers to board. 'Almost there!'_

"_Klein! Look out!" _

_SLAM!!!!!!!!!_

_Some unknown force knocked down Rena down to her bottom. The force had sent the toast that was in her mouth flying into the air. "Oh…I feel like I was just tackled by Guy when he was playing football…"_

"_Nice…"_

"_You okay Klein?"_

"_Now's not the time Koji! Let's get out of here!"_

_Snapping back to her senses, Rena just turned towards the bus to see two short teenaged guys, one with greased spiky black hair and the other with a brown bowl cut, running onto the door closing bus. "What!?! No wait!"_

_Running after the bus was more of a challenge than it was said. From the back window she could see the two short teens that had just gotten on the bus at the back. The greased haired teen had his tongue out and was pulling down his lower eyelid at Rena, while the bowl cut haired teen who was apparently wearing coke bottle glasses just stared at his companion._

_--_

Realization dawned upon Rena cause that's probably when she dropped her deck. "…Damn it…"

"Sis? You okay?" Guy asked ignoring that his little sister just cussed over the phone.

"…Yeah, don't worry about it…" Rena said holding her head with her other hand. "I'll write you later Guy…see ya…"

"Good luck sis!"

Hanging up the phone, Rena just sulked to the ground next to the phone stations, the entrance exams were still going and thanks to the help of the rude Ganryu, Rena managed to get in.

There was only one problem…

"How am I going to survive in a dueling school if I don't even have my deck?" Rena asked herself lowering her head to her legs.

"Ha! That hot professor was easy to beat!" An annoying voice sounded making Rena open her eyes.

'_That voice sounds familiar…_'

"…Do you really have to gloat so loudly Klein?" A quiet familiar voice replied making Rena lift her head up.

Her eyes widened at the sight of the two short teenagers that bumped into her at the bus stop earlier. The greased haired one was wearing an extremely baggy jean jacket over his black shirt and blue jeans. The bowl cut teen had coke-bottle glasses and was wearing a red and khaki version of clothes the other one had on.

"And why shouldn't I?" The greased haired teen Klein stated placing his hands on his waist. "After all, I managed to pass that dueling test with flying colors…unlike you Koji."

Koji, the thick glasses wearing duelist just sighed loudly. "Yeah, but you only got a high rank cause you looked at my answers on the entrance exam…"

"Survival of the fittest Koji!" Klein laughed before he slammed his hand into Koji's back sending him to the ground.

"Ow…"

At the sight of the two short teens, Rena's heart just skipped a beat, maybe they saw where her deck went.

"Hey!"

"Huh?" Klein and Koji questioned turning their heads to see Rena was running towards them.

When Rena finally reached the two, she just smiled right in front of the two. "Hi…I don't know if you remember me…"

"You're that broad who slammed into me at the bus stop!" Klein interrupted pointing a finger at Rena. "Don't you know to apologize when you slam into someone?"

"Well…I was late to the bus to here…" Rena replied trying to keep some of the anger down.

"That's your own fault," Klein replied crossing his arms. "And I'm still waiting for that apology!"

"Actually, I was wondering if you two would have happened to see a deck of cards when you bumped into me?" Rena asked only to see that Klein had his back turned towards her. "Hello?"

"You'll have to forgive him," Koji stated standing in front of Klein. "He's stubborn…"

"Koji! I'm standing right here!" Klein shouted turning his head into the air.

Koji just shook his head and turned back to Rena. "I'm Koji Drei and this is my older brother Klein…"

"And I'm Rena."

Koji smiled meeting Rena, while Klein just ignored that newly stated fact. "If you want to get anything out of him, you'll have to apologize…"

"And make it sincere!" Klein added.

"Actually, I could ask you the same question," Rena replied kneeling down to be eye level with Koji. "So did you happen to see my deck?"

"Now that you mention it…" Koji started…

That's when the back of a hand slammed directly into Koji's face, making him stop. Rena followed the arm and saw that Klein had turned around and extended his arm to stop Koji from talking. "…The only decks we've seen are the ones we have."

Rena didn't buy that answer, but before she could question it, the loud speakers in the building began to activate. "**Attention all applicants, please report to the docks located at the back. I repeat please report to the docks located at the back. Your dorm, uniform and room number will be distributed.**"

When Rena looked back at the two brothers, she saw that Klein was running with Koji in his arms. For some odd reason, Klein was able to run at an extremely high speed. "Man…he's really fast…"

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/--//-/-

"Here's your Ra Yellow Uniform…" Kryancelo scoffed after handing the uniform to the student. "Next!"

Kryancelo just looked at the list he had in front of him, not bothering to look up at the student. "Name…"

"Rena Akira…"

That name made Kryancelo look up and there was Rena standing in front of him with an embarrassed smile on her face. "Well, well, well, look who we've got here…"

"Hey there professor Kryancelo…" Rena greeted rubbing the back of her head.

"It's Professor Kinsman to you…" Kryancelo replied lifting up a red girls uniform from underneath the desk, as well as a pair of keys. "And your dorm is Slifer Red, your uniform is here, and your dorm number is…well this is interesting, you've got _that person_ as a roommate…"

"Ganryu?"

"No…someone different, and you might learn something from _that person_…" Kryancelo answered flipping through the notepad. "Oh yeah, I suggest that you don't put your uniform on till we get to the island…"

"Um…thanks," Rena replied taking the items that were on the desk before walking away.

Kryancelo just sighed turning his head to the sky. "Satoshi…I hope your first entrance exam didn't go the same way today…"

-//--//-/--//-/-/

The ship had left the dock with each student on board the luxurious boat. There were multiple levels to the ship and mostly everyone was spread out around the floors. Rena actually found a decent spot on the ship's deck with a table next to a small drink stand.

She was still bummed out about her deck…all that was on her mind was to stir the fruit punch in front of her with the straw in the drink. "I shouldn't even be here…"

"Now don't say that Miss Akira." A calm voice spoke behind Rena making her turn her head to see a familiar face…

"Leonardo!" Rena stated a little shocked to see the noble duelist behind her suddenly. "How did you do that?"

Leonardo just chuckled as he took a seat across from Rena. "I'm a very sneaky person, one moment I'll be in front of you the next I'll be behind you."

"How'd you develop that skill?" Rena asked before Leonardo shook the small can of soda he had in his hands.

"Practice…Now then, Miss Akira, what was that about you not being here?" Leonardo asked placing the soda on the table.

"Well…" Rena started.

Rena had explained why Ganryu had dueled Kryancelo in the first place as well as what were the stakes. Though she had a good idea that Leonardo knew the reasons somehow.

"And I still don't know where my deck is…" Rena finished looking downwards.

"My, that is dreadful," Leonardo stated lifting his can to his mouth. After taking a short sip of the soda, Leonardo just smiled at Rena. "I know exactly how you feel, I have had a deck stolen from me once…"

"Really? What'd you do?" Rena asked with some hope glistening in her eyes.

Leonardo smiled and produced a deck of cards from his pocket, setting the cards onto the table. "I managed to scrap some leftover cards to make the deck that defeated the proctor today…however, I run a very different deck than that one…"

"You mean you didn't use your real deck?" Rena asked with her eyes widening.

"Correct, but now that I'm in the academy, that will all change," Leonardo stated putting the deck away. "But, enough of the un-pleasantries… tell Miss Akira, what dorm did you get into?"

Rena just blushed as she looked at her Slifer Red uniform. "Well…I just managed to get into Slifer Red, Leonardo…"

"The good news is you managed to get in," Leonardo snickered before sipping his soda again.

"What about you Leonardo?" Rena asked before taking a short sip of her fruit punch.

"I'm in Obelisk Blue…"

At that statement, Rena coughed out some of the fruit punch she had in her mouth and stared at the laughing noble duelist. Rena was still coughing before she could fully talk. "O-Obelisk Blue?!? I knew you did well, but I didn't think you'd go all the way to the best dorm!"

"Can't really say I'm proud," Leonardo sighed, yet he still managed to pull of a smile. "My family wanted me to have the best so they used their connections to the school. Oh yes that reminds me…feel free to call me Leo, Leonardo sounds so…so…old…"

Rena just returned the smile and laughed. "As long as you stop calling me by my mother's name, I don't want to be old yet either!"

Leo laughed as well. "Oh, as you wish Rena…by the by, you haven't seen Ganryu yet have you?"

"No…" Rena stated thinking about Ganryu helping her into the academy and how he insulted her. "But he's really got me confused Leonar…Leo."

"The strong, silent and cold type…" Leo muttered into the air. "Looks like the ship will arrive not for some time, I trust you have prepared some entertainment…"

"A couple of books and magazines," Rena replied before looking at the ocean. "Its beautiful isn't it?"

There was no response, and when Rena looked where Leo was sitting, he was gone. "Man…how does he do that?"

-/-//-/--/-//-/-/-/-/

The next morning the ship arrived at the amazing and large Atlantic duel academy. Each of the students that were arriving from the mainland were slowly leaving the ship and heading towards the main building for the opening meeting.

Little did any of the students know that through a pair of expensive binoculars, an Obelisk Blue female student watched them all exit the ship. She sighed at a majority of them. "A new year and only a handful of lookers in the bunch…"

Lowering the binoculars, the girl revealed her nearly flawless face with emerald green eyes. Her long brown hair was braided past her shoulders and made her creamy skin shine a little in the sun. The Obelisk blue uniform around her body showed off the voluptuous form she had developed at her age, she even had the top part of her uniform open to show the black shirt she was wearing underneath.

She sighed again flicking some of the brown hair away from her face. "If I was in charge, I'd have only the cutest guys with great dueling talents in."

"Does that include me Miss Cleo?" A deep voice asked while saying the brunette's name. Cleo simply turned her head to the voice and saw a tanned teenaged guy, also in Obelisk blue, walking up to her. His baggy Obelisk Blue uniform showed was open to reveal his white shirt with gear symbols on it and his gray cargo pants. His dark silver hair had grown long enough to cover his left eye and most of his neck.

"Yes for the last time Asche that includes you," Cleo chuckled before lifting the binoculars once more to her face. "So anything on the gossip chain with these new duelists?"

"That all depends…" Asche replied looking through a majority of the papers he had brought up with him.

"Depends on what?" Cleo asked raising an eye in suspicion.

"Well, first on got the download on the top duelist in the Freshman class, Leonardo Childsman," Asche answered lifting a piece of paper from the pile he had going on.

"Already knew he was going to be on top," Cleo sighed shaking her head.

"Um…what about the background of three of the duelists that just entered, I found out that they all are from a broken up street gang," Asche read with promise in his voice.

"Yawn!"

"Uh…well, I've got something I know that'll be sweet," Asche promised looking through all the papers. "…now if only I could find it."

"Asche, do I have to got on my own to get this information, or are you actually going to give me something that's interesting?" Cleo asked standing up from her seat.

"Ah ha!" Asche laughed in triumph holding onto the paper in his hands. "One duelist managed to defeat Professor Kryancelo…while Kryancelo was using his good deck!"

"Professor Kryancelo? But he's one of the best duelists on the circuit, only under Satoshi!" Cleo pointed out raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, well, here's something even more interesting," Asche stated looking down on the page. "Apparently the duelist who defeated Professor K. had a reason to duel other than to get in…"

"Well…What is it?" Cleo asked as Asche looked up from his paper.

"He dueled for someone else to get in the school," Asche finished as a powerful breeze swept over the roof.

Cleo thought long and hard about what this meant…first off there was a pretty good duelist in the school, hell he managed to beat Professor Kryancelo's good deck.

Second, it meant that someone got a free ride into the school. There was no way someone like that was going to be in her school. "Anything else? Preferably about that student who got into the academy with out dueling?"

"I'll see what I can get Miss Cleo," Asche replied.

/-/-/-/-//--//--/

The opening meeting was canceled due to the fact that the principal was no where to be found this year, so doing the only thing she could, Rena headed for her assigned dorm room.

When she reached the Slifer Red dorm, she blinked in confusion at the sight of the dorm. It really looked more like a small run down cottage with red paint and a tin roof. Next to the building were several smaller huts that looked somewhat like smaller one-room versions of the main building.

Rena just sighed tugging on her backpack a little. "Well…at least the view of the beach is nice…"

Looking at the paper that Kryancelo handed her on the ship, she tried to find her dorm number. Lucky for her, she spotted that it was the first red hut next to the main dorm room.

As soon as Rena reached the hut, she unlocked the door to peer inside the hut and look at the room before her. The room consisted of two small desks (each with a mediocre styled computer) in one corner of the room with two dressers, a bunk bed with each with red sheets.

The one thing that got her attention was the red haired person sitting at the desk across the door. The guy didn't seem to notice Rena standing in the doorway, apparently he was too entranced by the manga he was reading.

'_A guy in the room?'_ Rena was nervous stepping into the room slowly closing the door behind her.

Although the noise didn't seem loud to Rena, the guy turned around and looked directly at her. The guy threw down his manga on his desk (showing it was a manga called 'Last Fantasy' apparently) and slowly walked over to Rena.

His somewhat spiked up red hair waved up and down with each step he took, as did the loosely closed red and mostly white uniform. The collar of the jacket was covering the teen's mouth. His dark gray cargo pants had a pair of icy blue belts attached to his waist. When he was two feet from Rena, the red haired teen lifted his hand up. "I was told I would have a roommate…you must be Rena Akira…"

"Um…yeah," Rena replied taking the boy's hand shaking it slightly. "Sorry, but I was expecting a girl roommate…"

The red haired boy just smiled releasing his grip on Rena's hand. "I know what you're thinking, you think that since I'm a guy I'll do something perverted, right?"

That hit the nail dead on the head, apparently this guy must've gotten that a lot of the time. "Well…yeah…"

"I'm not that kind of guy," the red haired guy responded walking back to his desk to continue reading his manga. "The name's Talo Krys."

'_He's certainly a card._' Rena just smiled as she headed towards the bottom bunk. "Um…where's the bathroom?"

Talo had just sat down, but he pointed over to the right to show Rena that there was a second door near where she entered. "Don't expect too much…this is the Slifer Red dorm after all…"

//-/-/-/--/-/-/--/

"Damn it…this uniform was made by a pervert," Rena grumbled trying to pull the skirt down a little bit more. Rena had just exited the bathroom wearing her Slifer Red uniform…she liked the colors, but the design was something else.

"That's what I hear most girls say about the uniform," Talo responded not looking up from his manga. "The others…well, they see it as a chance to modify the uniform…"

"So I could spruce this up a little?" Rena asked getting Talo to turn around in his seat.

"Yeah, I mean look at my uniform, it's the standard second year issue but I managed to outfit with a few extra features," Talo replied smiling behind the collar.

"So you've been here before?" Rena asked sitting on the bed.

"I've managed to pass the first year," Talo joked leaning back in his seat.

"Can you tell me a little about the school?" Rena asked once more.

Talo just crossed his arms at the question and began to think deeply. With his eyes closed, Talo just turned back to his manga. "Sorry! But it's fun to see a first year figure stuff out on their own!"

"What?!?" Rena was shocked at the response she got and just stared at Talo who just smirked at his magna. "That was pretty nice…"

"Ah sarcasm…what would our world be like with out it?" Talo chuckled flipping to the next page in his manga.

Rena just shook her head and headed for the door. As soon as she opened it, she ran out and slammed the door behind her. Talo just laughed to himself. "Where do these guys get this material!?!"

//--/-//-/--/-//-

Walking through the multiple huts, Rena couldn't help but notice that the island was a very beautiful place. The academy was actually composed of four islands. The northwest island had the Obelisk blue dorm built on it and gave it a clear view of the docks connected the main center island. The Ra yellow dorm was stationed at the eastern part of the island, and the Slifer Red dorm was to the South end.

The air above the Slifer Red dorm was filled with the calm waves crashing on the close by beach and the words that the students spoke while they got settled into their rooms.

'_I wonder what dorm Ganryu got into?_' Rena just walked between the huts looking at the students bringing in their suitcases and backpacks. More than likely Ganryu got in the Ra Yellow dorm…

After all, he did beat a professor's real deck…

"Damn it all!"

A familiar cold harsh voice cleared the air of almost all the other voices, and made Rena turn to the right to see none other than…

"Ganryu?"

There he was, the cold-hearted duelist who had managed to get her into the academy, standing in front of one of the Slifer Red huts. A Slifer Red uniform jacket replaced his black jacket, only with the sleeves ripped right off. Before Rena had a chance to call out to him, Ganryu had entered the hut and closed the door.

Rena just walked towards the hut and gently knocked on the door. "Hey Ganryu!"

No response…

"I just saw you walk in there…" Rena stated crossing her arms. That's when she knocked on the door a little harder. "Ganryu!"

Still no response…

"I know you're in there!" Rena knocked harder this time.

That's when the door flew open to reveal a very, very, very mad Ganryu standing in the doorway. His face had a very powerful statement to it, strongly expressing the word WHAT?!?!

"Um, can we talk for a second?" Rena asked crossing her arms in front of her.

Ganryu just narrowed his eyes and closed the door in Rena's face.

"You could at least say something!" Rena shouted through the door, not even getting a response. That's when she heard another door slam in the hut.

Curious, Rena placed her ear up against the door and heard a bunch of rustling noises. Suddenly the door flew open and a familiar dark blue haired teen guy landed on the ground with a loud thud, face first.

"You can talk to him…" Ganryu growled shutting the door once more.

Rena just sweatdropped as the familiar teen jumped to his feet. "Van? You're Ganryu's roommate?"

"Damn it! Let me in! It's my room too!" Van just ignored Rena to run to the door slamming his fists into it.

"…Guys are weird…" Rena sighed crossing her arms.

That's when Van stopped slamming on the door and noticed Rena standing next to him. "Oh…hey there Rena! Didn't see ya there…uniform looks nice on ya…"

"Thanks I guess," Rena sighed covering her chest with her arms. "So, how long did you know you'd be roommates with Ganryu?"

Van just turned his head to the door and narrowed his eyes. "About thirty minutes ago, and as soon as he got in the room, he started taking the whole damn thing for himself."

That's when the angered Van slammed his fist into the door once more. "Let me in stupid! You hear me?! You COLD-HEARTED BAST…" Suddenly, the door opened up and Van took a powerful kick straight to the head sending him flying a few feet.

Rena's eyes widened as she noticed Van landing quite a few feet from the door. It was scary…yet at the same time… "…Nice distance…"

Shaking her head, Rena turned to the door to see Ganryu lowering his foot. "That was cruel…"

Ganryu just closed the door behind him and began to walk past Rena, as if she was nothing more than air.

"Wait!" Rena pleaded following Ganryu…at a small distance.

The cold-hearted duelist stopped in his tracks, one reason to throw a key onto the knocked out Van. The other to sigh in an annoyed tone. "What?"

Rena didn't really expect him to stop, she was rubbing the back of her head with a slight blush on her face. "I…um…uh…just…"

"Thank you…"

It looked as though Ganryu also faced with surprise, but Rena couldn't tell because he had his back to her. "Huh?"

"You know, for helping me get into the academy…" Rena finished only to see that Ganryu was walking slowly away from her.

"I just didn't like that Goth," Ganryu's response was quick.

Rena just ran in front of him raising her arms. "But there must be something I can do to thank you, come on, my conscience won't be cleared until…"

"Look, if you want to thank me," Ganryu stated pushing Rena to the side. "Then shut your flapping lips, and LEAVE ME ALONE!"

A blood vessel appeared on Rena's head. "I was just thanking you!" And with that, the young Slifer Red girl stormed off in the other direction.

It seemed that no one noticed that Van was completely dazed on the ground with the footprint on his face.

Everyone in the Slifer Red dorm was smart enough to not cross a girl, especially one who was just insulted and had the past couple of days being almost pure bad luck. Rena had just walked from the Slifer Red dormitory and was on the route to the main island. "Lousy rude jerk…"

"My, my, you look as lovely as a rose in that uniform," A familiar voice crept up behind Rena making her jump in the air slightly.

Turning around, Rena just breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of a noble duelist. "Leo! How do you do that?"

"Pure luck seeing you here," Leo laughed flicking some hair from his face. The noble duelist walked past Rena a few feet and gazed at the large school building that sat on the main island. "Truly marvelous! Less in a mere twenty-four hours, we'll be studying in the school becoming the best duelists we can become…"

"…You like making the moment dramatic don't you?" Rena asked with a sweatdrop appearing on the back of her head.

"It's my third favorite hobby," Leo chuckled turning towards Rena. "Right after sneaking up on people and third to dueling!"

Unknown to the two talking duelists, a pair Obelisk blues were watching the two from the bushes. "So, that's the girl who got in the school without a dueling examination eh?"

"Uh, yeah I think so…" Asche stated looking at the file he had managed to dig up from his computer. "Oh, and it looks like she's talking to Mr. Childsman…"

"WHAT!?!" Cleo roared loud enough to make Asche fall backwards, but soft enough not to be heard by the people they were spying on. "How dare she!"

Asche just sat up with a confused look on his face. "Now, I thought you weren't interested in Childsman?"

"No… I just already knew he would be here," Cleo corrected glaring at the girl. "This is just wrong…she got in without a duel and now she thinks she can talk to whomever she wants?!"

"Well, technically we are still part of the U.S. and this is a free country," Asche commented not knowing that he made a mistake.

Unaware that Cleo was beating Asche up in the bushes, Leo just smiled at Rena and continued the conversation. "So, any sign of Ganryu?"

A blood vessel appeared on Rena's head as she turned her head upwards.

Leo just sweatdropped at the girl's reaction to the question. "Ah, I see you saw him again…and he must have angered you…"

"You think?" Rena asked sarcastically.

"Once again, sarcasm," Leo laughed. "I'll see you later Rena, I have a few things to get ready before the Obelisk Blue welcoming dinner tonight."

"Okay, till next time Leo," Rena waved goodbye to the noble duelist as he politely walked away.

Back in the bushes, Cleo was finishing beating up on Asche and watched as Rena and Leo were walking their separate ways. "Quick! After her!"

"I'll catch up," Asche moaned falling to the ground with a loud thud.

-/-/-//--//-//---//-/-

"Finally…quiet…" Ganryu sighed lying down on one of the few secluded beaches near the Slifer Red dorm. "No more annoyances…"

Just as Ganryu was about to close his eyes, a looming shadow began to cast over his head making him look up.

"Well, well, well, it seems my secret spot's been found out."

/--/-/-//-/-/--//-/-

Just outside the Slifer Red dorm area, Rena just reached just when her watch stated it was noon. "…I've got the rest of the day to kill…"

"Hey Rena!"

Van just walked up to Rena with a determined look on his face. "You seen Ganryu after he kicked me out?"

"No…why?" Rena asked with a question mark appearing over her head.

The blue haired teen cracked his knuckles with a dark look on his face. "Cause I'm out for revenge!"

Rena's eyes just widened at the response. "What!?! Why are you doing that?"

"Cause that cold hearted dolt threw my suitcase into the trash!" Van answered looking around. "I'll make him pay!"

"Van…aren't you taking this a little too seriously?" Rena asked only to have Van run off during her question. "Wha? Hey! Wait!"

Unknown to the two duelists, Klein and Koji just popped out from a grove of bushes. Klein had a wild smirk on his face while Koji just coughed out some leaves he had in his mouth. Both of them had the Slifer red jacket resting on their shoulders. "Well, well, well, looks like we found him earlier than we thought…"

"Can we get something to eat Klein? We really haven't eaten since this morning…" Koji pointed only to receive a deep glare from his brother.

"Koji! A great warrior needs to be able to withstand even the harshest of hungers!" Klein stated with a serious look in his eyes.

"…But yesterday you said that a warrior must follow his stomach to become strong," Koji pointed out only to have his mouth pulled.

Klein quickly dragged Koji from the bushes to follow Van and Rena at a distance. "A warrior must be able to adapt himself to any condition! Including hunger!"

Later…

Ganryu's eyes must have been confusing him, cause when he got a better look, no one was standing over him. Shaking it off, the cold duelist just faced the ocean waves that calmly crashed up against the beach. Ganryu enjoyed the sea air and the calm crashing waves…

Until…

"HEY! YOU BASTARD!"

"Ganryu!"

The top two things on his list of annoyances were apparently looking for him. Ganryu quietly looked up from the small rocky barrier that blocked the beach from the grassy areas. He narrowed his eyes at the sight of Rena and Van calling his name. '_Just slowly head back to the beach…_'

Crossing her arms, Rena breathed out a large sigh. "Where would a person like Ganryu go?"

"Judging by what we know…" Van stated shrugging his shoulders. "Maybe someplace secluded…"

"How do you know that?" Rena asked turning to Van.

"That's the typical thing guys like him go…" Van pointed out looking around.

Rena just raised an eyebrow. "Well…I guess that's true…"

"RENA AKIRA!"

Rena and Van turned to see a holographic darkness appear in front of them, then the darkness separated to show a bright light shining over the Obelisk Blue Cleo. A sweatdrop appeared on the back of Rena and Van's heads as Cleo made an over dramatic pose. "I AM CLEO SOL! ONE OF THE ELITES OF OBELISK BLUE!"

Just as Cleo was walking towards the two Slifer Reds, she didn't notice the stone in front of her. Cleo tripped to the ground and landed with a small crash. The bright light disappeared to show Asche with a duel disk holding onto a Yami field card as well as a Luminous Spark field card.

"What the hell?" Rena asked blinking a couple of times to make sure that she just saw what she thought she saw.

Van just sighed but then chuckled to himself. "Guess it goes to show ya that they let the crazy in as well…"

Rena's attention then turned to Asche who was pocketing the cards. "And who are you?"

Asche just blinked in confusion. "Uh, the name's Asche."

"I'm Rena! Nice to meet you!" Rena stated and smiled.

Asche just smiled back. "Likewise I guess…"

"ASCHE!" Cleo yelled slamming her fist into the back of Asche's head. "DID YOU FORGET WHY WE'RE HERE?"

Asche just rubbed the back of his head and smiled sheepishly. "…yes…"

Cleo just fell to the ground out of embarrassment, but then got back on her feet once more. "We're here to pick a bone with her!" Cleo pointed accusingly towards Rena with her hand.

Shocked, Rena just gasped. "Huh?!?"

"Someone like you doesn't belong here!" Cleo replied with an assured look on her face.

"Yeah!" Asche added throwing his fist in the air.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rena shouted glaring daggers at the two Obelisk Blues.

"Just the way it sounded, you dropout…" Cleo explained crossing her arms. "Now, this is going to be the only time I'm going to say this…leave the island peacefully…"

"Who are you calling a dropout!?!" Rena roared.

Cleo smirked as she snapped her fingers. Asche quickly lifted up a paper that he had in his pocket and began to read off it… "Rena Akira. Age fifteen. Passed the written exam to receive a rank of seventy-seven. Unfortunately, the student failed to even take the dueling examination."

"And there you go," Cleo declared crossing her arms. "A duelist needs to duel, not just know a few facts about the game. If you got in here with out a proper exam, then you are nothing more than a con artist and a cheater!"

Van stepped out in front of Rena with his right arm in the air. "Hold on! Rena's no con artist nor a cheater!"

"Thanks Van." Rena turned her glare back at Cleo. "That's right!"

"Very well…then care to explain how you got here?" Cleo had Rena cornered.

"I…I…" An answer wouldn't come, Rena was only here thanks to Ganryu's intervention and the bet he made with Professor Kryancelo.

"Everyone else in your class had to study hard to get here!" Cleo said with a disgusted tone. "Not even taking a proper exam, you have made everyone else feel rejected and their hard work all for nothing!"

Asche looked like he was caught between ties, but he shook it off and followed Cleo's comment. "Yeah!"

Rena's head lowered with shame as Cleo and Asche's comments kept hitting her like multiple bricks. "…"

Van's eyes widened before he stepped to her side. "Rena! Snap out of it! You gotta tune them out!"

"Stay out of this Slacker!" Cleo yelled making Van narrow his eyes at the Obelisk blue.

"You want to say that to my face?" Van questioned as he started walking towards Cleo.

A few feet before Cleo, Asche stepped in front of Van and lifted the Slifer red by the shirt collar before throwing him to the side. "Don't threaten Miss Cleo…"

"Now then, head back to where you came from you Slifer Red drop……" Cleo stopped yelling suddenly.

Rena lifted her head to see a familiar teen standing in front of her. "…Ganryu!"

"The cold bastard!" Van shouted.

A blood vessel appeared on Ganryu's forehead.

A few minutes later, a loud scream was heard while Van was kicked into the air and then into the water. Rena just sweatdropped at the sound of the loud splash.

Cleo's eyes were fixated on Ganryu…slowly she clasped her hands and sighed to herself. '_Wow…_'

All of a sudden, multiple cherubs and a heavenly white appeared around Cleo singing softly as she just stared at Ganryu. '_My heart is on fire!'_

"Dumbass." Ganryu insulted making the cherubs around Cleo to stop singing.

Ganryu wasn't done yet. "This world doesn't need more idiots like you." The heavenly aura around Cleo began to de-rezz.

"So just shut up!" The aura around Cleo just shattered as she mentally screamed NNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Asche just sweat dropped as he popped out the Chorus of Sanctuary field card from his duel disk. "Sorry Miss Cleo, but this thing's been on the fritz, no more dramatic backgrounds today…"

That's when Asche got a good look at Ganryu, then he walked over to Cleo and whispered in her ear. "Miss Cleo, this is Ganryu Dashinben, the duelist who beat Professor Kryancelo and his real deck."

Cleo was a little taken back by this fact. "You sure?" A nod made Cleo smile cheerfully. "So…you're Ganryu I've heard about…I heard about your duel with Professor Kryancelo…"

"Simply pathetic…" Ganryu growled. "Barking orders to your muscular brute without doing anything…that makes you a loser…"

"L-l-loser!?!" Cleo gasped before pointing towards Rena. "I was only stating the facts! You deserve to be in a higher dorm! While this dropout doesn't even deserve to be here!"

Ganryu just scoffed at the side. "I'm the one who helped this clueless girl into the academy…if you call her a dropout…" Ganryu narrowed his eyes solely on Cleo. "Are you calling me one as well?"

Rena just lowered her head once more. "Clueless?" Yet she couldn't help but smile. '_Ah well, at least he's standing up for me…'_

Cleo just sweatdropped raising her arms in a defensive stance. "No! No! Of course not! Right Asche?"

"Actually, technically we were…" Asche stated only to get a fist in his stomach as a reward.

"My, my, my, seems like my spot's become quite the attraction today." A joyful voice laughed.

Rena, Cleo and Asche turned to look at the newest addition to the conversation, while Ganryu on the other hand didn't even bother cause it looked like someone else had claimed this spot.

Standing in front of the teens was another teenager however this time, he looked very different. His average build was covered with a black turtleneck and khaki jeans. The strange thing about that was it looked like he was actually enjoying himself without sweating on the hot beach. His sharp tanned face was topped by silver-blonde hair that was wild. Over his eyes were extremely dark sunglasses. On his shoulder were a couple of straps that were connect to a pair of duel disks.

Cleo and Asche stepped back and shouted at the same time. "Riko Kamika!"

The heavy clothes wearing teen just glanced in Obelisk Blues directions. "Cleo and Asche…causing mischief this early in the year?"

"No! Of course not!" Cleo lied with a sweatdroplet appearing on the back of her head. "Right Asche?"

"No…we were going to get rid of that student…" Asche stated only to receive an elbow in his gut. "Ow…"

"Is that so…" Riko smiled walking closer to the two Obelisk Blues till he stood in front of them and showed that he was an inch or two taller than Asche. "I trust you remember what I loathe even more than violence?"

"Um…dropouts?" Cleo guessed.

Riko's smile grew revealing some fanged teeth. "No…liars…" It was like the weirdly dressed teen's voice was dripping with toxins.

Cleo looked at her watch and smiled. "Oh…look at the time! I've got to call my parents!" Cleo just ran towards the bushes.

Asche just blinked and ran after Cleo. "Miss Cleo! Wait for me!"

The two Obelisk Blues disappeared into the bushes, and Riko just chuckled to himself. "Those two never learn…"

"Riko?" Rena caught his attention and she smiled. "Thanks…"

"No worries…" Riko replied raising and eyebrow. "And you would be…"

"Rena Akira," The Slifer Red girl answered.

"Rena Akira?" The weirdly dressed Riko questioned with a surprised look on his face. "Oh…you're that girl that got into the academy without a dueling examination…"

"How do people find out about that?" Rena asked with a loud sigh.

Riko simply replied. "Rumors spread quickly…" That's when he turned towards Ganryu. "And you've been quiet…who exactly are you?"

All Riko got as a response was a nasty glare.

Riko frowned, but then he smiled gleefully as he reached for the duel disk. "The strong, silent type aren't you? Rude…but if you're here, you let dueling do the talking for you…"

"You must be a mind reader," Ganryu replied with a slight smirk.

"Ah, so you can talk…" Riko chuckled tossing one of the duel disks to Ganryu.

Rena's eyes just blinked in confusion. "What? A duel? But you two just met!"

"Miss Akira, have you ever felt an aura from a person, who you just felt this feeling that you were destined to fight?" Riko asked putting his deck into the duel disk activating it.

"Well, I guess so," Rena replied.

Riko's smirk just turned into an excited one. "That's what I'm feeling right now."

Ganryu snapped his deck into his activated duel disk.

"Guys…I swear!

From the bushes, Klein and Koji just sat in the soft bushes watching the two duelists preparing to duel. "Let's see where this is going Koji…"

"DUEL!"

/-/--//--/-//-/--/-/

**Rena:** Guys! I swear, they are so hardheaded!

**Van:** Hey!

**Rena:** Whoops, no offense…

**Van:** No problem, at least it'll be interesting to see how this will turn out.

**Rena: **Riko sure has some weird movements and duel strategies…

**Riko:** Behold my strategy!

**_Next chapter! – Chapter 3: Opening Duel of the Year!_**

**Riko:** I guess I am somewhat weird…


	3. Chapter 3: Opening Duel of the Year

_These guys are really confusing… I never really expected a duel today unexpected._

_I guess this is what I expect from boys…_

_I just wonder who Riko really is? Does he even come to this school?_

_Wonder how good he is?_

_And why is he acting strange?_

_One thing I learned about this duel right now…he's certainly got an original dueling style._

_But that's not the only thing we have to worry about… _

_**//--/-//--//-/-/-**_

_**Chapter 3**_

_**Opening Duel of the Year**_

_**-/-/-/-/-/-//-/--/**_

"_Miss Akira, have you ever felt an aura from a person, who you just felt this feeling that you were destined to fight?" Riko asked putting his deck into the duel disk activating it._

"_Well, I guess so," Rena replied._

_Riko's smirk just turned into an excited one. "That's what I'm feeling right now."_

_Ganryu snapped his deck into his activated duel disk._

"_Guys…I swear!_

_From the bushes, Klein and Koji just sat in the soft bushes watching the two duelists preparing to duel. "Let's see where this is going Koji…"_

"_DUEL!"_

From a cliff away from where the duel was about to take place, two certain teachers were sitting down at a fancy table with two cups of steaming coffee. "So I sent those two duelists into your dorm Maria…Just like I agreed upon…"

"I still say you were a little bit harsh on the girl Kryancelo…" Maria sighed before sipping her coffee.

"Nonsense! Life is hard and that's what it's supposed to be about!" Kryancelo replied crossing his arms.

"Then shouldn't it make sense if someone could make it a little bit easier?" Asked a stern yet calming voice from the right.

The voice belonged to an older man than the two teachers; his experienced face exposed that perfectly. His grayish brown hair was beginning to recede and his brown beard connected to his sideburns. A baggy Obelisk Blue teacher uniform was draped over his thin body. A stern smile could be seen through his beard. "Stop me if I'm wrong Kryancelo."

"What's it to you Alonso?" Kryancelo scoffed towards the side.

"I've been hearing that you lost to a newbie student while you used your real deck…" Alonso snickered placing one of his hands on the table.

"He just got lucky!" Kryancelo snapped at Alonso. "He couldn't beat me at my full power!"

Maria on the other hand was preoccupied with a faraway sight, when she got a better look she just smiled. "Why don't you see if he's strong enough to tangle with other students here?"

Alonso and Kryancelo turned to where Maria was pointing to show that Ganryu and Riko were about to start dueling. Alonso smiled to himself. "I didn't think I'd see him duel…"

Meanwhile, Rena just grumbled to herself about guys being too competitive when she heard some wet footsteps from behind her. Turning around she looked directly at the source of the noise. "Hey there…Van……." A large sweatdrop appeared on the back of her head.

The blue haired duelist was completely drenched and had a few fish and crabs in his uniform jacket. "I…HATE…SEAFOOD!" With a great speed, Van threw all of the fish and crabs back into the ocean. "THE SMELL IS IMPOSSIBLE TO GET RID OF ON CLOTHES!!!!!"

The sweatdrop just grew on the back of Rena's head. '_Okay…someone overreacting…_'

Van glared daggers at Ganryu. "YOU COLD HEARTED STIFF!" Then just like that, his anger just disappeared into the air. "Huh? Rena, who's that guy wearing those heavy clothes?"

"That's Riko, he and Ganryu just met and already going at it in dueling," Rena explained crossing her arms. "Why do men have to be so competitive with each other?"

Van just cocked his eye. "Hello…man standing right next to you…"

"Um…sorry…" Rena chuckled with a little blush on her face. "No offense…"

"None taken…" Van replied watching the duel start.

"I hope you don't mind if I start," Riko stated slowly touching his deck and then pulled a card from his deck. He instantly put the card into his hand and began feeling the cards. "Hmm…which one to start off with?" (RLP: 8000)

Ganryu just raised an eyebrow watching Riko think about his move. (GLP: 8000)

Then suddenly, Riko slid a card into his duel disk. "Ah…I'll activate a spell card."

The card materialized before Riko showing a young man tackling a muscular man in the back. Riko didn't say a word, so Van read the text on the hologram. "Um…First Turn Brawl, it can only be activated on the first turn and it allows the person who played it to normal summon a tribute monster without tribute. Sounds like a good card…"

"Who's this?" Riko asked turning towards Van.

"They call me Van Tenka!" The blue haired, wet duelist announced.

From the bushes, Klein just smirked. "Excellent, my plan is working perfectly…"

A question mark appeared over Koji's head. "What plan.

Back with the duel, Riko just smiled as he hovered his hand over his cards. "Thank you for pointing that out. And for the rest of my turn…I'll summon this fighter in attack mode."

The First Turn Brawl card vanished as an armored figure jumped over Riko and landed on the sand before him. The armored warrior stood up to reveal that he was a kid no older than ten, two yellow wings pierced both his temples. His red hair flowed backwards while his white and light blue armor covered his bare skin with an added red cloth at his belt. His face was plastered with a goofy grin. At the sight of Ganryu, the armored warrior raised his right hand in a peace sign (500/500). "Turn end."

"What an odd monster…" Rena said out loud. "Only five hundred attack and defense?"

"What's more surprising is that he doesn't have anything to protect it…" Van stated scratching the top of his head. "And he wasted that First Turn Brawl card…"

Rena just looked at Ganryu, while Van just went on. "What's even weirder is that he didn't even shout the name of the monster, and he seems slower than most duelists…"

Rena turned towards Riko and noticed he was rubbing his free hand over the other four cards in his hand. '_What is he doing?_'

A small growl changed Ganryu's dull expression into an angered one. He just drew and nodded to his cards, then silently placed one onto his duel disk. "I summon the Six Warmasters – Yaichi (1300/800) in attack mode!"

From the nearby water leapt the bow-wielding samurai with a loud battle cry into the air. "One card face down…" The set card appeared before Ganryu. "Yaichi attack that monster!"

Yaichi pulled back on his bow to create a small arrow made of light, took aim at the mysterious monster and fired the arrow that pierced right through the armored monster's heart sending it to the ground shattering. (RLP: 7200)

Yet…Riko just smiled. "Do I hear my life points dropping?"

"Yeah dude, are you slow or what?" Van asked making a sweatdrop appear on Rena's head.

Riko just laughed at the comment and scratched the back of his head. "Slow! Yes, I suppose you could say that…"

Ganryu just shook his head, looking at his hand. "I'm finishing my turn…"

Just then the sand erupted and the same armored pre-teen warrior appeared…only he was a little bit older with more muscles filling up his armor. Yet he still gave a peace sign towards Ganryu (500/500 + 500/500)

"What the?" Ganryu questioned with an annoyed look on his face.

"Huh? What's that monster doing back?" Rena asked turning towards a smiling Riko.

"Ah yes! The monster I summoned must have been Chaotix Tai Gars!" Riko announced slapping his forehead. "I should have known!"

"Chaotix?" Rena asked with a question mark over her head.

"Tai?" Van questioned.

"Gars?" Rena and Van asked together completely confused.

"It's a powerful monster," a familiar calm voice explained.

Rena and Van looked back and jumped into the air, with Rena shouting. "AH! LEONARDO…uh, I mean…LEO!"

Leo just waved his hand. "Hi there…"

"You said that was a powerful monster…why is that?" Van asked looking at the monster.

"Simply put it possess the ability to revive itself, and increase its power each time," Leo explained when he got a look at Riko.

"What exactly are you doing here anyway Leo?" Rena asked.

"Simple, I'm stalking you," Leo answered with an evil look in his eyes.

Rena just blushed. "WHAT!?!?"

"HA! HA! Just kidding," Leo laughed. "Actually, I would never miss this duel…" Leo turned his head towards Riko. "Plus I never thought HE would be here."

"What?" Rena questioned.

Leo just closed his eyes. "Never mind…"

"Now then…its my turn…" Riko stated reaching for his deck. "Whoops! Almost forgot, if I use my Chaotix Tai Gars' effect, I can't draw."

"That still seems unfair…" Rena stated looking at the smiling monster.

"Actually, being a level eight monster, low original stats, and a no draw effect are pretty good trade offs," Leo stated as Riko hovered his hand over his cards.

"Hmm…I'll place one card face down…" Riko stated as he carefully fitted the card into his duel disk. "And then…" Riko held onto one card in his hand. "I'll attack with Chaotix Tai Gars!"

With a great battle roar, the teenaged armored warrior ran towards the Japanese Samurai and then jumped into the air above Yaichi. In response Yaichi lifted his bow and produced an arrow.

"He's attacking?!?" Rena asked.

"Now, I'll activate the instant spell card!" Riko shouted as his spell card appeared showing an older version of the Chaotix Tai Gars roaring in the air with a great bright aura around him.

Yaichi fired his arrow towards the glowing Chaotix Tai Gars, however, the warrior just smacked the arrow away and his muscles began to grow. Then the Tai Gars fell down and slammed its fist directly into Yaichi's head making a loud cracking sound. (GLP: 7300)

"Ah, so that's the Heavenly Battle Cry," Leo stated as the Tai Gars walked back to Riko's field. "It raises a specific monster's attack points by a thousand, of course the player who uses skips their next battle phase."

From the bushes once more, Klein and Koji watched the duel. Klein was watching the duel from the corner of his eye. "This is just a waste of our time Koji…"

"Then why don't we just go after Van right now?" Koji asked looking away from the duel.

"Cause, first off, we need a way to get him to trust us, and even then, we'd need some sort of bargaining chip to seal the deal," Klein stated crossing his arms and nodding his head.

"Well isn't that the girl we bumped into earlier…" Koji pointed out towards Rena. "They could be friends, and since you took her deck…"

Klein stepped on Koji's head with a determined look on his face. "And I could use that! Good thing I thought of it!"

'…_But I thought of it…_' Koji thought as Klein removed his foot from Koji's head.

"Now then, I have a flawless plan! That I will enact after this duel is over," Klein stated as he began to walk away. "Koji stay here and watch the duel while I get the necessary items…"

Koji just shuddered when he turned back to the duel. "I've got a bad feeling about this in my bones…"

"Draw!" Ganryu shouted pulling his next card from his deck. At the sight of his card he sighed and pulled another one from his hand. "I summon, Samurai Grandmaster – Lau!"

From the sky dropped a new samurai that landed in front of Ganryu. His white and

silver robe over gray pants. His red hair was up wit a few purple highlights is sticking up like flames. On his back were two swords, one a beautiful angelic katana with a wing like handle and the other a more demonic katana with a bat wing at the blade's base (1800/900). The warrior drew his two swords and glared at the weakened Chaotix Tai Gars (1000/1000).

That's when a card slipped out of Ganryu's graveyard, lifted it up to reveal the Six Warmasters – Yaichi card and then slipped it into his pocket. "I activate Lau's special ability! Attack Chaotix Tai Gars!"

Lau jumped into the air above Tai Gars and brought down his demonic sword on the armored warrior. However, the Tai Gars lifted his left arm and blocked the attack, which is when Lau used his other sword to slice the Tai Gars through the stomach shattering the monster. (RLP: 6300)

"Why did he do that? It'll just get stronger…" Rena asked.

That's when Lau ran towards Riko and began to jump into the air spinning around with both of his swords. Riko didn't even see it coming and took the attack to his chest. (RLP: 4400)

A question mark appeared over Van's head. "How'd that happen?"

"Lau can attack twice once the player removes a warrior monster from his graveyard," Leo explained.

"End turn," Ganryu announced crossing his arms.

"Nothing else?" Rena asked.

"Nice one! Didn't see that move coming back," Riko laughed.

That's when the Chaotix Tai Gars leapt from the ground once more this time he looked like he was in his mid teenaged years filling out the armor even more (1000/1000 + 500/500). Instead of a peace sign, he gave a thumbs up.

Riko just smiled as he slowly switched the mode of the monster on his duel disk to defense mode making the Tai Gars crouch down. "I'll switch Tai Gars to defense mode and set my final card face down…turn end."

"This duel seems really repetitive…" Van sighed watching Ganryu draw his next card. "And here I thought that stiff would have a harder time…"

"Turn end," Ganryu grunted adding the card to his hand.

A large question mark appeared Rena's head. "Huh? Why didn't play any other cards?"

"He could…maybe he just has a bad hand," Leo pointed out crossing his arms. "Plus by not attacking, he's made sure that Chaotix Tai Gars won't revive itself and become stronger on its own…"

Riko drew his next card and slowly felt the card in his right hand. "Excellent…I'll save this for later, but now I'll activate my trap card!"

The trap raised up to reveal a greedy treasure hunter reaching for a treasure chest filled with golden coins, sitting over a trap door. Just then, Riko pulled his next two cards from his deck. "Reckless Greed grants me two more draws."

Again Riko felt the cards with his free hand and nodded to himself. He slowly fitted his next card into his duel disk. "And now, I'll switch Chaotix Tai Gars into attack mode and activate Pump Up!"

A powerful green aura surrounded the standing up Tai Gars, the warrior breathed in deeply and his muscles began to grow at an impressive rate (3000/1500)! "During this turn, one of my monster's doubles its attack points…"

"Attack Lau!"

The empowered Chaotix Tai Gars jumped directly towards the dual sword-wielding samurai. Just then a powerful electrified barrier appeared before the warrior making him crash into it. "Trap card when active! Reflector Barrier! This trap negates your attack and inflicts half of the attack points of the attacking monster from both of our life points!"

A powerful electrical strike flowed through the ground and struck both of the duelists making them grunt in pain. (GLP: 5800) (RLP: 2900)

"Hmm…by my calculations my life points should be at least half of yours…meaning I can activate my trap card!" Riko responded as his other face down flipped up to reveal two men shaking hands, one a young teenager with a shocked look while the other was an older man with a sneaky look on his face. "I believe it is called, Youth Is Wasted. And here's how it works, our life points combine, and then we each get equal amounts of the life points."

A red aura engulfed both Ganryu and Riko, and their life point counters began to spin. (GLP: 4350) (RLP: 4350)

"He managed to time that at the right moment…Who is Riko?" Rena asked as another set card appeared behind the weakening Chaotix Tai Gars (1500/1500).

"I think that's enough…" Riko chuckled to himself crossing his arms. "It's your turn…"

Ganryu pulled his next card from his deck and at the sight of it, he nodded. "I summon The Six Warmasters – Zanji!"

After Ganryu slapped the card onto his duel disk, the sand erupted to allow a golden armored samurai to appear before him. In the warrior's hands was a powerful lance with a glowing yellow curved blade at the end (1800/1300)! The warrior roared into the air before spinning his weapon in the air. "Zanji! Attack Chaotix Tai Gars!"

The golden samurai disappeared in a bright light but then appeared behind the surprised Chaotix Tai Gars before slicing right through the armored warrior. (RLP: 4050)

Ganryu pointed towards Riko. "Lau! Attack directly!"

Just as Lau was about to slice Riko across the chest, a powerful fist erupted from the ground and slammed directly into Lau's chin. The force sent Lau into the air shattering, everyone turned to see that an eighteen-year-old version of the Chaotix Tai Gars (2000/2000) standing before Riko with his fist raised. (GLP: 4150)

"How'd that thing come back?" Van asked.

Leo poked Rena and Van's shoulders and gestured towards Riko's now face up trap card that showed the Chaotix Tai Gars delivering an uppercut to a nightmare steel cage shattering the metal. "That trap card is Can't Keep a Good Man Down, and by its effect it summons one Chaotix Tai Gars and increases its original attack and defense by five hundred times the number of times it was revived by its own effect. It also increases it average attack and defense by five hundred permanently."

"Set a face down," Ganryu growled as the card appeared before him. "And end turn…"

"Excellent, then it's my turn! And since Chaotix Tai Gars wasn't revived by his effect I'm able to dra…" Riko stated.

"Hold on! Thanks to Reckless Greed you have to skip your next draw phase!" Ganryu pointed out.

That's when Riko just smiled once more, this time lifting the last card in his hand in the air. "True…but that's why I have plenty of ways of restoring my hand. Like this…"

Riko slid his last card into his hand to reveal a man reaching for a deck of cards being sliced by a guillotine. "I wish to introduce, Card of Demise. And by using its magical charms I'm able to draw the top five cards from my deck…"

Putting his two fingers over his deck, Riko immediately began to draw till he held five cards. "However, if I'm not able to use the five cards in five turns, they are automatically sent to the graveyard."

Once more, Riko felt all five cards in his hand with his free hand. "Yes…now then, I play the equip spell…United We Stand!"

As Riko slid the card into his duel disk, a powerful gold aura surrounded the Chaotix Tai Gars making his muscles grow once more (2000/2000 + 800/800). "For each monster on my side of the field, the equipped monster gains eight hundred attack and defense points…and my monster will become stronger because I play my spell card…Scapegoat."

At that call, four multi-colored sheep tokens (0/0 x4) appeared next to the Chaotix Tai Gars. At the sight of its new allies, the warrior roared loudly into the air as its muscles began to bulge to an insane level (6000/6000).

"Tai Gars! Attack his Warmaster!" Riko ordered, knowing that this Warmaster obviously held onto a dark secret power. The extremely muscular Tai Gars took flight into the sky and started to form a powerful white aura around his arms. Then against an invisible object, the warrior skyrocketed towards the Japanese warrior. Just as Tai Gars neared Zanji, the armored warrior slammed both of his arms into Zanji's shoulders shattering him. The force caused Ganryu's life points to drop…

…A lot. (GLP: 150)

Riko just smirked as his warrior jumped back in front of his master. "I'll end my turn on that note…you think you can go on?"

Ganryu smirked and responded by pulling his card. His smirk seemed to grow at the very sight of the card. "I play…"

"RIKO!"

Everyone jumped up (except Ganryu who just growled because his move was interrupted) and slowly turned toward the source of the angered voice. At the beach's edge stood a very muscular teen that looked an awful like Riko, only with longer hair, tanner skin and a weird scar that raced across both of his eyes like an 'X'. His clothes consisted of a yellow shirt with black pants.

And he didn't look happy. "WHAT IN GOD'S NAME ARE YOU DOING!?!"

"Whoa…someone needs anger management," Van joked.

"Wonder who he is?" Rena questioned.

Riko just gulped and stepped back. "Damn…Sen found me." Riko then turned towards Ganryu and bowed his head. "I have to go now…or else he'll get even madder."

He turned off his duel disk making the holograms disappear. "Feel free to keep the duel disk, I had a good time anyway." Riko smiled brightly. "Pleasure to meet you all, even you Ganryu…" Then he rushed off towards the muscular guy and spoke to him. Sen just yelled at Riko making him lower his head in sorrow. Riko then tried calming Sen down, only to receive a fist to the head.

A minute later, Riko and Sen were gone. Rena just walked next to Ganryu. "It was an interesting duel…"

"Yeah! Since you were about to get your ass handed to ya!" Van laughed.

"Van!" Rena shouted.

Van stepped back but then put his arms up in a defensive manner. "Hey! He kicked me not once, but twice! And now I smell like tunas! And sides, Riko's life points were higher than the stiff here and had a kick-ass monster out."

"True…" Leo pointed out before turning around. "Riko is an Obelisk blue."

Van and Rena's eyes widened at that newly stated fact. "WWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTT!?!??!?!?!?!"

"A-another Obelisk Blue was here?" Rena asked a little stun.

"Damn it! If that Sen guy wouldn't have showed up," Van pouted crossing his arms.

Leo grinned as if enjoying their shock. "Truthfully, I think that our friend Ganryu would have won…but as you said Van, Sen showed up."

Van took a quick look at Ganryu's hand. "WHAT THE?!? YOU HAD THOSE ALL THE TIME!?"

Rena then took a look and was then left almost completely speechless. She saw that he was holding onto Wandering Samurai, Big Bang Blow and Tailor of the Fickle. "H-How come you didn't use these cards?"

Ganryu just walked away shrugging. "I dunno…"

Rena and Van just stood there dumbfounded as Leo and Ganryu walked off from them. A minute later, the two Slifer Reds shook their heads.

"Aw man…I guess he wasn't going to lose…" Van sighed smacking his knee with his hand.

Rena just shook her head and began to walk away.

"Hey girlie!"

The two Slifer Reds turned their heads to see Klein and Koji standing behind them. Klein had a determined, yet silly, smile on his face while Koji looked down at the sand. Van stepped back at the sight of the two short duelists. _'Klein?!? Koji!?!'_

"Oh, its you two," Rena stated as Klein walked up to her.

"Yes! And I have been looking for you," Klein stated reaching into his pants pocket. "I think I may have something you're looking for…"

From his pocket, Klein produced a small sky blue deck case with the name 'Rena' on it in black fine ink. "…Your deck!"

Rena's eyes widened at the sight of the deck case as Klein held it out for her to take. Taking the deck case, a surprised look emerged onto her face. "You, you had it?"

"Relax! If you're thinking I stole it, you're dead wrong!" Klein laughed placing his arms on his hips. "You see…when we bumped at the bus station, my stuff fell out, and we must've grabbed your deck while we grabbed my stuff."

'_This has got to be a new low…_' Koji just sighed to himself lowering his head even further.

That's when Klein turned towards Van, and gave the corniest smile one would ever seen. "Oh, hey there Van, I haven't seen you in ages!"

"Y-yeah…Same here Klein…" Van growled narrowing his eyes.

"You two know each other?" Rena asked before opening up her deck case.

"We're old chums," Klein answered with a smile before turning back to Rena. "Now then…I believe you owe me something…"

"Um, I really didn't offer a reward…" Rena slightly laughed.

"…Ah, but I do not want a reward," Klein stated raising his right hand towards Rena. "Only your friendship…"

Rena took the little duelist's hand and gently shook it. "Well, thank you Klein." Rena smiled at the short duelist, who just returned it.

'_Just what the hell are you doing Klein?_' Van thought glaring daggers at Klein.

Klein just jumped a couple of feet in the sand and stood in a dramatic pose. "Now then, I, Klein Drei the fighting dog of this academy, am on my way to the top!"

"Uh…okay…" Rena questioned as sweatdrops appeared on her, Koji, and Van's heads.

"He's given himself a name already?" Koji asked to no one in particular.

Klein just ignored the others and began to walk off. "Now then! Its time we head to the Slifer Red welcome dinner! Because it's starving work finding someone!"

Despite the reasoning…Klein did have a point.

-//--/--//-/--//-

It wasn't the most extravagant meal anyone has seen, mainly because it consisted of a small plate of fried shrimp, a bowl of what looked like beef stew, as well as a bottle of milk.

Rena's eye began to twitch at the sight of the meal. '_This is our meal?_'

Van just covered his mouth. '_Damn it, not the shrimp…_'

Klein and Koji were sitting on the other side of Rena, Ganryu could be seen a seat in front of them, and from a distance it looked like Talo was sitting directly up front. At the head of the room sat Professor Maria while next to her was a younger man who looked to be in his late teens.

His shaggy black hair was topped with a red cowboy hat. His Slifer Red overcoat resembled an old duster version showing his black shirt and baggy brown pants. He had his feet up on the table to reveal his cowboy boots with spurs attached to them. "Quite an interesting crop of Slifer Reds…would you agree Professor Maria?"

"Hughes, please keep your feet down when we're eating…" Maria sighed before turning towards her food. "And did you have to get the cheapest meal around?"

Hughes pulled his feet to the ground and stood up. "What do you expect? With these numbers, we really have to cut it close to the marker." That's when Hughes coughed out loudly getting everyone's attention. "Greetings y'all!"

All of the Slifer Red students turned towards the over excited professor. "And welcome all ye new students! Let meh be da first to officially welcome y'all to the comfy Slifer Dorm! I be known as Professor Hughes, though just call me Hughes, and next to me we have Professor Maria!"

As soon as the students heard the Western accent, everyone in the room sweatdropped. "Now then, listen in kiddies, cause since the principal was no where to be found, I guess we teachers are to inform you all on the rules."

"First off, the ante card rule is strictly forbidden, anyone caught taking another's card through victory of a duel will be dealt with the highest punishment. Same thing goes with stealing."

"Next up, there is no off hour arena dueling. And the principal has established a three-strike rule on this. Strike one, a slap on the wrist. Strike two, detention for a week. And Strike three…suspension. Hopefully y'all won't be like that. Next up…"

Hughes just rubbed the back of his neck before a sweatdrop appeared on the back of his head. "…I'll let you all check out that rule in your PDAs later. But fer right now, y'all just enjoy this meal that we were able to provide. And remember! Tomorrow classes begin! So check your PDAs once again for your class schedules!"

-//--/-//-/--/-//-

At the Obelisk Blue dorm hallway, Riko and Sen sat across from each other while the welcoming dinner was happening in the main dinning room.

Sen just shot death glares towards the shorter Obelisk Blue. "Riko how many times have I told you not to walk off without telling someone?"

In response, Riko just chuckled and bowed his head. "My bad, I really didn't mean any harm, I just wanted to get some exercise…"

A loud sigh erupted from Sen's mouth as he shook his head. "I know that you have those specialized cards, but that really doesn't mean that you should challenge someone randomly…"

"I know that, but it was too good of a chance to duel," Riko stated lifting his hand to his sunglasses. "Sides, I didn't get to duel the one I wanted. But, the duel makes me love the game even more…"

"So do you really think he could've won?" Sen asked raising an eyebrow.

"He gave me a handicap, so he has some outside skills as well," Riko replied taking off his glasses. He had bandages over both of his eyes. Riko was blind. "I wonder if the other one would have given me the same if she had the proper equipment…"

"Next time perhaps…" Sen stated standing up. "Now then, let's get some grub…"

**/--//-/---//-/-/-**

**Card Stats**

**The Six-Warmasters – Zanji / Light /LV. 4/ATK: 1800/ DEF: 1300 / Warrior/Effect: **As long as there are monster(s) on your side of the field with "The Six-Warmasters" in their name excluding "The Six-Warmasters - Zanji", destroy the monster this card conducts battle with during the end of the Damage Step. If this card is destroyed, you can destroy a monster with "The Six-Warmasters" in its name, excluding this card, instead.

**Description:** a golden armored samurai to appear before him. In the warrior's hands was a powerful lance with a glowing yellow curved blade at the end

_This card will come out in the pack Strike of Neos; names and effects are subject to change._

**Pump Up / Spell / Effect:** Select one monster on the field, until the end of the turn, double the attack points of the monster.

**Image:** _No image was shown_

_Yugi used this card when he faced off against Raphael._

**Card of Demise / Spell / Effect:** Draw five cards from your deck. In five turns, if your hand is not empty after this card's activation, discard your entire hand.

**Image:** A man reaching for a deck of cards being sliced by a guillotine.

_Kaiba used this card multiple times._

**Chaotix Tai Gars / Earth / LV. 8 / ATK: 500 / DEF: 500 / Warrior/Effect:** When this monster is destroyed as a result of battle you can choose to special summon this card during the end phase adding 500 original attack and defense points to this card. If this effect is used, you are not allowed to draw a card during your next draw phase.

**Description:** A young teenaged man with two yellow wings piercing from both of his temples. His red hair is flowing backwards and his white and light blue armor covers his bare skin with an added red cloth at his belt. He face is plastered with a goofy grin and he has his right hand in a peace sign

**First Turn Brawl / Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated if it is your first turn. During this turn you may normal summon any monster that requires tribute to be summoned. During your two next turns, you may not normal summon or set.

**Image:** A young man tackling a guy from behind.

**Heavenly Battle Cry / Instant Spell / Effect:** Increase the attack of one 'Chaotix Tai Gars' by 1000 for one turn. Skip your next battle phase.

**Image:** A heavenly glow surrounding the Chaotix Tai Gars as he roars into the air.

**Can't Keep A Good Man Down / Trap / Effect:** This card can only be activated if you have a 'Chaotix Tai Gars' in your graveyard. Special summon one 'Chaotix Tai Gars' from your graveyard and increase its original attack and defense by 500 points times the number of times the selected 'Chaotix Tai Gars' was special summoned by its effect. After this effect is done, increase the original attack and defense of the selected 'Chaotix Tai Gars' by 500.

**Image:** The Chaotix Tai Gars delivering a powerful uppercut through a large steel cage.

**Youth is Wasted / Trap / Effect:** This card can only be activated when your opponent's life points are at least double yours. Combine all players' life points and distribute the total to each player divided by the amount of players.

**Image:** Two men shaking hands, one a young teenager with a shocked look while the other was an older man with a sneaky look on his face.

**Samurai Grandmaster – Lau / Light / LV. 4 / ATK: 1800 / DEF: 900 / Warrior/Effect:** By removing one warrior type monster from your graveyard, this card may attack twice during the battle phase.

**Description:** A younger samurai wearing a white and silver robe over gray pants. His red hair with a few purple highlights is sticking up like fire. On his back are two swords, one a beautiful angelic katana with a wing like handle and the other a more demonic katana with a bat wing at the blade's base.

**Reflector Barrier / Trap / Effect:** Negate the attack of one of your opponent's monsters against a monster on your side of the field. Inflict damage to all players' life points by half of the attacking monster's ATK and end your opponent's battle phase.

**Image:** The Wandering Samurai blocking a powerful claw from the Ultimate Tyrano with his sword.

**--/--//-/- Duelist Stats -//--/-//-//**

**Here's a small shot at the Duelists and their deck stats that dueled in this chapter.**

Name: Ganryu Dashinben 

_**Deck Type: Feudal Warrior**_

_**Relating to his cold nature, Ganryu prefers not to lenient in his duels as well as his attitude to people, unless there is a definite reason. His deck mostly revolves around the Six Warmasters series, however he uses various feudal warrior monsters, mostly revolving around the skilled warriors of Bushido. His strategy so far is to use his unexpected monsters' unexpected abilities as well multiple equip cards in his deck.**_

_**Who knows what other strategies this cold-hearted duelist may have hidden in his deck. The same goes for what his goals are.**_

_**Name: Riko Kamika **_

_**Deck Type: Revival Warrior**_

_**With his eyesight gone, he was able to acquire the special cards that were written in Braille so he could read the cards. Despite his eyesight, he's a skilled duelist seeing as how he's in Obelisk Blue and he shows it.**_

_**One thing is certain; he's a skilled Mathematician in order to calculate not only his life points, but his opponent's as well.**_

_**His strategy is quite complex and strange, and although it seems he relies on only one monster, the Chaotix Tai Gars, he has three copies of the monster in his deck. Not to mention six other monsters, as for what they do is only his guess. The rest of his deck composes of support cards and draw cards in order to get one of his key monsters out and keep it out. There is a rumor that he does happen to have a couple of back up plans stored in his fusion deck, but he only brings those monsters out if necessary. Now one has really proven these monsters…with the exception of Sen. He knows the drawbacks in his deck but has ways to avoid those and since he has mostly spells and traps, he's able to come up with multiple strategies to counter others.**_

_**On a side note, only two other sets of the Chaotix Tai Gars series exist. One written in Japanese, the other in English. One was said to be sighted at the Pacific duel academy. Riko hopes that one day he can find the other two owners of the Chaotix Tai Gars decks and see if they are as skilled as he is…if his older brother Sen doesn't stop him first.**_

**/-/--/-/-/--/-**

**Rena:** This chapter was short…

**Ganryu:** …Lazy author…

**Vyser D:** No need to be so hurtful…

**Rena:** Classes are finally beginning! I'm so excited!

**Van:** Too bad things are getting out of control for you.

**Rena:** What?! No!

**_Next time – Chapter 4: The Calm After The Storm_**

**Rena:** Things are getting out of control…


	4. Chapter 4: The Calm after the Storm

**_Sweet, this is my turn to do one of these…but wait; I'm not even the main focus of the chapter…_**

**_Oh well, anyway, since I've been to this school for at least a week, and well…it's been interesting!_**

**_Most of the students here are either nice like for example Riko (even though he was a little bit weird), or were complete assholes…like that cold-hearted Ganryu!_**

**_Next are two familiar faces I really didn't expect to show up, Klein and Koji…_**

**_And there are the people I really enjoy spending time with, Rena being one of them. I guess Leo would count…if he didn't just pop out of nowhere!_**

**_Anyway, it really pains me when I see a good friend in pain…I've already experienced that multiple times before. I try to help, but for some reason my friends are really stubborn._**

**_Maybe I just attract the stubborn people…_**

**_Right now, a certain friend of mine is going through a rough patch right now…and many students aren't helping. I wish I knew how to help, but she's being stubborn and won't accept my help._**

**_But right now, she's dueling someone whose seems to know how to deal with these sort of problems…_**

**_…And she's cute too!_**

**--//--/-/-/-/-/**

**Chapter 4**

**The Calm after the Storm**

**/-/--/-/-/-/-/-/**

A week had passed since the weird duel with Riko occurred and when Klein had returned Rena's deck to her. Ganryu on the other hand was determined to re-challenge Riko, but unfortunately, it seemed as though the mysterious duelist had disappeared in thin air. Unfortunately, classes had begun, so students had to attend not only the specific dueling classes, but also normal high school credits as well for graduating.

The sighs of the students filled the air as they listened to the multiple professors teaching about mathematics and history, the students thinking of other things like cards, other students or how to sneak out of class.

A small number of students didn't even bother showing up to class…though a few of them tried to get to class…

…Like a certain brunette Slifer Red girl…

"WAAH!!!!!! I'M LATE AGAIN!!!!!!" Rena's scream could be heard almost all over the entire island.

Van slowly raised his head from his desk with a little bit of drool on his mouth. "Huh…I wasn't sleeping!" Apparently the scream woke him up.

Unfortunately, Ganryu was seated right next to Van and just raised an eyebrow. 'I'm surrounded by dumb asses.' He knew whose scream that was…it was the third time in a row this week.

"Alright…this is really getting old…" Kryancelo growled as he headed for the door and getting ready to lock it. He was teaching the dueling mathematics class for the first hour, and seeing as how Ganryu was in the class, that just rubbed salt in the wound. "I'm tired of this routine…"

Just as Kryancelo's hand was on the doorknob, the door slammed taking Kryancelo with it to the wall it was connected to. "Ouch…" From the opened door, Rena just ran in and jumped to her seat next to Van and breathed in deeply.

"I finally made it!" Rena announced lowering her head allowing a sigh to follow.

The door slowly creaked back to reveal a nearly flatten Kryancelo stepping from the way a little dazed. "But…mommy, I don't wanna go to school today…" That's when Kryancelo shook his head, and then a tooth flew out.

At the sight of his tooth on the ground, a dark cloud appeared over the fire duel professor's head and he dropped his now tooth-missing mouth. "I…I…I LOOK LIKE A HOCKEY PLAYER!!!!!!!!" (No offense to hockey players reading this fiction)

From a few seats higher, Klein and Koji just watched the professor panic about his teeth. A wide smirk appeared on Klein's face. "This just gets funnier every day…"

"MISS AKIRA!!!" Kryancelo roared making Rena stand up.

"Y-Yes sir?" Rena asked fear dripping from her voice.

A loud growl flowed from Kryancelo's mouth, then a powerful red aura surrounded him and then to Rena it looked like the professor was towering over her at a daunting thirty feet tall. "LISTEN! THIS IS THE THIRD TIME YOU'VE BEEN LATE! I expected this especially when you were late for the entrance exam. BUT I NEVER EXPECTED WHEN A STUDENT MAKES ME LOSE A PERMANENT TOOTH!! THIS IS WHY I TRY TO LET ONLY THE MOST DETERMINED IN!"

A cold beat of sweat appeared on the back of Rena's head and she immediately bowed down. "SORRY SIR!!"

"Sorry doesn't cut it!" Kryancelo shouted making Rena stand up straight. "Now listen…I'm normally a kind, gentle professor…"

"When did this become news?!?" Talo shouted from a higher seat, making a blood vessel appear on the back of Kryancelo's head.

Daggers where shot in the smirking Slifer Red student. "SHUT UP KRYS! I don't need another Slacker on my back!"

"That's really helping to prove me otherwise," Talo laughed loudly making the blood vessel grow on Kryancelo's head.

A sweatdrop grew on Rena's head. 'Not really helping Talo…'

"ANYWAY! I WILL NOT ACCEPT YOUR APOLOGY!" Kryancelo roared crossing his arms. "But I will be lenient, for once…" Kryancelo just glared at Talo. "…apparently. Now then, you get detention…you will clean the classroom today after this session today…"

"WHAT?!?" Rena gasped looking around the huge room around her. "B-but that's not fair sir! I have dueling 101 next!"

Kryancelo just raised an eyebrow. "You wanna go for a whole week of detention? Cause I could count the other two days for you being late…"

"NO!" Rena replied.

'Man, me without my camera.' Klein just shook his head in disappointment.

"…Simply sad…" Ganryu sighed.

"Sir! I've already missed my dueling 101 classes due to detention…" Rena pleaded, mainly because it was a fact that dueling classes rule and regular classes…well, they just made students practice their day dreaming. "I swear I won't be late again! Please!"

"Looks like someone's trying to cheat through the academy," commented a familiar Obelisk blue, Cleo rudely. "You need to work hard and not be late…"

"Um…yeah!" Asche added.

That just reminded everyone about the rumors on Rena, filling the entire room with whispers.

"SHUT UP!" Kryancelo shouted at all of the students silencing the room.

In quick response, Cleo just smiled sweetly at the mad professor. "I apologize for the class sir. Please don't get mad at the rest of us and please continue with the lecture on the Pythagorean theorem."

A huge question mark appeared over Van's head slumping down back in his seat. "How's this going to help us in the dueling world?"

"You need to fallback in case dueling isn't what you're cut out for dueling," Cleo stated flicking some of her hair from her eyes. "Especially since you're in Slifer Red…you dropout…"

"So pay attention little man!" Asche added.

Van's eyebrow twitched. "Why you…"

"HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO SHUT YOU PEOPLE UP?!?!" Kryancelo ordered to the students, then turned towards Rena. "And as for you! Your detention is final!"

Rena just sighed before sitting down.

"Hopefully we can get something learned today…" Kryancelo sighed heading towards the board.

"Bet your wrong!" Talo challenged.

"Talo…one more syllable and I swear…" Kryancelo growled with a slight whistle with his voice.

-//--/-//-//--/-//-

When the 'exciting' Dueling Mathematics class was over with, Rena just brushed the broom on the dirty floor covered with gum wrappers and paper. To add to the sting, Professor Kryancelo had given Rena a personal lecture for the third time this week about being punctual.

"Great…not the first time this happened…" Rena sighed before pushing the broom once more.

The door just slammed open. "Hoi! Professor Kryancelo!"

Rena just blinked at the weird student walking into the classroom. From his uniform colors, he was definitely in Obelisk blue. However, his clothes were totally unique from the other Obelisk Blue's Rena has seen.

Over his skinny body was obviously a custom Obelisk Blue uniform, it looked more like a blue jacket with white furred trim at the collar and sleeve ends, as well as a matching wool hat that had a pair of goggles holding up the wool parts to show off his strangely spiked orange hair. At his waist was a thick belt holding up his dark blue jeans and black sneakers. On his older looking face, his chin was starting to develop a small stubble.

When the Obelisk Blue looked around the classroom, his eyes landed on Rena. He rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "Whoops! Sorry there miss! Didn't mean ta startle ya! Jus lookin' fer Professor Kryancelo…y'all wouldn't happen ta know where I could find da guy?"

Rena just blinked at the weird Obelisk Blue's odd speech that sounded somewhat like Professor Hughes's. "Um…he said he was going to try to find the principal…"

"Aw, shoot, thanks anyway ma'am," the weird Obelisk Blue replied before walking from the room.

"Van was right…" Rena sighed before continuing her sweeping. "The students are weird…"

"About time someone listened to me about that!" laughed a familiar voice.

"Van!" Rena greeted back. "How was the dueling 101 class?"

"It was sweet!" Van laughed before realizing that he was rubbing salt in the wound. "…Oh crap…"

"…Wish I could've been there too…" Rena just continued sweeping the floor, looking down to have her hair darken her eyes.

"My bad…" Van apologized thinking of ways to get Rena's mind off this mess. "Ya need some help? That Gothic creep was being too harsh…"

"Naw, I've got this," Rena replied. "I have to do this and get it done…"

"C'mon, let me help you," Van stated.

"Its okay Van!" Rena said poking Van with the other end of the broom. "This is my punishment and I need to finish it myself…"

"…I don't know to call you determined or stubborn…" Van laughed.

Rena just gave Van a cute smile. "My brother says the same thing…"

"So how do you keep getting late? I thought you had a roommate?" Van asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, but he wakes up earlier and messes with my alarm clock," Rena sighed. "And I feel its wrong to have a guy and a girl sleep in the same room if they have no real relation."

"So deep…" Van commented.

/--/-/-/-/-//--//-/-

After a few more hours of class, Rena had to meet with Kryancelo once more to discuss the end of her punishment. After a little more chewing out, Rena was off walking back to her dorm with the rest of the student body.

When she got to her dorm room, Talo was already working on some homework and didn't really seem to be paying attention to Rena, who just seemed to jump into her bed.

The next day…

"Yes! I'm not late!" Rena cheered to herself walking to her classroom.

However, when she reached the room all of her classmates were standing outside the room whispering to each other. "Huh?"

"Hey its her…" Cleo whispered getting all of the students to turn towards Rena.

The hallway was filled with whispers, Rena could tell that they were all talking about her. 'What the?'

Meanwhile, down the hall a little, Kryancelo was walking down the hall and that's when he noticed his students standing in the hallway. "Aw what the hell is this?" The professor pushed the students aside to look into the room.

At the sight, Kryancelo's jaw just dropped to the ground. "Oh…my…god…"

The room looked like it was the host to a paintball contest that had ten different teams going at it at the same time. Most of the chairs were scattered across the room. There were even multiple school supplies over the ground of the room. There was only one thing at the time that Kryancelo could do at this time…

…And that was to scream. "NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO….."

…Twenty minutes later…

"….NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!"

Apparently a Ra Yellow student was looking at his watch and stared directly at the now heavily breathing professor. "Dude! That was a full twenty minutes of screaming! I'm impressed and scared at the same time!"

After catching his breath, Kryancelo glared daggers at Rena. "…I thought you cleaned it yesterday…"

"I-I did!" Rena defended herself.

"Then why is it ten times worse?!?" Kryancelo snapped.

Van and Ganryu just walked down the hall and peered into the classroom. Van was the only one who spoke. "Yikes! Looks like a paintball tournament happened in here!"

Ganryu just raised an eyebrow at the sight.

The enraged professor just pointed his finger at Rena. "You're going to clean this up again! More detention!"

Rena just stepped back at the accusation, but Van just jumped in front of her with his eyes determined. "You ain't got proof on that! I saw her clean this room with my two eyes!"

"Alright, I'll bite…prove it…" Kryancelo responded crossing his arms.

"Well…uh…" Van stuttered. "Not really…but there's no way she could've done this!"

"No proof? Then I have to assume the worse," Kryancelo replied with his face getting more serious. "Now, unless you want to join her…I suggest you shut your yap…"

Van clenched his fist, his blood starting to boil. He wasn't going to let this Gothic teacher get away with this…

…Until Rena stopped him. "Van, please stop…it's…it's my punishment…"

Van just starred at his friend, not knowing that Klein, Koji and Talo were also showing concern on their faces.

'Poor girl…'

'Maybe I shouldn't have messed with her clock…'

'…I know how you feel…'

"Okay, now that is settled, I'll get a classroom ready," Kryancelo stated as he began to walk. "In the meantime, students are allowed to roam the halls. As for you Miss Akira…we'll talk later…"

As soon as a majority of the students had dispersed through out the halls, each of them gossiping about Rena. The only ones near the messy classroom where Ganryu leaning up against the wall, Van standing in front of Rena, as well as Klein, Koji and Talo listening in… "Rena! Why'd you stop me?!?!"

Rena just yelled back. "I don't want anyone else to suffer because of me!" The Slifer Red just lowered her head. "I'm sorry…but I have to do this…"

All of the guy Slifer Red students just looked at each other before Rena just walked away.

/--//--/-/-/-//-

So the punishment was set, and for a few days Rena was set to clean the classroom. A few times, Kryancelo sat in the room as well to make sure that Rena was actually cleaning. Then afterwards, Rena would just walk back to her dorm, and rest.

"I just have to be strong…" Rena sighed walking towards the Slifer Dorm.

"…You know its okay to show some weakness…"

Rena just turned around and greeted back. "Oh, hey Leo…"

"What the? No longer surprised by the sneakiness?" Leo asked walking towards her.

"Naw, I'm just too tired…" Rena sighed.

Since they met, Leo had only seemed to show a cheery face. But now, his eyes were narrowed down and his face showed that he was worried. "I've heard what's been going on…you really don't need to strain yourself…"

"It's okay!" Rena replied with a slight smile.

Leo just moved his head towards the sky and just sighed. "…Very well…" The smile seemed to return to Leo's face. "Just a word of advice…it's not a crime to ask for help. Now then…look to your left…"

Rena did only to see the earth before her. "There's nothing there…Leo…" She turned back to see that Leo had just disappeared. "…How does he do that?"

Shrugging off the question, Rena just continued on her way back to the dorm, passing a few students.

A Ra Yellow boy stared at the tired Rena. "…Is that the slacker you were telling me about?"

"Yeah… I hate people like that…" the second Ra yellow whispered.

"Seems to me that the punishment fits her…"

Rena just walked back to her dorm, ignoring the two…but the scars from their words still stung. A few minutes later she reached her dorm room, to find that Talo was no where to be seen so she just threw her backpack on her bed and curled up on the bed as well.

-/-/-/-//-/-/-

On the day before the end of the detention, Rena was actually almost done cleaning the entire room. But after a full week of doing so…she just sat in the classroom, her mind filled with thoughts on why she came here. Some tears began to appear in her eyes thinking of the memories that were floating in her head.

All of a sudden, the door flew open and a familiar strange boy walked into the room. "Huh?" Rena quickly wiped any tears that were forming at her eyes.

"Hoi! It's ya again!" It was the weird Obelisk Blue that Rena met a few days ago. "Say, I'm looking fer a barrel that Kryancelo has for me…you know if its in this room?"

"A…a barrel?" Rena questioned slightly forgetting about her troubles. "N-no…"

"Oh…" That's when the Obelisk Blue just walked up to Rena and got his face extremely close to hers.

A blush crept on Rena's face, since this guy was in a violation of her personal space. "Uh…can I help you?"

The weird Obelisk Blue narrowed his eyes. "…Y'all been crying…"

"What?" Rena questioned.

The Obelisk Blue just stepped away and smiled. "Well…I ought to be gettin' on my way…" The Obelisk Blue began to head to the door.

Rena just blinked a couple of times before he weird Obelisk Blue disappeared from the open door. "O-okay…"

'I guess…I guess I have been crying…' Rena thought putting her hands at her eyes. 'I-I have to be strong…I just have to be…'

More tears began to pour from Rena's eyes, though she tried to hold them back. "I-I-I have to be strong!"

That's when a hand was placed upon her shoulder, getting her to remove her hands from her eyes to see the same weird Obelisk Blue standing over her with a concerned look on his face. "…It's okay to show weakness…"

Just then, on instinct, Rena just stood up and cried, allowing the tears to flow from her eyes. The Obelisk Blue just stood close to her and allowed her head on his chest. Her tears falling on his custom jacket. In an attempt to comfort her, the Obelisk place his other arm around Rena's back… only one thought was on his mind… '…I can't resist a girl who shows her feelings…'

/----/-//-/--//--/-/-

An hour later, Rena was back to cleaning the room, this time all her tears were gone. There was still so much to do, but all Rena could think about was what had happened with that strange Obelisk Blue. The blush seemed to creep on her face again at the thought of him. 'I must've been a burden on him…'

- Flashback -

The weird Obelisk Blue just looked down at Rena. "…Y'all okay now?"

Pulling her head from the weird Obelisk Blue's chest, Rena just looked into his eyes. Apparently the Obelisk Blue was a foot and/or a half taller than her. "Yeah…sorry…"

Rena just walked from the weird, yet kind, Obelisk Blue, the blush on her face growing redder by the second. The weird Obelisk Blue just chuckled as he pulled his jacket. "No worries ma'am!"

"I-I'm sorry about your jacket…" Rena apologized.

"Huh?" The weird Obelisk Blue looked down at his now tear-stained jacket. "Aw no worries ma'am, I'll just get this clean, and stop apologizing fer everything! If'an I didn't want my jacket to be covered with tears, I wouldn't have come back."

Rena just started getting back to her cleaning, but to try to hide the blush that was on her face. "I-I have to get back to work…Thanks…"

"No problem ma'am," The weird Obelisk Blue replied as he headed for the door. "I'll be seeing ya later! Right now I got to be finding Professor Kryancelo."

-End of Flashback-

'That Obelisk…he was kinda cute in a scruffy way…' Rena thought before shaking her head. "Ha! What am I thinking?"

The door opened up again and without even looking. "Professor Kryancelo isn't here…"

"…Uh…okay, but I'm not looking for him…" That wasn't the scruffy voice that belonged to the weird Obelisk Blue…but rather a girl's voice.

Rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment as she turned around to see a Slifer Red female student. The girl seemed to be Rena's age, the body type was somewhat similar, and her long sleek black hair reached down to her back. She had a cute face with two blue eyes that had experience in them. At the bangs of her hair were red highlights. Rena just bowed down to the new student. "Sorry, I thought you were someone else…"

"An honest mistake," The girl replied with a smile. "I'm just here cause I left my back in here a few days ago…"

"There's a backpack at the teacher's desk," Rena pointed out as the dark haired Slifer Red walked to it.

As soon as she acquired the backpack, the girl just stared at Rena a few moments before saying… "Have you been crying?"

"How do people know that?" Rena asked with a question mark appearing over her head. "I mean…I just got something in my eye…"

"Care to talk about it?" The girl offered.

Rena really did need to talk someone about it, and a member of the same gender would help. Mostly all the friends she made were guys so far…

After explaining what happened, the black haired Slifer Red girl rubbed her chin. "Hmm…so you're the student I heard about getting into the academy…"

Rena looked a little scared, as if this girl was going to make a fuss about how she got in without a dueling exam…

"…You must've had a difficult time…"

A little confused, Rena looked at the smiling Slifer Red girl. As if on cue, Rena brought up her hand. "Um, Rena Akira!"

The other girl shook Rena's hand. "Rukia Nagata!"

"Eargh! I wish I could get even with my classmates!" Rena growled.

Rukia just reached into her backpack and began to pull something out. "Maybe a duel would help you out…"

"A…duel?" Rena asked when Rukia held up a duel disk.

"Yeah, it's a good way to express your feelings," Rukia replied as Rena took the duel disk.

"Hmm…" Rena just thought of the sentence that Rukia just spoke. "…Didn't Joey Wheeler say that?"

Rukia just nodded as she stood up. "Yep! He's my favorite duelist."

"But, yeah! I'll duel especially now that I have my deck back!" Rena announced pulling her deck from the case.

A few minutes later, both Slifer Red girls stood facing each other on a circular duel field Rena looked around to see that they were the only ones in the room. "You sure it's okay for us to duel in here?"

"Don't worry about it! A student can rent a room for a little money," Rukia stated activating her duel disk. "But for now…Get your game on!" (RULP: 8000)

"Right!" Rena replied activating her duel disk as well. (RELP: 8000)

"Duel!"

"I'll go first!" Rena announced pulling the sixth card from her deck. "I'll summon a monster face down, and set a card face down as well."

"Average opening," Rukia stated drawing. "I summon, Luster Dragon (1900/1600)!"

From above Rukia appeared the powerful sapphire dragon that roared loudly into the air. "Now then, Luster Dragon attack the face down monster!"

Nodding to its master's orders, the powerful dragon fired a beautiful blue flame revealing the face down monster. Though instead of destroying it, the attack was reflected and hit Rukia in the leg. "What the? What happened?" (RULP: 7900)

Rukia got a better look at the monster that was before her, it was a blue elf woman with long blonde hair wearing a beautiful leaf green dress (800/2000). "The monster you attacked was my Mystical Elf! And since your dragon's attack points were lower than my elf's defense you took the damage."

Two face down cards appeared behind the ferocious dragon. "I didn't think anyone used a card like that anymore…well, I'll end my turn with two face downs."

In response, Rena drew her next card. "Next up, I'll summon a personal favorite of mine! Come on out Obnoxious Celtic Guard (1400/1200)!"

From the ground emerged the famous elf warrior appeared, his pointed ears poked from his straight yellow hair. Under his eyes were paint markings, and was wearing a green helmet with silver horns. He was dressed in a forest green battle armor over his wooden brown shirt. He also wore beige pants and orange boots. At the sight of the dragon, the elfish warrior drew his sword.

"…Interesting monster combinations…though I don't know how you'll beat my dragon with that monster…" Rukia replied raising an eyebrow.

"Simple! I activate my trap card!" Rena announced as her face down cards flipped up to show the Mystical Elf standing behind a small warrior, a strange aura surrounding the two. "Its called Aura from the Mystic! And when I have a certain monster on the field, I can transfer its attack points to any other monster on the field as long as my trap card is out!"

An aura began to pour from the Mystical Elf and flowed into the Obnoxious Celtic Guard making him shout out a battle cry (1400/1200 + 800/0). "And my Mystical Elf counts! Now then, Obnoxious Celtic Guard! Slay that dragon!"

With a great leap into the air, the Celtic Guard slashed his sword right though the neck of the Luster Dragon, decapitating the monster before making it shatter. (RULP: 7600)

"And that's my turn," Rena stated with a smile on her face.

"Hold up, so far, I've seen a warrior and spellcaster…" Rukia questioned staring at both of Rena's monster. "What sort of deck do you run?"

"Simple!" Rena replied holding up a hand. "I play with a deck of Elves!"

"An elf deck? Well, I comment you on originality," Rukia commented drawing her next card. "But it'll take a lot more than a few fancy moves to get me! I play Graceful Charity!"

A rainfall of light poured over Rukia as she drew three more times then quickly discarded two cards into her graveyard. "Next I'll play Cost Down! So all I have to do now is discard one card from my hand to lower the level of all monsters in my hand by two stars!"

Rukia then slapped another card onto her duel disk and immediately a powerful golden dragon emerged on the field, it's body looked more like a huge piece of armor (2400/2000). "Which allows me to summon my Kaiser Glider, and next I'll play Stamping Destruction! Which rids the field of one spell or trap card on the field while inflicting five hundred points of damage to the owner!"

The large Kaiser Glider flew into the air, and as soon as it was above Rena, it dived bomb the Aura of the Mystic trap card. The card shattered backwards into Rena, making her put her arms up in a defensive manner. (RELP: 7500)

Just then, the Obnoxious Celtic Guard transformed into an orb of light that flew back into his card on Rena's duel disk. "Um, since you destroyed my trap, the monster that was empowered is sent back to my hand…"

"Ah, so that's the drawback, well then, I guess its time I revealed my trap card!" Rukia announced as her face down card flipped up to reveal a ghostly spirit hovering over a tombstone. "Call of the Haunted! So I can bring back a monster from my graveyard!"

The trap card shot out a powerful dark aura that began to materialized until it formed into a very famous black skinned dragon with crimson eyes (2400/2000). The dragon roared loudly into the air before it set its eyes on Rena. "Meet Red Eyes Black Dragon!"

"When did that get into your graveyard?" Rena asked looking at the huge dragon.

"I discarded it with my Graceful Charity…" Rukia explained before raising her hand. "Kaiser Glider! Attack the Mystical Elf!"

Opening its powerful mouth, the golden dragon shot a powerful blast of fire that completely incinerated the elf. "And now…Red Eyes! Attack directly!"

Rena just covered her face when the dragon fired a powerful orb of red and black fire that completely engulfed her. When the attack died down, Rena just coughed out some smoke. (RELP: 5100)

"You okay?" Rukia asked as Rena responded by drawing.

"Yeah, but your dragon's won't be," Rena replied looking at her next card. "I play Pot of Greed!" The grinning green pot that appeared before Rena, laughed out loud, Rena drew two more cards. "Now then, I play Lightning Vortex! All I have to do is send one card to the graveyard and I can destroy all face up monsters on your side of the field!"

Rukia just watched as both of her dragons were fried by a surge of unknown electricity. "M-my Red Eyes…"

"And I'm not done! I summon Thoroughbred Elf (1800/1500)!" Rena announced as a tall form leapt from behind her. The form stood up to reveal another elf that resembled the Obnoxious Celtic Guard, only without the armor and sword. The elf brought up his hands like it was ready to fist fight. "And now, he'll attack directly!"

The elf fighter just disappeared momentarily, but then appeared in front of Rukia, and flicked her on the forehead. Rukia held her forehead a little annoyed that the elf just did that. "What the? I was expecting a punch or a kick…but what was up with that?" (RULP: 5800)

"Your guess is as good as mine," Rena replied as her Thoroughbred Elf walked back to her side of the field. "Anyway, I'll set this card face down and call it a turn."

"Hmm, what will I do now?" Rukia questioned looking at her newest card. "Oh wait, I'll activate the spell card Monster Reborn! So come on back Red Eyes Black Dragon (2400/2000)!"

A holy light appeared over Rukia and then the powerful black dragon appeared once more with a loud roar. "Now then! Red Eyes attack her Thoroughbred Elf! Black Fire Bullet!"

Once again the dragon fired another powerful flame, only this time it engulfed the warrior elf making him howl in pain. When the flames died down, the elf was gone and so were a number of Rena's life points. "Aw man…" (RELP: 4500)

That's when Rena's face down card flipped up to show a warrior roaring in the air with a stream of light flowing from his chest and into a few cards. "…But that activates my trap card, Soul Rope! So with a cost of a thousand life points, I can special summon another monster from my deck!" (RELP: 3500)

Rena pulled out her deck and fanned it in front of her face. Looking slightly at the cards, Rena quickly snapped one out of the deck and slapped it onto her deck. "And I choose, Learning Elf (1400/1500) in defense mode!"

In an orb of light emerged a pretty blonde elf girl kneeling in front of Rena, her pointed ears poked through her long hair. Her green cloak covered her leaf green vest and skirt. And in her hands was a small red book. "And it's still your move…"

"Nah…I'm good for now," Rukia replied watching Rena draw her next card.

"Watch as I'll make your dragon disappear!" Rena announced pulling another card from her hand.

Meanwhile, at the entrance of the classroom Cleo and Asche stood in front of the room, in Asche's hands were multiple tools of destruction. "Okay Asche, this time we'll get the classroom so messy, that dropout will be given so much more detention or even better…"

"Expulsion!" Asche finished for Cleo when she opened the door.

However, two dark forms stood before the two Obelisk blues, each of them glaring daggers at the two students. Asche just stepped back, but Cleo just narrowed her eyes at them. "What are you two doing in here?"

"Miss Cleo, I have a bad feeling here…" Asche stuttered.

"Don't act like a coward! You're stronger than these two combined!" Cleo shouted.

"…Don't think so ma'am…"

Cleo turned to see that the two figures were glaring at them with sharp piercing eyes, one pair was magnified with a pair of goggles.

Two loud screams echoed through the hallways…

Back to the duel…

"Now then, I'll re-summon Obnoxious Celtic Guard (1400/1200)!" Rena announced before her elf swordsman appeared. "Next I'll switch my Learning Elf into attack mode!"

As the Learning Elf stood up, Rukia just raised an eyebrow. "Okay…now what exactly are you doing? Your monsters can't beat my monster…"

"Not yet they can't! But now I play the equip card, Excalibur!" Rena announced.

All of a sudden, a sword appeared in the middle of the arena, the Obnoxious Celtic Guard slowly approached the sword and placed his hand on it. "Meet King Arthur's Sword! Only the most noble warriors can wield it…is the Celtic Guard able to pull it?"

The elf Warrior gripped the hilt with both hands and placed his foot on the stone. He pulled…

…And he pulled it free!

"He's passed!" Rena cheered to herself as the guard raised the sword into the air. "And with his legendary weapon, his attack doubles (2800/1200)! Attack!"

The elf warrior jumped into the air with a loud battle cry and then drove his sword directly into the neck of the Red Eye Black Dragon, making the dragon roar in pain. (RULP: 5400)

"I should start calling my elf the dragon slayer!" Rena joked making a sweat drop appear on both of her elves' heads.

"I can understand quaint jokes, but don't think you're going to get another free shot at me! I activate my face down spell card!" Rukia announced flipping her face down spell to show a Red Eyes Black Dragon being engulfed in a large black flame. "Red Eyes' Last Flame! And it allows me to special summon a certain monster from my deck! So come on out Rouge of the Red (1500/1100)!"

A powerful black flame erupted from the field then ayoung man dressed in pitch-black armor that resembled the scales of the Red Eye's Black Dragon walked out. In his hands was a mysterious curved sword with a head of the Red Eye's on the hilt. He raised his sword up towards the two elves.

"Okay…I'll end my turn," Rena sighed not liking where this was going.

"Its my move then!" Rukia just blinked at her new card and threw it into her duel disk. "Well, what do ya know? I drew my Pot of Greed! So I can draw two more time!"

Pulling the top two cards from her deck, Rukia just smiled. "Now then, I'll play the spell card, Thunder Crash! So by destroying my monster I can inflict three hundred points of damage to you!"

The Rouge of the Red nodded and began to electrify with static electricity. Then suddenly, his entire body became a dark bolt of lightning that electrified Rena slightly. (RELP: 3200)

"Okay…that's unexpected…" Rena sighed when suddenly a dark vortex erupted from the ground. "What the?"

That's when two familiar black wings erupted from the vortex. "My Rouge's effect allow me to special summon a familiar dragon…" The vortex shattered allowing the Red Eyes Black Dragon (2400/2000) to reappear with a powerful roar.

"You must really like that dragon…" Rena pointed out.

"Yes…and now watch this! Red Eyes! Burn the Learning Elf!" Rukia ordered when her dragon fired another burst of flames that incinerated the book-carrying elf. "I'll end with one card face down…your move." (RELP: 2100)

"Hold up, since you destroyed my Learning Elf, I can draw a new card," Rena stated pulling a new card from her deck. Then suddenly the Obnoxious Celtic Guard's sword shattered in his hand. "Of course, that destroys Excalibur…but I'm able to draw again!"

Rena then pulled another card, then just grimaced at the sight. The Obnoxious Celtic Guard knelt down and lifted his sword up. "I'll switch my Guard to defense mode and end my turn."

"I have to say, you put up quite a duel Rena," Rukia complimented drawing her next card. At the sight of it, Rukia immediately slid the card into her duel disk. "But, now here comes a fun part! I play Inferno Fire Blast!"

A question mark appeared over Rena's head as a red aura began to form in the Red Eyes' mouth. "Its attack…is a spell?"

"Yes…monster attack spells are often quite potent and this one is one of the more dangerous ones," Rukia explained before her dragon lifted her head up. "This one automatically inflicts the same strength as my Red Eyes to your life points!"

"That can't be good…" Rena gasped taking a step back.

The dragon fired a powerful fire blast that engulfed Rena. When the attack died down, Rena just coughed up some more holographic smoke and saw that the holograms were starting to disappear. "So close too…" (RELP: 0)

"Yeah, well, how do you feel now?" Rukia asked shutting down her duel disk.

"Well, I feel a lot better actually," Rena replied with a smile. "I guess dueling does get rid of stress…but I still have to finish cleaning that room though…"

Rukia just giggled at the sight of Rena lowering her head. "I have to get back to that room too, I left my backpack in there as well."

A couple of minutes later, Rena and Rukia entered the room and were surprised to see two familiar Obelisk Blues cleaning the room. It was almost spotless.

Rena could only give a look of shock when she got a better look at the Obelisk Blues. "Cleo? Asche? What the world are you two doing?"

"Look…we just decided that maybe you could use the help…" Cleo stated having her face in the opposite direction.

"Yeah! It was so hard to watch a fellow student in pain!" Asche added only to get back to sweeping.

"What Asche said," Cleo finished before putting the last of the chairs to the desks.

"That's convenient," Rena commented.

One second later…

"Hey Rena!" Four voices shouted at the same time.

Rena and Rukia turned to see Van, Talo, Koji and Klein (who had a slight bruise on the top of his head) running into the room with multiple brooms, mops, and other cleaning items. Van stepped up. "We're here to help with your cleaning and we are not taking no for an answer!"

"You may want to try looking Van," Klein pointed out at the glistening floors and shinny walls.

"Yeah, this place has been cleaned up good," Koji added wiping his finger on the ground to check for dirt.

Talo just whistled at the sight of the shinny room. "Man this is some high class cleaning here!"

"Huh? What are those two doing?" Van asked pointing towards Cleo and Asche.

"We just explained it!" Cleo and Asche shouted at the same time making all of the Slifer Red students jump back a bit.

"That's rude…" Koji sighed.

"So…I got whacked in the head to come down here for nothing?" Klein moaned rubbing his bruise.

"Well…then, how about dinner?" Van suggested before noticing Rukia. "…Uh, who are you?"

Rukia just looked a little surprised at Van's question, she could somewhat feel a slight blush in her face. "I-I'm Rukia Nagata!"

"Rukia…care to join us?" Van offered.

"S-Sure!" Rukia replied.

Meanwhile, outside the classroom at the opposite entrance, Ganryu and the strange Obelisk Blue stood outside the doorway, watching everything happening inside.

The weird Obelisk Blue turned towards Ganryu. "Didn't 'xpect ta see ya here, Ganryu…"

"Whatever…" Ganryu scoffed not even turning towards the Obelisk blue. "By the way… thanks with those idiots…"

"No prob," the weird Obelisk replied turning to watch all of the Slifer Reds in the classroom leave. "Sides…I got me interested in that one gal you got in here…"

Ganryu didn't even respond to that.

The Weird Obelisk Blue just shrugged and grinned at the cold-hearted Slifer Red. "By yer silence, I think its okay…"

"Whatever…"

/--/-/-//--//--//-

**Card Specs**

**Excalibur / Spell Equip / Effect:** Double the ATK of the Monster Equipped with this card. You may skip your Draw Phase when this card is Equipped to one of your Monsters. If you draw a card via any means, this card is destroyed.

**Image:** A shining sword of pure silver.

**Soul Rope / Trap / Effect:** This card can only be activated when your opponent destroys a monster on your side of the field as a result of battle. Pay 1000 life points to special summon one level four or lower monster from your deck (the deck is then shuffled).

**Image:** a warrior roaring in the air with a stream of light flowing from his chest and into a few cards

_Note: "Excalibur" and 'Soul Rope' were used by. All creative credit goes to the writers of the show._

**Learning Elf / Earth / LV. 3 / ATK: 1400 / DEF: 1500 / Spellcaster/Effect:** When this card is sent to the graveyard, you may draw one card.

**Description:** A beautiful elf girl wearing forest green tunic with a cape. In her hands is a small tome and her blonde hair is styled backwards.

**Thoroughbred Elf / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 1800 / DEF: 1500 / Warrior**

**Description:** A rough elf with shaggy blonde hair wearing fighter's clothes.

_Note, the following two cards were used by Tenma Gekkou in the Japanese Manga of Yugioh._

**Red Eyes' Last Flame / Instant Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated during the turn when a face up 'Red Eyes Black Dragon' was destroyed as a card effect. Special summon one 'Rouge of the Red' from your deck.

**Image:** Red Eyes Black Dragon being engulfed in a large black flame

**Rouge of the Red / Dark / LV. 4 / ATK: 1500 / DEF: 1100 / Warrior/Effect:** When this card is destroyed by a card effect, you may special summon one 'Red Eyes Black Dragon' from your graveyard.

**Description:** A young man dressed in pitch-black armor that resembled the scales of the Red Eye's Black Dragon. In his hands was a mysterious curved sword with a head of the Red Eye's on the hilt.

_Note: The following two cards appeared in my fiction, Duelist Open Destiny. Used by Hikari Satoshi._

**Aura of the Mystic / Continuous Trap / Effect:** When this card is activated, select one monster on the field with 'Elf' or 'Half-Elf' in the card's name. After doing so, select one face up monster on the field. As long as this card remains face up; increase the attack of the second selected monster by the original attack of the first selected monster. If this card is destroyed, or removed from the field, return the second selected monster back to its owner's hand.

**Image**: The Mystical Elf standing behind a small warrior, a strange aura surrounding the two.

_Duelist Stats_

_ Name: Rena Akira_

_ Deck: Elves_

_Though a unique deck type it does have its advantages when played correctly, elves rely more on support from each other and from spell and trap cards. If she practices more, Rena could actually improve and become a great duelist. Most of the elf cards are a majority of the spellcaster variety, so there are plenty of other cards that Rena can use to support them._

_Although she plays with elves, that doesn't stop her from using other cards in her deck, and there are still the 'Half-Elf' cards as well. When the cards are revealed, more information will be available._

_ Name: Rukia Nagata_

_ Deck: Roar of the Red_

_A tough deck to manage, but once one has mastered it, the various forms of the Red Eyes Black Dragon can become a very powerful force to deal with._

_Rukia loved watching Joey Wheeler, and decided to base her deck around one of his signature monsters. Since she developed the deck, a multitude of Red Eye support and monsters have been created thanks to a fellow fan of the Red Eyes Black Dragon…Hikari Satoshi._

_-//--/-/-//--//-/_

**Rena**: Its great to be dueling again!

**Van**: Really? Then maybe you should try your hand against me; I'm good with the cards I've got.

**Rena**: Thanks! But I really am more interested in my dueling 101 class now!

**Rukia**: Besides…Van, the opponent's are already chosen.

**WOB**: HAHAHA! And this is who I'm supposed ta be dueling? This'll be fun!

**Van**: Who the hell is this guy?

**_Next time on Dueling Twilight – Chapter 5: Check and Mate_**

**Rena**: What the! It's him!


	5. Chapter 5: Check and Mate

_**Well, well, well, what do we got here?**_

_**I'm a guessing you are wanting meh to say something…well, okay y'all got it!  
**_

_**I really don't feel like given my name yet, but I'll tell ya this! I'm a second year student with a great mind, bad grammar, and is always looking ta aim ta help anyone.**_

_**Take the other day, fer example. I was lookin' fer Professor Kryancelo cause he had a barrel fer my growing collection…when I saw this here cute Slifer girl on the brink of tears. So being the kind gentleman I was, I comforted her. **_

_**But that's in the past, and this is the future! **_

…_**Wait, that ain't right…it's the present! Hooray! **_

_**Any who, right now I'm facing off against one that girlie's friends. He seems pissed off, but when you face off against me like that…**_

…_**You're only asking fer trouble my mates!**_

_**Cause its time for checkmate!**_

_**-//--/-/-/-/-/**_

_**Chapter 5**_

_**Check and Mate**_

_**-/-/-/-/-/-/-/**_

A few days had passed since Rena's punishment had been issued, and since then, Rena managed to get a few more alarm clocks on the off chance that Talo would mess with her original. But Talo actually stopped messing with her first all together.

Even the students started talking less and less about the rumors flying around had begun to die down for an unknown reason.

Since they met Rena and Rukia had been hanging out more and more, Ganryu had usually disappeared when classes were done and would appear before dinner. That left Van to just walk around the campus aimlessly or to get his homework done…neither of which were as appealing, especially during the lunch period. "Man! Things are too boring!"

Laying outside his dorm hut, Van just watched the cloudless sky…it was about the only thing he could think up at the time. "…I came to academy to have some fun, but this isn't what I wanted…"

"Anyone there! I could use a little helpin'!"

Van looked to his right to see person walking towards him; a huge barrel he was carrying in his arms blocked only his face. It looked like he was about to drop the barrel, but that's when Van grabbed onto the other side of it. "I got it!"

"Oh, thanks much obliged mate!" laughed the mysterious person as the barrel was slowly placed on the ground.

"No problem…" Van replied looking at the weird student. "…What's an Obelisk Blue doing here?"

"Ah, don't worry bout the color my friend," the weird Obelisk Blue stated taking off his wool hat and allowing his orange hair to go wild. He was wearing a custom uniform that's for sure and had a small stubble on his chin. "I'm just bringing a barrel that I got from Professor Maria. Anyway, thanks mate."

"Yeah, but why didn't you just roll the barrel?" Van asked looking at the actually non-scratched barrel.

The weird Obelisk Blue just narrowed his eyes at Van and frowned. "Are you mad!?! Why would I want to scratch this perfect barrel!? It's one hundred percent pure chestnut and made in a style only found in America! If'an I rolled it on the ground I would probably lower the value of the barrel by a good…I'ma guessing about a good twenty percent."

"I guess you really know your barrels then," Van chuckled with a sweatdrop appearing on the back of his head.

"Yup! Now if an y'all excuse meh." The weird Obelisk Blue picked up the barrel once more, this time horizontal. "I got ta git this here barrel back ta meh dorm."

Van just watched the weird Obelisk disappear in a mere few minutes but then shook it off and began to sit down once more. "I've said it once…and I'll say it again…people here are weirdoes…"

A few minutes passed, Van was already catching ZZZZZZZ's when two familiar Slifer Reds loomed over him. "Are you sure about this Klein?"

"Why do you want to patronize me Koji?" Klein asked crossing his arms. "Sides, I've never been more sure in my days! Its time!"

"Hey Van! Wake up!"

Van just turned in his sleep. "Wake up Van! Or else I'll pinch you to death with a clothes pin!"

Again, Van just turned in his sleep ignoring Klein. A blood vessel appeared on Klein's head as he reached into his pocket. "I warned ya! Clothespin away!"

A few seconds later, a loud manly roar filled the air above the academy making everyone turn upwards in surprise.

"Damn it Klein!" Van yelled pulling the clothespin from his body. "What the hell do you two want?"

Klein just smiled as he brought up his arms. "Relax! Thought we were friends here…why all the hostility?"

"You should know," Van scoffed to the side before he began to walk away. "Why are you bothering me? I told you to just leave me alone."

When Van turned to walk away from Klein, Koji suddenly appeared before him with a sad look on his face. "…Van…I know we violated your trust, but please, at least join us for lunch…"

Just when Van was about to reply to that, a loud growl from his stomach made Klein grin. "From your stomach, we'll get to the cafeteria right now!"

That's when Klein and Koji pulled Van by the arms and then ran at a very fast speed, almost dragging Van on his heals.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-//-/-/

"Another bowl of rice here!" Klein shouted lifting his bowl up into the air.

Van slowly ate his first bowl of rice with the rest of his lunch, which wasn't much to look at. He just looked at Klein getting his bowl filled up once more. "Okay…enough you two, what's the reason you two called me out here?"

"Well, if you want, fine," Klein commented placing his bowl on the table, afterwards he lifted his hand up. "We want to bury the hatchet, and put up a new beginning to friendship." Klein's hand opened up as a smile appeared on his face. "So…what do you say?"

Van eyed Klein's stern hand in front of him, it felt like he was struggling inside his very mind. A part of him did want to make amends with his old two friends, however the other part told him he was an idiot for even considering it. "Why should I trust you?"

"Really understandable," Klein replied lowering his hand from Van's sight. "I mean what exactly have we done so far to regain your trust?"

"…Oh wait…when we agreed to help Rena at your request!"

"Well yeah, but…" Van started.

"But wait! Then there's the fact we found her deck! We could've kept it but then again we didn't!"

"That's really still not enough to make me trust you," Van sighed as he was about to stand up.

That's when Koji quickly stood up and ran in front of Van. From behind his coke bottle glasses, Koji had a sad yet serious look in his eyes. "Van…please…give us another chance. I know that our past has been shaky, but we really want to start over as friends. I mean, to both Klein and I, we consider you to be our big brother."

"Yeah! What he said," Klein added standing up on the table.

A sweatdrop appeared on Van's head, after a small speech like that the other students in the Slifer Red dorm were all looking at the three. "…Sure…let's start this over…"

"Yeah!" Klein shouted before jumping back into his seat. "Now let's celebrate by finishing our lunch!"

A smile came on Koji and Van's faces before they sat down.

//--/-//--/-/-/-/

"Man this academy is huge!" Rena exclaimed walking on the sidewalk. Rukia was right beside her. "I've already been here two weeks and I still haven't seen everything here."

"Same here," Rukia replied when the two stopped in the front yard of the main building. "But I think that there are multiple facilities in the main building. Like a restaurant, a shop and an arcade."

Rena however noticed something that was in front of the main building. "Sorry, but I need to check something…"

Rukia just blinked watching Rena head towards the main building, or to be more specific the guy in front of it carrying a barrel. From where Rukia was standing, it looked like an Obelisk Blue with a custom uniform. "…What's up with the barrel?"

"Hey!" Rena shouted catching up to the barrel-carrying guy.

The weird Obelisk Blue turned, and smiled at the sight of Rena running up to him, there was also Rukia coming up slowly. Carefully setting the barrel on the ground, the weird Obelisk Blue smiled at Rena. "Howdy there ma'am…pleasure seeing ya again. Ta what do I owe this to?"

"I…I just wanted to thank you," Rena replied holding her hands, not noticing the slight blush on her face.

That's when Rukia walked up and immediately noticed the blush on Rena's face. "Well now, what's up with the blush there Rena?"

"I-I'm not blushing!" Rena stated turning away.

The barrel carrying, weird Obelisk Blue laughed loudly as he placed his hand on his barrel and leaned on it. "Ya wanna know something miss? Yer a bad liar."

"Truly she is." A calm voice stated behind Rena and Rukia.

Both Slifer Red girls jumped up as they turned around to see Leo standing behind them with a grin that rivaled a crescent moon. Rena breathed in deeply before panting out. "Le…Leo! Wh-why do you keep doing that?"

"Because I'm stalking you," Leo replied saying it still with a grin.

Rena's jaw dropped. "WHAT!"

Leo let out a small laugh when he flicked some hair from his eyes. "Kidding…just kidding."

"Ah, Leo! Nice ta see ya here too," the weird Obelisk Blue laughed adjusting the goggles on his hat. "Ya really got ta teach me how ta do that sneaky stuff."

"I would gladly teach you, if you could keep up," Leo replied before he noticed Rukia. "Ah, I don't believe I've had the pleasure of meeting you miss…"

Rukia just raised her hand up, she was still a little shocked with Leo's actions. "Call me Rukia Nagata."

"Hey Leo! Ya know this gal?" The weird Obelisk Blue asked referring to Rena. "Cause this is the gal I told ya about, ya know the one who just jumped into me arms and let out all of her…"

Immediately, Rena slapped her hand over the weird Obelisk Blue's mouth to get him to stop talking. "Shut up please!"

"I already know what he's saying Rena," Leo calmly replied, this time his grin seemed to become somewhat evil.

"No offense, but you're all insane," Rukia sighed lowering her head.

"I take it as a compliment," Leo replied.

Removing Rena's hand, the weird Obelisk Blue took in a deep breath. "I couldn't breathe! A little much fer saying that y'all cried on my chest…"

Rena just covered her face, mostly due to the fact she was blushing like crazy. That's when the weird Obelisk Blue looked a little shocked. "Whoops! I nearly forgot! I haven't even introduced myself yet!"

That's when the weird Obelisk Blue jumped onto his barrel and raised his hand into the air. "I'm Tony Havoc! Obelisk Blue of the Atlantic duel academy!"

Rena and Rukia just stared at Tony's introduction. Leo seemed un-phased by the intro. Rena just smiled. "Well, it's a lot less flashier than another Obelisk Blue's entrance…"

"Oh, ya must be referring ta Cleo and Asche," Tony suggested jumped from his barrel. "Yeah, they really do tend ta blow things outta proportion. But, if'an you excuse me, I need ta be getting this barrel back ta me dorm room 'fore classes start up again."

"Okay, um, see ya later Tony," Rena said watching Tony pick up the barrel and begin to run off towards the Obelisk Blue dorms. "So, what now?"

Rukia just shrugged and Leo seemed to have done one of his trademarked disappearing acts.

-/-/-/-/-//--//-/-

"Now then! Since we've still got twenty minutes before classes begin," Klein announced walking in front of Van and Koji. "So why don't we just head back to Van's dorm for a few minutes…if that's okay with you Van."

"Of course!" Van shouted when the three reached Van's dorm hut.

As soon as Van opened the hut door, he was met with a sight on the top bunk. Ganryu was sitting on top reading a manga book. It was one of Van's manga that he had bought recently. "Hey! You cold hearted stiff! Put that down!"

Ganryu just turned his head slightly, and just brushed off Van's shouting.

Van just stomped his foot on the ground to get Ganryu's attention. "Hey! Listen you cold-hearted stif…"

That's when the book flew right into Van's face, sending him into the ground dazed. Klein and Koji stared at their friend before noticing that Ganryu was off the top bunk and heading out the door.

"Damn it!" Van shouted throwing the manga on the floor. Koji just looked at the manga and lifted it up to his face. "I really, really, REALLY hate that cold hearted stiff!"

That's when Klein noticed something on the desk, a single deck of cards. He could see that Van's deck case was attached to Van's belt. So by simple process of elimination, Klein figured that must be Ganryu's cards…and a horrible plan appeared in his head. "What exactly has he done?"

"More stuff than I can count," Van sighed standing up. "I've even seen my deck be thrown out the window."

"And I guess this must be Ganryu's deck then," Klein pointed out gesturing towards the stack of cards on the desk.

Van's eyes narrowed at the cards, he then stomped up to the deck and looked at the cards. Klein slowly walked up behind Van with a devious smile on his face. "You should get even with him…I think you know what you have to do…"

'_Oh Klein…your plans are really getting lamer and lamer…_' Koji shook his head before continuing to read the manga.

Klein's words just echoed through Van's head, then on instinct his right hand seemed to hover over the deck of cards.

/-/--/-//-/-/--//-/

"Not to sound rude Rena, but some of the people you know are weird," Rukia commented with a bored look on her face.

"I know…but its easy to make friends with people like that," Rena laughed a little bit. The two were back at the Slifer Red dorms, with fifteen minutes remaining before classes were up again. "Sides, at least three of my friends aren't crazy…"

"That better include me," Rukia stated that's when a familiar cold hearted duelist walked in front of the two girls.

"Huh, Ganryu?" Rena asked looking at the cold samurai duelist.

"Humph, I just came back for my deck," Ganryu replied walking away from the two Slifer Red girls.

That's when it dawned on Rena. "Oh yeah! Next hour there's a small dueling class with a combination of multiple classes."

"Guess that's why we didn't have it earlier," Rukia stated while she and Rena followed Ganryu to his dorm hut.

"Damnit!"

Rena and Rukia looked at the extremely pissed off Ganryu standing in his doorway, it even looked like he had a dark aura gleaming around his body.

Rena took a step closer to Ganryu and immediately got a cold glare from the cold-hearted duelist. "What's wrong?"

"……………My deck's gone….." Ganryu answered barring his sharp teeth.

"…That stinks…" Rukia commented.

-//--/-/-//-/-/-

Five minutes later Ganryu was stomping down the hallway, making any student who was not smart enough to get out of the way, were immediately slammed the unlucky few (yeah, if you count twenty-seven as few) right into the walls.

From a distance, Rena and Rukia followed the angered duelist. "So…is he always like this?"

"…Pretty much," Rena answered.

Somewhere else in the main building, Van held onto a deck of cards in his hand standing in front of an open trash can. Klein and Koji were standing next to the conflicting duelist, Klein had a look on his face that wanted Van to dump the cards.

"What are y'all doing?"

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" Klein, Koji and Van screamed, the shock almost made Van dump the cards into the bin, however he was able to catch them at the last second. He just breathed a sigh of relief.

"Where'd that come from?" Klein asked looking around.

"Um, guys look above," Koji pointed upwards with his hand.

The three looked up to see Tony seemingly hovering over them, his clear brown eyes looking directly at them. There was only one thing to do at the time…

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" Van and Klein fell to the ground while Koji sweatdropped at his friends' behavior.

Tony stuck his fingers in his ears in protest to the loud yelling. "No need ta be so loud!" That's when he pulled his fingers from his ears and grinned at the duelists. "So…what were y'all plannin' with that deck?"

A single thought ran through the three Slifer Reds' minds. '_Does this guy know?_'

Tony continued, "Cause the deck is an important part of da duelist's soul! Ya put yer soul in it! You breathe the air with it!"

"…He's insane! Run for it!" Klein shouted before he took a head start from the other three.

Van and Koji just blinked for a few seconds before running after their fast smaller friend. Tony just stood there contemplating. "Hmm, something's going down." A huge smile crept onto his face. "And it's up ta meh ta find out what!"

Van finally caught up with Klein running through the hallways. Koji was as few feet behind the other two. "Why the hell are we running!?! I didn't do anything wrong!"

"Actually you did!" Koji pointed out as a sweatdrop appeared on Van's head.

"This is all your fault Klein!" Van yelled.

"How is it mine?" Klein questioned trying to keep up his speed.

"HEY! Y'ALL WAIT FER ME!"

The three turned their heads and their eyes grew huge as Tony was actually following them. It looked like he was on a skateboard with a barrel theme to it.

Van just began to run even faster. "I think he knows!"

The three Slifer Reds ran even faster with dust trails following them.

"Man! Them three are fast!" Tony exclaimed. "Time fer da back up backup plan!"

All of sudden, a loud engine rev filled the air making the three Slifer Reds blink in confusion. Koji was the one who turned around and gasped. "IS THAT EVEN PERMITED?!?!"

Apparently, Tony was now riding on a motorcycle that also had a barrel theme to it. Most of the sane students in the hallway were jumping out of the way. "YAHOO!!!!!"

"QUICK! THE STAIRS! HE'D HAVE TO BE CRAZY TO DRIVE THAT THING ON THERE!" Klein shouted as the three Slifers reached a set of stairs.

Tony just halted his barrel-cycle and watched the three Slifer Reds run down the stairs… "Y'all can't run fer-ever!"

Three minutes remained before class began, Van, Klein and Koji were all standing outside of the classroom where the dueling classes were going to take place. Each of them had sweat pouring down their faces.

Van just kept panting before he finally stood up and looked at the deck that he…er, borrowed. "I…I think we lost him…"

"…Lose who?"

Tony just appeared behind the trio, a confused look was on his face, while completely surprised looks appeared on the trio's faces.

Klein and Koji jumped in front of Tony and bowed down before him. "We didn't do anything!"

"Real nice guys!" Van yelled when suddenly Tony just stepped in front of him.

"Chill out man, I jus wanted to check that deck out," Tony replied.

A cold sweatdrop appeared on the back of Van's head, while Klein and Koji just fell to the ground out of relief and embarrassment.

Van slowly handed Tony the deck, and immediately Tony flipped through the cards, his eyes narrowing at the sight of each of them. '_These cards…they're Ganryu's…_'

After looking at the cards, Tony put the deck back together and handed them back to Van. "…The deck belongs ta someone else right? You stole it…"

The three Slifer Reds just couldn't say a thing, thank goodness the bell rang and then the three ran quickly into the room. Tony just shook his head. "…I guess I'll hafta do this da hard way."

/-/--/-//-/-/-/-//

The jointed dueling class just started, Rena just stood at her seat with stars in her eyes. The Slifer girl cried happily. "Finally! I can show that I can duel in the school! I'm so happy!"

Ganryu just raised an eyebrow at the girl.

Rena sweatdropped. "Not that I'm glad about your deck being stolen…" 

"He's somewhat emotional for a cold guy," Rukia stated only to receive a glare in her direction.

"Now I really didn't expect this many students," Rena commented.

"They are pooling first and second year students today," a calm voice appeared behind Rena.

"ACK!" Rena jumped up at seeing Leo standing behind her…yet again. "You just enjoy doing that don't you?"

"I fear you are really doubting my sneakiness," Leo chuckled.

"Hey! Can we get some quiet in here?" Kryancelo yelled from his seat, and knowing how harsh the professor could be, the room went silent. "Finally! Now then, since the monthly promotion exams are in a couple of weeks, Professor Hughes and I agreed to have the second years and first years pair up for this dueling class."

"That's right thar kiddies!" Hughes laughed walking in front of the students. In his hands was a small clipboard. "Now den, let's be gitten on this exercise!"

"I hope I can do well," Rena fretted looking down on her cards.

"Relax, its not like you're going to be paired with someone insane," Rukia stated before looking at Leo and then at Ganryu. "…Then again, I could be wrong."

"S'kay, first on dueling platform A, we've got Ganryu Dashinben!" Hughes shouted the name from his clipboard.

Ganryu didn't even flinch at his name. He just stood up with his arms crossed.

Hughes raised an eyebrow at this. "Didn't ya hear me?"

"Yeah…" Ganryu sighed with a bored tone in his voice.

"Well, since I heard from Kryancelo about a certain duel," Hughes tempted Ganryu to jump out of his seat when he heard about his opponent. "I managed ta git you an Obelisk Blue student. Da I make myself clear?"

"Crystal," Ganryu replied.

"Then…how come yer not a moving?" Hughes questioned.

Ganryu just sat down and placed his feet on top of the desk. "Cause…I don't feel like dueling…"

Turning this head to the side, Hughes leaned to Kryancelo and whispered. "Pompous little wind bag ain't he?"

"Just get another duelist…I'll deal with that slacker," Kryancelo whispered back.

"Okay then fine," Hughes sighed looking at the clipboard. "Um…Tenka, Van! Yer up instead!"

"What!?!" Van shouted from the back of the room.

"Huh, I guess that Van's here," Rena stated looking back.

"Y-you mean that blue haired guy," Rukia asked with a slight blush on her face.

Leo took advantage of Rukia's small blush, especially when Van began walking down the steps. "My, my, my, feeling a little flustered there Miss Nagata?"

"S-Shut up Leo!" Rukia commented.

As soon as Van reached the dueling platform, Hughes just smiled. "Good, now den, we jus got ta get yer opponent down here…Tony Havoc!"

"Yeah?" Tony asked appearing behind Professor Hughes.

"The psycho!" Van shouted, not realizing that Klein and Koji yelled it as well in the back.

Hughes just jumped up, but then breathed in deeply before holding up two duel disks. "Don't do that! Now then, I think you two know what needs ta be done…just shuffle each other's decks and let's git this duel underway!"

As soon as Hughes jumped off the dueling platform, the two duelists, each one from different dorm statuses began shuffling each other's decks. Tony continued to shuffle the cards when he gently spoke to Van under his breath. "Listen…I'll make you a deal, I'll keep quiet about the deck stolen…if you promise to return it."

"…I really planned on returning it…" Van sighed cutting Tony's cards.

"However, if I win this duel you have to return it to the guy in person," Tony continued before he held up the deck. "You win…you can return it privately and I'll let you off with out a scratch…"

"Fine," Van scoffed taking his deck and handing Van his own cards.

As soon as the two duelists were a good distance from each other, they activated their duel disks and drew their opening hands.

"DUEL!"

Tony looked at his fanned out hand and nodded. "Since you're a freshman, I'll let you start this duel off." (TLP: 8000)

"Thanks," Van scoffed drawing his sixth card. "Okay, I'll set a monster in defense, and set a card face down!" The two face down cards formed in front of Van, one horizontal while the other vertical. "Your move!" (VLP: 8000)

Tony just chuckled to himself as he drew his card. "Patience is needed, if an we don't have that, then dat jus leaves ta bad judgement." Tony slid his first card into his duel disk and immediately the field began to glow. "Watch! I activate da spell card, Chessboard!"

The field then died down to reveals a white and black checkered chessboard underneath Tony and Van. Van just looked at the weird floor underneath his feet. "W-What the heck is this?"

"Happens ta be one of me faves! Now, due ta its effect, I can now special summon one of three cards from my hand," Tony replied looking at his hand. "And I choose Pawn's Soldier (800/800)!"

From the black square in front of Tony emerged a large six-foot tall pawn chess piece. Its main material was white and black checkered marble. Van just raised an eyebrow at the sight of the monster. "What the?"

As soon as Tony slid another card into his duel disk, a powerful light green aura surrounded the Chessboard. "And next, I'll be playing the spell card, Magic Reflector!" Then a face down card appeared directly behind the pawn. "And ta wrap this up, I'll set a card face down…"

"And you criticized my move," Van commented taking his next card. "I'll show you a real move! I play Polymerization! Which fuses my face down E-Hero Avian (1000/1000) and the Burstinatrix (1200/800) in my hand!"

That's when the face down card flipped up to reveal a green suited hero with clawed feet and a pair of huge white wings. Then a woman wearing a tight red body suit with long black hair appeared on the field. That's when a vortex appeared underneath the two warriors, sucking them in.

"…Ah, the E-Heroes…that must be irony for ya," Tony chuckled to himself when suddenly the vortex shattered.

"Shut up!" Van shouted as a new hero emerged from the ground. This hero had green and black skin with a single white wing on his back. His left hand had razor sharp claws on his fingers, while his right arm was completely a huge red serpent dragon that seemed to have a flame ready in its mouth (2100/1200). "I chose these cards as a reminder! And they will always be! And this is the Flame Wingman!"

"If you think you can win this way, then by all means, go on," Tony stated, his voice actually without his bad grammar and accent.

"Then I will! Flame Wingman! Skydive Scorcher!" Van shouted into the air as his hero flew into the air. Then a powerful flame erupted around the Wingman and then dived directly towards the chess piece.

"Hold on! I activate my trap card!" Tony announced lifting his hand over his trap card, showing that it had multiple Pawns standing together. "Its called Pawn Island!"

All of a sudden, two more Pawn Soldiers (800/800 x2) appeared right next to the original chess Piece. "As you can plainly see…I'm able to special summon the other Pawn Soldiers from my deck in defense mode!"

Van just shook the trap off. "That still won't end my attack! Wingman! Take out the center Pawn!"

The hero quickly flew into the center Pawn Soldier, apparently it was in defense mode. But that's then the Wingman just landed in front of Tony and blasted him with a powerful flame. "Oh! Guess I forgot to mention that my Wingman takes life points equal to the attack points of your monster!"

"Really? I don't think I lost any," Tony chuckled lifting up his duel disk. (TLP: 8400)

Van's eyes widened when his hero returned to his side of the field. "What the…How'd your life points go up!?!"

"Simple, its my trap card's second ability, since you destroyed a Pawn Soldier," Tony explained sliding the cards into his graveyard. "Then I gain life points equal to the defense of the monster cause of the destruction. So I gained twelve-hundred, minus the eight-hundred your monster's effect took from me."

"Damn…" Van cursed under his breath. "I just ended up helping him…"

"I take it you just ended yer turn," Tony stated drawing his next card. "And ta start mine, I'll be activating another effect of my Chessboard!"

All of a sudden, between the other two Pawn Soldiers, the first original one appeared with the light gleaming off its marble surface (800/800). "Ya see, during my standby phase I can resurrect one of my Pawn Soldiers from the graveyard!"

That's when Tony slid his next card into his duel disk. "Next! I'll be activating my Pot of Greed! So I git two more cards!"

A loud laugh erupted from the grinning green pot, allowing Tony to pull two more cards from the top of his deck. "Okay, now then watch this! I'll be sacrificing one of my other Pawns, in order to summon a hero of my own!"

Immediately one of the Pawns disappeared, only to be replaced by another six-foot tall chess piece, only this one was a knight (2300/1500). "Meet my Knight's Hero! Next, I'll switch the other Pawn's Soldier in attack mode. And now, go on the attack my Knight!"

Van didn't know what to expect from an attack from these monsters, heck he couldn't even tell if they were in attack or defense mode. While he was contemplating this, the large Knight's Hero disappeared but then slammed directly on the E-Hero Flame Wingman, crushing the warrior. "That's not good…" (VLP: 7800)

"Not fer ya! Pawn Soldiers attack!" Tony shouted when suddenly a powerful beacon emerged onto the field. "Huh…"

"Hero Signal activates when you destroy a monster as a result of battle!" Van interrupted pulling his deck from its slot. "Now I can special summon a Hero from my deck!"

Just before Van selected a card from his deck, the two Pawn Soldiers just slammed into his trap card shattering it. "What the?"

"Did y'all really think I'd allow ya ta do that?" Tony snickered pointing to a card next to him. It was spell card that had a pawn knocking down a chess piece bishop. "My quick play spell, Pawn Take Out, allows me ta negate the activation of a trap card and destroy it! And since my Pawns are already near ya…go and continue the attack!"

The two pawn just jumped forward and slammed directly into Van's chest, knocking the wind out of him. (VLP: 6200)

"Dang it…a direct attack…" Van moaned holding his chest.

"Sorry 'bout being so rough," Tony commented making two face down cards appear in front of him. "But it has to be…"

"Yeah well, I don't need your charity!" Van shouted pulling his next card. "Now then, I play Fusion Recovery! So I can take polymerization and E-Hero Avian from my graveyard and add them to my hand!"

Tony just seemed to shake his head, as if he knew what Van was going to pull off. '_I have a feeling this will turn out as I expect…_"

"Next I'll play polymerization once more! This time fusing Avian with the Bubbleman in my hand!" Van shouted lifting the three cards up, and the two monsters appeared on the field. One was the first monster Van played while the other was a warrior dressed in light blue armor, a dark blue jumpsuit and a flowing white cape. Once again the two heroes were engulfed into a powerful vortex.

"Ya know, you should really try planning out yer moves," Tony commented when the vortex shattered allowing a new warrior appear.

The new warrior had flowing black hair behind his blue and yellow mask; his skin looked a pale mint green. His only clothes were a pair of light blue shoulder pads, blue boots, and two pairs of tailed capes. He had two anchors with chains wrapped around his arms (1400/1000). "The E-Hero Mariner! Next I'll set this card face down…and since there is a face down card, my Mariner can attack you directly!"

With a loud battle cry, the Hero threw its two anchors directly at Tony. The weird thing is that Tony just smiled as the two anchors wrapped around his body beginning to squeeze him. "Activate trap card! Crosscheck! Now then, any damage done to me, goes the same for you!"

All of a sudden, two chains erupted from the black squares next to Van and wrapped around him just as with Tony. That's when the chains around both duelists began to tighten squeezing a decent amount of life points from both of them. (TLP: 7000) (VLP: 4800)

The chains shattered around both duelists, and at the same time, both of the duelists fell to the ground panting. Tony stood up first, wiping some of the sweat from his brow. "Yahoo! I haven't had a duel his good in a long while!"

"Yer certainly a weird one," Van chuckled standing up…that's when he realized something. "NO! You got me speaking with redneck words!"

A sweatdrop appeared on Tony and Professor Hughes's heads, and they both thought the same thing. '_What's wrong with redneck words?_'

"Anyway, I'm done," Van stated rubbing the back of his head. '_Wait a second…why do I feel so light now?_'

"Great! Now then…" Tony drew his next card, making him only have one card. "Excellent! Now then, I think you remember what happens during my standby phase!"

The third Pawn's Soldier (800/800) appeared this time right next to the knight. "Next, I'll use my Chessboard's ability once more! This time to special summon the next chess piece! Rise up!"

The white square that was next to the other Pawn Soldiers began to light up and then a towering Rook Chess piece emerged, with the same marble style as the other chess pieces (800/2200). "Meet Rook's Shield!"

"Okay…that's impressive…" Van gaped starring at the massive chess pieces. He didn't notice that the square underneath him was starting to glow.

"Yeah! But here's something interesting, ya see when my new monster is special summoned," Tony started to explain crossing his arms. "My Rook can take two hundred life points from ya fer each card on the field!"

That's when Van noticed the glowing square he was standing on. "Uh oh…"

The light surged upwards making Van wince in pain as the light grew brighter and brighter with each second. When the light died down, Van's eyes widened at his life point meter. "Dang…a cheap shot…" (VLP: 3200)

"Anything one can do, now then Knight's Hero! Do what you can do!" Tony shouted as his knight began to jump into he air.

"Hold up! I activate DeFusion! This splits my fusion monster back in two!" Van shouted as his monster returned back into a crouching Avian (1000/1000) and Bubbleman (800/1200). "So you won't be getting my life points this turn!"

"Sorry ta tell ya, but actually this is the end," Tony commented as his knight slammed into Avian crushing the monster. "Cause if'an you got two or more monsters on the field, my Knight can attack two of them!"

"Oh crap…" Van stated realizing what was about to happen and just as Bubbleman was crushed as well.

"Now then…its Check!" Tony shouted as his other four chess pieces jumped into the air.

Van just stared into the air seeing the four pieces over his head. Tony just threw his hand down and the Chess pieces began to drop. "And Mate!" (VLP: 0)

A loud boom filled the arena as the multiple holograms began to disappear; Tony smiled and calmly walked over to the dazed Van. That's when Tony held his hand over Van's head. "Good duel there mate!"

"I don't know about that…" Van stated taking Tony's hand and was pulled to his feet.

"Remember our deal…" Tony whispered as he walked past Van. "I'll get Ganryu into the hall…meet me and him there in a couple of minutes."

"Hey wait…how do you know Ganryu?" Van asked only to see that Tony was already walking up the stairs towards Ganryu.

After Tony was finished whispering with Ganryu, the cold-hearted duelist stood up and followed Tony into the hall.

"It looked as though Van lost really fast," Rukia pointed out watching as Van walked past them.

"Well…I suppose it should be due to the fact that Tony is one of the elite of the school," Leo replied crossing his arms. "Plus, he never really showed his true cards yet."

'_An elite? And I thought he was just a goofy Obelisk Blue…_' Rena thought.

/-/--/-/-//--/-/-

Van walked into the hallway, standing near the door stood Tony with Ganryu leaning on the wall nearby. In his hand, was the deck he had taken, Van held the deck up and stared directly at Ganryu. "Here…"

The cold-hearted duelist snapped the deck from Van's hand. "Hmm…"

"There! Good as new!" Tony laughed loudly crossing his arms.

That's when Van was kicked in the chest and sent flying down the hallway. Tony just sweatdropped at the sight of the Slifer Red flying and turned to see Ganryu was lowering his leg. "…Now it's good…"

/--//--/-/-/--/-/-/-/

Cards 

**Chessboard / Cont. Spell / Effect**: When you play this card, you are allowed to special summon one monster from your hand that is named Bishop's Mage, Rook's Shield, or Pawn's Soldier. As long as this card remains face up on your side of the field, you may special summon a Pawn Soldier from your graveyard to the field during your standby phase. It may not be offered for a tribute for a tribute summoning this turn

**Image:** A large black and white checkered chessboard

**Pawn's Soldier / Earth / LV. 2/ ATK: 800/ DEF: 800/Warrior/Effect:** N/A

**Description:** A six-foot tall Pawn Chess piece made of marble with a swirl of black and white

**Knight's Hero / Fire / LV. 5 / ATK: 2300/ DEF: 1500/ Warrior/Effect**: If your opponet has two or more monster cards on his/her side of the field, this monster may attack up to two monsters on your turn.

**Description:** A six-foot tall Knight Chess piece made of marble with a swirl of black and white

**Rook's Shield / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 800/ DEF: 2200 / Rock/Effect:** When this card is Normal Summoned, Flip Summoned, or Special Summoned, inflict 200 points of damage to your opponent's Life Points for every card on the Field. Any Monsters that are named Pawn's Soldier, Queen's Guard, King's Lord, Bishop's Mage or Knight's Hero cannot be selected as attack targets while this card is face-up on the Field.

**Description:** A six-foot tall Rook Chess piece made of marble with a swirl of black and white

**Crosscheck / Trap / Effect**: When your opponet deals battle damage to your life points, deal the same amount to your opponent's life points.

**Image:** N/A

**Pawn Island / Trap / Effect:** When a face-up Pawn's Soldier is attacked, special summon from your deck all monsters with Pawn's Soldier in its title to the field. This turn, gain life points equal to the DEF points of a monster that destroyed a Pawn's Soldier as a result of battle.

**Image:** N/A

_Note: The preceding cards were created by Rex the Emerald Dragon, all rights to these cards' designs are his as well as the other cards._

**Pawn Take Out / Quickplay Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when your opponent activates a spell or trap card when you have at least one 'Pawn's Solider' on your side of field. Negate the activation of the spell/trap card and destroy it.

**Image:** a pawn knocking down a chess piece bishop

-/---//--//-//-

Duelist Stats 

_Name: Van Tenka_

_Deck: Hero Deck_

_As he said, his deck actually reminds him of his hidden and dark past. For his reasons alone he doesn't really talk about his past…yet Klein and Koji seem to know what his past is. The only thing known about Van is that he has a small police record and has a strange way of putting off his past._

_Although he lost this duel, he does happen to have a few tricks in his deck. He really does rely on the Fusion part of the E-Heroes, so he actually runs with three King of the Swamp cards in his deck as well as two polymerization cards. He does have a few other surprises in his deck that will work well for the E-Heroes…even a few new additions to the famous heroic team._

_Name: Tony Havoc_

_Deck: Chess Decks_

_Meet Tony Havoc! Barrel extraordinaire! Um, he told me to write that…anyway, for some odd reason, next to dueling and chess, Tony likes to collect barrels and has a vast idea on all types of barrels and their craftsmanship. He lost his older brother in a cruise accident and coped with his family loss and learned his hobbies._

_His Chess deck relies on multiple combos that he's able to perform with multiple cards. Originally, it's a very difficult strategy to master, yet he's managed to learn how to make it a second nature for him and his mind. _

-/-//--/-/-//-/--//

**Rena:** The dueling class is done! I won!

**Leo:** Good job Rena!

**Rena:** Thanks!

**BT:** Beware! For I am the assassin of the night!

**Rena:** …Huh?

**_Confused? So am I! Check it next time in – Chapter 6: Night of the Black Tiger_**

**Rena:** Who is this pervert?

**BT:** I'm not a pervert!


	6. Chapter 6: Night of the Black Tiger

**_Ha ha ha! Finally! I, the great fighting dog of the Atlantic Duel Academy, get a chance to open up a chapter! About time the author wised up and decided I was the best character for the job!_**

**_Now then, you all are probably expecting me to talk about that confused little girl, or the cold-hearted stiff or probably even about that misguided hero using friend of mine. _**

_**No way!**_

_**This is my opening and we're doing it my way! **_

**_So I was watching that confused little girlie duel a freaky guy with…well, those cards 'THAT PERSON' used. And no, I don't mean that black haired dude who always wearing that black coats…I can't remember his name…_**

_**Eh, not important. But what is important, is the fact now I'm facing a guy who uses the same cards, but seems more skilled than the guy that girlie face. **_

**_The thing that really gets me is the fact that I'm facing someone weird…_**

…_**A comic book character…**_

…_**A comic book hero, with a dark attitude…**_

_**But, does not matter to me, cause I'll crush this guy. Guess you could call me the bad guy in this duel. Heh, heh, heh…**_

_**Let's rock!**_

_**/-//--/-/-/-///-/**_

_**Chapter 6**_

_**Night of the Black Tiger **_

_**/-/--/-//-/-/-/-//**_

"So 'kay," Professor Hughes announced looking from his clipboard and then ran his finger next to the names on it. "Now then, since we've still got a few duels in, we'll just continue…"

"Akira, Rena, you're dueling on dueling platform B!"

Rena just stood up with a smile, picking up her duel disk and deck. "I hope I can do well…"

Leo grinned from his seat and raised his thumb up. "No need to fret Rena, I'm sure your opponent won't be as tough as Van's…and I doubt it will be so one sided…"

"Hey! I'm standing right next to you!" Van shouted walking next to Leo, behind him was Klein and Koji. A new bruise appeared on Van's head, obviously from Ganryu.

"I knew that," Leo simply replied crossing his arms.

A large blood vessel appeared on Van's forehead, he then narrowed his eyes as Klein snickered behind him. "Why I oughta…"

"I thought you did a good job against an Obelisk blue," Rukia complimented with a slight blush on her face.

"Well, uh, thanks…" Van replied before sitting down.

"No need to act so…so…so…" Klein stuttered before turning towards Koji. "What's the word I'm looking for?"

"I believe it would have to be dense," Koji stated lowering his head.

"Yeah! No need to be so dense Van!" Klein laughed out loud throwing his head back.

Rena just walked past the laughing Klein and headed down to the dueling platform when Professor Hughes walked in front of her. "Rena I assume?"

"Yeah!" Rena replied with a smile.

"Good, now then, you're facing against a first year Ra Yellow duelist," Hughes stated looking down at the board. He turned his head up and looked towards the crowd, and then he shouted. "Tudor, Alex! You're up!"

From the upper parts of the room stands, a single Ra yellow duelist stood up and ran down the stairs. "I'm coming! Don't start without me!"

Rena and the mysterious Alex Tudor stepped onto the dueling platform, when Rena was on top of the platform; she got a good look at her opponent. The Ra Yellow boy stood a few inches higher than Rena and had bright red gleaming hair that was drooping down. Under his uniform was a fancy white shirt with a pair of tight black satin pants. A smile was on his face. "A Slifer lifer? I'm facing a Slifer lifer?"

Taken slightly back from her opponent's surprisingly high voice, Rena raised an eyebrow. "Slifer Lifer? I don't that's how the insult works…"

"…You serious?" Alex asked brushing some red hair from his eyes. "Damn it…I knew I should've listened in better to the insults…"

"Okay y'all, enough of that," Hughes announced looking at the two duelists standing across each other, activating their duel disks. "Get yer game on!"

"…Are all ya kids still saying that?" A sweatdrop appeared on the back of Rena and Alex's heads at the professor's question.

Alex snapped his shuffled deck into his humming duel disk, and then snapped off his five cards from the top of his deck. "Ignoring the hick and old timer professor, game on!" (ALP: 8000)

'_I hope I can do better than my duel with Rukia…_' Rena thought to herself looking at her five card hand.

"Since you're not moving, I'll be taking the first turn!" A card shot from the top of Alex's deck and into his hand. He smiled to himself. "I summon, Ojama Yellow in attack mode!"

A small bright yellow light appeared on the field and then a small yellow creature that had two long eye stocks and was wearing a red sparkling speedo (0/1000). The monster seemed to dance for joy at coming out on the field. That's when a set card appeared behind the Ojama. "And to end, I'll set this card on the field…"

Bringing his hand to cover his mouth, Alex smirked to himself watching Rena draw her sixth card. _'It's simple…being a Slifer lifer, she'll go after my bait and I'll destroy all of her monsters as a backfire. Then, I'll go back to taking her life points down with the other monsters I have…_'

"…Mystical Space Typhoon!"

Alex's eyes shot wide open as his face down card was instantly destroyed by a powerful gust of wind. '_What the?!?_'

"Next, I'll summon Obnoxious Celtic Guard (1400/1200)!" Rena announced allowing her green armored elf to appear in front her. The elf warrior lifted his sword into the air and shouted with a powerful battle cry. "And I'll outfit him with the equip spell card, Excalibur!"

The sword in the Celtic Guard's hand changed into the famous blade of King Arthur, allowing the powerful mystical energy from the sword and into the Obnoxious Celtic Guard (2800/1200). "Attack Ojama Yellow!"

The weird Ojama began to panic as the warrior jumped into the air towards it; Alex closed his eyes just as the warrior slashed right through the monster. (ALP: 5200)

"And, I'll place a card face down as insurance," Rena announced fitting her next card into her duel disk. "End turn."

"Okay…no more Mr. Nice Tudor!" Alex shouted pulling his next card. He nodded as he placed his next card into his duel disk. "I play Monster Reincarnation! So all I have to do is toss a card, and I get the Ojama Yellow back in my hand!"

Alex quickly slid one card from his hand into his graveyard slot, and then pulled the only monster card from his graveyard. That's when three more cards shot from his deck. "And the card I discarded was Ojamagic! Allowing me to take three more Ojamas from my deck!"

That's when a green grinning pot appeared and Alex pulled two more cards from his deck. "But I'm not done! I play pot of greed! And then, I'll summon a monster on the defensive and place two cards face down."

"Okay, then my turn," Rena stated looking at her three card hand. "I'll summon Learning Elf (1400/1500) in attack mode!"

The green cloaked female elf appeared with her red book in her hands; she lifted her book up and opened it. "Learning Elf, attack that face down defense monster!"

"Activate trap, Mirror Force!" Alex shouted as a powerful barrier appeared around him, gleaming with light. "Now, your attack goes back and destroys all attack monsters on your side of the field!"

Alex began to laugh…until he noticed that under his feet was a circle with multiple runes written on the outside of it. The circle began to steam a powerful purple smoke that began to shatter the barrier. "What the?!?"

"I'm maybe a Slifer, but I'm no rookie! My Trap Jammer negates the activation of your trap and destroys it!" Rena replied when the barrier shattered into a million pieces. "And now, Learning Elf, continue the attack!"

The female elf nodded, before opening her book to allow multiple lights to fly from it and crash into the face down card instantly destroying it. Alex bit his lip as he stared at his now blank monster field. "T-that was my Ojama Yellow again (0/1000)…"

"Obnoxious Celtic Guard! Direct attack!" Rena announced as her elf jumped high into the air.

A shadow of the elf appeared over Alex's sweating form, but the Ra Yellow duelist's eyes fell on the only card on his side of the field. _'My trap card can't be used in situation…though, if I take this next attack I can make a comeback next turn!_'

That's when the Celtic Guard's sword sliced right across Alex's chest making him step back in pain. "D-Dang it…" (ALP: 2400)

"And I'll end this turn to place this card face down," Rena replied as a face down card appeared behind her two elves.

"Not so fast! I activate my trap card, Ojama Trio!" Alex shouted when three weird creatures appeared on Rena's side of the field.

One was the same creature that appeared on Alex's side of the field earlier, the Ojama yellow. The second was a green little monster with a huge eye, and it was wearing the same red speedo as the first Ojama. And the third monster was a black version with a huge gut and nose, also wearing a red speedo (0/1000 x3). "It creates three Ojama tokens, and you'll find out what they can do soon enough!"

"O-okay…" Rena questioned scratching the back of her head.

"Comeback time!" Alex shouted pulling his next card. "Now then…I play Polymerization! Allowing me to fuse Ojama Green, Black and Yellow in my hand!"

A powerful blue vortex appeared over Alex's head sucking in three copies of the tokens that were on Rena's field. After the vortex shattered, a large white beast appeared wearing a sparkling red speedo with a flowing green cape. On top of the monster's head was a small golden crown (0/3000) it had a large nose, two eye stalks, and a large grin. The beast looked down at Rena and laughed loudly. "Let's give a big hand for the king! The Ojama King!"

Up in the stands, Klein and Koji just watched the duel. Klein seemed to noticing the cards. "If he's here…then that can only mean one thing…"

"We should know all about Ojama cards," Koji stated looking away. "After all… **_HE_** uses those cards…"

"It doesn't matter…" Klein replied.

Back to the duel, Alex then played his second to last card in his hand. "I play, Ojamuscle!" The spell card appeared showing a dark tanned muscular arm flew with the three Ojama Brothers jumping from it. The large Ojama King laughed before shooting his tongue taking the three Ojama tokens into his mouth. "This spell card destroys all other Ojama monsters on the field…but before I go on, my tokens take three hundred points of damage from you each!"

Rena's eyes widened as three small explosions erupted onto her arms. (RLP: 7100)

"…And then, back to the Ojamuscle, my King gains three thousand attack points!" Alex shouted when suddenly his large king started to roar into air. All of a sudden, the Ojama King's flabby body turned into rock hard abs that flexed as it raised its arms into the air (3000/3000). "And now, attack the Learning Elf! Belly Flop Drop!"

With his powerful legs, the large Ojama King jumped over Rena's Learning Elf monster. That's when the Ojama began to drop towards the Elf at a high speed.

"Hold on! Trap card go!" Rena announced as her face down card flipped up. The Learning Elf began to chant while reading her book, allowing multiple lights to form over her head and solidify into a large cylinder with multiple magical symbols on it. "Magic Cylinder! So your attack goes back to you!"

"WHAT!?!?!" Alex shouted watching his Ojama King get sucked into the smaller cylinder.

That's when Alex noticed a growing shadow appearing over his head, he slowly looked up and his eyes widened at the sight of his Ojama King falling directly on top of him. "…Oh crap…"

A loud crash sounded through out the arena, and everyone just sweat dropped at the sight of Alex being crushed by his own monster. When the holograms disappeared, Rena was cheering for herself while Alex was on the ground dazed. "Ooohhh…why me?"

"I did it! I did it!" Rena cheered loudly jumping off the dueling platform.

Back with the others…

"Man, I really didn't expect Rena to win so easy," Van commented his eyes still on the dazed Alex.

"Well, she actually is a powerful duelist," Leo replied with a smile.

Alex slowly stood up from his crushed ground and stood up slightly. '_I…I lost? This isn't right…_'

//-/-/-/-////--//-/-/

Later, in a darkened, well furnished room, Alex stood at the desk before him and slammed his hands on his desk. Apparently, he was a little upset…

"DAMN SLIFER!" Alex then threw the desk on its side and began to walk over to the other pieces of furniture to flip over.

…Okay scratch 'little', he was insanely upset.

After a little bit more destruction of his room, Alex threw himself on his bed and stared at the ceiling. '_T-this isn't right! I'm in a higher dorm! I should have won!_'

'_Perhaps it was a fluke she won…nah, it was your mediocre dueling skills!'_

Ales shot up from his bed and looked around his mess of a room, he was alone…but where did that voice come from? "I must be going insane…"

'_Not really…You're just listening to me…about time too…'_

This time Alex jumped to his feet and began to breathe deeply, trying to figure out where that voice was coming from. "Where are you?"

'_Where am I? Why, you should know that better than anyone Alex…_'

Alex turned his head to see behind him, however, no one was there. "Show yourself!"

'_I wish I could…unfortunately, I'm unable to. However, this isn't about me, it's about you and you want revenge on that girl don't you?'_

"Revenge? Isn't that a little too much?"

'_Puh-lease! She humiliated you with your own monster! Can you tell me that you don't really feel any pain? Both from the attack and on your pride?'_

"Well…maybe a little…" Alex stated before he lowered his head down.

'_Sleep…it's my turn…_'

Alex raised his head up again; his back began to straighten up adding a few inches to his average height. His drooped down hair began to get a little wild and a sinister grin appeared on his face. "Excellent…sleep my friend, I'll deal with her…" His voice seemed a little deeper.

'Alex' stepped over the scattered papers on the ground and headed for his closet; he slowly opened the door to reveal a cloak like clothes. "…But first I'll have to make a few changes…"

///--//--//--//-//--//-/

"An Ojama deck?" Talo questioned sitting back in his seat lifting up his legs onto the desk as well as his manga. "Haven't seen a successful one since the days of…Well you know who…"

"Still, I managed to win," Rena replied scratching the back of her head and sitting on her bed looking at her deck case at her belt. "Though it kind of felt somewhat strange…it seemed too easy…"

"Take it from me, a win's a win," Talo commented turning his head towards Rena. "So, it's Friday night, the skies are clear, and are you going to just sit here and think about your win? Or are you going to go do something?"

Rena raised an eyebrow at Talo's comment. "What's there to do? We're kind of stranded here on an island…"

"Well…" Talo stood up, placed his manga on the desk behind him and walked over to Rena. "There's plenty! Like the arcade, or the store, or even the hot springs!"

"Hot springs?" Rena asked.

Talo took notice of Rena's reaction, and decided to take advantage of this. "Yes, you've never been to hot springs before?"

"Not really, I never had much of a chance to go to those kinds of things before I came here," Rena replied noticing that Talo was rubbing his chin at her answer.

"You should really come to the ones here!" Talo shouted taking Rena's hand and pulling her from her bed. "We may not have an actual volcano here, but we do have the artificial kinds here. It's like a spa really, and if you want to go, I'll be glad to show ya…"

Rena thought about this offer, but really didn't get much of a chance to answer. Talo pulled on her arm and began to run out of the room dragging Rena on her heels. "Great! Let's go right now!"

"But I didn't say anything!" Rena shouted, although it fell on deaf ears.

From the sidewalk, a few Slifer Red students just sweatdropped at the sight of Rena being pulled against her will. Rukia, Klein and Koji were standing at the side before they decided to follow them.

/-//-/-///-/-/-/-/

"Here we are!" Talo announced letting go of Rena's hand.

Unfortunately, Rena was on the ground a little bit tired and her eyes seemed to become spirals expressing her dizziness. "Oh…my head…"

Klein walked up to the dizzy Rena and smiled. "Man, he's fast…but not as fast as me!"

"So these are the hot springs," Rukia commented looking at the large building that was in front of the Slifer Reds.

The building was quite large that was very fancy compared with the Slifer Red dorm, it kind of resembled a fancy red hotel, only with a red flowing curtain that had the word 'Guys' and a blue curtain that had 'Gals' written on it. Both of the curtains covered over separate entrances.

…However, Klein was noticing something near the sides of the entrances. "WOW!"

Rena managed to get out of her daze in time to see that Klein was picking up a weird mushroom from the side of the building. "What's up with Klein?"

"That's his favorite type of mushroom," Koji answered walking next to Rena. "Though he shouldn't really be eating them…"

"Koji! Give me a hand with picking these mushrooms!" Klein ordered with a mushroom in his teeth and in his arms.

"Coming…" Koji sighed walking over to Klein.

"Well, are you ladies going in?" Talo asked before heading into the 'Guy's entrance.

"Shall we?" Rukia asked heading towards the other entrance.

Rena just shrugged and followed Rukia. "Well, when in Rome…"

Unknown to the five Slifer Reds, a mysterious shadow was watching them all from the shadows. "Heh…so here we go…"

//-/--//-///-///

A few hours later filled with picking mushrooms, Klein was holding onto a single basket. Holding the basket into the twilight air, Klein laughed out loud. "Ha ha! Now I'll be able to enjoy my special mushrooms for a long while!"

Koji slowly placed the six baskets he was forced to carry. "Will you at least clean the mushrooms before you serve them to me?"

"Fine, but that just gets rid of the tasty dirt flavor," Klein sighed looking over the hot spring building. "Man it's really that late? Wait…my eyes seem to playing tricks on me…"

"What is that?" Koji asked looking at the top of the hot spring building.

Standing against the setting sun and on top of the hot spring roof, stood a mysterious person…and it looked like he was riding on top of a large bull. The person looked like a tall male with a dark face mask that covered his entire head, save for two white eyes. Around his neck was a large black cape that had a large yellow bow tied to keep it around his neck. When the wind blew the cape from his body, it revealed the hot pink shirt the mysterious person's body as well as his tight black satin pants. On his right arm was a small compact duel disk. "Bwa ha ha ha ha ha!"

"Okay, this seems familiar…" Klein stated rubbing his chin.

"If he's got that bull on the roof," Koji commented adjusting his glasses. "Then something bad might happen…"

"Something will happen boys! By my hands!" The mysterious man shouted raising his compact duel disk into the air. "I am the assassin of the night! I live in the dark and hide my face by day!" The mysterious person threw his duel disk arm to the right. "I am the embodiment of fear and evil!

"My name is…"

All of a sudden, the roof collapsed underneath the bull's feet sending the bull and the mysterious person falling through the roof. "EEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYHHHHHHHHHH!"

Klein and Koji just stood there with their jaws dropped at hearing the loud crash and then a powerful splashing sound. Koji scratched the side of his cheek with a sweatdrop appearing on the back of his head. "Um…I think that's the woman's hot spring…"

"…That speech, it's the same," Klein commented.

Meanwhile, in the girls' hot spring…

The mysterious cloaked person jumped back onto his bull. "I am the assassin of the night! I live in the dark and hide my face by day! I am the…"

"HEY!!!!"

The mysterious cloaked person's eyes widened at the sight before him, and his mask had a small blood stain at the bottom of his nose. "…Oh my…"

Before him were many girls covering themselves with towels, Rena and Rukia had their towels covering themselves. "Pervert!!!"

The mysterious person kicked the bull making the beast head straight for the exit crashing right through it with many bathing materials being thrown at his head and the girls were yelling pervert! "I'M NOT A PERVERT!"

As soon the mysterious person rode his bull from the blue curtain, he breathed a loud sigh of relief and began to ride his bull farther from the building when suddenly…

"FLYING BROTHER ATTACK!"

The mysterious person turned his head just in time to see Koji slam directly into his chest knocking him off the bull. Koji flew off into the woods, while the bull ran off into the distance. The mysterious slowly stood up and rubbed his head. "What the hell was that?"

"Halt you!"

In front of the mysterious person, Klein stepped forward with a duel disk strapped on his arm and a mushroom in his mouth as he chewed on the fungi. "You're not going to get past me, you pervert."

"Stop calling me that!" the mysterious person yelled taking his cape and holding it in front of his body. "I am the assassin of the night! I live in the…"

"Yeah, yeah, I know exactly who you are," Klein chuckled reaching into his uniform jacket. Then suddenly, he pulled an extremely old comic book…

…That had a picture of the same person that was in front of him only holding onto a large scythe in his hands. Over the character was a golden title that read 'Black Tiger'. "You happen to be a fan boy of this comic book, the Black Tiger…"

"Yes…I am based off that hero," The Black Tiger answered crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes at Klein. "Why shouldn't I become something of true splendor?"

"Fine then," Klein replied putting the comic book back into his jacket. '_I guess this could be fun…I'll be the evil villain to face him in battle!_'

"So! My formidable foe!" Klein shouted pointing his hand towards the Black Tiger. "I can easily turn you in for peeping in on the girlies! But, I need to practice my skills, so we'll have a duel!"

"…Very well, I was hoping to challenge that Slifer Lifer girl," Black Tiger replied looking at his duel disk. "But, I guess I'll have to settle for you little man…"

"Make as many height jokes as you want," Klein stated gesturing towards the forest. "It won't work on me…we'll duel in the forest…"

-///--/-/-/-//-///--/

The seemed to set when Klein and Black Tiger stood in front of each other in the forest, they were far enough from the dorms and the hot spring building. Both of their duel disks were activated and had already drew their opening hands.

Black Tiger seemed to smile under his mask, crossing his arms. "You may want to back out of this you Slifer Lifer…" (BTLP: 8000)

"Geez, your insults are really lame, like that Ra yellow that faced that girlie earlier," Klein stated looking at his five cards. Apparently, he really didn't make the connection that everyone else was able to…right? (KLP: 8000)

"Well then, let's duel," Black Tiger commented reaching for his deck. "I'll start things…"

"No! Let's rock!" Klein interrupted pulling his sixth card. "And I'll rock on by going first!" Looking at his first card, he nodded and instantly slapped it onto his duel disk. "Go set card!"

"Hmph! All you Slifers are the same," Black Tiger compared drawing. "You act all tough, but you're all just frauds!"

"Hey shrimp man!" Klein shouted lifting up his fists into the air towards his masked opponent. "I, Klein Drei, am the Fighting Dog of the Atlantic Duel Academy! If you all me a fraud, I'll roll you up in a carpet and toss you off a cliff!"

"Don't call me a shrimp man!" Black Tiger yelled back at Klein. "You call me that again and I'll shove your duel disk up you're a…"

"Shut up and make your move!" Klein roared making the Black Tiger step back, for a little guy; Klein can be actually quite intimidating.

"Fine…I'll activate the spell card Graceful Charity!" Black Tiger announced slipping his card into his duel disk allowing a holy light appearing over his field. "This spell allows me to draw three cards, provided I discard two cards from my hand afterwards."

The Black Tiger immediately followed suit and pulled the three cards from his deck. Then after looking at the cards, he quickly raised them up for Klein to see them, one was a monster card that looked familiar with three hundred attack and two hundred defense points.

…The other was a very familiar spell card, one that Klein didn't like too much. "Oh great, Ojamagic…"

"That's right, so I can take the three Ojama brothers." Three cards shot from the Black Tiger's duel disk and into his hand. "But I won't play them yet, I summon this machine! And then play Ojama Get Ride! So all I have to do is send the three Ojama brothers from my hand to the graveyard…"

After placing the three cards into his duel disk, two other cards shot out from the Black Tiger's dueling deck and slapped them onto his duel disk horizontally. "…And then I'm able to special summon two machine monsters from my deck in defense mode!"

A large machine materialized before Black Tiger, it had a blue and yellow armor combination on its body. On its two shoulder blades were two powerful cannons and where it would have legs was a spiked orb (1800/1500).

Next, a large red mechanical dragon appeared with a blue head cover, its torso looked more like a large connection zone (1500/1600).

And finally the third machine appeared with a yellow coating of steel over its tank body. At the head of the tank was a large robotic yellow eye (1500/1300).

"X-Head Cannon, Y-Dragon Head, and Z-Metal Tank!"

"You think your rust buckets are good enough to defeat me?" Klein laughed at the sight of the monsters.

"You're brave little one, but you should know that these aren't ordinary machines!" Black Tiger raised his hand into the air making the three machines flying into the air. "They combine! Form my machines into one!"

The three machines combined together, the Z-Metal Tank landed on the ground first, that was then the Y-Dragon Head land on top of the tank, its wings gone. And finally the X-Head Cannon connected itself to the top of the Y-Dragon Head (2800/2500). "XYZ-Dragon Cannon! And now by simply discarding this monster card…"

Black Tiger held up an effect monster called Spirit Caller (1000/1000) and immediately slid it into his graveyard that seemed to empower the cannons on the huge machine's shoulders. "It can destroy one card on the field! So say goodbye to your face down monster!"

The cannons fired, vaporizing the face down card in front of Klein, leaving him with a bare field. "Oh crap…"

The Black Tiger aimed his hand towards the panicking Klein making the cannons aimed at the short Slifer Red student. "You shouldn't have challenged me! XYZ! Attack directly!"

The cannons fired and immediately engulfed Klein in a bright explosion that semi lit up the night's sky. When the explosion died down, Klein fell backwards covered with dark marks. (KLP: 5200)

"I see that you couldn't take a direct attack," Black Tiger scoffed turning around, his dark cape flowing in the wind. "This is pointless…you're not even worth the effort…"

Just as the Black Tiger took a step away, a loud grunt made him turn around to see Klein standing up holding onto his side. His breaths were taken in slowly, but his face seemed to be nothing more than determination. "HA! I'm…not that…easily taken…down!"

Finally, with a big breath of air, Klein stood up and shook off the dust that covered his body. "Compared with other attacks I've taken, that was nothing!"

"Very well, if you want to keep fighting against me, who am I to stop you?" Black Tiger asked looking at his hand. Then taking two cards, he quickly slid them into his duel disk, making them materialize on the sides of the large machine before him. "End turn…"

"Let's rock!" Klein shouted pulling his next card. At the sight of it, his eyes narrowed and his mouth formed into a smile. "Okay! You better say goodbye to that rust bucket you got there!"

"Really? And how to do propose to do that?" Black Tiger asked crossing his arms at Klein.

"Like this! I summon Dark Scorpion – Chick the Yellow (1000/1000)!" Klein announced slapping his card onto his duel disk. Then from behind Klein ran a teenager that was a few inches taller than he was and stopped in front of Klein. The teen had standing tall blond hair held up with a red headband. Over dark brown sleeveless shirt and red pants, was a sling with a large mallet on his shoulder was a tattoo of a black scorpion. Chick lifted his mallet and smirked at the Black Tiger.

"Dark Scorpions? Please, those cards are hardly a threat to me," Black Tiger commented.

"Oh really? Then I guess you won't mind if I play my spell card, Dark Scorpion Stealth!" Klein announced as his spell card appeared showing another Dark Scorpion – Cliff the trap remover – sneaking past multiple guards.

The masked Black Tiger opened his eyes wider slightly when all of a sudden Chick appeared before him, his smirk even wider.

That's when Chick slammed his mallet directly into Black Tiger's foot making him jump up in pain and grab his foot. "OW! DAMN IT!" (BTLP: 7000)

"And now! Chick's ability sends one card from your field back to your hand! However, since the card I'm targeting is a fusion monster…" Klein explained pointing towards the XYZ – Dragon Cannon, making the monster disappear. "It goes back to your fusion deck!"

The Black Tiger's eyes widened at the sight of his now monster-less field. "Interesting…I take it that your Dark Scorpion Stealth allows a Dark Scorpion to attack me directly…"

As a set materialized behind a tired out Chick, Klein just smiled to himself. "You got that right, and since that rust bucket is gone, I'll be willing to bet that you've got nothing left!"

"…That's where you'd be wrong…" Black Tiger snickered to himself taking his next card. "My deck is extremely versatile with multiple strategies in it…like this one! I reveal my face down spell card! Go Ojamandala!"

Black Tiger's spell card revealed the three Ojama brothers sitting in a triangular form in front of a sunburst, the card glowed and all three of the Ojama Brothers themselves appeared before Black Tiger dancing for joy (0/1000 x3). "For a mere cost of a thousand life points, I can bring back the three Ojamas." (BTLP: 6000)

"And what good are the three stooges going to do for you?" Klein asked raising an eyebrow at his opponent's other set card. "Wait…don't tell me…"

That's when Koji walked from the forest behind Klein and noticed the duel. "Brother! What are you doing?!?"

"Koji? I thought you'd be out for a while longer after I threw you at this guy," Klein stated gesturing towards Black Tiger.

"You threw someone at me?" Black Tiger questioned with a sweatdrop appearing the back of his head.

"Klein it doesn't matter! We should turn this guy in! All of those girls are getting madder by the second and they're looking for him!" Koji shouted walking over to Klein.

"Koji, don't interrupt the duel," Klein ordered turning back to the Black Tiger. "A real man has to finish what he started…and if I'm even half of a man, and then I need to finish this!"

"But technically you are half the size of a man," Koji pointed out making Klein lower his head.

"Look, I don't take short jokes the wrong way, they just don't affect me!" Klein shouted before throwing his fist towards Black Tiger. "Continue your move! Now!"

"Very well! Face down spell activate! Ojama Delta Hurricane!" Black Tiger yelled back when the three Ojama flew into the air. "When I have all three Ojama Brothers on the field, this card wipes out everything you have on yours!"

That's when the Ojama brothers began to spin wildly until they formed into a large yellow, green and black tornado that swept all across over Klein's field shattering both Chick and his face down card. When the storm was over, all three Ojama brothers jumped back to Black Tiger's field.

"Big deal, the gruesome threesome doesn't even have attack points to damage me!" Klein shouted only to have Black Tiger lift up another card from his hand.

"Yes, but my spell card, Shield and Sword flips the attack and defense of all monsters on the field!" Black Tiger responded slipping the spell into his duel disk. That's when suddenly; all three of the Ojama Brothers began to get muscular (1000/0 x3). "Now then…triple direct attack!"

All three of the Ojama Brothers jumped into the air and slammed directly into Klein's stomach forcing him back…

…Yet Klein had a smile when the Ojamas jumped back in front of Black Tiger. "Got'cha!" (KLP: 3700)

"What?" Black Tiger questioned when he looked at his duel disk. "What the?!" (BTLP: 4500)

"You remember that face down card?" Klein asked when he got a nod, that's when he raised a trap card from his graveyard. "It was known as Mistake 1O1, and if you attack during the turn you destroy it, I cut the damage in half and we both take the hit."

"That was unexpected…even from a Slifer Lifer…" Black Tiger insulted setting one card from his hand into his duel disk.

"Okay that's enough!" Klein shouted at the Black Tiger. "If you're going to insult Slifer Reds, at least do it right!"

"…And how do I do that?" Black Tiger asked tilting his head to the side.

Koji just slapped his forehead and looked down. '_Great…if he takes insult lessons from Klein then he'll become a sailor mouth as well…'_

"First of all, it's not Slifer Lifer…it's Slifer Slacker," Klein taught as Black Tiger began to take notes on a pad of paper. "Next, you're doing a good job at descriptive jokes, but you got to take other things from people other than their height…"

Klein then gestured towards Koji. "Take my brother for example, you could make a few good descriptive insults by his glasses, bowl cut, and his semi girlie voice…"

"Ah! I see," Black Tiger replied writing down furiously.

"Hey! Keep me out of this!" Koji complained stomping his foot on the ground towards Klein.

"He's right, and we do need to get this duel on the road," Klein replied drawing his card. "Now then, I summon the big man himself! I summon Don Zaloog (1400/1500)!"

Another figure ran past Klein but stopped in front of the shorter duelist. This man had bluish gray hair with an experienced face and an eye patch over his right eye. His clothes resembled Chick's and in his hands were two sharp curved daggers. He just smirked at Black Tiger, and then began to laugh loudly at Black Tiger's appearance. "I guess he finds you a joke too! But, now Don Zaloog! Attack Ojama Yellow! Double Slice attack!"

Nodding to his duelist, Don Zaloog ran directly towards the panicking yellow Ojama and immediately sliced the weird beast in two shattering the monster. (BTLP: 3100)

That's when Don Zaloog ran up to the Black Tiger, swiped a card from his hand and slipped it into his graveyard. "And then there's Don's effect! So kiss that card goodbye!"

"Okay…it'll take a lot more than that to take me down," Black Tiger commented when two more cards appeared behind Don Zaloog.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever shrimp man," Klein laughed sitting down on the ground crossing his legs.

"You know the comic book! You know that I'm not named after a shrimp!" Black tiger yelled pulling his next card. "I activate my trap card Ojama Trio!"

Klein looked disgusted at the three Ojama tokens at his side of the field dancing all over the place (0/1000 x3). "I hate these things…"

"You'll hate this even more! I play Monster Reborn to bring back Ojama Yellow (0/1000)!" The yellow Ojama reappeared on the field dancing for joy. "Next I'll play Polymerization! To fuse the three Ojamas into the king!"

For the second time today, a powerful blue vortex appeared over Black Tiger's head sucking in three copies of the tokens that were on Klein's field. After the vortex shattered, a large white beast appeared wearing a sparkling red speedo with a flowing green cape. On top of the monster's head was a small golden crown (0/3000) it had a large nose, two eye stalks, and a large grin. The beast looked down at Klein and laughed loudly. "Let's give a big hand for the king! The Ojama King!"

"Let me guess, you're going to play Ojamuscle…" Klein scoffed to the side when Black Tiger lifted the last card in his hand.

"Yes! Ojamuscle go!" Black Tiger shouted when his Ojama King sucked in the three Ojama tokens into its mouth, making it extremely muscular (3000/3000). "Now then! Attack Don Zaloog! Belly Flop Drop!"

The Ojama King leapt into the air over the thief and then began to drop. "Nice try! But this card worked for the girlie, so it'll be perfect for me! Magic Cylinder!"

A mystical cylinder appeared over Don Zaloog and sucked in the large Ojama King. Black Tiger sweatdropped when he noticed a second cylinder hovering over him. '_Not again…_'

A loud boom filled the forest as the Ojama King slammed directly over Black Tiger, crushing him. When the Ojama King stood up, Black Tiger was completely flattened. "Argh…" (BTLP: 100)

Black Tiger stood up shakily and coughed a little before turning towards Klein. "I-I still have a hundred points left…"

"Yeah but they're not going to last you too long!" Klein announced drawing his next card, not even looking at the card. "I activate my face down spell card! A second Dark Scorpion Stealth!"

Only one word could describe what happened when Black Tiger was slashed across the chest by Don Zaloog…and Black Tiger really got that nailed on the head. "DAMN IT!!!!!!!!!" (BTLP: 0)

"And that's how you rock'n roll!" Klein laughed raising his thumb, and Don Zaloog followed as well with his thumb up before he disappeared with the rest of the holograms.

"Not again…I lost to a Slifer Li…I mean, Slacker…" Black Tiger sighed lowering his head. That's when he pulled a small orb from his pocket and then threw it to the ground, making it explode into a large cloud of smoke. "But you haven't seen the last of me!"

Klein and Koji just sweatdropped when the smoke disappeared, showing that Black Tiger was no where to be seen, however…

"Hey! He left his cards!" Klein announced running over to the cards and immediately picked them up. "And they're mine!"

"…What?" Koji asked with a question mark appearing over his head. "I thought you hated the Ojamas…why are you taking the cards?"

"Cause! Even though they are annoying, and '**HE**' uses them, I'm going to have a surprise for him," Klein laughed loudly pocketing the cards.

"Oh brother…" Koji sighed loudly lowering his head. "I don't know what you're doing…"

"Now then…where are my mushrooms?" Klein asked walking past Koji.

"Oh, they're back at the hot springs," Koji replied slowly following Klein through the woods. "But…"

"But…what?" Klein asked turning towards his younger brother with a raised eyebrow.

"You may not want to go there," Koji explained turning to the side. "You see, after you threw me at that weirdo, I went back there to get those mushrooms, and found that the girls were going crazy over there shaking any guy…I'm pretty sure Talo managed to get out of that…"

"Aw man! My mushrooms!" Klein sobbed falling to the ground. "And here I thought I would have my favorite meal…"

That's when something caught his eyes, and his mood really picked up. "The Mushrooms!"

Meanwhile, in a deeper part of the forest, Black Tiger knelt on the ground and pulled his mask off. "This is impossible! Alex lost, and I lost!"

Black Tiger's wild red hair extended in every direction and his angered look became apparent as he threw his mask to the ground. "This is impossible! I tried my hardest in my entrance written exam…and I get defeated by two Slackers! Are our skills that bad? Do we really deserve to be in Ra Yellow?"

"When one doubts his abilities, that is the first step to doubting one's true self…" A raspy dark voice sounded through the forest.

Black Tiger/Alex looked up to see a dark figure standing before him, a light breeze blew behind the figure pushing up the large black overcoat that was on the figure before him. "A pair of souls who really don't care anymore, you two are perfect candidates…"

"What the!?!" Alex/Black Tiger stuttered crawling backwards from the overcoat figure.

The figure walked closer and closer towards Alex/Black Tiger, steadily showing his tall height over Alex/Black Tiger. "You fear the dark…"

"When the dark is what you should embrace…"

From the top of the woods, a loud scream filled the forest scaring all of the birds from their branches towards the moonlit sky of the night.

//-/--/-///

**Ojama Get Ride / Instant Spell / Effect:** Send one 'Ojama Yellow', 'Ojama Black', and 'Ojama Green' from your hand to your graveyard. Special summon up to three level 4 or lower Machine Sub-type Union monsters from your deck in defense mode. These Monsters' modes cannot be switched.

**Image:** The three Ojamas riding in a high tech cockpit wearing military uniforms.

**Ojamandala / Spell / Effect:** You can only activate this card if an "Ojama Yellow", "Ojama Green", and "Ojama Black" are in your graveyard. Pay 1000 life points and special summon an "Ojama Yellow", "Ojama Green", and "Ojama Black" from your graveyard to the field.

**Image:** The three Ojama brothers sitting in front of a sun burst with a golden border.

_The two cards were used by Chazz/Manjyome Thunder._

**Dark Scorpion Stealth / Spell / Effect:** When this card is played, select one monster on your side of the field with 'Dark Scorpion' in its name, or is named 'Don Zaloog' or 'Cliff the Trap Remover'. The selected card may attack your opponent directly.

**Image:** Cliff dashing behind multiple guards.

**Duelist Stats**

_Name: Klein Drei _

_Deck Type: Dark Scorpion_

_Klein, the Fighting Dog of the Atlantic Duel Academy, considers himself a pretty big duelist…metaphorically of course. He's a great duelist, just not that bright, in fact the only reason why he got into the duel academy was because he looked off his brother's test and copied enough answers to get in. _

_Despite his exterior he has a few good plans…key word there few, but his strategies are quite actually good to use. His deck mostly focuses on direct attacks with his Dark Scorpions' effects and makes the best out of them. And he has ways to get his team out on the field with three Mystic Tomatoes, and many ways to add the warriors into his hand. _

_With his new Ojama cards, he may make another deck just to throw people off his original strategy. Though according to Koji, that's not very likely and he'll probably make Koji do it for him._

_What Klein and Koji's true intentions are…well, that's for them to know and for others to find out._

/-/-/-/---//--//

**Rena:** Things here are really getting crazy…

**Talo:** That's the way the academy rolls… the only way to get past it is to get used to it.

**Rena:** Well, actually Talo, I kinda want you to switch roommates with Rukia.

**Talo:** What!?!

**_Next time on the dueling field – Chapter 7: A Cold, Yet Warm Heart_**

**Talo:** Don't think it's going to be that easy!


	7. Chapter 7: A Cold, Yet Warm Heart

_**Hey there…I'm here because I'm supposed to do this… **_

_**A number of you probably already know who I am if you paid attention, I'm the guy who hides the background and has hardly any effect on the story.**_

…_**But now, I'm getting a chance to do so, and I'm taking it!**_

_**Talo Krys is the name…**_

**_Second year Slifer Red student…_**

…**_People judge me on that status…but they don't know…with that façade I am actually a student who could achieve a higher rank…_**

…_**if I wanted to that is. **_

_**But why should I? Change isn't what I really adapt to; however, I'm getting close to it with each passing day…**_

_**See, I'm getting transferred to the Pacific Duel Academy in the half of the year and I would like to enjoy the last couple of months here without anything drastic changing…**_

…_**Right now, my roommate wants me to actually transfer from my original dorm room so her new friend can take my place…**_

_**In addition to that, her friend's roommate happens to be an 'acquaintance' of mine, if I said friend, I'd be lying to fine people. **_

**_Neither of us wants to room together, but since those girls won't leave us alone on that…we've decided on a one on one duel._**

_**I wonder…**_

_**Will she think that I'm nothing more than an older rookie?**_

…_**I'll share you all with a secret of mine…**_

_**With my skills…I would have become an Obelisk Blue elite this year…**_

_**/-/-/-//--///--//**_

_**Chapter 7**_

**_A Cold, Yet Warm Heart_**

_**/-/-/-/-/-///--/-**_

"A pervert in a black mask?" Van questioned raising an eyebrow at Rena's story. "With what you've told me so far…he sounds like he came directly from a comic book."

"I'm serious!" Rena shouted throwing her arms to her sides. "However, we really couldn't find him! He just disappeared into the night!"

"…You've really got to be kidding me," Van chuckled as the two walked past the Slifer Red dorm huts. "Sides…how would he be able to get a bull onto the roof?"

Now that got Rena thinking about that…how could that mysterious cloaked person get that bull on the roof anyway? "I, I don't know! He was just peeking on us!"

"Are you talking about that Black Tiger guy?"

Rena and Van turned to the side to see Koji standing next to a small blanket with multiple red mushrooms on it and Klein sitting on the blanket with his arms crossed. Van raised his other eyebrow at the sight of his two friends. "What are you two doing?"

"Selling mushrooms, what does it look like?" Klein asked narrowing his eyes at the others. "If you want any, then it'll be five bucks per mushroom…"

"Now that's just highway robbery," Rena sighed looking at the mushrooms. "Sides…these are extremely weird looking."

"That's cause they are extremely fresh and have experienced flavor!" Klein shouted jumping to his feet and glared directly towards Rena.

"Excuse my brother," Koji sighed bowing towards his fellow Slifer Red students. "Anyway, I couldn't help by over hear that you two were talking about that one guy at the hot springs…we found out that he was called the Black Tiger…"

"You mean after the shrimp?" Van asked with a question mark appearing over his head.

"Actually, after the comic book hero," Klein replied sitting back on the ground and lifted up a mushroom to his mouth. "Now then…unless you two want to buy some mushrooms…get lost!"

"That's a little rude…" Rena sighed before walking away from the small mushroom stand.

"Klein's the hard headed rude guy…" Van replied throwing his hands behind his head.

"Speaking of rude guys," Rena started when the two Slifer Reds headed towards Rena's hut. "How's Ganryu doing?"

"The cold hearted stiff?" Van questioned closing his eyes while still walking. His eyes suddenly shot open to show that he was extremely mad. "I still can't stand him!"

Rena jumped back from Van's comment and it looked like he was glowing with a fiery aura around him. "That bad, eh? What could he do that's so bad?"

"WELL! For starters, he constantly throws me out of the room when I sleep, constantly kicks me into submission," Van shouted pulling out a list from his pocket that fell to the ground showing off that it was extremely long. "Then he…"

Rena just kicked the list from Van's hand sending it flying backwards towards Klein's head. "We don't want to hear that now…"

"OW! Who's the wise guy who threw this?!?"

"Run!" Rena shouted running off with Van following her.

//--/-/-/-//-//--/-/

Standing next to the window, Talo crossed his arms at the mysterious person who stood across from him. "Den…I told you not to come here…especially since I got my new roommate…"

Leaning at the other side of the room near the door, a same aged teen smiled pushing up his small round sunglasses. His greased black hair had a few strands of hair sprouting from his head. Around his body was a customized Slifer Red uniform that resembled more of an overcoat, his left arm was set about his belt allowing it to rest in the sling. Underneath his overcoat were a skintight dark blue shirt and his baggy gray pants. The weirdest thing about his outfit was the mysterious gourd tied around his belt. "Now, now, now, I've got a lady roomie too, and unlike you mister perfect gentleman, I take advantage of it…"

"That has nothing to do with this…" Talo sighed clasped his hand to his forehead. "Just get out of here before she gets here."

"What's the matter? Can't stand being with a real guy?" Den asked smiling to himself; he then pointed his non resting arm towards Talo. "At least I'm not as rude like you to other guys, your policy stinks…"

"So does your drink, but do you see me taking stabs at it…" Talo commented with a smirk appearing over his face. "But anyway…if you got anything that has any worth behind it, then say it and get out…"

Den then waved his finger and curled his mouth into a crooked smile. "Actually yea, I do got something ta tell ya. Big Boss L gave meh a call last night, you were at those springs and so I took it upon myself to answer it. He said that Kurro has already begun to enact his plans. He's just waiting for Tao to finish his match up in a couple of weeks to begin…"

"So, we might not even have to leave…" Talo whispered to himself turning towards the ground.

"Wouldn't likely count on it…remember, for this ta even work Kurro needs ta be able ta do everything right," Den replied crossing his arms back and lowered his glasses to show his dark gray eyes. "Big Boss L is still expecting us to transfer in half the year…that's when he expects the best duelists will show up…"

That's when the door flung open, slamming Den back into the wall. Talo chuckled to himself, but then turned to see Rena and Van standing at the doorframe. "Hey you two!"

"Hey Talo…were you talking to someone?" Rena asked walking into the room.

"Wha? No, I was just role playing from some manga, I like to get into the characters," Talo came up with at the last second with a laugh following and a sweatdrop. "So…anything going on?"

"Actually, I just came to get my deck," Rena replied looking on the desk and quickly picked up the deck on it. "I'm heading to the card store…"

"Great!" Talo announced before pushing Rena and Van out of the room. "Well I be seeing you two later! Bye!"

As soon as Talo slammed the door to Rena and Van's back, Den fell to the ground his sunglasses completely cracked and his mouth now missing a tooth. "Pretty colors…mostly red…"

"That's what you get for standing next to the door," Talo scoffed crossing his arms over Den.

As soon as the weird Slifer Red was on his feet, he shook his head and threw his sunglasses to the side. "Whatever…look, I really can't wait to get out of here…I'm really getting tired of using this name…"

"Den's not bad…a lot better than Densui…" Talo chuckled to himself turning around. "…Dead drunk…"

"Hey! It's not that funny!" Den shouted pulling out another pair of sunglasses from his pocket. "It's a hell of a lot better than…oh, I don't know…how about…Kouri?"

Talo then slammed his foot into side of Den's head, sending the weird Slifer Red duelist to the ground with Talo's foot on Den's head. "Don't go there man…not now, not here!"

//-/-//-//-/-/-/

"Man, what's up with your roommate?" Van asked smirking as he followed Rena to the card shop. "He's a weird one isn't he?"

Rena lifted an eyebrow at Van's comment. "You're one to talk about roommates; Ganryu is still cold-hearted to you…"

"Yeah, but I'm used to that kind…" Van snickered before he noticed that there was now a large group of people lined up at Klein and Koji's mushroom stand. "What the? People are actually buying those?"

"I guess they're more popular than we thought…" Rena stated looking directly at Klein accepting a large sum of money in his hands.

"Actually, those mushrooms are quite the delicacy…"

Rena and Van jumped up at Leo's sudden appearance beside them. After catching her breath, Rena turned towards Leo. "What in the world are you doing here?"

"I…really…don't like…you…" Van added glaring directly at Leo.

Holding up a mushroom in hand, Leo smiled at the two. "Well, I heard that these mushrooms here are actually quite good, and were being sold at a decent price…"

"…Huh?" Van questioned scratching the side of his cheek. "You came for the mushrooms? Why the heck are you doing that?"

"Oh, never mind…but anyway, I'm also here to train someone in my sneakiness…" Leo added lowering his mushroom to his side.

Rena raised an eyebrow at Leo's last comment. "Wait…you're teaching someone? Who?"

"Howdy y'all!" A loud voice boomed from behind Rena and Van, making them both fall to the ground out of shock.

Tony stood in front of Rena and offered her a hand. "Whoops, sorry there…"

Being pulled up with Tony's hand, Rena rubbed the back of her head and smiled slightly. "…Well, you did say that you wanted to be taught…"

"I REALLY hate this guy…" Van growled slowly getting back to his feet, glaring daggers towards Tony.

"Whoa…so, what're y'all doing?" Tony asked Rena, completely ignoring Van.

"Van and I were heading to the card shop…" Rena answered when suddenly Tony took hers and Van's hands. "HUH!?!"

"Nice! I've got ta be going there too!" Tony laughed before running off dragging Rena and Van in the distance at a fast speed.

//-/-/--/-/-/-//-/-/

"…So…How much does this card cost?"

Ganryu stared directly at a certain card that went well with his strategy, it was the one card that could make his Warmasters complete. He was so close, the only thing that was standing between him and that card, was the glass case before him.

"It'll be thirty-five dollars…" The cashier stated looking at the card as well.

…Make those two things that were standing between Ganryu and the card. "…Damn…"

Maybe he could have gotten a deposit on the card, or maybe if he had challenged a few other duelists on the grounds to gains some of the duel points that could also be used instead of cash.

And he wouldn't get the cash from his brother for another two weeks, by then the card would probably be taken. '_Maybe I can get the idiots' help…'_

"We're here!"

Ganryu turned to the entrance of the card shop to see Tony laughing with a dizzy Rena and Van standing behind them. A small evil smile appeared on Ganryu's face. "Speak of the devils…"

Tony then noticed Ganryu standing at the counter. "Oh, hey there Ganryu!"

Ganryu just sweatdropped at Tony waving his arm towards him. '_I really wish I didn't know him…'_

A few minutes later, after gaining some composure back and some shopping around, the four duelists sat at one of the tables in the card shop.

"…Man, y'all got some weird roommates," Tony laughed smiling. "Good thing I'ma Obelisk, we get our own private rooms."

"Wanna trade dorms?" Van asked. "Cause I got this cold-hearted stiff…" Van gestured towards Ganryu, who right now was very mad. "And I'd like to be away from the red dorms as much right now…"

Van never got to finish his sentence, mainly because Ganryu had thrown Van out the nearest window and into the air. Rena and Tony sweatdropped as Ganryu took his seat.

"…Do you always do that?" Rena asked.

Ganryu slightly opened his eyes at Rena. "It's good exercise…"

"Anyway, I really wish there was a way to transfer roommates…' Rena sighed shaking off the sweatdrop that she got from Ganryu's answer.

"Actually there is…" A calm familiar voice stated from behind Rena.

Rena jumped up from her seat to see Leo standing behind her holding onto a stick with a grilled mushroom on it. "LEO! Where'd you come from!?!"

"I came from the kitchen to get that mushroom I got grilled…" Leo replied before taking a bite of his grilled mushroom. "Hmm…not bad…"

"How do you do it?" Rena asked calming down a little bit from Leo's second appearance.

"Simple really, you just put the mushroom on the grill and cook it," Leo explained before taking another bite from his grilled mushroom.

"NO! I'm talking about switching roommates!" Rena yelled, though her yelling didn't seem to shake Leo.

"Oh!" Leo smiled a little bit. "It's simple really, all you have to do is find someone who is willing to be your roommate and if their roommate, as well as yours, agrees to it you can switch. There's some paperwork involved but it shouldn't be too hard…"

At that moment, a powerful red blur sped past Leo making his hair fly upwards. He turned towards Ganryu and Tony. "My, my, any idea on what she's planning on doing?"

//--//-//-///-//-

"HA! We made a killing today!" Klein laughed looking at the large sum of money that he managed to get from selling the mushrooms. "We must've made at least a hundred alone!"

"Please don't let the money go to your head Klein," Koji sighed carrying the last basket of mushrooms that they weren't able to sell. "We need to keep that money safe when we get out of the academy…"

"You worry too much Koji!" Klein replied before pocketing the money. "Sides, what could possibly go wrong?"

Koji sighed to himself lowering his head, things like this always happened. First, things would look up for the two brothers, then Klein would get a big head and try to push his luck…which usually meant that they would kiss goodbye to their original fortune and probably be worse off than when they started.

"Huh? What's going on over there?" Klein asked getting Koji's attention.

Apparently, at one of the clearings in between dorm huts stood Rena and Talo, both with duel disks on their arms. Standing to their sides were Leo, Tony, Rukia, and Ganryu watching the two shuffling their decks. There was also another Slifer Red the two didn't recognize, he was wearing a pair of sunglasses and had an overcoat style of the Slifer Red uniform.

When the two brothers walked over to the area, Leo noticed them and smiled. "Ah, I see you noticed that the duel is about to take place…"

"Look…" Kleing and Koji never really met Leo, so Klein was at a loss of words when it came to this guy's name. "…You…why exactly are they dueling?"

"Well, allow me to explain little man, but first," Leo held out his hand towards Klein. "My name is Leonardo, but call me Leo…"

Klein shook Leo's hand with a confused look on his face. "Okay…Klein's the name and that's Koji…"

When Leo had released Klein's hand, he turned to the side and smiled at the two about to duel each other. "Excellent! Now then, from the beginning, Rena wanted to become roommates with Rukia, so they both agreed on it. Unfortunately, Talo seems to not like Rukia's roommate, Den Iwa." Leo pointed over in the direction of the smiling Den. "You see, only if all four roommates are cooperative on the transition, then it's a go…if not…well, it's the opposite…"

"Then why the duel?" Koji asked before setting the basket of Mushrooms on the ground.

"Simple, Talo agreed that if Rena could beat her in a duel, then he'd agree to move, which somewhat concerns me…" Leo added his voice sounding grim, yet his facial expression didn't change at all.

"And what would that be?" Klein asked crossing his arms.

Ganryu and Tony walked behind the two duelists, but Tony answered for Leo. "Cause y'all see, Talo could've been in Obelisk Blue this year if he really tried…"

"What?!? Does she know that?" Koji asked when Ganryu knelt down next to Klein.

"No…" Tony replied standing up straight.

"Hey…want to make a wager?" Ganryu offered Klein, who looked at the cold-hearted duelist with interest.

"And what would that have to be?" Klein asked rubbing his chin.

"I bet thirty dollars that Rena can win this duel…" Ganryu offered his hand out to Klein who immediately took it.

"Yeah!" Klein shouted before jumping up into the air. "COME ON TALO! WIN THIS!!"

Rena heard Klein's cheer and sweatdropped at the shorter duelist. "Some friend he is…"

"Ah, he's just probably making a bet…" Talo defended pulling his five cards. "Sides…I need at least two people on my side, and he'll do fine." (TLP: 8000)

"Okay…That's just a little confusing…" Rena sighed looking at her hand. '_Hey not bad…not bad at all…_' (RLP: 8000)

"Ready? Go!" Talo announced raising his free arm towards Rena. "Since I'm a gentleman, ladies first!"

"Thanks!" Rena smiled drawing her next card. At the look at it, she nodded and placed it onto her duel disk. "I summon Boomerang Elf in attack mode!"

A powerful gust of wind swept over the field, creating a large amount of leaves to appear before Rena. When the leaves scattered, a new elf appeared on the field, this one wearing a green tunic with a large boomerang attached to his back. Over this elf's blonde hair was a green cap (1800/1500). At the sight of Talo, the elf pulled his boomerang out and pointed it towards Talo, who just smirked in return. "Elves huh? I was expecting a fairy deck or possibly a spellcaster one…"

"I've heard people say that a lot," Rena sighed to herself as she placed another card into her duel disk. "…I guess I like to trick them a little…"

Talo didn't say a thing as he drew, his eyes were glued to his hand making him look like he was in deep concentration. Then, his eyes widened when he placed a single card onto his duel disk, forming a face down monster to appear before him. "That's it for me…"

"A single card?" Rukia questioned looking at the one monster on Talo's field. "Doesn't seem to be enough…"

"It won't be when I get through with him!" Rena announced drawing her next card. "I summon Thoroughbred Elf (1800/1500) in attack mode!"

Over her head, the fighter elf jumped over and landed on the ground before Rena, lifting its hands in a martial art front stance. "Thoroughbred Elf! Attack the defense!"

The fighter elf leapt into the air before axe kicking the card back. The force flipped the monster up to reveal a small blue penguin with red soldier pads with a small sword in its wings (750/500). The penguin squeaked before shattering into pixels.

"And now, I'll have Boomerang Elf…" Rena continued when all of a sudden her two elves disappeared in a bright light to float back into their cards on her duel disk. "What the? What happened?"

"My face down monster was Penguin Soldier," Talo explained sliding the monster card into his graveyard. "And when it's flipped up, I can return up to two monsters on the field back to their owner's hands…so your monsters were the only ones available for the effect…"

'_Dang it…and I already summoned this turn…'_ Rena grimaced when she slid another card into her duel disk. "I'll end my turn…"

"Then it comes back…" Talo chuckled looking at his next card. "I play Giant Trunade! This returns all spell and trap cards on the field back to their owner's hands!"

A powerful storm swept across the field blowing the two cards on Rena's field back into her hand. That's when Talo slid his next card into his duel disk. "Next, I play Card Destruction! Now, we both send our hands to the graveyard and then pull the exact same amount of cards from our decks! So four for me and six for you!"

"I don't get it…why'd he do that?" Klein asked with a question mark appearing over his head.

"Simple…" Tony replied standing up while the two duelists drew their new hands. "You see, by doing that he sent the cards that could have protected her or attack for her. Also, by the grimace on her face, you could tell that she lost some pretty good cards…then there's the fact that she's wide open…"

Talo then slapped his next card onto his duel disk with a determined look on his face. "Now then, I summon Snow Sprite!"

A cold wind swept across the field making everyone hold their arms, except for Talo and Den. A large icicle erupted from the ground which immediately shattered to allow a monster that Rena had never seen before. The monster had the body type of a young girl that was wearing icy blue crystal armor, it's head covered with a blue down curved helmet. Its crystal like hair gleamed in the light as the icy wind died down (1100/700). The Sprite spun on her toe and bowed before Talo. "And now…Snow Sprite! Attack directly!"

The Snow Sprite spun on the ground, speeding directly towards Rena. When the Sprite reached Rena, the Snow Sprite spun her leg into Rena's stomach making her skid backwards. (RLP: 6900)

"That's enough damage, so I'll end my turn," Talo commented crossing his arms when his Snow Sprite jumped back to his side of the field.

"Again with no spell or trap cards?" Koji questioned turning to his brother. "What do you think…Brother?!?"

"Double the bet?" Klein chuckled.

"Sure…" Ganryu replied.

"Okay…My move!" Rena announced drawing her next card. '_Well…at least I have my Excalibur-Obnoxious Celtic Guard combo in my hand.'_

"I summon Obnoxious Celtic Guard (1400/1200)!" Rena announced as her armored elf appeared on the field drawing its sword towards the Snow Sprite.

"Good job…too bad I came up with a plan ahead of time…" Talo smirked as his graveyard began to glow an icy white glow.

All of a sudden, multiple ice spikes shot from the ground forcing the Obnoxious Celtic Guard to kneel to the ground. To lower the stress, the guard dropped his sword. Rena's eyes widened at the sight. "Wha-what happened?"

A card slid out of Talo's graveyard and he lifted up trap card showing a similar scene with Rena's elf, a warrior crouching down being forced down by multiple icicle spikes. "My discarded trap card, Crystal Spikes, I discarded it with Card Destruction."

"But you can't activate trap cards from your graveyard!" Rena shouted watching Talo pocket his card.

"Actually, that's what my trap card was designed for," Talo replied smiling. "My trap card can activate from my graveyard when you normal summon a monster. After removing my trap card, I can make your monster take a knee in defense mode…"

'_But that's not all it does…_'

"Yeah! Now then! Teach this girlie how a person really duels!" Den shouted into the air cracking his knuckles.

"Den, just shut up!" Talo yelled making everyone sweatdrop.

"Uh, that's weird…" Rena stated taking two other cards from her hand and slid them into her duel disk. "Two set cards will do it for me…"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Talo replied calmly slipping his next card from his deck into his duel disk. "Now then…I'll summon a new monster, so come on out Icicle Bomb!"

A small blizzard erupted from the ground before forming into a small fireball that was completely made of ice and had face on it that looked somewhat like a demon (0/0). "And that will call it a turn…"

"That was strange…I thought that he would at least play another spell card…" Leo said a little intrigued with Talo's strategy.

"Think of his card plays like winter," Tony replied crossing his arms. "Unpredictable, and can be deadly if you're unprepared…"

"Okay…time to take this duel back…" Rena commented to herself taking her next card. "Now then I'll start off by switching my Obnoxious Celtic Guard to attack mode!"

The Elf swordsman began to stand up, trying to break the ice that had kept him on the ground. But then, with great strength the Celtic Guardian shattered the ice and stood up straight, sending the ice shards into the air. Rena smiled when her swordsman lifted up his sword into the air. "Oh yeah! Now then I can…"

All of a sudden, the multiple ice shards skewered directly through the Celtic Guardian making him yell out in pain. Rena just watched as her swordsman turned to ice from the shards and then shattered himself into pixels. "Okay, you mind telling this?"

"Simple, my Crystal Spikes has another ability to destroy the monster you've got…if you turn it to attack mode," Talo explained making his look even more serious. "Now then, any other moves you like to try?"

"Yeah! I summon Learning Elf (1400/1500)!" Rena announced when her green cloaked elf appeared flipping through the pages of her red book. "Attack the Icicle Bomb!"

"Rena! Don't!" Tony shouted…

…But it was too late; the Learning Elf fired a powerful blast from her book that completely shattered the Icicle Bomb into a cold breeze that flew into Talo. (TLP: 6600)

Rena raised her fingers up in a victory symbol. "Yeah! How do you like that?"

"Actually…I really enjoyed it…" Talo chuckled when a powerful cold breeze flew over the air.

That's when the chill began to cover over Rena, at the bottom of her feet, she gasped at the sight. Her feet were beginning to get covered with holographic ice. (RLP: 5500)

"Before you ask…its because of my Icicle Bomb's effect," Talo explained when another Icicle Bomb appeared before him. "First off, any damage that you do to it and me, happens to you. And it allows me to summon a second one from my deck…"

"Dang it…" Rena whispered under her breath. At the sight of her hand, there was nothing she could really use…

"E-end turn…"

Talo pulled his next card from his deck and looked at it, a cold smile appeared on his face and his eyes turned icy cold. "Now then…watch this! I sacrifice Snow Sprite! So I can summon the king of cold himself!"

The Snow Sprite was completely engulfed in a large icicle that was shining with an icy blue light. The icicle shattered into a flurry of snow and ice that flew into the air, it was a very beautiful sight at best. Rena turned her attention away from the snow and ice flying in the air and looked at the monster that now stood a good twelve feet tall in front of Talo. The monster before her was dressed in icy silver armor that had a dark blue cape flowing on its shoulders (2400/1000). "The king of the blizzard, Mobius the Frost Monarch! And now his effect will activate right now, which destroys two of your spell or trap cards! Skewer those face down cards!"

Mobius raised his right hand, making his gauntlet glowing icy blue. All of a sudden, two icicles erupted from the ground shattering the cards into pixels. Rena's eyes widened…Talo was definitely more skill than she was and she could see that. '_He's been playing out the duel since it began…_'

"Mobius! Attack the Learning Elf!" Talo ordered when the air began to get colder with each passing second.

Mobius raised his cape into the air, unleashing a powerful blizzard that completely engulfed the Learning Elf. The subzero temperatures soon turned the elf into an ice sculpture that immediately shattered into little pieces of ice. (RLP: 4500)

"Man…things just keep getting colder and colder…" Rena commented to herself. She could've sworn that she saw her breath a couple of seconds ago, but shrugged it off.

'_Talo…Kouri, don't tell me its happening again…_' Den slapped his forehead a little disappointed. '_Well, things shouldn't get too out of hand…as long as Ice Boy doesn't go into his speech about how his deck represents man's true nature…'_

"It should get colder," Talo started looking at his small hand. "My deck represents man's true nature…"

"Aw man! Keep out of that crap!" Den shouted throwing his arms to his sides. "And just get on with the duel!"

Talo's cold gaze turned towards Den, sending chills down the spine of the weird Slifer Red duelist. "Right…"

"Hold up! My Learning Elf has a special ability, allowing me to draw a new card," Rena announced pulling another card from the top of her deck.

"Good enough, I'll end my turn…" Talo replied crossing his arms.

"Hey, Ganryu…care to double the bet once more?" Klein offered his smile almost as cold as Talo's monsters.

"…Sure," Ganryu sighed before crossing his legs on the ground. '_Things are about to heat up here…'_

Rena drew her next card; a worried look was on her face before she drew…

…But that all melted away at the sight of her card. A horizontal card appeared before her. "Defense mode! End turn!"

"Come on Rena!" Rukia shouted.

"That's all?" Talo questioned snapping his next card from his duel disk. His eyes focused on the card he just drew. '_This card won't be necessary…not for this duel…_'

"Mobius, attack the defense monster, Tundra Blizzard!" Talo shouted throwing his arm towards the face down monster.

Mobius raised its large powerful arms up and unleashed a second blizzard that turned the face down monster into ice, shattering the monster.

Talo smiled at Rena's open field when suddenly a bright light emerged from the ground. "What's this?"

From the light jumped out a young elf with short blonde hair wearing an armored green cloak with a couple of arrows and bow. On the elf's head appeared to be a pair of goggles that gleamed in the light (450/600). The elf smiled in glee at being on the field. "Allow me to introduce my Elf Scout, and when you destroy one, I can special summon another from my deck!"

"Hmm…You've got another defense…I'll admit that does seem like an adequate defense…" Talo stated rubbing his chin. "But, it'll take a lot more to defeat me…"

"Don't worry about that," Rena commented smiling. "You just finish your turn…"

"Very well…" Talo stated looking at his hand… "I got nothing…so go ahead…"

"Cool…" Rena said pulling her next card, that's when it hit her. "…Well, that was a bad pun…"

"It sure was," Koji sighed lowering his head.

"Uh, I play Pot of Greed! So I get another two cards!" Rena announced when a large grinning green pot appeared before her. The pot laughed loudly allowing her to draw two more cards from her deck. "Okay, I activate my spell card …Magical Dimension!"

A large amount of green smoke lofted over the field covering the ground, the smoke began to become thicker and thicker with each passing second. Then from behind the crouching Elf Scout, appeared a large golden coffin that was attached to a cubed pipe boarder by multiple chains. "This spell card allows me to use its magical charms when I have a spellcaster out, and my Elf Scout counts! Now, by sending a monster on my field, I can special summon a spellcaster from my hand!"

The Elf Scout held up a peace sign before disappearing in the green smoke. That's when the golden coffin slowly opened up allowing a new monster to step from the bonds. When the monster was fully out in the open, everyone could see an elf warrior with dark silver hair spiked backwards glaring at his opponent. His brown vest flowed over his black armored shirt and forest green pants. On his back, a large sword with a black cloth wrapped on the hilt was being pulled from it's sheathe and rose in the air with one hand (2450/1400). The sword began to glow with a heavenly light when the new monster lowered its sword towards Talo. "So say hello to Magical Swords Elf!"

Before Talo could even get another word in, his Icicle Bomb just shattered into pieces of ice. Rena just laughed to herself while rubbing the back of her head. "Whoops! I guess I forgot about my spell's other ability. It destroys a monster that you have out…"

"Not bad…not bad at all…" Talo complimented while rubbing his chin.

"No duh not bad, but you haven't seen a thing yet! I activate Pot of Avarice!" Rena announced as another pot appeared before her resembling the pot of greed, only with a goofier look. "All I have to do is shuffle five monsters from my graveyard…"

Five monster cards slid from Rena's graveyard, and she immediately shuffled them into her deck and then pulled two more cards from the top. "…Then I can draw two more cards!"

"Huh…She managed to refresh her hand and got a good monster on the field," Leo stated, really impressed at the move.

"Yeah…though she coulda gotten rid of Mobius…" Tony stated scratching the top of his head. "…'course, dere was the Icicle Bomb's effect…"

"Hey Klein…" Ganryu stated standing up. "You better get your money ready…"

"Huh? And why should I?" Klein asked stomping his foot on the ground. "If you haven't noticed, Talo's got a great lead!"

"But brother…it's going to change in a second…" Koji tried warning his hard headed brother.

"Now then, I summon an old monster you might remember!" Rena announced slapping the card onto her duel disk, allowing the Obnoxious Celtic Guard (1400/1200) to appear once more lifting his sword into the air. "And now, I play Excalibur!"

The Celtic Guard's sword transformed into King Arthur's legendary blade making the warrior roar out in victory (2800/1200). "I know I've done this move a few times before, but I think of it as my signature move! But first…Magical Swords Elf! Attack Mobius with sword of the Ancients!"

The newest elf roared into the air before jumping towards Mobius with his sword spinning in the air above him. The elf quickly brought it's sword into the Frost Monarch's chest, making the Monarch yell out in pain until the Magical Swords Elf made his sword slice right through the monarch's body. Talo's eyes widened as it dawned upon him that he was about to have the tables turned on him. (TLP: 6550)

"Obnoxious Celtic Guard! Direct attack!" Rena ordered as her other elf began to run towards Talo, his new sword gleaming in the sunlight.

Talo raised his duel disk up to block the sword, but the attack still went through dropping his life point further. (TLP: 3750)

"Yeah! I rock!" Rena announced when her Obnoxious Celtic Guard walked back over to her side of the field.

Talo couldn't help but smile at Rena's comment…there was a time long ago when he two felt the same feelings towards dueling. Like his first tournament…that really brought back some good ideas that were almost forgotten in Talo's memory.

"And that's my turn!" Rena announced with a smile.

Talo turned towards the small crowd of Rena's friends, each of them cheering for her to win. He slowly drew his next card and looked at it. At the sight of the card…

'…_Just this once…_'

Talo slid his newly drawn card back on top of his deck and then placed it onto his duel disk. Everyone was surprised what Talo did. "I cannot win…so I surrender…" (TLP: Surrender)

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!?" Klein shouted pointing his hand towards Talo. "GET BACK AND DUEL HER! I'VE GOT THIRTY DOLLARS RIDING ON THIS!"

"Actually…we doubled the wager twice…" Ganryu pointed out standing behind Klein. "So you owe me one hundred and twenty dollars…"

Klein slowly turned behind him and saw a darkened Ganryu cracking his knuckles. Only three words were able to come out of Klein's mouth.

"RUN KOJI! RUN!"

Everyone sweatdropped at the sight of Ganryu chasing the shorter Slifer Red duelists, all three of them running at high speed.

Rena shook that off and turned towards a smiling Talo. "Why did you give up?"

The two elf holograms disappeared as Talo walked towards her. He raised his cards up and sighed. It only had a few spell cards and two high level monsters. "As you can see…I have nothing that could've helped me win…so go get those dorm room switch papers, Den and I will sign them."

Talo was met with a hug around him. He looked down to see Rena hugging him slightly. "Thanks Talo."

In response Talo just smiled.

A few minutes later Rena and her friends were walking away from the clearing. That just left Talo…and Den, who was right now a little confused. "Well now…that was certainly interesting mate…"

"What can I say? I happen to have a warm heart in my cold chest…" Talo replied slipping his duel disk off.

"You do realize that we're going to be roommates for a while…" Den pointed out smiling.

Tears were streaming down Talo's face when he was confronted with this news. "…I know…"

"What exactly did you have?" Den asked before Talo lifted his hand up. Den's eyes widened at the sight of the cards. "What?!? What was your next card?"

Talo slipped the top card from the deck and held it up to Den's face. "…You drew that…and you didn't use it with your other cards!?! Why not!?!"

"…You know what Big Boss L said…we can't use these cards until we get to other academy…" Talo sighed putting his cards back into his deck case.

"Oh yeah…I fergot ta tell ya earlier…" Den said walking in front of Talo, his face now looking serious. "I've got a job coming up in a couple of weeks…"

"So…you'll be leaving earlier?" Talo asked crossing his arms.

"Yeah…Big Boss L told me that Kurro would need a distraction at the Pacific Academy when they find a scapegoat to do their work," Den pointed out before lifting the gourd at his belt to his mouth. He quickly uncorked it and drank some of the contents of the gourd. "And I happen to be the distraction at hand…"

"I see, you're going to become your old name once more…" Talo sighed before walking with Den towards the main office.

"Yes…" Den nodded back before taking another drink from his gourd.

A dark shadow seemed to loom from Den's form, making the scene even more ominous. The wind became stronger, though not as strong as the cold winds that Talo's deck had created a few minutes ago. "…My name will arise…"

"…The Densuiken Duelist…"

/--/-/-/-//-//-/-/-

**Card Stats**

**Snow Sprite / Light / LV. 4 / ATK: 1100 / DEF: 700 / Fairy/Effect:** As long as this card exists face-up on the field, your opponent cannot activate Spell cards from his/her hand and set Spell cards cannot be activated in the turn they were set.

**Description:** a young girl that was wearing icy blue crystal armor, its head covered with a blue down curved helmet. Its crystal like hair gleamed in the light as the icy wind died down

_The preceding card will be used by Alexis/Asuka in an episode of Yugioh GX. Names and effects are subject to change._

**Boomerang Elf / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 1800 / DEF: 1500 / Warrior/Effect:** Once during the battle phase, you may switch the attack target of this card.

**Description:** A young elf in forest green clothing with a green cap covering his blonde hair. In his hands is an extremely large boomerang

_Note, the following card was used by Tenma Gekkou in Yugioh R._

**Icicle Bomb / Water / LV. 2 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 0 / Aqua/Effect:** When this card is destroyed as a result of battle, both players take the same damage. When this card is sent to the graveyard, you may special summon one 'Icicle Bomb' from your deck in face up attack mode on your side of the field.

**Description:** A frozen version of a fireball with a grinning face on it.

**Crystal Spikes / Trap / Effect:** This card's effect can only be activated while this card is in your graveyard. When your opponent summons a monster, you may remove this card from your graveyard to switch your opponent's monster to defense mode. If that monster is switched to attack mode, destroy that monster.

**Image:** A young warrior being forced to crouch down while multiple spikes of ice keep him down

**Magical Swords Elf / Earth / LV. 6 / ATK: 2450 / DEF: 1400 / Spellcaster/Effect:** This card is unaffected by monster effects.

**Description:** An elf warrior with dark silver hair spiked backwards. His brown vest covers his black armored shirt and forest green pants. On his back is a large sword with a black cloth wrapped on the hilt.

**Elf Scout / Earth / LV. 2 / ATK: 450 / DEF: 600 / Spellcaster/Effect:** When this card is destroyed, you may special summon one 'Elf Scout' from your deck to your side of the field.

**Description:** A young elf with short blonde hair wearing an armored green cloak with a couple of arrows and bow.

//-/-/--//--/-//-

**Duelist Stats**

**_Name: Talo Krys_**

**_Deck Type: Ice Storm_**

**_Talo is a mysterious duelist with skills that could get him into Obelisk Blue, why he has refused to do so is an answer to him and him alone. _**

**_His strategy mostly focuses on limiting his opponent's moves at anyway possible, and will often get the jump on his opponent. Though, it would appear that he's not allowed to use some of the cards by a Mr. 'Big Boss L'._**

**_Who knows what tricks are hidden in his deck and what may occur in the future. One thing's for sure...he's getting a transfer later in the year._**

**_//-/-/-/-/-//-/-_**

**Rena:** Well good thing that over with!

**Rukia:** Yeah, now we've got to worry about the promotion exams next week…

**Rena:** WHAT! I'VE GOT TO GET STUDYING!"

**Tony:** Y'all might want to be careful, two annoying Obelisks are back…

**_Next time, a familiar duo appears – Chapter 8: The Blue Obelisk Duo_**

**Rena/Rukia:** TONY!?! How'd you get in our room!?!

**Leo:** Don't underestimate my student's sneakiness…

**Rena/Rukia:** LEO!?!


	8. Chapter 8: The Obelisk Blue Duo

_**Well, well, well, what do we have here now? It appears that I am able to start the opening right now…**_

**_What to say? What to say? Ah, here we go… I am Leonardo D. Childsman the Third…but call me Leo for short._**

_**I came from a rich family, so I've always had the finer things in life. Most people would kill to be in my shoes, yet for me it is the exact opposite. I wish I could have worked for my belongings…**_

**_Even here at the academy I was given the best, for example I was put into Obelisk blue and given any card I wanted. Granted, I really got the cards that made my real deck a killer knock out in tournaments…yet, I don't feel the same excitement that my friends all get when they duel._**

_**Rena has her elves, Ganryu's got the feudal warriors, Van covered the E-heroes, Tony's got his multiple Chess decks, and even though he didn't see me, I happened to see Klein's Dark Scorpion deck against that infamous comic book character (I was actually hiding in the bushes, I am a real sneaky person.)**_

**_I really wanted these cards in my deck, but I actually wanted to see how far I could get if I was just like everyone else…_**

…**_Oh well! Time for that another time! Right now, I'm more concerned with the fact I'm standing before a person who has the same family social status as I…although he and I are completely different. _**

_**I may seem like a fancy pretty boy at first…but, don't underestimate me…**_

_**/--//-/-/--//-/-//-**_

_**Chapter 8**_

_**The Obelisk Blue Duo **_

_**/-//--//-/-/-//-**_

"Ah! What a marvelous day!" Leo announced into the air walking through the hallways of the academy, breathing in the air above him. "An excellent day for learning…and sneaking up on people…so who should I chose to scare?"

Looking around, Leo got some stares at him from his fellow students before he noticed a few familiar faces. "And there they are!"

/-/--/--/-////-/

"So, how much in debt are you in?" Rena asked a very mad Klein.

"Hmph! That jerk tricked me!" Klein shouted kicking the wall next to him.

A large question mark appeared over Rena, Rukia, and Van's heads, Van stepped up to Koji. "So…it's over hundred then?"

"Yeah…" Koji sighed lowering his head. "…It was actually was originally going to be twenty dollars we would've owed Ganryu, but he offered Klein that if he could beat him in Poker, he'd drop the bet. But, since we lost, he made us double the wager…for the third time…"

"Ouch…" Rukia commented. "So…how are you planning on paying him back?"

That's when Klein kicked the wall extremely hard this time, making a small crack appearing on it. "PAY BACK THAT BASTARD! HA! I AIN'T PAYING HIM SQUAT!"

"But Brother! If you don't, Ganryu will…" Koji stated trying to calm down his brother before he broke some more of the academy property.

"He conned me!" Klein shouted before pulling his hair. That's when he pointed towards Rena. "This is all your fault!"

"How is it my fault?" Rena questioned stomping towards Klein.

"If you had just lost that duel with that Ice freak, then I and Koji wouldn't be in this mess to begin with!" Klein roared at Rena narrowing his eyes at the girl.

"He gave up on that duel!" Rena replied raising her arms in the air.

"It was a planned act!"

"No it wasn't!"

"Klein…don't rope me in with your debt…"

"Shut up Koji!"

"My, my, my, what's with all the shouting?"

That's when everyone noticed that Leo was standing right next to them; he just came out of no where and scared them all. Rena was breathing hard before speaking up. "LEO! Do you still have to keep doing that?"

"How many times do I have to explain this concept to you Rena?" Leo chuckled to himself pushing back his hair from his eyes. "Anyway, what exactly are you fighting about once more?"

"Well, Klein here is actually convinced that Rena threw her match with Talo," Rukia explained gesturing towards Rena and Klein. "And Klein had made a couple of bets with Ganryu and is now in debt with him for over fifty dollars…"

"Say no more! I think I have an answer for this problem!" Leo announced crossing his arms.

Klein took a second to stop yelling at Rena and looked at the weird Obelisk Blue. "Really?"

"Klein and Rena just meet me after morning classes at the front of the academy," Leo replied with a smile turning around walking with the others following him.

//-/-/-/- Meanwhile… /-/--//-/--/-/

"Miss Cleo…why am I doing this?" Asche asked lifting up a large board onto the wall with a few bruises on his face.

"Because you said you'd help me with my meeting Asche," Cleo cooed looking over some note cards in her hands. Apparently Cleo and Asche were renting an empty room in the school, so they could have some sort of meeting. "So hurry up, Professor Alonso could only allow me to use this room for lunch…"

"Then you mind giving me a hand?" Asche asked finally fitting the board on the wall.

Cleo just walked up to the podium that was in front of the board, and placed the cards onto it. "Sorry, but it looks like you're done…"

Complaining to himself, Asche just jumped from the stage and slammed his foot into the ground as the door opened and a large number of female students ranging from Obelisk Blue and Slifer Red. At the last second, Asche calmed himself down and turned to Cleo. "Miss Cleo, can I go now?"

"Nope, I still need your help with this meeting…" Cleo replied pointing towards the multiple ropes that were next to Asche. "Just pull the ropes in order from left to right when I give you the signal…"

"Fine…" Asche sighed loudly wrapping his hands around the first rope.

After all of the lady students sat down, Cleo smiled and lifted up her first card. "Greetings my fellow members and newcomers to the first meeting of the year of the Admirers Club! For those of you who don't know me, I am the President of the club, Cleo Sol. And to my right is my good friend, Asche Strom…"

"Hi ladies!" Asche greeted waving one of his hands.

"Yeah, we all see you there Asche," Cleo sighed looking at her next note card. "Now then, I'm sure you all know that this club is about the hottest guys in the school that we all voted on… Pull the first rope Asche…"

Nodding, Asche pulled the first rope making a part of the board fall off to reveal a list with five names written on them. "To begin, here are last year's top five hottest guys, but we'll start with the third top hottest, our very own Ashton Strom."

"Yep, that's me," Asche sighed waving once more and turning towards the second rope.

"Then the second hottest would have to be Riko Kamika, and at the top we have Tony Havoc," Cleo continued smiling at the list. "Next rope!"

"Right!" Asche announced pulling on the second rope.

Another list appeared as the first list fell to the ground, this time this had a few different names written on it. "But as they say, out with the old, in with the new! Our newest second place is Ganryu Dashiben, and the top hottie is Leonardo D. Childsman, who is ranked number one in the freshman class…"

"Though, I should really point out that now our second top hottie is a Slifer Red student, a first for our listings but with good reason. He may have a cold attitude…" Cleo sniffed at remembering her first meeting with Ganryu. "But, his dueling and trained body more than make up for it…"

'_Damn it…I've been beaten on a list by a Slifer Slacker?_' Asche was preoccupied with other things on his mind that he didn't notice that he pulled on the third rope.

"And now, onto other matters, does anyone have another…" Cleo started before she was smacked in the head with a sandbag, sending her to the ground. "OW!"

Asche just realized this when the girls all jumped up to gather around a knocked out Cleo. "Uh oh…" And with that Asche slowly tip toed from girls, not wanting to be struck down where he stood when Cleo woke up. "…Maybe I'll get something to eat…right now!"

/--/-/-/-/-/--///-/

"Where is that freaky Obelisk Blue?" Klein growled looking directly Rena.

"Beats me, Leo usually shows up when you least expect him to…" Rena replied looking up at the academy before her.

Koji just sighed to himself as he sat down on the grass. Right now, he could've joined Van and Rukia for lunch, but no… "Klein just had to include me in this…"

"Well now, should we be going?" Leo asked appearing out of no where scarring the living daylights out of everyone once more.

Breathing in deeply, Klein stepped forward to narrow his eyes at Leo. "Stop doing that!"

"My, my, my, don't you have the temper…and here I am to help you get out of debt…" Leo chuckled before spinning on his heel and heading towards the academy. "Now, just follow me…"

"What exactly is his deal?" Koji asked Rena as the three followed Leo into the Academy.

"You're guess is as good as mine…" Rena answered with a confused look on her face.

/-/-/-/--//-//--/-//

"And now, welcome to the Duel Academy Restaurant!" Leo announced standing in front of a well furnished restaurant that was set in the academy, quite a distance from the entrance, yet near the card shop.

Klein just eyeballed the restaurant and then Leo. "And how the hell is this supposed to help me with our money troubles?"

"He's roping me in again…" Koji sighed lowering his head.

"And me too?" Rena asked raising an eyebrow at Klein's question…though it was a good question to say the least.

"Simple…I can get you jobs here," Leo explained gesturing towards the 'Help Wanted' sign in the window. "Most of the higher students eat here, but the staff is looking for a couple of table servers and people to work in the kitchen."

"Cool, but I don't really need any extra money," Rena commented scratching the back of her head.

"Really? Well, students who work here also get a discount at the shop next door," Leo replied pointing towards the shop. "And I also hear that they have a few cards that might help your deck…"

"What?! They've got some elf cards in there?" Rena asked rubbing her chin.

"Yes, quite expensive, but if you had the discount…" Leo said when all of a sudden Rena and Klein walked past them; Koji was being pulled by his collar into the restaurant. "Well, that didn't take long…" After a short shrug, Leo followed his Slifer Red friends into the restaurant.

/--//--/--/-/--//-

"Another Cherry Cola here," Asche requested to the lone waitress in the restaurant. After running from the meeting room, he came the Academy Restaurant. It seemed like his haven of safety.

After his seventh Cherry Cola, Asche was shaking his latest glass, passing the time before his next drink arrived to get him ever closer to a sugar rush that would prepare him for the yelling he would get when Miss Cleo would find him. However, before that drink came, Asche's eyes fell on a few familiar faces. "Hey…it's that group of Slifers and that guy who is on top…"

Standing up immediately, Asche made the mistake in not looking and accidentally knocked into the waitress who had his drink. That made the drink spill all over Asche's uniform, staining it to a earthly red color on his chest. "Ah damn it!"

That yell got the attention of almost everyone in the restaurant and made a small contagious chuckle float in the air. Drooping his head to the ground, Asche didn't notice the four familiar faces walking over to him. "Hey…weren't you with Miss Sol?"

Asche looked up to see Leo, Rena, Klein and Koji standing in front of him, Klein was laughing at him. "Smooth moves there flex!"

"…Flex?" Asche questioned scratching the back of his head. "Where does that come from?"

"Ignore my brother please…" Koji moaned to himself lowering his head towards the ground.

"Whoa…who in the world are these two?" Asche asked pointing towards Koji and Klein, it was apparent that he was at least a few feet taller than either of them.

Without warning, Klein jumped onto the top of an empty table and raised his fist into the air with his fingers in a victory v. "I am the fighting dog of the Atlantic Duel academy, people fear my name at the mere mention, no one can match my dueling skills, I am…"

That's when a large half-eaten sandwich smacked Klein in the back of his head, sending him flying off into the air and then to the ground. "SHUT UP! SOME OF US ARE TRYING TO ENJOY LUNCH!"

"Say that to my face!" Klein challenged jumping back to his feet.

Ignoring the short Slifer Red, Asche turned towards Rena. "Hey! It's the drop out girl…"

"Ah come on…didn't I prove that I was good enough to be here after dueling Alex?" Rena sighed with a dark mark appearing over her head.

"Okay…" Asche commented turning towards Leo. "So…Leonardo, what are you doing here? Expecting a fancy table?"

"Actually no, I'm here to ask for a few jobs for my friends here…" Leo replied motioning towards Rena, Klein and Koji. "…And I happen to already know that you're assistant manager here…so I guess it was lucky for us to see you spill that soda on yourself."

"Ah, they want jobs eh…" Asche said to himself rubbing his chin. "Well then, I may be willing to get them some jobs…on one condition…"

"If I duel you, perhaps?" Leo finished with a smile.

That left Asche somewhat confused, especially since that's what he wanted. "How'd you know?"

"There's usually a catch to these kind of things…" Leo answered making everyone confused.

"Who exactly is this guy?" Klein asked looking at Rena, while snacking on the sandwich that had sent him to the ground.

"You're guess is as good as mine…" Rena replied.

"Man, you're creepy," Asche commented crossing his arms at Leo. "But, you're right; I do want a duel…"

"And let me guess again, if I win, then these guys get the jobs," Leo stated with his eyes closed and his hand at his chin. "And if I lose, then these guys have to look elsewhere…"

A small chuckle came from Asche's mouth, making Leo open his eyes at a sillier looking Asche. "Nope! I just want a duel, no bet, I'll see to it that they'll be getting jobs just as long as you agree to duel me."

"Well, that's somewhat unexpected," Leo commented putting his hands in his pockets. "Shall we duel after school?"

"Yeah…meet me here after classes with your little friends," Asche replied sitting down back at his table. "I'll get the applications ready, and while we're dueling they can fill them out."

"Sure, seems sound enough," Leo said turning on his heel. "We'll be seeing you later…"

As soon as Leo and the three Slifer Reds exited the restaurant, Asche raised his hand up once more. "Can I get another Cherry Cola here?"

"Coming up!"

/--/-/-//--/-//-/-/

"Now then class, we'll be discussing an old favorite duelist," Professor Maria announced turning from the board in the class. "From Seto Kaiba's original duel academy, one of the more memorable duelists was Zane Truesdale, the Kaiser of the academy. One of his original strategies revolved around the powerful speed attacks."

"This was accomplished due to his deck type, the powerful Cyber Dragon deck. Of course, his skills were a great asset as well. His strongest monster included the deadly Cyber End Dragon…"

'_Truesdale? Isn't that a college?'_ Rena thought to herself while writing some notes into her notebook. "…I really don't see how this is going to help…"

"A little word of advice, you might face someone who has a similar strategy as a famous duelist," a calm voice whispered to Rena. "So you should be careful…"

Turning to the side, Rena just noticed that another Obelisk blue student was sitting next to her. The obelisk Blue was definitely a girl, her blonde hair tied up in the back with a barrette that topped her pretty face, and her uniform was very different from the standard. She had a longer skirt and a white overcoat with a blue border on it. The overcoat showed the girl's semi muscular physic. "Just a little advice never hurts…"

"Uh…thanks…" Rena whispered back before turning back to the front of the room. '_Well…at least she's not as weird as Leo or Tony…'_

"…And that's when Zane received his other deck…but we'll discuss that next time class," Professor Maria announced looking in her book. "Now then, for tonight, I want you all to write a one page report on a famous duelist that you all have seen once before…he or she can be from a tournament you've seen on TV, or one that you've read in your text books. The paper's due tomorrow so you should all be thinking about it tonight!"

/--/-//-/-//-/

"It's a miracle that Miss Cleo hasn't found me yet…" Asche sighed to himself before taking another sip of his next Cherry Cola. On his left arm his duel academy duel disk was ready with his deck already placed inside of it. He was set, all Asche need was for Leo to arrive and he'd be getting his duel.

Since classes were over, Asche counted the seconds till Leo and those Slifer Reds would be back at the restaurant. All the while, Asche was getting more and more of his sugar rush from his multiple Cherry Colas.

"Ah, Mr. Asche, sorry to keep you waiting!"

Asche turned from his empty soda glass and saw Leo standing before him with his duel disk all set. Rena, Klein and Koji were standing behind him. "I hope you are ready for our duel…and you've got the applications…"

"Of course," Asche replied standing up with three papers in his hands. "One for Dropout Girl, the over exaggerated shorty and the…well other short guy…"

"You know, other than that comment," Rena replied taking the application from Asche's hand. "You seem like a nice guy, yet when you're with that other Obelisk Blue, you're different…"

"Well, Miss Cleo scares me somewhat…" Asche sighed before standing upwards and activated his duel disk. "But now's not the time for that…but rather its time to duel!"

"Yes…it is time for us to duel," Leo replied calmly lifting his slightly fancier duel disk. "So good luck…"

"Let's get it on!"

Asche had prepared for this duel; he had a number of tables moved to the sides to make the restaurant a little more presentable. Asche drew his five cards and looked around to see that a number of students were watching the duel. "Well now, looks like the customers get a dinner and a show…" (ALP: 8000)

"I see where you're going…" Leo commented pulling his sixth card from his deck. "We will give them a show that they will never forget!" (LLP: 8000)

"Seeing as how you drew your sixth card, I can assume that you're going first," Asche stated crossing his arms at Leo. '_Then this will be perfect…'_

"True, so I'll start off with a monster on the defensive…" Leo announced as the holographic displayers created the horizontal face down card before him. "And I'll end my turn with that…"

"For the top student in the freshman class," Asche commented pulling his sixth card from his deck. "I expected something a little flashier…"

"What can I say? I like subtle approach," Leo replied turning his head to the side.

"This coming from the guy who likes to sneak up on people…" Rena stated looking up from her application.

"Okay…as for me, I'll start off with a bang!" Asche announced lifting another card from his hand, and then slid it into his duel disk. "Activate spell card, Flash Fusion!"

Asche's spell card appeared before him, showing a picture of the usual Polymerization card, only with it exploding into a larger vortex. "Now then, this spell card allows both of us to remove fusion material monsters from our decks, and then fusion summon the fusion monster that makes them."

"Sounds fair," Leo stated pulling out his deck and flipping through his cards. "I'll remove Marie the Fallen One and my Forgiving Maiden…"

"And for me," Asche announced lifting up his cards and selecting three of them. "I'll remove all three Cyber Dragons!"

"I see…a rush deck…" Leo commented putting his two cards into his back pocket. "And a cyber deck as well…"

"Then you know what comes next!" Asche shouted slapping his fusion monster onto his duel disk. "Cyber End Dragon!"

A large white explosion erupted from the ground and immediately formed into an extremely large cybernetic, three headed dragon with two large silver wings on its back (4000/2800). The dragon growled irritably with its head lowered to the ground so that it could fit in the restaurant. A large sweatdrop formed on the back of Asche's head while he scratched his cheek. "Sorry about that End Dragon…Forgot how big you were…"

"As for me, I'll bring out someone who's a little more 'room size'," Leo replied gently placing his card onto his duel disk. "St. Joan!"

In a smaller white explosion, a beautiful orange haired woman appeared before Leo, wearing fancy medieval armor (2800/2000). Looking at the Cyber End Dragon, St. Joan raised her sword towards the machine dragon and glared at the monster.

"Yeah, too bad she's not going to last long," Asche snickered to himself taking another card from his hand and sliding it into his duel disk. "Cause I activate Limiter Removal!"

A powerful metal green aura appeared around the Cyber End Dragon, making it grow even larger in the now cramped restaurant (8000/2800). "And now…before we all get squashed, End Dragon…destroy St. Joan!"

After some movement, the Cyber End Dragon fired three beams of electric blue light that crashed directly into St. Joan, vaporizing the monster into pixels. Leo just shrugged it off as the holographic smoke fell to the ground. "Impressive attack…though, I wonder, why you didn't attack my defense?" (LLP: 2800)

"Simple, the second effect of Flash Fusion only allows the fused monsters to battle as long as they are both on the field," Asche explained wagging his finger over his hand. "There's a third effect…but more on that later, right now I'll set a card face down and end my turn…"

"And now we must bid adieu to your Cyber End Dragon," Leo stated before the dragon shattered into pixels.

"Plus the final effect of Flash fusion activates," Asche interrupted pulling three cards from his pocket. "If both fusion monsters were destroyed during the turn Flash Fusion was played, then we both get the fusion component monsters back to our hands!"

"My, it's a wonderful card…" Leo stated looking at his two monster cards.

"True," Asche added fanning his six card hand.

"But wait till I make move," Leo said calmly drawing his next card. "Like this, I activate Graceful Charity; I don't think I need to tell you what it does…"

A beautiful angel hovered over Leo and pulled three cards from the top of Leo's deck before handing it to him. "Thank you Miss Angel…" The angel held her hand out and Leo selected two other cards from his hand and handed them to the angel, who then flew into the graveyard with the cards. "And there she goes…"

"Man…my Graceful Charity card doesn't do that for me…" Asche moaned lowering his head.

"I don't know why she does that for me if it makes you feel better," Leo stated lifting another card from his hand. "But, enough of that, since you like cyber monster, how about I summon a few of my own?"

"What!? But I thought you played with fairies?" Asche sounded with confusion in his voice.

"That's true, but I play with the Cyber Angels," Leo replied calmly placing one of his cards on his duel disk. "And I'll start with Cyber Petite Angel (300/200) in attack mode!"

A small orb of light appeared in front of Leo, and a small robotic circular angel appeared with a small mechanized chirp. A card then shot out of Leo's deck and into his hand. "And this monster's ability allows me to add a certain ritual from my deck into my hand…and I'll activate it right now!"

Leo's spell card appeared before him showing a masked woman running from a machine generator/shrine. "It's called Machine Angel Ritual! And by sending my Petite Angel and my face down Zolga (1700/1200) I can Ritual summon the first of my Angels, Cyber Angel Idaten (1600/2000)!"

The spell card shattered and revealed a beautiful woman wearing a cybernetic red jumpsuit with a black and golden head-protector (or it looked like her hair, Asche couldn't really tell). That's when a spell card slid from Leo's graveyard and into his hand. "And now, when Idaten is brought out, I can take a spell card back from my graveyard, so now I'll play a familiar card once more!"

Asche groaned to himself at the sight of the Machine Angel Ritual appearing before him once more. Sure, he could probably handle what Leo was getting out, but this was just annoying. "And what? You going to bring out another Idaten?"

"Looks like you don't know much about the Cyber Angels…" Leo stated sliding two of his cards from his hand. "I now send Mudora and Kelbek to the graveyard, so I can summon Cyber Angel Benten!"

The ritual spell card shattered this time allowing a new woman to appear next to Idaten, this one with long black hair wearing a white and red jumpsuit. In her hands were two Japanese fans that were connected to her back with chains (1800/1500). "My ritual summons any monster with 'Cyber Angel' in its name. But now then, Benten and Idaten! Attack directly!"

The two cyber angels flew off towards Asche raising their fists and fans, preparing to attack the other Obelisk Blue. However, that's when four multi-colored sheep (0/0x4) appeared before Asche, two of them taking the attacks for Asche. "Nice try, but my Scapegoat spell card allowed two of my sheep tokens to take the attacks for me…"

"Very well, I'll end my turn with three cards face down," Leo announced with three face down cards appearing behind his two Cyber Angels. "So now then…let's see what you can come up with…"

"Oh you'll see…" Asche replied drawing his next card.

A wicked smile appeared on his face and a small chuckle came out of his mouth. "Heh…looks like this duel is done…I activate Power Bond! Now, all I'll do is send two of my Cyber dragons to the graveyard…"

Asche then slid two cards from his hand to the graveyard that then sent up a powerful spark of electricity appearing before him. "And now, I can fusion summon Cyber Twin Dragon (2800/2100) however, he'll be a little different…"

The electricity exploded into a large two head Cyber Dragon (5600/2100) roaring loudly into the air…

…Or it would if it weren't for the fact the monster have banged its heads on the ceiling of the restaurant. "And now, wipe those two angels from the field! And in case you're wondering, my dragon can attack twice in the battle phase!"

The two dragon heads fired two beams of electric blue light that headed straight towards the two Cyber Angels.

"Not so fast! I activate Negate Attack!" Leo shouted as a powerful vortex appeared before his two angels absorbing the attack towards the angels. "So you'll have to try again…"

'_Damn it! I was so close!_' Stomping his foot into the ground, Asche was mentally screaming at himself. "Fine…I'll end my turn with a card face down…"

"Oh yes…don't forget that since you played Power Bond, you lose your monster's original attack points from your life points," Leo pointed out crossing his arms.

"Yeah, yeah! No need to tell me!" Asche growled looking at his duel disk. (ALP: 5200)

Leo drew his next card with his eyes closed, and then he pointed his hand over the face down card. "Now then, after I draw, I activate, Gift of the Angel!" (LLP: 3000)

"What the?" Asche questioned looking at the card that showed the angel from the picture of Graceful Charity placing a rose in front of grave. "What can that do? And how did you gain life points?'

"One at a time. First, by removing Graceful Charity from my graveyard, I can draw three new cards," Leo stated by drawing three new cards. "Then, I have to remove one card from my hand from play…"

As soon as Leo did so, he crossed his arms. "And then, in my graveyard resides Marie the Fallen one, so during each standby phase, I gain two hundred life points."

"You've really thought this out…" Asche commented rubbing his chin. '_I guess he has some good moves, he isn't the top rookie for this year for nothing…_'

"True, yet, you haven't seen anything yet," Leo replied raising another card from his hand. "Watch this move, I activate Shield and Sword!"

As soon as Leo played the card, all of the monster holograms began to go on the fritz switching their stats around. Ache just watched as his powerful dragon was now at the strength of a regular dragon. "Nice…too bad your monsters aren't strong enough to make a dent in my dragon…"

"Not unless I activate the spell card, Gift of the Martyr!" Leo announced as Idaten clasped her hands together. "This spell allows me to send a monster on my side of the field to the graveyard to increase the attack of another by its attack! So Benten, take Idaten's help!"

At those words, Idaten became a faint version of herself and quickly stood behind Benten. Strengthening the fellow Cyber Angel (3500/1800), Asche's eyes widened at the sight of the monster, as well as Rena, Klein, and Koji's. "Wow…now that's one tough monster…"

"And it's going to make things even tougher for Asche," Koji responded to Rena's comment.

"And what makes ya say that?" Klein asked turning towards his little brother.

"Just watch…" Koji answered.

"Cyber Angel Benten! Attack the Twin Dragon!" Leo shouted throwing his arm out towards the Cyber Twin Dragon.

The beautiful Cyber Angel jumped towards the Cyber Twin dragon, both of her fans fanned out ready to slam into the dragon.

All of a sudden, a large rainbow like barrier appeared around the dragon, slowly stopping the angel in mid air. Asche laughed to himself holding up his face down card. "Meet Mirror Force…so you'll have to try later…if I give you the chance!"

"Well, how about now?" Leo asked lifting his hand over his other face down card. "I activate Trap Jammer, so your little trap card is no more…and my attack continues…"

"What!?!" Asche shouted when his barrier shattered like glass.

That's when Benten quickly slammed her fans in between both of the Cyber Twin Dragon's heads. The force seemed to crack the metal armor on the Dragon's heads before destroying the monster. (ALP: 3800)

"Damn it all!" Asche shouted lowering his head. That's when Asche noticed that the Cyber Angel Benten was standing in front of him. "Huh?"

"Oh yes, I forgot to mention, but when my Angel destroys a monster as a result of battle, you lose life points equal to the monster's defense points," Leo explained smiling.

"And your monster had fifty-six hundred defense points at the time…"

"But that means…" Asche realized before Benten raised her fans once more.

Cold steel slapped across Asche's face, sending him flying backwards and into a table that was about to be cleared off of it's contents. A plate landed on his head making him lower his head with a dazed look in his eyes. "Uh…" (ALP: 0)

Everyone in the restaurant clapped as Leo took a bow to his small audience. "Thank you! Thank you! You're all too kind!"

"Dang…I really didn't expect anything like that…" Asche sighed standing up while he rubbed his sore head. '_I guess he really does deserve to be on the top of the list…'_

"Very good duel Asche…" Leo complimented clapping towards his opponent. "Short, sweet and to the point…"

"Yeah, but I really need to fix my strategy…I should've gotten you on the second turn…" Asche replied looking at his deck. '_Although…I haven't use the cards that Miss Cleo told me not to use. If I did, then I probably could've won…'_

"Oh yes, perhaps when your deck is back to snuff you'd care for a rematch?" Leo stated somewhat scarring Asche.

"Yeah…sure," Asche replied with a sweatdrop on the back of his head. '_Can this guy read minds?_'

"Now that would just be freaky…" Leo whispered quietly to Asche, freaking the muscular Obelisk Blue out.

"Here you go Asche," Rena said walking up to Asche with her application, as well as Klein and Koji.

"Yeah, thanks, I'll get to you three later with your jobs," Asche stated taking the applications. "Now if you excuse me…I'm going to get out of here before…"

"ASCHE!"

Asche cringed at that voice sounding throughout the restaurant, meanwhile, Rena, Leo, Koji and Klein turned to see a very pissed of Cleo standing at the doorway to the restaurant. Her head was slightly bandaged, must've been a bump to the head.

Scared for his life, Asche stepped backwards while Cleo just stomped towards him; a fiery aura seemed to erupt all around her. "So…This is where you've been hiding out! Did you really think that you could get away with that little stunt you pulled earlier!?!"

"M-M-Miss Cleo! It was an accident! I swear!" Asche explained with tears starting to form at his eyes.

"You weren't paying attention!" Cleo replied before revving up her fist.

"Okay!" Leo started as he began to push Rena, Klein and Koji from the restaurant. "I think it should well accepted that we shouldn't be watching this…"

/-/-/-/-//-/-/-//-/

"Mousier?"

"…"

"Wee wee, next week are zee promotion exams…"

"…"

"Moi will be sure to get anyone who gets in moi way…"

"…"

"Ah yes, how's the new guy doing?"

"…"

"He's still calling himself the Black Tiger? Funny…Although, that does zeem to suit him more than ties other name."

"…"

"Sure, moi keep an eye out on the students who would seem adequate for your plans…got to go, moi has got some 'homework' to get done on…"

The snap of the cell phone followed the light of a screen on laptop lighting up. The screen showed multiple pictures of students, a pair on each side. One particular pair had a sickly looking Slifer Red guy matched up with a familiar Slifer Red girl.

"…Heh, ma Cherie…you are no match for me… Miss Rena Akira…"

/--//--/--//-/-/

_Duelist Stats_

_Name: Asche Strom_

_Deck Type: Cyber Rush_

_Asche, often called the echo in Miss Cleo's voice in the room, is a big softie despite his muscular physique. Due to the fact that he knew Miss Cleo as a kid, and if you were to ask him, she hasn't really changed since that age. He felt that during his childhood as a little kid with hardly any opinion, he decided to work out to become a muscle man…_

_…That worked out well…_

_During his workout days he always enjoyed dueling with a duel computer that Miss Cleo had. His favorite duelist type that was put into the computer, was none other than Zane Truesdale. He was fascinated with Zane's strategy and decided to implement them into his real deck. However, as he said his deck was somewhat hindered because Miss Cleo had given him a number of his rare cards, such as Power Bond and Flash Fusion. _

_Maybe after Miss Cleo's done with Asche's beating, she'll let him use those cards_

_Name: Leonardo D. Childsman (Leo)_

_Deck Type: Angel Deck_

_Coming from a rich family, Leo always got what he wanted. However, he was an only child with his family before he went into the duel prep school. His parents had another child, Leo's baby sister Katherine A. Childsman, so since then he was like a shadow to them (unless he appears right in front of him, where his sneakiness comes from). Although his parents did help him through his school and into the academy just to get him into the Obelisk Blue Dorm._

_Leo was always interested in holy myths and believed that people were good deep down inside. He can usually see that goodness in people, usually resulting with him smiling at the person (which is usually most of the time). _

_His reasons for why he built his deck about angels is only for him to know, but a few people have guessed that because they all have a unique way of protecting him and fighting for him. The Cyber Angels seem to be his favorite monsters, but who knows what else is hiding in his deck strategy. _

_But besides that, Leo is just…Leo is just… an interesting guy to be with…_

/-/-/---/-//-/--/-/

**Card Stats**

**Cyber Petite Angel / Light / LV. 2 / ATK: 300 / DEF: 200 / Fairy/Effect:** When this card is normal summoned successfully, you may move one 'Machine Angel Ritual' from your deck to your hand.

**Description:** A small, pink robotic circular angel with cute little wings

**Machine Angel Ritual / Ritual Spell / Effect:** This card is used to Ritual Summon a monster that includes 'Cyber Angel' in it's name from your hand. You must also offer monsters from the field or your hand whose total Level Stars is equal to or greater than the Ritual Monster you are attempting to Ritual Summon.

**Image:** a masked woman running from a machine generator/shrine

**Cyber Angel Idaten / Light / LV. 6 / ATK: 1600 / DEF: 2000 / Fairy/Ritual/Effect:** This card is Summoned by 'Machine Angel Ritual' by tributing monsters from your side of the field and/or hand with a level equal to 6 or more. When this monster is Special summoned, you return one spell card from your graveyard and add it to your hand.

**Description:** a beautiful woman wearing a cybernetic red jumpsuit with a black and golden head-protector

**Cyber Angel Benten / Light / LV. 6 / ATK: 1800 / DEF: 1500 / Fairy/Ritual/Effect:** This card is Summoned by 'Machine Angel Ritual' by tributing monsters from your side of the field and/or hand with a level equal to 6 or more. If this card destroys a monster as a result of battle, inflict damage to your opponent's life points equal to its original Defense.

**Description:** woman to appear next to Idaten, this one with long black hair wearing a white and red jumpsuit. In her hands were two Japanese fans that were connected to her back with chains

_The following cards were used by Alexis/Asuka in Yugioh GX_

**Flash Fusion / Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated if all players have a fusion deck. Each player may remove fusion material monsters from their decks written on one fusion monster in his/her fusion deck. After doing so, both players Special summon the fusion monster (this counts as a fusion summon) on their side of the field. As long as both fusion monsters are on the field, they must attack each other. If both fusion monsters are destroyed during the turn this card was activated, both players may add the removed from play fusion material monsters to their hands.

**Image:** A Polymerization card, only with it exploding into a larger vortex

/--//--//-/--/-/-

**Leo:** Ah… it is time for the promotion exams…joyus!

**Rena:** What?!? The exams?!? I need to study!

**Ganryu:** …Hope I don't get a weak opponent…

**Van:** I'll show ya who's top dog!

**Leo:** What mixed reactions…interesting…

**_Pressure's rising, next time in – Chapter 9: Viva Exam Revolution_**

**??-??-??:** You don't want to miss zis!


	9. Chapter 9: Viva Exam Revolution!

_**Oh man, oh man, oh man!**_

_**This is too much! I still need to study!**_

_**Oh man! The written test needs to be shorter! I know I'm going to fail this!**_

_**I guess I'll have to rely on the field exam…**_

…_**but what's with this guy?**_

_**Not only is he weird, but he's got that thick accent…**_

_**But what I don't get is why he's using these cards he's using. I mean, I'm able to beat them easily.**_

_**But I'm sure he's got a few tricks up his sleeves.**_

_**//-/--/-//--/-/-/**_

_**Chapter 9**_

_**Viva Exam Revolution!**_

_**/-//-/--/-/-/-/--**_

On the calm waves of the ocean, a small wooden boat slowly made its way closer and closer towards the Atlantic Duel academy. Two guys in their early twenties were rowing the boat while a third man, this one looking in his thirties, sat lazily in the back of the boat.

"Hurry up you two dweebs!" The older of the men ordered adjusting his American flag bandana. "I want to get to the academy before nightfall."

That's when one of the twenty-year old men narrowed his eyes from behind his long brown hair. "Yeah, yeah, we heard you yesterday but that still didn't get us there!"

"Listen dweebs, you should be glad that I even included you dweebs in this plan of mine," chuckled the older man crossing his arms.

"Shut up fossil breath!" The other twenty-year old man ordered adjusting his yellow glasses with his free hand. "This is our big break…"

"Why do I keep listening to you?" The brown haired man sighed lowering his head.

From behind his sunglasses, the bandana wearing man's eyes spotted a familiar island that looked to be only a few miles away. "Well would you look what we got in the distance…?"

The two other men turned their heads to see the same island. The glasses wearing one began to chuckle to himself. "Hyohohohoho! That must be the academy!"

"Right you roach…" the older man replied throwing his hand towards the academy. "So full speed ahead!"

/-/-/--//-//--//-/-/-/

"Rena…"

"Hmm…Five more minutes Guy…" Rena moaned over her books.

"Rena, you need to get up!" Rukia shouted getting Rena to throw her head up from her books.

"Huh? What's going on?" Rena yawned loudly stretching her arms.

"Um, well," Rukia stuttered scratching the side of her cheek.

That's when Rena noticed the clock that was behind Rukia's shoulder, and her eyes widened at the sight of the time. "OH! Why didn't you tell me we were late!?!?"

Rukia just stared in amazement as she watched Rena run out of the room at an amazing speed. That's when she noticed the thing that Rena was wearing. "…She's just asking for blackmail now…"

/-//-/--//-/-/-/--//-

"Come on! Now you're charging me a percentage rate?!?"

Ganryu, Klein, Koji and Van were slowly walking towards the duel academy, Klein was currently arguing with the smirking Ganryu. Apparently, Ganryu just changed his collection plan for Klein's debt.

"What'd you expect?" Van sighed shrugging his shoulders at his shorter friends. "I mean, he's a cold hearted stiff, who only shows kindness to a pretty face."

In response, Ganryu just glared daggers at the apparent idiotic Slifer Red. But then, something managed to catch Ganryu's attention, making him to take a step to the right.

"Look at that, I didn't think this cold-hearted jerk was able to not react to violence…" Klein laughed loudly before he noticed the same thing that Ganryu was looking at. "What the…?"

"I'M LATE!"

Suddenly a running Rena just sent Van and Klein flying while Ganryu and Koji watched the scene from a good short distance from being sent flying themselves. "Man, those two went far…"

Ganryu just slightly smirked to himself when he saw Van and Klein getting their heads stuck in a large tree while Rena skidded to a stop. She quickly caught her breath and looked at Ganryu and Koji. "Huh? Hey guys…where's Van and Klein?"

As if on cue, Koji and Ganryu gestured at the same time with their arms towards the tree where Van and Klein were pulling their heads from the tree they got stuck in. Rena just panicked slightly and bowed a little bit. "ACK! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY YOU TWO! I DIDN'T SEE YOU THERE!"

"Watch where you're going!" Klein roared freeing his head from the tree and stomping towards Rena. "I nearly lost my head in there!"

A second later, Van managed to reach the group, pulling a branch from his hair. "That's what people always say when they slam into us…"

A very small smirk appeared on Ganryu's face.

That's when something dawned on Rena staring at the four fellow Slifer Red students around her. "Hey…how come you guys aren't in class right now?"

"What are you talking about?" Van questioned raising an eyebrow at Rena.

Rena just blinked in confusion and then slowly replied. "I thought classes are going on…"

"Classes are canceled today girlie," Klein chuckled reaching into his pants' pocket.

With her dropping jaw, Rena just stared at her classmates. "Y-you mean that I ran all this way…and we don't have classes today?!?"

"I see you're forgetting what Asche told us," Klein replied holding up a small digital camera. "We'll be starting to work at our jobs…after today's Promotion exams!"

"E-exams!?!?" Rena shouted in the air pulling her hair. "NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!"

"I take it she forgot the exams…" Koji whispered to Van's ears.

"That's not all she forgot…" Van replied turning to the side to hide his slight blush on his face.

Koji realized this and turned his entire body the other way, while Ganryu turned his head to the right slightly to block the very super, duper small blush. A large question mark appeared over Rena's head. "What? What did I forget?"

"Heh! Nice pajamas!" Klein laughed before taking multiple snap shots of Rena in her rose red pajamas. "Say hello blackmail!"

"Give me that camera!" Rena roared chasing after Klein, who was still taking pictures while being chased by Rena.

"I guess it was only a matter of time before she went nuts as well…" Van sighed watching Klein trip Rena by accident, but still got a few more photos.

/--//-/-/-/-/-/-/-

"So wait…why are you staying with the boat?"

The three older men had finally docked at a secluded beach; the two younger of the two men were standing on the beach while the rough looking one sat in the boat with an old fold out magazine. The man looked up from magazine slightly and glared at the two. "Cause, unlike you two underdeveloped dweebs, I can't really walk around this place without getting some suspicion thrown my way…"

"Oh well…more cards for us," The green haired man chuckled to himself adjusting his yellow glasses.

"Don't count on it…I happen to be your guys' ticket out of here!" The older man stood up on his feet and glared downwards at the two shorter men. "And unless you two don't want to be stranded here, you better bring me those rare cards that are on that list!"

"Whatever," the other man growled before turning around with the second man. "Let's get this over with…"

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-///-

In the crowded classroom, a now properly dressed Rena placed her head on the desk she was sitting at. "Aw man…I'm not ready for this…"

"Just relax a little Rena," Van comforted sweat dropping at friend's overreaction. "Just take a deep breath and think when you take the test. It'll make things a lot easier…"

Ganryu sighed annoyingly. "Focus on the exams idiots…"

"Way to comfort me…." Rena sulked to herself.

"Enough!" Professor Kryancelo shouted passing out the exams manually. "Anyone who is caught talking or cheating on this written exam will be failed immediately! And don't even try to test me on this day!"

A small dark aura appeared over Rena's head when Professor Kryancelo walked up next to her and handed her the written exam.

Shrugging it off, Kryancelo smirked when he reached Ganryu. "Mr. Dashiben…"

In response, Ganryu glared at the fire deck Professor.

"Nice…" Kryancelo commented crossing his arms. "Now then, after this part of the exam is over with, meet me in the hall. I have matters with you that I might want to look into…"

The professor just walked away after that little comment. Rena turned back to Ganryu to see what that was about, but only got a shrug from the rude Samurai duelist.

Slowly turning her head back, Rena stared at the first problem of this exam, and immediately came to a conclusion…

…This exam, described the most dangerous thing in the world to her…

/-/--/-/-/-//-/-

"Why do I have to wear red?" The long brown haired man pulled his red jacket over his green jacket.

"Because I'm the superior duelist, fossil breath," laughed the shorter man zipping up the Ra yellow jacket over his black beetle shirt while the two walked through the hallways of the academy.

"I seem to recall that I managed to get farther in the DK tournament bug eyes," remarked the other man raising a hand to his chin to rub it. "And you got knocked out in the first round…"

"That tournament didn't count! BC was the harder on and you lost to a phony psychic," Laughed the shorter man adjusting his glasses.

"You only got to the second round through your cheating!" The other man growled at his accomplice.

Sparks began to fly between the men's eyes as they glared at each other. "Please…I calling strategy! STRA-TE-GY!"

"And I call ya a cheater!" 'Fossil Breath' snarled at 'Roach' raising his fist up. "C-H-E-E-A-T-E-R!

"There's only one 'E' in cheater you numbskull!" 'Roach' yelled back narrowing his eyes at 'Fossil Breath'.

"You wanna take this outside!?!" 'Fossil Breath' offered raising a fist to Roach's face.

From the corner of 'Roach's eye, he spotted a certain part of the school that made his face curl up into a wicked smile. "That can wait…right now I see our target…"

'Fossil Breath' looked up and a smile crept on his face. The two of them were standing directly in front of the school's card shop. "…That's a good reason…"

/--//---//-/-/-/--/

Two hours had almost passed when the exam had begun, and a small portion of the students were rushing through the exam. Van was writing frantically barely having any time to actually ponder the question.

Rena was panicking pulling her hair slightly as she struggled on the problem she was on.

While on the other hand, Ganryu was calmly filling in a question he saved later…

Ironically, all three of them were on the same question.

Van silently read the question to himself. "_It's your turn. Your opponent has 2050 life points with a Millennium Shield in defense mode on their side of the field as well as a face down monster (Man-Eater Bug). You have 1000 life points left, only one face down card on the field, and one monster and one spell card in your hand. Explain what three cards you have in your hand and field might be in order for you to win during this turn. Come up with at least two combinations."_

'_How does anyone know this!?!?'_ Rena panicked in her head while thinking of the answers.

"Heh…" Ganryu chuckled to himself as he wrote down the answer. '_You'd have to be an idiot to not to be able to get this answer…'_

"Pencils down!" Professor Kryancelo shouted slamming his hands into his desk. "Any unanswered questions you haven't finished yet…well too bad! But I do have some good news…the new cards have arrived, so at least wait till I get out of the way before you go rushing to get them…"

"Hurry up! Before they're all gone!" Klein shouted into the air leading a mass of students towards the door. Koji was being dragged by a majority of them.

After a majority of the class had exited the room with Klein leading the way, Van stood up and stretched his arms. "That wasn't too bad after all!" That's when he noticed a small gloomy aura around Rena. "Uh…you okay?"

"I suck…" Rena sulked even further into a depressed mood. "I know I did horrid on the exams…"

Rukia walked up behind Van and looked at her depressed friend, didn't take much to realize what Rena was fretting over. "…She thinks she failed?"

"Yep…" Van replied.

"Relax Rena…there's always the field exam…" Rukia comforted sitting down next to Rena. "Um…maybe we should get some of those cards in the shop. I mean after all, they could help for the next part…"

"Hey…where'd the cold stiff get to?" Van asked referring to Ganryu.

"I saw him head out of the room," Rena sighed pointing towards the door…just when Ganryu walked back into the classroom.

"Speak of the devil…" Van chuckled to himself. "Where'd you head off to you cold-hearted stiff?"

Ganryu looked down at his fellow Slifer Red. "None of your business."

/--//-/--//--//-/

"Hyohyohyohyo! Those fools!" 'Roach' laughed to himself looking at the many packs of duel monster cards he held in his hands. There were even more packs in a small bag that 'Fossil Breath' carried in his hands. "While we've got the cards, while those fools get nothing!"

"I can barely wait to power up my dinos with these cards!" 'Fossil Breath' snickered to himself.

"Maybe we could find our own boat and not give any of these cards to that American has been," 'Roach' suggested pocketing the packs in his pants.

"Finally! It's been ages since you've had a decent idea!" 'Fossil Breath' commented crossing his arms.

"Sir…you have nuhzing to worry about."

Both 'Fossil Breath' and 'Roach' turned their heads to the side down a separate hallway to find the source of the voice. If they were found out here, then they'd be basically screwed. The two men jumped to the wall and slowly peered beside the wall.

Down the hall stood at least five cloaked people standing in front of a non-cloaked man who didn't even look to be in his early twenties. His sickly pale body was topped off with pitch black hair with white highlights tied back into a ponytail. He seemed to be gothic with his black overcoat (that looked similar to the Obelisk Blue Students' overcoat), a tight black muscle shirt and had baggy dark gray cargo pants that looked to have something in each of the pockets. "I…should…hope so…Rosen…" The way this leader was talking, it sounded as if that each breath he took was painful before he even spoke to his subordinates.

The cloaked person, apparently named Rosen, stood up and raised a hand into the air. "Moi have calculated ze numbers sir…moi is am confident zat I shall be able to get past ze opponent zat ze beautiful academy has set up for moi."

"Excellent…and have…you made sure that…you're not using…your…true deck?" the Gothic leader asked raising his hand to his mouth to cover up a cough.

"Oui, oui! Moi has prepared to take it easy on ze lovely opponent moi has been selected to face…" Rosen replied lifting a small blue rose from his dark cloak. "Now zen, I must be getting to ze arena before moi's match begins."

The Gothic leader bobbed his head up and down realizing that Lancet was right. "I see…later we'll begin…the plan…"

"Exquisite!" Rosen exclaimed before walking past the rest of the group. "I'll see you all later in ze day!"

'Roach' and 'Fossil Breath' blinked at each other in confusion at what had just happened before them but shook it off and quickly walked away from the hallway, hoping to not to be caught by those freaks.

/--//-/-/-/-//-

Meanwhile in the duel academy's examination field, many of the students were already dueling for their field exam. Many of the students who weren't dueling were sitting in the stands waiting for their turn to come up.

"So you're saying that none of the new packs were there?" Rukia asked a slightly depressed Klein.

A loud sigh managed to get free from Klein's mouth before he smiled goofy to his other Slifer Red. "Yeah…good thing I managed to get the regular packs! And I'll use these to get out of that greedy stiff's debt!"

What Klein didn't realize that Ganryu was sitting directly behind the shorter duelist. Almost as a reaction to the comment, Ganryu swiftly brought his leg to Klein's head and sent him flying into the arena dropping a few of the packs he hand in his hands. Rukia just sweatdropped at the sight of the flying red student. "Okay…hey Ganryu, you know where Rena and Van are?"

"…Went to check who they're facing…" Ganryu stiffly replied crossing his arms and lifting his legs onto the seat in front of him. "Koji too…"

"…That's the most I've heard you say without referring to an insult to start off…" Rukia stated with an astonished voice.

In response to that, Ganryu glared daggers at Rukia with a blood vessel appearing on the back of his head. '_What I wouldn't give for a moment of silence…'_

While the confrontation was going on, Rena, Van and Koji stood up with multiple students around them, all of them starring at the electronic board in front of them that had the names of who was dueling who and in which arena.

"Uh…do you guys see me anywhere?" Rena turned towards her friends.

Koji shook his head at Rena's question, but pointed towards the board where his name was. "Nope, but I've got a match with a guy named Kazuki later today…"

"Oh yeah, we've never seen you duel before," Rena realized smiling down at the shorter duelist. "What kind of deck do you have?"

"I'll just say…it's out of this world," Koji replied, actually sounding happy that someone was actually interested about him.

"I see…still going for that strategy?" Van asked to get a nod from his short friend. "Nice…"

"Howdy d'ere guys!"

At the same time, all three Slifer Red students turned around to see Tony and Leo standing behind them. In his right hand, Tony held onto a special pack of Duel monster cards that didn't even look familiar to any of the reds.

"Hey Tony, hey Leo," Rena replied with a smile.

"Ah…it appears that you've grown accustomed to our appearances…" Leo sighed in disappointment, but was still able to pull off his calm demeanor.

"Well, you guys need to be more creative when you appear," Rena suggested…not knowing that later she would regret saying that…

"Hmm…very well," Leo snickered before turning towards the board. "So…who are you facing up against Rena?"

"Well, I really couldn't find my name up on the board…" Rena answered scratching the back of her head in embarrassment.

Tony just smiled and walked up to Rena. "No worries d'ere Miss! Your name jus came up and you're facing…" At the sight of the other name, Tony's eyes widened and he almost drop his jaw. "I don't believe it…"

A question mark flashed over Rena's head, making her walk past Tony to see her name across another's. She slowly read the name written across. "Antonio Rosencrantz?"

"Rosencrantz?" Leo questioned rubbing his chin. "He sounds familiar…"

"He should…" Tony replied with a dark tone in his usual cheery voice. "He's a transfer student from Paris…the Junior Champ of the French Leagues."

"What!?!" Rena shouted turning ghostly pale. "W-why is he here then?"

"Ya see, he happened ta hear that American duelists were startin' ta get better," Tony explained looking down at the pack in his hands. "So he wanted to see how the next generation here would turn out and learn how to defeat them…"

"And I get to face him?" Rena stuttered lowering her head. "Just my luck…"

Seeing this, Tony held the pack he managed to come up with. He smiled to himself and held it up to Rena. "It may not be much consolation…but here ya go."

Tony dropped the pack in Rena's hands, making even more confused. "Um…why are you giving this to me?"

Tony rubbed his chin in deep thought for a few seconds before his face widened into a large smile. "Hmm…Why not?"

"…Can you be any more confusing?" Van asked raising an eyebrow at Tony's response.

"Actually yes," Tony replied with a more evil looking smile.

"He's starting to scare me…" Koji replied stepping behind Van.

"Oh…Am I not the scary one any more?" Leo asked scratching the side of his cheek.

"Prove us with your next entrance," Van challenged crossing his arms.

"No worries there," Leo chuckled softly to himself.

That's when Rena noticed the time written next to her name. "Oh man! My match starts soon!"

"Well then...see ya after da match! We'll be heading off ta our seats!" Tony wished before heading off with Leo towards the stands.

"I need to get ready for my match, it's against a guy named Deo…" Van replied before taking off.

"My match isn't until later…" Koji replied standing next to Rena. "Although…knowing Klein…he's probably getting into trouble again…"

"It's okay Koji…" Rena replied smiling at the younger of the Drei twins.

"So…what'd you get in that pack?" Koji asked looking at it. "I've never actually seen a pack that had that design on it before…"

It was weird, the pack was a weird metallic blue color that had a small cute green jumping on the cover. The pack didn't even have a name written on it. Rena shrugged as she began to open the pack. "Same here…"

When the pack was open, Rena and Koji slowly looked at the cards inside and there eyes widened at the rare card in the pack…

"NO WAY!"

/--/-/--/-//-//

A few minutes later, Rena was standing at her dueling arena with other students dueling on both sides of her from a distance. "…Aren't I the one who's usually late?"

"My apologies madam," A snooty voice filled with a rich French accent apologized. "Moi was in a small meeting…"

Rena turned her head from the side and saw that a person who would fit the Frenchman type. He was a skinny person wearing a pink dyed Slifer Red jacket over a tight black shirt and pants. On his left arm was a bubble gum pink version of the Academy duel disk. His slick black hair was short in the back, yet was large in the front. "Allow moi to introduce moi. I am ze lovely Antonio Rosencrantz!" At that, Antonio lifted up a small blue rose. "Moi is honored to have ze beauty of a lovely red flower as yourself; you must also be honored to face moi."

"Well…If a stomach cramp counts as honor…" Rena sighed lowering her head.

"Oh my," Antonio chuckled to himself before he laughed slightly to himself. "Mademoiselle you are one of ze more interesting moi has seen in ze beautiful academy so far…"

"…I'm sorry, but I can barely understand you," Rena sighed scratching the side of her head.

Hearing that, Antonio began to fall to the side before standing back up on his feet with his eyes narrowed. "H-how dare you!?! You are making moi angry! And when zat happens, wrinkles start to form! Moi has to be young to keep ze title moi has earned!"

'_This guy's nuts!'_ Rena sweatdropped at the fact that this guy was actually worried about wrinkles. Heck, the guy didn't look older than Rena did.

"Now zen! Let us commence!" Antonio shouted activating his bubble gum pink duel disk. (ALP: 8000)

"Um…Let's duel…?" Rena questioned shuffling her deck. (RLP: 8000)

"DUEL!"

Antonio elegantly drew his next card and looked at his card. "Truly a beautiful draw…Moi will set two cards and a guard face down."

Three face down cards appeared in front of Antonio, two of them vertical while the other was horizontal. "Zat end zis turn…now zen…let's see what you've got…'

"You got it!" Rena announced pulling her sixth card from her deck. "Yes! Say hello to my first card! The field spell card, Ancient Forest! Welcome to Lothorein!"

Immediately, the area around the two duelists was replaced with trees that began to grow taller than skyscrapers and sprouted lush leaves that blocked most of the lights above the two duelists. In the trees above the two, were multiple spiral stairs that led up to wood huts occupying the branches.

Antonio didn't even flinch at the sight of the trees surrounding him and Rena. "Ah…a fan of ze Lord of ze Rings, are you?"

"Blame my brother…" Rena giggled looking at her next card in her hand. "Anyway, this field spell card gives all elf monsters an additional three hundred attack point bonus. Plus they can't be destroyed by spell cards."

"Ah…I shall make a note of zat," Antonio said crossing his arms in front of his chest. "Now zen, please continue wiz your turn."

Rena nodded back to Antonio and lifted another card from her hand. "Right! I summon Archer Elf (1300/450 +300/0) in attack mode!"

From one of the huts in the trees, leapt a new elf, this one wearing a brown wooden vest over a moss green tunic over his muscular body. A light brown quiver was wrapped around his back and a wooden bow is in a hand (1300/450 +300/0). As the elf landed on the ground, he pulled an arrow from his bow and prepared to fire it on command. "Next I'll lay down a face down…"

"Most interesting…A fantasy deck," Antonio commented rubbing his forehead slightly. "Moi zinks zat will not do against my cards zough…"

"We'll see about that," Rena replied raising her hand towards her lone elf. "Archer Elf! Take down that defense!"

With a swift pull on the arrow, the Archer Elf fired a lone arrow towards the face down card. When the card was pierced through the back, a large amount of armored goblins appeared yelling in pain (2300/0) before shattering into pixels.

Rena just stood there confused at the sight of the monsters' death. "Goblin Attack Force? Why did you have it in defense mode?"

"Simple…so moi could activate zis trap card!" Antonio announced through his hand over his face down card.

The card flipped up to reveal several people dressed in midlevel clothing preparing a plan. "It is called, Cause for Revolution! It activates when a monster wiz over two zousend attack points is destroyed on moi's side of ze field! It zen allows both of us to take two monsters from our beautiful decks…but only if zey are level zree and have less zan ze attack points of ze destroyed monster."

"…I barely understood that…" Rena sighed pulling her deck from her duel disk and fanned it out. She immediately selected two of the cards and added them into her hand.

Antonio did the same, but had a devilish grin on his face appear when he looked at his cards. "Now zen…do you have anymore cards you wish to use?"

"Nah, I'm good," Rena responded with a smile. "Okay, I know he's got a few monsters in his hand…but they shouldn't be too much to deal with…right?"

"Wrong madam," Antonio interjected wagging his finger towards Rena. "For you see…zanks to zee, moi was able to acquire zee necessary cards to accomplish zis feat!"

"Whatever you just said forget it!" Rena shouted while watching Antonio draw his next card.

"Oh zat's so cute!" Antonio laughed into the air with his free hand next to his mouth. "You make sound as zough you have a choice in ze matter!"

'Well, it's too bad you can only summon one monster per turn…" Rena started to say…

But was then interrupted when Antonio lifted up a card from his hand. "Zat is why I have zis in moi's deck. Ze spell card, Viva Revolution!"

The spell card materialized in front of the French Duelist, showing multiple commoners charging towards multiple knights. "Zis spell card allows me to summon two monsters from moi's hand…just as long as zere combined attack points are lower zen the weakest monster you have out…so zat's no problem!"

With a quick flick of his hands, Antonio immediately slapped two of the cards he had in his hands onto his duel disk. Immediately following, two flashes of light erupted from the ground before forming into a very large amount of figures. There had to be at least twenty people standing in front of Antonio. Half of them looked to be simple commoner people with terrified looks on their faces (600/600), while the other half were farm people who looked to be in worse shape with the looks of anguish on their faces(400/2000).

"Meet Oppressed People and People Running About!" Antonio laughed loudly even scaring his own monsters.

"Okay…I don't get why you summoned them…" Rena stated with a large question mark appearing over her head.

"It will in a mere moment my dear…" Antonio replied lifting up his next card. "For now moi shall summon ze monster that will tip ze duel in moi's favor! United Resistance rise up!"

From behind the multiple holographic trees ran out many militia soldiers each wielding a sword and a makeshift shield (1000/400) in their arms. When the soldiers walked up next to the Oppressed People and People Running About, they seemed to make them brighten their faces up into smiles.

"I don't get it…what's with these monsters?" Rena asked scratching the top of her head.

"Simple, you see madam, zese many monsters are under ze rule of a tyrant," Antonio explained raising his hand to the trees around him. "Ze monsters were zrown from zere homes unless zey were to fight in a pointless war. When zat happens, ze people harbor hatred for zeir leaders…You Americans need to consider all of ze zings zat your government does…"

"That was random…" Rena stated with a large sweat droplet appearing on the back of her head.

"It all as a reason, moi assures you…" Antonio replied lifting his hand over his other face down card. "So let moi ask you a question madam. What happens when people are faced with an over tyrannical leader?"

"Well that's easy…Revolution…" Rena answered when Antonio's face down card began to flip face up.

"Correct! Or in zis case, Huge Revolution!" Antonio announced as a powerful electrical surge pulsated through out the entire forest. "And now! Watch as my French Revolution deck's true power!"

The electricity surged through out the entire forest, shocking every card on Rena's side of the field, as well as the Archer Elf. That wasn't all, electricity surged from Rena's duel disk making her yelp out in pain and drop her hand of cards. "AH!"

Then with a great flash, the entire forest shattered around the two duelists, leaving Antonio with his sizable hand and three monsters…

…And Rena with absolutely nothing. "Wh-what the heck was that?"

"Huge Revolution's effect," Antonio replied sliding the card into his graveyard. "When I have ze Oppressed People, People Running About, and United Resistance on moi's side of ze field, and moi activates zis card, every card in your hand and field is sent to ze graveyard."

"That card's got to be illegal!" Rena protested before she noticed that all three groups of Antonio's monsters surrounded her, all of them with enraged looks on their faces.

"Typical American attitude, when something tips ze scale from your power," Antonio sighed raising his light blue rose towards Rena. "You try to find a loophole to get ze advantage back. Moi's trap card is perfectly legal, and ze ozer two in moi's deck are legal as well…"

"But zat's for later! Now zen…attack the madam directly my monsters!"

All of Antonio's monsters charged towards a panicking Rena. In a few moments Rena and a large dust cloud covered up all of the action. But with all of the sound effects, it was definite that the monsters were ganging up on Rena.

When the dust cleared with the many monsters running from the sight, Rena was a little bruised up, but still standing. (RLP: 6000)

"Dang that hurts…" Rena sighed lowering her head. "But I'm still in this!"

"Moi sees zat…" Antonio replied fitting another card into his duel disk. "And hopefully, you see zis face down card. Moi's beautiful turn is over."

'_Come on monster…'_ Rena slowly drew her next card, but then lowered her head at the sight of the card. "…End turn…"

"Nozing, eh?" Antonio asked elegantly drawing his next card. "Too bad…but zen again…you've got a bigger problem in front of you. Now my monsters! Attack her directly!"

Once again the three groups of monsters charged on Rena, smacking her around for a few good minutes before heading back to Antonio. (RLP: 4000)

"Already down to half of your lovely life points…" Antonio sighed looking at his face down card. "And not a scratch on moi's…such a disgrace wouldn't you agree madam?"

"What exactly does that mean?" Rena asked glaring daggers at the French duelist.

"Nothing personal, but you really aren't ze American duelists I've been looking for," Antonio sighed once more this time rubbing his forehead from stress. "Moi came here to see what duelists here were like; moi is guessing zat you duelists aren't like ze Japanese duelists moi sees."

"…That's what you think?" Rena asked slowly drawing her next card. "Well, it'll be a pleasure to prove you wrong!"

'_It seems that I actually whipped her into frenzy…'_ Antonio couldn't help but smile at this fact.

'_Finally!'_

"I'll summon a monster face down," Rena announced as the face down monster appeared before her. "And that's it!"

"Really? Zat's it?" Antonio asked with his eyes widened at that.

Rena slowly nodded her head in response.

"Moi has seen some moves before, but zat one has to take ze cake for cheapest move…" Antonio commented drawing his next card. At the sight of it, a small chuckle came from his mouth. "Moi will guess zat it's time for zis duel to be done. First, moi activates the spell card, Shield Crush! And just like ze name says, it crushes any monsters zat dares to hide in defense mode! So unless zat card is Winged Kuriboh, zen zis duel is over wiz!"

A powerful yellow light appeared over Antonio's head, that suddenly surged over the field and crashed directly into Rena's face down card shattering it into pixels. The card revealed to be a small cute emerald green half beast with cute large black eyes and pointy ears that looked like his sharp pointed back hair. On his forehead was a large red beautiful jewel. The monster's hands and feet were covered by white cartoon gloves and boots. (200/300) The monster squeaked in pain before shattering into a large sum of light.

"Moi may not know what zat was, but zat doesn't matter," Antonio replied lifting another card from his hand. "And zis card shall be it. Moi summons Revolutionary Leader (1500/0)!"

A bright light appeared behind the multiple oppressed people; they all turned around and then moved to the sides. From what Rena could see, they were all giving respect to the newest monster that had just appeared behind them.

The young man slowly walked past the cheering people, his long brown hair flowing behind his royal blue head band and black vest. At his baggy brown pants was a fancy silver sword that hung without a sheathe. The warrior smiled brightly at the sight of Rena and his eyes were replaced by hearts. Antonio slapped his forehead at the sight of his monster. "Damn it! Get your head out of ze clouds and focus!"

"Huh?" Rena questioned raising an eyebrow.

"Now zen, I'll equip my Revolutionary Leader wiz Sword of ze Soul Eater!" Antonio announced fitting his next card into his duel disk. At that moment, a powerful sharp black sword appeared in the Revolutionary Leader's hands. The monster seemed to hate the sight of the sword in his hands. "Now zen, all moi has to do is send normal monsters from my side of field to ze graveyard, zen moi's leader gains one zousend attack points per monster!"

The Revolutionary leader's eyes widened as he turned his head to see his followers moaning in pain as a dark aura appeared over their bodies. The same aura surged over the sword in the Revolutionary Leader's hands (1500/0 + 3000/0). All of a sudden, the leader's followers suddenly turned to stone, and then turned to dust.

The Revolutionary Leader turned his head back to see Antonio laughing loudly. "And now, wiz nozing to hold him back, he will be able to strike you down madam. Attack her directly!"

In response, the Revolutionary Leader turned back to Antonio and glared at his master. After a small glaring contest, the Revolutionary Leader slowly walked towards Rena raising the sword in the air.

Rena raised her duel disk in response and prepared herself. '_Bring it on!'_

'_Please…forgive me…'_

'_Huh?'_ Rena's eyes widened as she looked around to try to find where that voice came from. That's when her eyes fell on the Revolutionary Leader coming closer and closer with his dark sword gleaming in the light.

"Hurry zis up!" Antonio ordered making the Revolutionary Leader run towards Rena with tears in his eyes.

Just as the Revolutionary Leader was about to slash Rena across the chest, a faint green small figure appeared before Rena blocking the sword. Antonio and Revolutionary Leader's eyes widened at this. "What is happening?!?"

"Remember that monster you destroyed with Shield Crush?" Rena replied reaching into her graveyard, she then lifted up a monster card and smiled. "It's called Reflect Carbuncle! And all I have to do is remove it from the graveyard and…well see for yourself!"

The small figure transformed into a large green barrier that shattered into glass, turning into a large blast of powerful light that pierced right through the Revolutionary Leader.

The monster however seemed to smile at his destruction and gave Rena a weakened thumbs up.

Antonio on the other hand…

"So…zat monster has a Mirror Force ability…" Antonio growled to himself looking at his cards. "…Since zat excuse of a monster saved you…Moi won't be able to summon anozer monster…"

"Then I guess you won't mind if I draw!" Rena announced pulling her next card from her deck. "I play Pot of Greed!"

"Fine! Zen take your two cards," Antonio shrugged off crossing his arms.

At the sight of her new cards, Rena smiled. "Okay, first I'll summon Obnoxious Celtic Guard (1400/1200)!"

With a bright light the elf swordsman appeared on the field raising his sword at Antonio, his eyes narrowed down at the French Duelist. "And now…I'll play the spell card Monster Reborn!"

A holy light began to appear in front of Rena, and suddenly the Revolutionary Leader (1500/0) walked from the light with a great big smile plastered on his face. "And guess who likes to say hello!"

"Go ahead, take zat weakling!" Antonio laughed pointing his hand at the Revolutionary Leader.

"We'll see about that!" Rena replied lifting the last card in her hand. "Let's see if the Revolutionary Leader is a chosen warrior…I equip him with Excalibur!"

Antonio's eyes widened as a beautiful shinning sword appeared in the Revolutionary Leader's hands (1500/0 + 1500/0). '_H…how dare she! How dare zat woman play zat card!'_

"Now then, double direct attack!" Rena announced as both of her monsters leapt towards Antonio, both of them raising their swords ready to slice the opponent in two.

Antonio didn't even have a second to react when both of the warriors slashed across his chest and forced him flying to the ground. (ALP: 3600)

The French duelist slowly stood up and glared daggers at Rena. "It'll take a lot more zan zat to beat me to ze ground!"

Antonio drew his next card and looked at the card. "...Moi…Moi…ends moi turn…"

Rena just smiled, she wasn't allowed to draw due to Excalibur's effect. "Let's do this again boys! Double direct attack!"

Once more, the two warriors charged Antonio and immediately slashed their swords across his chest sending him flying over the side of the duel arena. '_How? How is zis possible?!?! Madam, you haven't seen ze last of moi!'_

Rena held her breath when her two warriors ran back to her side of the field. When the holograms didn't disappear, she knew something was up.

"Ho ho ho! It'll take more zen zat to take moi down!" Antonio laughed standing back on his feet. He held up his duel disk to show he still had life points. (ALP: 3200)

"What the? How could you have that many life points?" Rena asked with a puzzled look on her face.

Antonio gestured towards his now flipped up trap card. It was a familiar trap called Nutrient Z. "Moi is sure ze madam knows what zis cad does…"

"Well that definitely explains your life points…" Rena sighed looking at her empty hands. '_Maybe playing Excalibur wasn't the best idea…'_

"Now zen! Let's get zis duel back to moi's favor!" Antonio laughed pulling his next card. At the sight of it, a small laugh emerged from his lips. "And zese are ze cards zat shall bring out moi's strongest monster! But first, moi activates ze spell card, Card of Sanctity! So we both draw till we boz have six cards!"

As Rena drew her cards, the Excalibur sword shattered in the Revolutionary Leader's (1500/0) hands. "Now zen, moi plays ze spell card, All Ze King's Men!"

Antonio's new spell card flashed onto the field, revealing many people standing before an empty royal throne. "Now all moi has to do is give up half of moi's life points…" (ALP: 1600)

As Antonio's life point counter began to drop, three spirits flew from his graveyard and began to float in front of him. "…Zen, moi can remove monsters from moi's graveyard and use zem as if zey were tributes! So moi will remove Oppressed People, People Running About, and United Resistance! To summon ze king of Knights himself!"

The three spirits flew into the air before colliding with each other into a large blinding light. Rena held her arm up to block the light from her eyes.

When she lowered her arm, her jaw fell as well to the ground. The monster that stood behind Antonio was the cause, mainly because it was a warrior that stood a good twenty feet tall. Its beautiful gold armor had multiple dragon emblems on it, with a flowing red cape attached at the shoulder armor. In the large knight's hands, was a finely crafted jewel encrusted sword that gleamed in the light (2950/2600). When the warrior raised his sword into the air, a powerful wing gust swept through the playing field while Antonio laughed. "Meet ze true king! Knight of ze Round – King Arzur!"

"…I'll go out on a limb here and guess King Arthur…" Rena gaped looking at the large golden knight behind Antonio.

"Zat is what moi said!" Antonio shouted raising his fist. "Now zen…moi's warrior can attack every monster ze madam has on her side of ze field!"

"What?!?" Rena questioned as the large knight raised it's sword into the air.

"Attack with Sword of ze Round!" Antonio commanded King Arthur, to have the monster raise its sword up into the air and bring it down between both of Rena's monsters. "Just be glad zat wiz my All Ze King's Men ozer effect, moi's monster cannot destroy yours zrough battle…"

The force of the sword sent the Obnoxious Celtic Guard and the Revolutionary Leader flying to the side wounded, but not dead. However, Rena's life points weren't as lucky when the force struck her a few feet back. (RLP: 1000)

"And wiz zis face down card, zat wraps up moi's turn," Antonio laughed to himself crossing his arms. "So let's see if you have anyzing left in zat deck of yours…"

"Oh you'll see alright!" Rena announced drawing her next card and looking at the cards in her hand. '_Okay…That Reflect Carbuncle was a good card in that pack…but it wasn't the only thing I managed to get out of it…time to see if this will work!'_

"First off, I'll summon Thoroughbred Elf (1800/1500) in attack mode!" Rena announced with her fighter elf jumping over her next to the other monsters she had out. "And next I'll activate Quick Summon!"

"Quick Summon?" Antonio questioned before both of Rena's elves disappeared into light.

"That's right! Quick summon allows me to normal summon another monster this turn, and this one requires tributes!" Rena explained placing the two monster cards into her graveyard. "So let's give a round of applause for Mana Dragon!"

A small bright purple light appeared before Rena, quickly forming into a small cute aqua purple dragon with cute yellow eyes and wings that were larger than its body. On its chest was a large blue sparkling jewel (0/0). The dragon squeaked in joy at being on the field.

"…What ze heck is zat?" Antonio questioned with a sweatdrop appearing the back of his head.

"My Mana Dragon…" Rena replied.

"B-b-but it's so weak!" Antonio pointed out when suddenly a powerful blue aura surrounded the dragon.

"True…but his effect makes his attack and defense the combine attack of both monsters that I sacrificed!" Rena explained as her dragon began to perform multiple muscle man poses as its muscles began to pulsate (3200/3200).

"But, zat means…" Antonio gasped at the sight of the powerful dragon.

"Yep! My dragon's stronger than your monster!" Rena shouted when her dragon flew up into the air. The dragon lowered his head towards the knight with a powerful charged sapphire fire.

"No!" Antonio shouted into the air.

The dragon fired a powerful blast that immediately engulfed the legendary knight making him roar into pain. The warrior shattered into shards that flew past Antonio's head, scratching his face a little. "M-m-m-Moi's face! She is ruined!" (ALP: 1250)

That's when he noticed the angered Revolutionary Leader standing in front of him. "What ze? Get back you traitor!"

"You're the one calling him that after you betrayed his people," Rena replied crossing her arms. "Attack him directly!"

The Revolutionary Leaders slammed his fist directly into Antonio's face sending the French duelist flying with part of his hair flying off. Rena's eyes widened at the sight of the hairpiece falling to the ground. "He was wearing a wig!?!?"

"It's not a wig!" Antonio shouted crawling towards his wig, the top of his head was bald…which really explained the wig. "It's a hair enhancement device!" (ALP: 0)

"Whatever you say…" Rena whistled as the holograms disappeared.

Antonio glared at the fading Revolutionary Leader. "Zat traitor…keep zat damned card! Moi hate zat card! You haven't seen ze last of moi!"

Rena just sweatdropped as she watched Antonio running off with tears streaming from his eyes and adjusting his 'hair enhancement device.' "…Well that was a weird duel…"

Shaking her head, Rena looked at her cards. "Well…at least I've got some new cards and hopefully a good score on my field exam…if only my written exam was better…"

**/--//-/---/-/--//-**

_Duelist Stats_

_Name: Antonio Rosencrantz_

_Deck Type: French Revolution/Knight's Nightmare_

_Being the French Junior Champ, he's bound to know some powerful combos and moves. Being born in France and being the junior champ, that's all the academy knows about him. _

_He says that he fights for his people, but he actually has a deep disrespect for his cards as many people have seen it. However, it maybe because he has a better deck and doesn't feel that anyone he faces deserves its true power…_

_…Maybe he finally found someone to use that deck on…_

**/-/-/--//--//-/-**

**Card Stats**

**Shield Crush / Spell / Effect:** Destroy one defense position monster on the field.

**Image:** A powerful yellow blast surging through a Millennium shield.

This card was first used by Syrus/Sho in Yugioh GX.

**Cause For Revolution / Trap / Effect:** This card can only be activated when a monster on your side of the field with two thousand or more attack points is destroyed. All players may take two level three or lower monsters who attack points are less than the destroyed monster.

**Image: **several people dressed in midlevel clothing preparing a plan

**Revolutionary Leader / Earth / LV. 3 / ATK: 1500 / DEF: 0 / Warrior:** This brave soldier respects his followers and wishes for a time to lead them from a tyrant's hold.

**Description:** A young man his long brown hair flowing behind his royal blue head band and black vest. At his baggy brown pants was a fancy silver sword that hung without a sheathe.

**All the King's Men / Spell / Effect:** Pay half of your life points. During this turn, if you summon a tribute you may remove the correct amount of monsters from your graveyard. The monster summoned by this card's effect cannot destroy your opponent's monsters as a result of battle or attack your opponent directly as long as it's on the field.

**Image:** many people standing before an empty royal throne

**Knight of the Round – King Arthur / Light / LV. 12 / ATK: 2950 / DEF: 2600 / Warrior/Effect:** This card may attack all of your opponent's face up monsters at once. For each monster in your graveyard with 'Knight' in their name, increase the attack of this card by 100 points per card.

**Description:** An extremely tall king in beautiful gold armor had multiple dragon emblems on it, with a flowing red cape attached at the shoulder armor. In the large knight's hands, was a finely crafted jewel encrusted sword that gleamed in the light

**Archer Elf / Wind / LV. 3 / ATK: 1300 / DEF: 450 / Warrior/Effect:** Once per turn, you may lower the attack and defense of one monster on the field by 400 points.

**Description:** A semi-muscular blonde elf wearing a brown vest with a forest green tunic. A light brown quiver is wrapped around his back and a wooden bow is in a hand.

**Ancient Forest / Field Spell / Effect:** Increase the attack of all monsters on your side of the field with 'Elf', 'Half-Elf', 'Elven' or 'Celtic' by 300 points. The monsters with the following card names, cannot be destroyed by spell cards.

**Image:** A beautiful forest with multiple elves hiding behind the trees.

**Reflect Carbuncle / LV. 1 / ATK: 200 / DEF: 300 / Beast/Effect:** While this card is in your graveyard, if your opponent declares an attack against you, you may remove this card from your graveyard to negate the attack and destroy all face up attack mode monsters on your opponent's side of the field.

**Description:** A small cute emerald green half beast with cute large black eyes and pointy ears that look like his sharp pointed back hair. On his forehead is a large red beautiful jewel. His hands and feet are covered by white cartoon gloves and boots.

**Mana Dragon / LV. 8 / ATK/ DEF/ Dragon/Effect:** The original ATK of this card becomes equal to the combined original ATK of the two monsters you Tributed for the Tribute Summon of this card. By discarding one monster card from your hand when this card attacks, your opponent cannot chain with spell or trap cards.

**Description:** A small cute aqua purple dragon with cute yellow eyes and wings that are larger than its body. On its chest is a large blue sparkling jewel.

/--/-//-/--//-

**Rena:** Hey guys! I won my match!

**Tony:** Congrats Rena! But that's old news!

**Rena:** That's just rude!

**Leo:** You must forgive us…but the Kaiser match is about to begin. And you won't believe who the Kaiser is facing…

**Rena:** Is that…

**_Next time, the best on the island reveals themselves – Chapter 10: Clash of the Titans!_**

**Rena:** Ganryu!


	10. Chapter 10: Clash of the Titans!

_…**Hmm…what the hell?**_

_…_

_…**What do you want?**_

**_Need me to speak?_**

**_Why should I?_**

**_Huh…Interested in what's going on in my head right now? _**

_…**Sure…I'll answer that question…**_

**_I'm Ganryu Dashiben…_**

**_I have a few reasons to come here, some I can't say…one that I can say is that I came here to find some decent challenges to get to my other goals…_**

**_So far I've faced off against that fire wielding pushover this school calls a teacher, and that Obelisk Blue who pretended to hide that his affliction (even though our match was cut short thanks to his brother)._**

**_Pretty much so, many people seem to get the wrong idea about this whole ordeal…even my father and older brother don't seem to understand…_**

**_This is my story… these are my ordeals… and I'll decide how my story ends!_**

**_This new ordeal that stands before me…it's only another step on the path to my story's ending!_**

**_I refuse to let my story turn this way!_**

**_But…this is really weird, my samurai against…well, these cards…_**

_…**It's just plain weird.**_

**_Normal for things that happen here…_**

**_/-/-/---//-/-/-//-/_**

**_Chapter 10_**

**_Clash of the Titans!_**

_**/-/-/--//-/-//-/-///-**_

"Hmm…so the French junior champion lost to a no named girl…"

'Fossil Breath' and 'Roach' stood at the hall's entrance to the duel arenas, 'Fossil Breath' was currently opening a few of the packs he and Roach managed to get from the store. Roach just finished watching the French Junior champ run off the arena. "…Hyohyohyohyo! It's pathetic to see stuff like that wouldn't you say?"

"Yeah…but remember," Fossil Breath sighed lifting his next cards into his pocket. "We lost to practically no-names before and they became the biggest things since sliced bread…"

"Don't remind me…" Roach sighed heavily slumping his head down.

"What do we have here?" That voice made Fossil Breath and Roach freeze up immediately and slowly turn around.

Standing behind the two was a young tanned man wearing a metal silver vest over a black muscle shirt and baggy cargo pants. A huge smile was planted on his face over a small dark gray goatee. His dark gray hair, spiked in the back with black highlights in the front seemed to wave in a nonexistent wind.

"I think we're screwed…" Fossil Breath cursed under his breath to Roach.

"Gee, ya think!?!" Roach shouted out making the mysterious man laugh out loud.

/-/-//-/-//--/-/-/

"Now where are those guys…?" Rena asked herself walking through the hallways to the stands. After getting a test grade from Professor Maria, she had decided to find her friends, they were somewhere.

Just as Rena took her next step, the floor in front of her flew open, making her jump backwards out of surprise. "What the?!?"

"Ah…hello Rena…"

"Howdy ma'am!"

Rena looked down to see Leo and Tony standing where the floor was, only it looked like they were standing on a stairway that led somewhere. "Whoa…you guys…what in the world is this?"

"Well, it's our newest entrance," Tony laughed stepping from the stairs. "There happens to be these tunnels under da school needed fer emergencies. But many people fergot about them, so me and Leo decided to use them ta our advantage."

Leo just smirked jumping from the entrance way to the stairs. "So…what do you think of our entrance here?"

"Well…it certainly took me by surprise…" Rena replied with a sweatdrop appearing on the back of her head.

All of a sudden, a loud explosion caught all three student's attentions making them turn towards a nearby hall entrance to the duel arenas. Tony then noticed some smoke pouring from the same hall and pointed towards it. "Look over there! It came from over there!"

With caution, the three duelists slowly made their way to the hall just as the smoke disappeared into thin air. Confused (except Leo who seemed to be really calm at the moment), the three moved their heads past the wall to see a mysterious dark gray haired man lowering a duel disk on his right arm.

In front of him were two knocked out men who seemed close to the mysterious man's age, many unopened packs of cards were scattered around the ground next to them.

"Heh…he must've just finished dueling…" Tony chuckled to himself slowly stepping into the hall towards the mysterious man. "Hey there! Been a while there mate!"

The mysterious man turned around from his two opponents and looked at Tony. At the sight of him, the weird man jumped next to Tony reaching into his pocket. "TONY! I haven't seen you since the spring!"

"Leo…Who's this weird guy?" Rena asked the two not moving from the other side of the wall's corner.

"Well, he certainly looks familiar…" Leo answered rubbing his chin. "…But, I can't seem to remember from where…"

That's when the mysterious man noticed Rena and Leo standing there. Slowly walking past Tony, the mysterious man slowly began to pull something from his pocket, making Rena sweat slowly…

…Leo just smiled calmly, like he usually did.

"Why hello there, students!" The mysterious man greeted loudly pulling out a picture of himself, with several siblings who resembled him only younger on it. "I'm Alan Wright! And these are my siblings! Pretty cute wouldn't you say?"

Rena's jaw just dropped and multiple sweatdroplets appeared on the back of her head. "Huh?"

Then with a snap of his fingers, Leo stepped from the wall. "Ah now I remember, a Mr. Alan Wright happens to be our principal…"

Rena's eyes widened in shock as she stuttered. "W-What?!? This weirdo's our principal!?!?"

"That's a go little missy!" Alan laughed holding up the photo again. "Aren't my younger brothers and sisters cute?"

"Three of them look to be about your age…" Rena pointed out blinking in confusion looking at the weird principal.

"Yeah…but my first brother happens to be a great star…or used to be so he got paid to look cute!" Alan replied pocketing the photo. That's when he got a good look at Rena and rubbed his chin expectantly. "Ah…wait a minute…you're that girl in the report about getting into this school without a duel…"

"Why does that keep getting brought up…?" Rena sighed lowering her head.

"So Principal Wright…" Tony caught Alan's attention. Tony was gesturing towards the two duelists Alan just finished dueling. "What's with those two?"

With a small smile, Alan turned serious at the sight of the two standing up men growling. "Oh those two…they're a couple of has-been duelists…"

"Watch your tongue! I used to be a champion!" Roach shouted slamming his foot into the ground.

"A lot of good that you two did against me at once," Alan replied lifting up another picture from his pocket. "Although, you two didn't tell what you said about my little baby sister, turning seven this year!"

"NO! No more pictures!" Fossil breath shouted pulling his long brown hair.

"Um…who exactly are they?" Rena asked scratching the side of her head.

That's when the two men jumped towards Rena glaring directly at her. The smaller man wearing the yellow glasses raised his hand up. "Listen little girl! I've been winning duels while you were a little larvae! I'm Weevil Underwood, the insect duelist!"

"And I'm the terror of the past!" The taller man continued on thrusting his hand to his chest. "Rex Raptor! The Dino Duelist!"

The two older duelists' egos seemed to grow as well as their pride.

"Um…who?"

Rex and Weevil seemed to turn to stone and then turn to dust at the fact that this girl didn't know who they were. Leo just seemed to look down at the crumbled duelists. "My, my, my…it can be so harsh that people forget about you…"

"So Rena…I didn't see your match, but how'd ya do?" Tony asked turning back to Rena.

"Well…I actually won…" Rena replied with a cute smile.

"Oh…that's too bad…" Tony sighed before realizing what Rena actually said. "Wait…what?"

"I won…"

"Ya beat the French Junior Champ!?!" Tony shouted in the air with tears in his eyes. '_A real cutie, great to show her emotions and a die hard duelist! I think I'm in love!_'

Rena just blinked at Tony in confusion and then turned to Alan. "So uh…you're the principal?"

"Yep! Ever hear of Edward Wright?" Alan asked smiling cheerfully at Rena.

"Wasn't he the child star?" Rena asked when she put the two together. "Wait, you're related to him?"

"He's my younger brother," Alan replied pulling another picture. This one having a younger version of himself with longer hair in a dynamic pose. In the corner, was the handwritten name 'Ed Wright'. "And he's still trying to make it in the world…although he's been slow lately with a travel dueling show…"

"I hate to break up this conversation, but we must be going," Leo interrupted by appearing in between the two.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Rena questioned with a confused look on her face.

Tony snapped his fingers realizing what was going on. "Oh yeah! The Kaiser's duel!"

"Kaiser?" Rena asked with a more confused look on her face.

"It's the title given to the top duelist here at the school," Alan explained walking over to Rex and Weevil. "After seeing this duel, we'll determine what we'll do with you two…"

"Hey come on! We didn't do anything!" Rex shouted glaring daggers at Alan.

"Yeah!" Weevil added joining Rex in glaring.

With a quick swipe, Alan quickly grasped Weevil and Rex's ears and pulled them hard making the two duelists fall to the ground in pain. "You come into our school, pose as students, and take packs that aren't for you to buy…I could haul you both to the punishment immediately…"

"My ear!" Weevil howled in pain.

"Ow! Let go! Let go!" Rex writhed in annoyance.

"So…let's all go to the Kaiser match!" Alan cheered walking off with Rex and Weevil behind him.

Rena just sweatdropped once more with Leo standing next to her while Tony was still in his own little world with clasped hands. "I guess Van was right…people here are crazy…"

"True…well, let's get to the rest of the gang before the seats are taken," Leo replied walking away with Rena following her.

That's when Tony realized he was the only one in the hall right now. "HEY! Wait fer me!"

/--/-/-//--/-//--//

Kryancelo smirked to himself with his arms crossed, as far as evil ideas went, this one was a good one. Standing in the hall across from him was none other than the duelist who had humiliated him…

…Ganryu Dashiben…

Ganryu was giving Kryancelo his almost patented glare. "…So spill it…what do you want?"

"Eager I see," Kryancelo chuckled rubbing his chin. "…Anyway, I've managed to pull a few strings to get you to fight an Obelisk Blue duelist…"

In response, Ganryu turned his head out of disappointment. He didn't want to face any other Obelisk blue, except maybe Leo, Tony or his favorite choice…Riko. "Not interested…"

"Don't be so hasty…" Kryancelo replied lifting his hand up. "Your opponent will be the top duelist here…"

Ganryu turned his head and raised his eyebrows, making Kryancelo chuckle. "I see…you're interested…what'd ya say?"

Kryancelo held his hand out in front of Ganryu…

"…What's the catch?" Ganryu asked raising his hand.

"Simple, you win, you get promoted to Obelisk Blue," Kryancelo replied with evil gleaming in his eyes. "However…should you lose…"

"Then you'll be the lowest of the low…"

…A moment later, Ganryu's hand clasped Kryancelo's and became a firm handshake. Kryancelo's face curled up into a wicked smile. "Excellent…the Kaiser will face you in a few minutes at the arena at the end of this hall."

As Ganryu walked down the hall pulling out his dueling deck, Kryancelo turned around flicking his hair from his face. '_Kryancelo boy…you truly are evil…'_

"Rosen! How could you lose!?!"

Kryancelo raised an eyebrow and turned down towards another section of the hall. However, there was no one there… "I must be going crazy…"

/-/-/--//--//-/-//-

"Hotdogs! Programs! Cold soda!" Asche shouted out walking in the stands of students holding onto a large amount of refreshments on a tray in his arms. "Miss Cleo, why am I doing this?"

"Because you're the one who works for the restaurant, if you didn't let those Reds not work until after the exams," Cleo pointed out putting her feet up on the seat in front of her, closing her eyes. "But why not take a load off? The Kaiser duel's going to begin in a few minutes…"

"Hey! Open seats!"

Cleo opened her eyes to see that now sitting next to her were Van, Rukia, Koji, and Klein. "What the? What are you doing?"

"Um…sitting?" Van answered relaxing back into his seat.

"These seats are reserved for the Obelisk Blue students!" Cleo shouted standing up from her seat. "Slifer Reds are not allowed to…"

"Miss Cleo…"

Everyone turned to see Leo, Tony and Rena standing before the group. Leo was smiling as he approached Cleo. "Won't you allow me and my friends to sit here?"

"W-why of course…" Cleo sighed with a blush on her face.

"These are really great seats," Rena stated sitting down next to Tony. "Um so who exactly is the Kaiser?"

"Well…Da Kaiser's really different than the ones we've had in the past," Tony replied rubbing the back of his head. "I mean…I woulda been Kaiser…but man, the new one was able to knock me down easily! I hardly had a chance…"

"Wow…he's that strong?" Rena asked when Van, Klein and Rukia leaned in on the questions.

"He managed to beat you?!?" Van questioned.

"What cards does the guy have?" Klein asked, giving Koji a reason to sigh loudly in the air.

"And what's he like?" Rukia added.

For some reason, Tony just smiled and turned towards the large arena. "Heh…ya'll will have to see soon enough…I jus wonder who the guy is facing the Kaiser is…"

"Hey…I just realized something…" Rena stated looking around. "Where are the Principal and those two guys?

"Who knows?" Tony sighed shrugging his shoulders. "He's usually doing something different…"

"Wait, you guys saw the principal?" Cleo asked to get a nod from Rena. "What pictures did he show you?"

"Mostly about Edward Wright…" Rena answered with a raised eyebrow.

"…You got off easy…" Cleo sighed.

"Well, well, well, look whose dueling up next," Leo chuckled gesturing towards the large field. '_I guess we know what's happening right now…'_

"That's…" Koji shouted with everyone standing up from their seats.

"Ganryu!" Rena yelled at the cold samurai duelist standing on the large duel platform that was set for the Kaiser's duel.

Almost as if he heard her voice above the many boos and curses about how a Slifer Red was standing where an Obelisk blue was supposed to be standing there, Ganryu turned to glare directly at Rena and the others.

That's when a second person stepped on the opposite side of the duel platform, making Ganryu turn back to where he was originally starring at. However, this new person made the entire first years gasp in surprise.

"Who's that girl?" Rukia asked with a question mark appearing over her head.

"Meet the Kaiser…" Tony chuckled noticing the smiles on Cleo and Asche's faces.

"She…she's the Kaiser?!?" Rena, Rukia, Van, Koji, and Klein shouted at the same time.

Leo just seemed to be in the same calm mood as he usually was. "So…That's Kaiser Luntina…"

"You knew who the Kaiser was!?!?" Rena questioned the clam duelist.

"Not at all, I'm as surprised as you all are," Leo replied crossing his arms across his chest.

/-/-/-/-/-//-//-/

"So, you're the great Ganryu Dashiben I've been hearing about…" Kaiser Luntina stated, observing Ganryu up and down taking in his features.

Ganryu remained silent by couldn't help looking the female Kaiser Luntina. She had her blonde hair tied up in the back with a barrette that topped her pretty face, and her uniform was very different from the standard. She had a longer skirt and a white overcoat with a blue border on it. The overcoat showed the girl's semi muscular physic. Ganryu felt a slight blush appear on his face when she looked back at him. "Not a bad face, but let's see if you're the real deal for beating Professor Kryancelo…"

Ganryu raised his duel disk in front of his face, not only to show how serious he was, but to hide the slight blush on his face. "…" (GLP: 8000)

"Well, you're certainly a change from other guys I've seen," Luntina sighed shrugging her shoulders as she slipped her dueling deck into her duel disk. "At least you're not like a certain Die Hard Duelist I know…" (LLP: 8000)

"DUEL!"

"Why don't you lead off newbie?" Luntina offered drawing her five cards.

As soon as Ganryu got a look at his sixth card, he narrowed his eyes and his blush disappeared. "Big mistake!"

"So, you can talk…" Luntina snickered with a small smirk. "And here I thought you were a mute…"

A small blood vessel appeared on the back of Ganryu's head as he lifted his first card from his hand. "I play, Desperado Manager!"

Ganryu's spell card appeared showing a rugged gangster man with his back turned wearing a black leather jacket with a raging dragon on the back. "This card let's me pick two cards…"

The cold samurai duelist immediately pulled the top two cards from his deck. Then he lifted three choice cards from his hand. "…However, I have to take three of them back on the top of my deck!"

"Well…that was a little repetitive," Luntina sighed closing her eyes. "You have less than you began with…"

"For the Kaiser, I thought you'd have some foresight," Ganryu stated lifting another card. "I play Graceful Charity!"

Luntina smiled as the lovely angel appeared before Ganryu pulling three cards from the top of Ganryu's deck handing them to him. Then without a second thought, Ganryu immediately handed the angel two other cards. "I discard, Armed Samurai – Ben Kei and Tombstone Saber…"

'_What are you up to?'_ Luntina raised an eyebrow at Ganryu's drawing tactics.

/--//-/-/--/-/-/

"Huh…Hey Riko, the Kaiser's dueling…" Sen stated turning his head back from the duel.

"Interesting…who is the opponent?" Riko asked sitting up straight in his seat.

"That Slifer you dueled earlier," Sen replied scratching the side of his head.

Riko's eyebrows raised up in surprise. "Sen…tell me every move, down to the slightest life point decrease!"

"Right!" Sen replied saluting.

/--/--/-/-/-///--/

"Next, I summon Samurai Grandmaster – Lau (1800/900) in attack mode!" Ganryu announced as his red haired samurai flipped from behind him. After the samurai landed on the ground before Ganryu, the samurai drew out his demonic and angelic katanas, crossing them towards Luntina. "Next, I'll activate his ability! I remove Ben Kei from the graveyard, so this turn he can attack twice!"

"I know what your card is capable of doing," Luntina sighed looking at the glowing samurai. "But still, he can't attack on the first turn…"

"Just wait…First, Tombstone Saber activates, when a warrior is removed from my graveyard, I can add it to my hand," Ganryu continued lifting his spell card from his graveyard. That's when he slid another card into his duel disk. "And now I activate the spell card, Quick Attack!"

The spell card appeared, showing off a ghostly woman standing in front of a kneeling samurai. Luntina's eyes widened at the sight of the card. "I see…going for a first turn direct attack…impressive…"

"That's right…Lau! Attack her directly!" Ganryu shouted to get Lau to jump into the air, spinning his swords in his hands.

Just as Lau was about to slash downwards on Luntina, the female Kaiser side-stepped the attack to miss the blade. (LLP: 6200)

"Don't forget! Thanks to his ability, he attacks twice!" Ganryu shouted making Lau spin around.

Luntina took a card from her hand and slid it into her graveyard before Lau spun his two swords towards her. That's when an oddly familiar black fur ball with a tattoo of the red Ouroboros under the creature's eyes (300/200) appeared to take the sword.

Ganryu narrowed his eyes when Lau jumped back to his side of the field. "What in the world was that?"

"That was Ouroboros Kuriboh," Luntina explained fanning her four-card hand in front of her. "Not only does it negate your damage, but I can special summon a certain kind of monster from my hand with the same level of the monster that attacked…"

That's when a large earth green circle appeared before Luntina, the circle had multiple alchemic drawings on it. All of a sudden, the circle shattered like glass to release a mountain of a man. The man had a blonde mustache and a curl of blonde hair on his developed face. His chest was bare to show off his extremely developed muscles. In fact, his only clothes were his baggy blue pants, black boots and spiked gauntlets with transmutation circles on them (2000/1000). "…And Strong Arm Alchemist counts!"

At the sight of the monster, Ganryu stepped back. "A-Alchemists!?!"

"I see, you're familiar with the card series," Luntina happily said, at the same time, the Strong Arm Alchemist was doing multiple strongman poses. "Although rare, I only know of one other person who uses these cards…and we've never met actually. But I digress…please continue your turn."

"I'll set two cards face down, and end my turn," Ganryu stuttered with two back cards appearing behind Lau.

"You had a good move," Luntina complimented, pulling her next card. At the sight of it she held it forward. "However, I've still got my first turn to work my magic! And this monster will help!"

Another transmutation circle appeared before Luntina, only this one was fiery red. However it did shatter into pixels to reveal another alchemist, only this one was handsome black haired man wearing a flame painted blue jacket and loose black clothes. Painted on his two white gloves, were two transmutation circles with a flame in the center of them (1600/1400). The warrior smiled before lifting his hand up. "Say hello to my Flame Alchemist! And when he's summoned to the field, he burns up two spell or trap cards with the snap of his fingers!"

Lifting his arm up, the Flame Alchemist quickly snapped his fingers making a small spark appear between his fingers. All of a sudden, both of Ganryu's face down cards exploded into fire, destroying the cards.

"And now, Strong Arm Alchemist! Attack Lau!" Luntina announced to her muscle man alchemist, who stopped his posing. That's when the Strong Arm Alchemist slammed his fist into the ground, making multiple spikes surge from the ground towards Lau.

"I don't think so! Trap card go!" Ganryu shouted as one of his cards in his graveyard popped out.

"What?!? But you can't activate a trap card from the graveyard!" Luntina commented as Ganryu held up his trap card.

"Yes, but during the turn this card is destroyed I can activate it's effect," Ganryu explained holding up a trap card with a young man placing a katana at grave. "Bushido Last Will ends your battle phase automatically and then both of us can take a level four or lower monster from our decks! We just have to show them to each other."

//-/--/-//-/-/-/-/

"Alchemists?" Rena questioned looking at the two monsters standing in front of Luntina.

"Quite an interesting series of cards," Cleo explained raising her arms up. "Mostly involve removing cards from play…but they have another power…"

"Damn it…that cold-hearted stiff's winning," Van sighed lowering his head.

"True…but don't count out the Kaiser yet…" Leo stated with a calm look on his face. "I'm sure she still has quite a few tricks up her sleeves…"

Tony's face grimaced as he lowered his head. '_You don't know the half of it Leo… the only other three sets of the Alchemist series are scattered. And all four of them are incomplete in some way. Yet, they're still a powerful force…_

'_And Luntina is only having fun…'_

/-/-/---//-//-/-/

"Interesting choice," Luntina complimented adding her card to her hand.

Ganryu just narrowed his eyes at Luntina who was looking at the rest of her hand.

"Silent again? Oh well, maybe this face down card will get you talk," Luntina chuckled as a face down card appeared behind her two alchemists. "Turn end."

Still being silent, Ganryu drew his next card and without looking at it, took another card from his hand and slapped it onto his duel disk. "I call Wandering Samurai to the field in attack mode!"

In a great blur, a new samurai rushed on the field from behind Ganryu, this one seemingly more modern punk version. The young man with crazy brown hair that was like lightning in the back, wore a pair of black goggles kept the crazy hair from his eyes and complimented his sharp eyes. His tight black muscle shirt connected to his khaki pants with multiple red belts attached to the legs. In his right hand, a regular katana while on his back is large oar like sword, grasping both in his hands (1600/1000). The warrior seemed to smirk as he spun both of his swords in his hands.

"Interesting monster…though I suppose that's not the only thing about him…" Luntina guessed with a smile painted on her face.

"Yeah, I can take an equip card from my deck and equip it to my samurai!" Ganryu announced pulling his deck out and fanned it in front of him. Immediately, he selected a single card and pulled it from his deck.

With a quick shuffle, Ganryu slipped the card into his duel disk. The Wandering Samurai crossed his two swords into the air making a powerful earthly green aura wrap around them. As the samurai pulled his arms down, his two swords had formed into a golden jagged sword with a green handle. The samurai slammed the sword into the ground, empowering him (1600/1000 + 300/0) as well making a powerful shockwave go through the ground. "I choose Earthen Sword! And now, I'll equip my Wandering Samurai with Tombstone Saber!"

From the ground next to the Earthen Sword, a strange katana with a ghostly aura erupted from the ground. The Wandering Samurai lifted both swords into the air and crossed them in front of him (1900/1000 + 200/200). "Wandering Samurai! Attack her Strong Arm Alchemist!"

The punk samurai quickly jumped into the air bringing both of his swords up to attack the muscular Alchemist. Realizing he was under attack, the Strong Arm Alchemist began to throw a fist at the Samurai when suddenly, the Wandering Samurai seemed to pick up speed and slash right through the Alchemist's arm and torso. The alchemist shattered into pixels as the Wandering Samurai flipped back to Ganryu's field. (LLP: 6100)

'_I guess that face down card was a bluff…'_ Ganryu just shrugged off that thought and raised his hand up to Lau. "Lau! Slice and dice that Flame Alchemist!"

/--//--/-//--/-/-

"So…that's the story how you two got here…" Alan stated looking at Rex and Weevil behind his desk (which was covered with many family photos). "Interesting…and where is the other guy?"

"Still at the boat…" Rex responded rubbing his cheek a little bit. At first he and Weevil wouldn't talk at all…of course, Alan was a very pervasive…

"And now what are you going to do to us?" Weevil asked adjusting his glasses.

"Well…that's a good question…" Alan questioned rubbing his chin. That's when he snapped his fingers and smiled evilly. "I have it!"

Rex and Weevil suddenly froze up in fear due to the look in Alan's eyes.

/-/-////-/-/--/

"Aw man! Why'd you have to be so mean to my monsters!?!?" Luntina sniffed wiping a fake tear from her eyes in memory of Flame Alchemist. (LLP: 5800)

A little confused, Ganryu immediately slid a card into his duel disk. "I'll call my turn with a face down spell or trap card..."

"Okay! Enough playing around!" Luntina's mood all of a sudden changed before she drew her next card. At the sight of it, she immediately slid it into her duel disk making a holy bright light to shine over her. "I play Graceful Charity! So I draw threw cards and discard two!"

Luntina swiftly drew her next cards and then immediately flipped two of them towards Ganryu to show that they were both monster cards. "I send Armor Piercing Alchemist and Sapphire Alchemist to the graveyard!"

'_Why she telling me this?_' Ganryu questioned raising an eyebrow.

"Next, I'll set two cards face down…and summon a monster on the defensive!" Luntina announced as the three holographic cards appeared before her. "Turn end!"

"Hmm…wonder what those cards are…" Ganryu stated pulling his next card. "I summon Crescent Moon Samurai in attack mode!"

A large amount of cherry blossoms began to flow over the arena forming into a small twister of the blossoms. When the blossoms fell to the ground, a new samurai was standing before Ganryu holding a powerful spear with a long blue cloth near the blade. The samurai's armor was metallic silver with blue trim on it with a large crescent moon on the chest plate. Under the Samurai's helmet was a pretty petite face with long black hair coming from the back of the helmet (1700/1200). The female samurai spun her spear in the air. "And here's what my samurai can do! When she destroys a monster she gains five hundred more attack points! So Crescent Moon Samurai! Attack that face down monster!"

The female samurai jumped into the air and quickly stabbed her spear directly through the back of the card, making the card flip to show a small brown haired furball with a pair of angelic wings (300/200) squeaking in pain before shattering.

As a result of her victory, the Crescent Moon Samurai spun her spear in victory (1700/1200 + 500/0) and then slammed it into the ground.

Ganryu wasn't done yet! "Wandering Samurai! Lau! Attack her directly!"

Both samurai jumped into the air, lifting their swords above their heads before bringing them down on Luntina.

When the two samurai jumped backwards, Ganryu smirked thinking about all of the damage he just did to Luntina, until…

"Nice try Samurai Guy!" Luntina laughed lifting up her duel disk. (LLP: 5800)

"What the!?!" Ganryu questioned as Luntina reached into her graveyard.

"Winged Kuriboh really comes in handy when I need a shield for a turn…" Luntina stated with a smile.

"…End turn…" Ganryu scoffed.

'_I really need to thank Professor Kryancelo for setting this up…'_ Luntina thought slowly pulling her next card.

_//--//-/-//-Flashback/--//-/-/-/-/_

"_Hey Prof. K! You wanted to see me?" Luntina asked standing in Kryancelo's office that had multiple statues of flames and expensive vases._

"_Yes…I have an opponent for you for the exam today," Kryancelo stated locking his fingers in between each other._

_Luntina sighed and lowered her head in disappointment. "Sorry Professor K. Unless Mustang got transferred here or that other Alchemist user did, I'm not interested…"_

"_What about the kid who beat me?" Kryancelo offered making Luntina raise an eyebrow in suspicion._

"_Hmm…Riko told me that he was dueling a kid who used samurai cards…" Luntina stated rubbing her chin. "And since he defeated you…quite interesting…"_

"_Will you do it?" Kryancelo asked standing up._

"…_Sure! Why not?" Luntina responded with a cheerful smile._

/-/--/-//--//-Present////-/-/-/-///-/-

"I play Swords of Revealing Light!" Luntina announced as many swords of light dropped from the sky and forced Ganryu's samurai to all step back to not be struck by them. '_…It's really been a while since I had a good duel! Back when I faced Tony and Riko!_'

"Next I'll summon Sync Alchemist in defense mode!" Luntina announced slapping her next card onto her duel disk. Another transmutation circle appeared on the field this time a light green color. The circle shattered allowing a gray haired man with a golden mask covering his eyes and nose crouch on the ground. On the forehead of the mask was a blue transmutation circle. His black jumpsuit had the edge of the cloak attached to his waist (1500/1300). The Alchemist crossed his arms, ready for anything. "And I'll call it a turn!"

Ganryu drew his next card and his eyes narrowed. "…End turn…"

"Then back to me!" Luntina announced pulling her next card. "I think I'll just end my turn as well."

/--//--//-/-/-/-/

"Well…Ganryu seems to be doing alright…" Rena stated still looking a little worried.

"Yeah…" Van sighed to himself in disappointment.

"He's really dreamy…" Cleo sighed to herself with a few floating hearts around her head.

"I don't even know how she got this field card," Asche commented looking at his active duel disk.

"Um…Rena, I hate to say this, but Luntina usually does this when she's having fun…" Tony stated rubbing his chin, deep in thought.

"What happens then?" Rena hated to ask, but she felt compelled to.

"…Ya'll see…" Tony replied.

/-/-/--/-/-//-/--/

"Hmm…" Riko sighed standing up from his seat.

"What's up bro? Aren't you wondering what's going to happen?" Sen asked standing up with his brother.

"This duel's already been decided…" Riko sighed walking away from the seats.

/--//-/-/-/--/-

Again, nothing that could help him win. "Turn end…"

With that, Luntina drew her next card from her deck and smiled. "I activate the spell card Soul Release! So I remove Flame Alchemist, Strong Arm Alchemist, Sapphire Alchemist and Armor Piercing Alchemist from my graveyard!"

"What the? Why would you do that?" Ganryu questioned as the four cards shot out of Luntina's graveyard.

"Simple! So I could activate my trap card!" Luntina announced lifting her hand over her face down card to the right.

The card just vanished, however a large portal appeared over Luntina's field as her life point counter began to count down. "It's called Return from the Different Dimension!" (LLP: 2900)

Four transmutation circles began to appear from the vortex, two were earthly green, one was fiery red, and an aqua blue one. The four transmutation circles shattered immediately allowing four figures to fall to the ground.

When the figures stood up, Ganryu immediately recognized two of them being the Flame Alchemist (1600/1400) and the Strong Arm Alchemist (2000/1000). The Flame Alchemist smirk as he lifted his fingers in the air, while the Strong Arm Alchemist began doing multiple strongman poses.

The third figure was a young pretty girl with blue hair wearing a large blue coat over black top and gray pants. On her white gloves was a pair of transmutation circles with water droplet on them. Over her eyes were a pair of blue tinted glasses. The girl pulled her glasses down slight and gave Ganryu a slight wink (1600/1100). "Meet Sapphire Alchemist!"

The fourth figure was a rough looking military man wearing gray camouflage pants. His head had multiple scars racing over his face, while his head was topped with a large Mohawk connected to a very long braided pony tail. The most interesting feature was the fact that this alchemist had his arms replaced by mechanical limbs with clawed fingers at the end. At the sight of Ganryu, the military alchemist inhaled deeply on his cigar and puffed out a few rings at the samurai duelist. "And last but not least, Armor Piercing Alchemist (1800/1300)!"

The four alchemists on the field looked at each other before forming a pose around the embarrassed Sync Alchemist, who began to stand up. "What was the point of that? Your Strong Arm Alchemist is the only one that can take out Lau…"

"That's why I have my other face down card!" Luntina announced lifting her next card, making a powerful aura appear around the Flame, Strong Arm, Sapphire, and Sync Alchemist. "Fuh-Rin-Ka-Zan! When I have a FIRE, EARTH, WATER, and WIND monster on my side of the field, I can choose one of four effects…"

"…And I'll go with destroy each of your monsters!" Luntina announced as four of her alchemists jumped into the air.

The Flame Alchemists snapped his fingers sending a powerful blaze of fire towards Ganryu's side of the field.

Next the Strong Arm Alchemist slammed his fists into the ground making many jagged spikes shoot up from the ground.

Then the Sapphire Alchemist clapped her hands together creating a large amount of water appearing around her, and then sent the powerful orbs at her target.

And finally the Sync Alchemist began to spin around at an extremely fast rate, creating a powerful twister that went with the other three alchemists' powers.

Ganryu lifted his arm up just before the trap's effect went through shattering all three of his monsters into pixels. When he lowered his arm, he noticed that he was completely defenseless. "…no…"

"And now…Armor Piercing Alchemist! Lead off the attack!" Luntina announced lifting her arm towards Ganryu. "Alchemic Claws!"

Spitting out his cigar, the Armor Piercing Alchemist ran quickly towards the samurai duelist. Ganryu tried to brace himself; unfortunately, the Armor Piercing Alchemist slashed his claws across Ganryu's chest, making him wince in pain. (GLP: 6200)

Luntina didn't stop there. "Sync Alchemist! You're up next!"

Before Ganryu could recover from the last attack, a powerful kick to his stomach made him lose his breath. When he looked down, he saw the Sync Alchemist's armor covered boot in his gut. (GLP: 4700)

"Sapphire Alchemist! Let's cool him down a little!"

Ganryu's eyes widened at the sight of the Sapphire Alchemist standing directly in front of him. The girl alchemist clapped her hands together and slammed them on the ground, creating a powerful surge of water that engulfed Ganryu. (GLP: 3100)

"Strong Arm Alchemist! Show him a fighting technique that's been passed down your family for generations!"

A powerful force slammed up against Ganryu's face, that force was the fist of the Strong Arm Alchemist connecting with his cheek. The force slowly sent Ganryu flying into the air. (GLP: 1100)

"And now…Flame Alchemist…Light up his world!" Luntina announced as her Flame Alchemist jumped into the air above Ganryu holding out his hands.

/--//-//-/-/-/-/

"NO! Cold Hearted Stiff!" Van shouted watching the Flame Alchemist jumped into the air.

"My, my," Leo commented watching Rukia and Koji cover their eyes.

"Yeah! Teach him a lesson!" Klein cheered.

"NO! Lord Ganryu!" Cleo pleaded with tears streaming from her eyes.

"Uh…yeah!" Asche added.

"…" Tony was at a loss of words. He knew this would happen.

"GANRYU!" Rena shouted out just four powerful explosions covered all over Ganryu's side of the field.

Luntina jumped off the field and smiled. '_He's good…but not what I'm looking for…'_

_/-/-/--//-/--//-_

_Duelist Stats_

_Name: Luntina (Don't know if it's her first or last name)_

_Deck Type: Alchemists_

_Information: Meet Luntina, the Alchemic Kaiser for the Atlantic Duel Academy. She was great friends with the former and more recent Kaiser for the Pacific Duel academy. She was actually a shy person who could hardly talked to anyone. However, during the summer of her first year, she met the Die Hard Kaiser of the Pacific Duel Academy, after that she was inspired to duel her best._

_She chose her alchemists, because alchemy was the source for modern day chemistry. And since Luntina has a great love for science, she wanted a deck that was basically the history for science. _

_Right now, she's looking forward to graduation because she's going on a tour with the Die Hard Kaiser over America. However, she really wants to face another Alchemist user that the Die Hard Kaiser knows…_

/--//--/-//--//-

**Card Stats**

**Desperado Manager / Spell / Effect:** This card can only be used when you have at least one card in your hand. Draw two cards from your deck, then return three of your cards from your hand to the top of your deck.

**Image:** a rugged gangster man with his back turned wearing a black leather jacket with a raging dragon on the back

**Quick Attack / Spell / Effect:** Select one of the following effects:

Draw one card

Or one level four or lower monster on your side of the field may attack on the first turn of the duel.

**Image:** a ghostly woman standing in front of a kneeling samurai

_The preceding cards will be used by Chazz in the third season_

**Armor Piercing Alchemist** **/ Earth / Level 4 / ATK: 1800 / DEF: 1300 / Warrior / Effect**: When this card attacks a Monster in Defense Position, inflict damage to your opponent's Life Points by the difference between this card's ATK and your opponent's monster's DEF.

**Description:** A military looking guy with a huge Mohawk and braided hair tail. Instead of flesh arms, has sharp claw like arms.

**Sync Alchemist / Wind / LV. 4 / ATK: 1500 / DEF: 1300 / Warrior/Effect:** When this card is destroyed as a result of battle, remove this card from your graveyard to send the monster that destroyed this card, to the graveyard.

**Description:** A gray haired man with a golden mask covering his eyes and nose. On the forehead of the mask is a blue transmutation circle. His black jumpsuit has the edge of the cloak attached to the waist.

**Flame Alchemist** /** Fire / Level 4 / ATK: 1600/ DEF: 1400/ Warrior / Effect**: When this card is Normal, Flip, or Special Summoned destroy 2 Spell or Trap cards on the field.

**Description:** A handsome black haired guy wearing a flame painted jacket and loose black clothes. On his two white gloves are two transmutation circles.

_The preceding three cards appeared in A Tortured Duelist_

**Strong Arm Alchemist / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 2000 / DEF: 1000 / Warrior/Effect:** When this monster destroys a monster as a result of battle, if the destroyed monster had an effect, by paying 500 life points, this monster gains the destroyed monster's effect until the end of your next turn.

**Description:** A large muscular man with a blonde mustache and a curl of hair on his developed face. His chest is bare to show off his extremely developed muscles. His only clothes are his baggy blue pants, black boots and spiked gauntlets with transmutation circles on them

**Sapphire Alchemist / Water / LV. 4 / ATK: 1600 / DEF: 1100 / Warrior/Effect:** Remove one monster card from your hand, remove two face up monsters on your opponent's side of the field with the same monster type as the monster you removed from your hand.

**Description:** A young pretty girl with blue hair wearing a large blue coat over black top and gray pants. On her white gloves are a pair of transmutation circles with water droplet on them. She has a pair of glasses over her eyes.

**Wandering Samurai / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 1600 / DEF: 1000 / Warrior/Effect:** When this card is successfully summoned to your side of the field, take one equip spell card from your deck and equip it to this card.

**Description:** A young man with crazy brown hair that is like lightning in the back. A pair of black goggles keeps the crazy hair from his eyes and compliments his sharp eyes. His tight black muscle shirt connects to his khaki pants with multiple red belts attached to the legs. In his right hand is a regular katana while on his back is large oar like sword.

**Earthen Sword / Equip Spell / Effect:** This card can only be equipped to a warrior type monster. Increase the attack of the equipped monster by 300 points. When the equipped monster is targeted by an opponent's spell card, discard the top card from your deck to negate the effect and destroy the card.

**Image:** A jagged sword with a green handle that has multiple stone columns around it.

**Tombstone Saber / Equip Spell / Effect:** This card can only be equipped to a warrior sub-type. Increase the attack and defense of the equipped monster by 200 points. While this card is in your graveyard, if a warrior sub-type is removed from play, add this card to your hand.

**Image:** A ghostly sword sticking in front of a gravestone with a samurai helmet on it.

**Ouroboros Kuriboh / Dark / LV. 1 / ATK: 300/ DEF: 200 / Fiend/Effect:** When your opponent inflicts damage to your life points, you may discard this card to negate the damage. Then special summon from your hand one monster with the same level as the monster that dealt the damage.

**Description:** an oddly familiar black fur ball with a tattoo of the red Ouroboros under the creature's eyes

**Bushido Last Will / Trap / Effect:** When this card is in your graveyard, you remove this card to end your opponent's battle phase. Then each duelist may take one level four or lower monster from his/her deck and add them to their hands. They must show the cards and then shuffle their decks.

**Image:** a young man placing a katana at grave

**Crescent Moon Samurai / Dark / LV. 4 / ATK: 1700 / DEF: 1200 / Warrior/Effect:** Each time this card destroys a monster as a result of battle, increase the attack of this card by 500 points.

**Description:** holding a powerful spear with a long blue cloth near the blade. The samurai's armor was metallic silver with blue trim on it with a large crescent moon on the chest plate. Under the Samurai's helmet was a pretty petite face with long black hair coming from the back of the helmet

/-/-/--/-/-/-//

**Koji:** I don't believe it…

**Klein:** Yeah…oh well! No use dwelling on the past!

**Rukia: **…You're horrible…

**Klein:** Hey! I've got my reasons! And if you excuse me, I'm not wasting another minute in this sickening room

**Koji:** But brother! Ganryu's hurt!

**Klein: **Don't care!

**_Next time…Klein's taking over again! Chapter 11: Ra Power! A Looming Shadow Appears _**

**Klein:** Guess it's time to test out my new deck!


	11. Chapter 11: Ra Power!

_**Heh…I'm back and better than ever!**_

_**An hour ago I was watching the duel between that cold-hearted samurai stiff and that Alchemic Kaisaris. I was rooting for him to lose…and it finally happened!**_

_**I'm glad that stiff got what came to him, now he knows what it's like to be pushed around. I mean, I just watched him scratch that gal's life points almost each turn with no life point loss…**_

…**_Until the girl got tired of it and used an instant win tactic to pummel that damn samurai user into the ground…or should I say 'blew' him off his feet?_**

**_But enough about that silent idiot…this is about me once more! I don't understand how those people could care for him…sure, but he's practically a bad guy!_**

_**I'm the victim here! He keeps charging more and more debt onto me for no reason!**_

_**But he's not the first person to charge me to debt, nor is he the first to try to collect a few times. **_

_**What does this have to do with anything?**_

**_Well…there happens to be a face that I never wanted to see again…a face that belongs to…why not see for yourself?_**

_**/-/-/--///-/-/-//-/**_

_**Chapter 11**_

_**Ra Power! A Looming Shadow Appears!**_

/-/-//--//--/-/-/-/-

"Ganryu! One more time!" A tall dark-gray boy dressed in a royal blue rolled up sleeved jacket with white shorts shouted, sweat dripping from his forehead. At his waist was a ripped shirt while in his hands was a wooden sword. "We have to be ready!"

"Get…off…my…back!" A younger Ganryu panted sitting on the ground with a wooden sword to his right.

The older dark gray boy glowered over the young Ganryu. "…You say that you'll become a hero…but if you can't even take down your older brother…"

"Shut up!" Ganryu pouted standing up with his wooden sword in his hands. "I…I'll show you and father that I can be a hero!"

The young Ganryu charged towards the older gray haired boy with his wooden sword. Just as Ganryu slashed with his wooden sword, the older boy stepped to the side and brought his sword almost to the back of Ganryu's neck.

Ganryu's eyes widened when he realized that the sword was there. "…Ganryu…how many times did father tell us that a hero is born, not made?"

Tears were beginning to form at Ganryu's eyes.

"Just admit it brother…of the three chosen ones…you are not meant to be one of them. The sooner you accept this fact, the better…"

"But…but brother Tai…" Ganryu sniffed wiping away the tears that were about to spill from his eyes… "D-didn't you want to become a hero?"

"While that may have once been true…" Tai replied taking his wooden sword back and stabbed it into the ground. "I have accepted my destiny…as a messenger…you should too…"

"No…no brother!" Ganryu shouted into the air slamming his hands to the ground and lowering his head next to them. "I…I can't accept that!"

Tai closed his eyes and turned his head to the right. "…I am sorry…"

/--/--//-/-////--//--//

Sky blue eyes opened wide allowing Ganryu to gaze at the pure white ceiling. At the moment, his body seemed to be stiffening and yet in pain at the same time. "…Damn it…what the hell happened?"

With the small amount of strength he seemed to have, Ganryu slowly pushed himself up to see where he was. He was in a bed that had white sheets inside a large room that seemed to reek of medicine. With a quick motion, Ganryu covered his nose. "I never could stand that smell…"

"Well, well, well, it looks like someone's up…"

Ganryu turned to his right to see Leo leaning up against one of the walls, slowly sipping on a cup of steaming hot tea. "Seemed like you had a bad dream…"

Ignoring Leo, Ganryu was racking his brain trying to think what had happened that made him in this bed. "…Having a hard time trying to remember? Well, I'm sure once everyone comes back from getting drinks…"

"Looks like the stiff woke up!" Laughed a familiar voice making Leo and Ganryu turn towards the door to see Klein standing in the doorway holding onto a can of soda.

/-/-/-/-///-/-//-

"Sir…moi is very, very sorry for losing ze match…" Antonio sobbed while lowering his head to the ground. "When you make your punishment on moi, please remember to not hit ze face…"

"What a drama queen…" One of the cloaked persons whispered to another.

"Yeah…Antonio is quite the pansy…" Replied the other cloaked person, raising his hand up to whisper to the other.

"Silence…" The Gothic leader coughed out rubbing his neck. That cough got Antonio and the five cloaked people to stand up straight. "…Antonio…do not…fret about…your loss. In doing…so…you have…given us…another target…"

"Moi has?" Antonio questioned, but then smiled wickedly to himself. "Sir…if it isn't a problem, may moi have ze pleasure of dealing wiz ze new target?"

"…In due…time…" The Gothic leader wheezed out before leaning up against the hallway's wall. "But…for…right now…we have…other things…to worry about…"

One of the cloaked persons raised their hand into the air. "Sir! May I ask what that may be?"

"It is…about…our plans…" The Gothic Leader stated crossing his arms slowly. "After all…of the…exams are…over with…at night…we will…begin with…phase one. All six…of you…are to…select who…you are…going to…face first."

"Uh, boss…what about you?" Another cloaked person asked.

"Black Tiger…still has…some training…" The Gothic leader replied starting to walk away from Antonio and the five cloaked people. "Besides…I have…to take…my medication…"

After watching the Gothic leader walk away, Antonio walked in front of the group of five cloaked people. "Well, moi doesn't know about you all, but moi has to prepare moi's true deck for zat terrible wench!"

"…And I thought I was the guy who always collected on paybacks…" One of the cloaked persons laughed with his hands at his sides. "You really are a weird character Antonio…"

"Zat coming from a red neck wiz an eye patch!" Antonio growled before stomping off.

"…So…did anyone else know that Antonio's hair was a toupee?" The same cloaked person asked getting a few chuckles from the rest of the group.

"Moi heard zat! And it is a hair enhancement device!"

//-/--///--//-//-/

"…And then they made me their chief!" Tony laughed before sipping on a bottle of orange soda. "But of course, instead I asked for one of their hand crafted barrels and we called it even!"

Rena, Van, and Rukia just blinked at Tony's confusing story.

"Um…that's interesting Tony…" Rena complimented with a sweat drop appearing on the back of her head.

"…A barrel?" Van questioned before dismissing it to enjoy his drink.

"So do you have like a fascination with barrels?" Rukia asked not noticing that Van and Rena were signaling her to stop.

"Well there are many reasons why I'm interested in barrels…" Tony started stopping in front of the room that the group was heading towards. "The first reason is…"

That's when the door flew open; knocking into Tony's back sending him head first into the ground with a loud smack. Then, Klein ran out from the room with Koji following him through the halls.

"I guess the cold stiff is up…" Van sighed lowering his drink from his mouth. "And it looks like something made Klein upset…"

"Shouldn't someone follow him?" Rena asked…

"Thanks for volunteering Rena!" Van laughed before walking into the room.

"See ya in a while!" Rukia added leaving Rena standing in the hallway confused…

"…What just happened here?" Rena questioned dropping her canned tea to the ground.

Tony rubbed his red face as he stood up. "Hey…what'd I miss?"

"Well, apparently we're going to see what happened with Klein…" Rena explained with a sigh and walked past the confused Tony.

"…How long was I out?" Tony asked to no one in particular.

/--/--/-//-///--/

"Why do you always make people mad Klein?" Koji asked following his brother near the arena, where the duels kept progressing. "I mean for crying out loud! Ganryu just lost a big duel!"

"So? Just because the force sent him flying from the platform," Klein retorted not looking back at his brother. "That doesn't mean that he has the right to act all high and mighty!"

"…he had a head concussion," Koji pointed out making a blood vessel appear on the back of Klein's right hand.

Klein spun around on the balls of his heels, rising what looked like a fiery aura surrounding his body to match the heated flames that had appeared in his eyes. "So!? I've had to deal with many different injuries before, a lot more to the head; it's not my fault that he couldn't deal with a slight bump to the head!"

"But he wasn't prepared for that barrage of direct attacks," Koji argued trying to calm his brother down at the same time.

"What's your point? I've taken fiercer direct attacks than what those alchemists were able to dish out…" Klein replied crossing his arms. "So don't be pulling that crap on me!"

"But you never took them one after another," Koji pointed out.

"Did you say something little brother?" Klein asked with a dark aura surrounding his body.

"…Um…no…" Koji replied, he knew what would happen if he continued pestering Klein like that.

"Good! Now then, we're getting some lunch!" Klein announced tuning away from Koji.

"Howdy shorty!"

All of a sudden, Tony just dropped from the ceiling above Klein, surprising the short duelist. "Now what do y'all think of my newest entrance?"

"It's original…" Koji sighed as Rena walked up to the three from behind.

"I see you found them Tony…" Rena sighed to herself, before looking at Klein. "And what's wrong with you Klein?"

"Heh…well missy, I can't stand that jerk! And if you'll excuse me," Klein replied walking towards a corner of the hall. "I'm getting some lunch now!"

Just as Klein turned the corner, he was suddenly knocked down to the ground. "Hey! Watch where you're going!"

"You watch it ya bloke!"

Klein then got a good look at the guy he bumped into, and then suddenly froze in place. Rena, Tony and Koji walked to where Klein was and looked at who he had bumped into. It was a teenaged boy who looked to be around Tony's age, with a similar body type to boot. His wild blonde hair was held up by a black and yellow headband that matched the ripped Ra Yellow uniform this character had on over his otherwise black muscle shirt and shorts.

The weird thing about this guy was that he had an eye patch over his right eye, and it had a skull on it. The guy stood up with crooked smile on his face. "Never thought I'd see your stupid little face here Klein…"

"X-Xander?!? B-but I thought you were in Michigan!" Klein managed to sputter out from his mouth while trying to stumble to his feet.

Xander just continued to smile. "I was…but then I decided to come here…fancy seeing ya here the day after I do the math on the debt you owe the company for them cards…"

"Uh…RUN!" Klein shouted running past Rena and Tony, but grabbing onto Koji's arm pulling the sibling.

"You're not getting away from me!" Xander roared running after the two siblings.

"What the…" Rena started before Tony grabbed her arm. "Huh?"

"Rena! Let's follow them!" Tony laughed before pulling Rena.

"What the!?!" Rena shouted while being pulled by Tony at a fast rate.

/-/-//-/-/-//-//-/

A few minutes later Tony and a slightly dazed Rena were standing in the middle of the school where the roads to the dorms were. Tony snapped his fingers in disappointment. "Darn it! We lost them!"

"Man…you un fast…" Rena panted lowering her head. '_I really need to work out more…_'

"Maybe we could ask someone…" Tony replied somewhat ignoring Rena. "Do ya see anyone around?"

Lifting her head up, Rena immediately saw someone standing at the nearby drinking fountain. His sickly pale body gleamed off the light that was pouring on him; his head was topped off with pitch black hair with white highlights tied back into a ponytail. He seemed to be gothic with his black overcoat (that looked similar to the Obelisk Blue Students' overcoat), a tight black muscle shirt and had baggy dark gray cargo pants. The guy looked to be in his late teens and was taking many kinds of medicine from his pockets. "Hey, uh Tony…who's that?"

"Hmm…I don't really know…" Tony replied rubbing his chin. "But, he could be an exchange student…"

"Well, maybe he knows…" Rena stated walking over to the weird gothic teen.

The gothic teen reached out to grab the first of his medicine.

"Excuse me."

The teen turned around to show of his serious face that was almost devoid of all blemishes and marks. He seemed to have saddened yet serious look written on his face.

Rena and Tony slowly walked towards the teen, Rena walking a little faster. "Did you happen to see…?"

"Oh…hold on a sec…" the gothic teen panted holding his hand up. "I need…to take…my medicine…"

Tony and Rena's eyes widened as they watched the Gothic teen slowly take a few pills from each of the many medicine bottles that were stacked on the water fountain.

"Woo wee…he's taking all those…" Tony whistled fixing his hat.

"That can't be healthy…" Rena gasped watching the teen lift a glass of water to his lips.

After finishing his water, the gothic teen lowered the glass to the fountain. "It's not okay." The Gothic teen's breaths were a lot more normal. "However, if I don't…take those pills…my body will give out on me."

"Are you sick?" Rena asked.

"…In a matter of speaking," The gothic teen replied slowly putting away all of the medicine bottles in his pockets. "Anyway, did you need something?"

"Uh, yeah," Tony replied taking a step in front of Rena. "Y'all wouldn't have seen two short guys wearing red jackets being chased by a guy in a yellow jacket with an eye patch?"

The Gothic man raised an eyebrow at Rena. "I see…So you're…"

"Huh?" Rena questioned.

"Nothing…I saw the two short ones heading over there…" The Gothic teen gestured towards the Slifer Red dorms. "However, the one with the eye patch," He then turned his hand over towards the Ra Yellow dorms. "Went that away…"

"Well, thanks…uh," Rena started rubbing the back of her head.

The gothic teen seemed to smile slightly. "My name is Dias…and I'm glad I could help you…"

"Well, thanks again Dias!" Rena announced with a smile walking with Tony towards the Slifer Red dorm.

Dias just watched the two till they had disappeared into the distance towards the Slifer Red Dorms. "…Taiga…I see you may have found your prey. And Rosencrantz, you've got a very interesting opponent…"

Finishing packing his medicine, Dias slowly began to follow Tony and Rena. "I may want to see what might occur…"

/-/-////-/-//-/-/

A few minutes later both Rena and Tony were standing around the nearly emptied Slifer Red dorms. "I guess that people are still at the exams…"

"Oh yeah Tony, how'd you do on your exam?" Rena asked turning towards the barrel obsessed duelist.

"Thank ya fer asking Rena!" Tony laughed crossing his arms. "Well, I managed to pull out a win easily from my opponent. It was check and mate!"

Rena smiled in return, making Tony somewhat blush. "Well, I have to thank you for my win…"

"Aw shucks, what did I do?" Tony chuckled slightly rubbing the back of his head.

"That pack you gave me had some cards in it," Rena stated pulling her deck out and searched out the two cards that Tony had given her. "Mana Dragon and Reflect Carbuncle really helped me out there…"

"Whoa! Y'all got those two?" Tony questioned…

"HEY! I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!"

Rena and Tony turned their heads towards on of the Slifer Red huts, not noticing that Dias was right behind them. At one of the huts, Xander was currently slamming his fist on the door. Rena and Tony (as well as Dias) walked up to listen in on what Xander was yelling. "It's about time you pay up!"

"I'm not home!! I'm not home!"

A blood vessel appeared on the back of Xander's head. "You ain't foolin' nobody! Get out here!"

There were a few minutes of silence, making Xander raise his eyebrow. All of a sudden, a long black pole shot from through the door and into Xander's stomach, sending him back a few feet. "I'm telling you! I'm not home!"

"Whoa…it must be some kind of debt…" Tony stated watching Xander pull the pole from the door.

"THAT'S NOT GOING TO STOP ME!" Xander shouted before slamming his foot into the door, making it fly into the hut.

A large sweat drop appeared on the back of Rena's head. "Wow…that's one strong kick…"

A few seconds later, Xander jumped out of the hut with Klein in a headlock making the short duelist cough slightly. Koji was following the two out.

"Now you're going to pay me every cent you owe me!"

"Fat chance!"

"Klein! How many times have I told you not to bet! Where did this guy come from!?!"

"Get off my back Koji and help me get this guy off of me!"

Turning slightly, the three turned to see Rena, Tony and Dias standing to the side. Xander's eye narrowed. "Damn it…a small crowd…'_and with him…'_"

Xander released Klein from his headlock, but still managed to hold onto Klein's arm. "Okay shorty…here's what we're going to do. We're going to have a duel…you win and I'll call off the debt…"

"Sounds good to me…" Klein laughed loudly taking his arm back.

"Klein! Listen to the rest of the deal before agreeing!" Koji pleaded, however it was already too late.

"Good…then when you lose, the debt will double and I'll be taking back that Dark Scorpion deck that you used my money to buy with!" Xander laughed crossing his arms.

Klein lowered his head, but only to hide his smile. "You're still on!"

//-/--///-/-/-//-

'_Xander…remember, you can't use that cards…_' Dias watched as Klein and Xander shuffling each other's decks.

"So…what cards did you add to this deck of yours Klein?" Xander chuckled holding out Klein's cards.

"You'll just have find out…" Klein replied swiping his deck back and tossed Xander his.

"Hey Koji…" Rena asked the younger sibling as Klein and Xander stood a good twenty feet from each other. "Who is this Xander?"

"Actually, I don't know," Koji answered with a sigh. "Klein has debt with some people I don't even know about…"

"Ready?" Tony stated looking at Klein, then Xander.

"Yeah…"

"Just get it on already!"

"Yikes…Duel!" Tony shouted raising his hand up.

"Like he said!" Xander laughed pulling his sixth card. He slowly looked at his hand and began to wave his free hand over the cards. '_Hmm…I've drawn Ira…but I'll still have to get the other cards…'_ (XLP: 8000)

"Get on with your move already!" Klein shouted across the field to Xander. (KLP: 8000)

A large blood vessel appeared on Xander's forehead. '_Okay…as long as I don't use it, I shouldn't get into trouble…but I've got to get started…'_

Xander lifted one of his cards and immediately slapped it onto his duel disk. "I'll start this off by summoning Giant Orc in attack mode!"

The ground began to shake uncontrollably before it shattered open to allow a large dark gray hand to shoot from the ground. Following, a large ugly orc climbed out of the ground lifting a large bone like club (2200/0). The orc roared into the air making Rena, Koji and Klein step back.

Xander took note of that… "Ha! If you can't even stand up to this guy, how do you plan on dealing with the larger monsters in my deck. I'll end my turn."

"Okay…Mr. Tall Dark and Ugly is going down!" Klein chuckled pulling his next card. "Damn it…face down defense…end turn…"

"Aw, it looks like you don't have anything you can use…" Xander chuckled pulling his next card. At the sight of it, a crooked smile appeared on his face. "While I on the other hand have this!"

That's when Xander slapped his next card onto his disk, this time a powerful purple panther-like man wearing warrior's armor pounced on the ground, raising a sharp sword and beast like shield (2000/1600) before roaring loudly. "Meet Panther Warrior! He'll slice ya and dice ya!"

"Man…what kind of strategy does this guy have?" Rena asked a little confused.

"It's actually quite simple," Dias stated surprising Rena, Tony and Koji. "Normally, if he were to attack with Giant Orc first, it would shift into defense mode, leaving it wide open during Klein's next turn…"

"But that's not the case, Xander would be able to sacrifice that Orc with his Panther's effect."

"Whoa…who in the world are you?" Koji asked looking at Dias.

"Oh, Koji this is…um, I'm sorry, but what was your name again?" Rena asked making a sweatdrop appear on the back of Dias's head.

"…It's Dias…"

"I'll end my turn!" Xander shouted crossing his arms. "So let's see what you're going to do…"

"What?" Klein questioned pulling his next card. '_What that gothic freak said was right…so why didn't he attack? Oh well, I better be ready for almost anything with this new deck…'_

"I'll end my turn with just a face down card!" Klein announced with a face down appearing behind his horizontal monster card.

"Typical…" Xander sighed pulling his next card. '_About time I drew it! Now then…it's time I bring out a few of my bigger guns!'_

"Now then, for starters, I'll set this card face down," Xander chuckled when the card appeared before him. "And next I'll summon this bad boy!"

Xander nearly slammed his card onto his duel disk, and a large amount of powerful smoke appeared around him. That's when a large bronze and red metal dragon roared on the field, this monster with multiple cannons mounted on the machine's head and back (2800/2000).

"The Dual Mode Beast, Fusilier Dragon!" Xander laughed loudly making everyone get embarrassed looks on their faces.

"Hey wait a second! What kind of crap are you trying to pull?" Klein shouted pointing a finger at the dragon. "There's no way you could summon that thing!"

"Actually, my dragon allows me to summon it without tribute," Xander explained before his dragon began to slightly rust (1400/1000). "However, his original stats fall to half, and I'll call it a turn."

"Uh, any ideas why he didn't attack?" Rena asked turning towards Tony.

"Hmm…reminds me of a dangerous deck type I've seen before…" Tony replied rubbing his chin in deep thought. "I just forgot what kind of it is…"

"Okay…time to get some damage in!" Klein shouted pulling his next card. "I sacrifice my face down monster…for Archfiend of Gilfer!"

Klein's face down card just shattered into a powerful dark flame that formed into a jagged demon with red and black armored skin (2200/2500). The demon growled at the sight of Xander. "And now, burn Fusilier! Gilfer Flame!"

The demon shot a powerful flame that had erupted around its body towards the mechanical dragon.

"Hold up! I activate my face down trap card!" Xander laughed as his face down card flipped up to show a Dark Ruler Hades screaming in pain with a large amount of electricity surging through its body. Just then, a powerful surge of electricity flowed through out all of the bodies of each monster. "It's called Skill Drain! And with the cost of a thousand points…" (XLP: 7000)

"…All effect monsters lose their effects!"

"So? My Archfiend still has more attack points," Klein shouted as the attack continued to fly towards Fusilier.

"Don't you get it? Cause my Fusilier's attack was cut by his effect and now that limit is gone…" Xander explained as the rust on his dragon (2800/2000) disappeared. The dragon lowered its neck to dodge the flame.

A cold sweat dripped down on Klein's face as the large Fusilier dragon fired a powerful blast of flame that slammed directly into the Archfiend of Gilfer's chest destroying it. (KLP: 7400)

"Well, since my Archfiend is in the graveyard, his effect can take place so I'll equip it to your tin can right there!" Klein shouted as a powerful black shadow appeared under the dragon (2800/2000 – 500/0).

Then Klein slid another card into his duel disk. "I'll end this turn with a face down card."

"And now…I summon Armor EXE (2400/1400)!" Xander shouted as a monster made entirely of sharp orange rock that seemed to gleam every few seconds. "Time to end this! All four attack this deadbeat directly!"

"Not so fast! I activate Scapegoat!" Klein shouted as four goats appeared before him.

"It's not going to work! I play the quick play spell, Enemy Controller!" Xander shouted throwing his spell card into his duel disk. Immediately, a game controller appeared before Xander. "And now, I can switch the battle position of one of your tokens…so I'll switch the one where Fusilier's attacking!"

"Oh crap!"

Rena, Tony and Koji turned their heads as the multiple attacks shot out onto the goats and destroying them all with a large explosion. Dias just blinked as Klein coughed out some smoke. (KLP: 5100)

"Now then, I'll just set this card face down and I'll even tell you what it is…" Xander stated lifting his card up to show a Battle Ox diving from the sky with meteors following it. "Meteorain allows me to damage through defense…not that it would help anyway…"

"Oh…yeah?" Klein asked pulling his next card. "You're about to get a lesson…in pain! I play my spell card, Graceful Charity!"

Everyone looked around to see the angel; unfortunately, she didn't come while Klein drew and immediately discarded. That's when Klein noticed that everyone was starring at him. "What? She's never come to yet…"

"That's just strange…" Tony stated as Klein lifted one of the cards he discarded.

"One of the cards I discarded was Ojamagic! So I can add the gruesome threesome to my hand," Klein shouted before lifting his arm over his face down card. "But before that…"

Klein's face down card revealed to show a hand throwing many cards into the air with monsters popping out of the cards. "…I activate the trap card, Instant Summon! Now during this turn, any monster that's added to our hands, are automatically special summoned!"

"So that means…" Rena started when Klein lifted three cards from his deck.

"That's right girlie! I can summon three really familiar monsters instantly!" Klein replied slapping the three cards onto his duel disk. "So let's give it up for…"

"Ojama Yellow!"

"Ojama Green!"

"And Ojama Black!"

In a bright flash, all three of the Ojama Brothers themselves appeared before Klein dancing for joy (0/1000 x3).

"What the?" Rena questioned looking at the three Ojamas and remembering her duel with Alex. "He plays with Ojamas?"

"Actually he just made that deck recently and it has a few tricks up his sleeves," Koji explained turning his head.

"I play Ojama Delta Hurricane!" Klein shouted as the three Ojamas jumped into the air.

"Give me an O!" Ojama Yellow shouted into the air.

"Give me a J!" Ojama Green added following Ojama Yellow over the many strong monsters.

"Give us an AMA!" Ojama Black yelled floating next to his brothers.

"What's that spell?"

"Ojama!" Klein roared as all three of the Ojamas began to spin around before forming into a large tri-colored tornado that covered all over Xander's field.

The force of the tornado shattered all of the cards on Xander's side of the field before the three Ojamas landed on the ground in a victory dance. "Well…your monsters don't have anything on me! They got zero attack points!"

"True…however they're only here right now to bring out a few better versions," Klein shouted with the three Ojama brothers turning around on him. "I play the spell card Ojama Hero Squad Calling!"

The spell card revealed itself to show the Ojama Trio (only wearing red masks and capes) jumping into a Cyber Commander making him keel back. All of a sudden, three powerful lights appeared underneath the Ojama Brothers. "Now, by shuffling my three Ojamas back into my deck, I can summon three new monsters!"

The lights died down to show that all three of the Ojama Brothers were still standing there, only wearing a sparkling red cape, a red mask and an emblem on their chests with a red O (1000/1000 x3). All three Ojamas then performed muscleman poses. "Ojama Hero Yellow, Green, and Black!"

"O-Ojama Hero?" Dias questioned.

"So what!? Those tight wearing freaks got nothing on me!" Xander shouted glaring his eye at them.

"Well, in case you're blind in your good eye," Klein chuckled crossing his arms. "You've got nothing on your field…"

"But, but, but…" Xander stuttered noticing that the three Ojamas were standing in front of him.

"Did you say butt?" All three Ojamas asked before turning around.

Before Xander could reply, all three Ojamas jumped backwards and got their butts flying directly in Xander's face. Everyone, including Dias, stared in embarrassment as Xander muffled out anger. (XLP: 4000)

"I don't want to just defeat you," Xander growled knocking the three Ojamas away from his face. "I'll kill you for mocking me!"

"Whatever, I'll set this card face down," Klein chuckled as the card appeared behind his three Ojama Heroes. "And let it go to you!"

"Why exactly aren't you using those Dark Scorpion cards you bought with our money," Xander asked pulling his next card, at the sight of it; his eyebrow slowly began to rise.

"Well, if you must know, I took these cards from a jerk," Klein replied looking at his cards. "After some modification, I decided that I will use this deck as my own! I won't use the deck that was made by another's hands anymore!"

"If that wasn't coming from Klein, it would mean a lot…" Koji sighed lowering his head.

"True there little guy…" Tony replied patting Koji's back.

"…I summon Goblin Attack Force!" Xander shouted slapping his card onto his duel disk. Immediately a large amount of armored goblins stomped onto the field raising their clubs into the air (2300/0). "Attack Ojama Hero Yellow!"

The many Goblins swarmed around the Ojama and immediately slammed their clubs into the small defenseless monster. (KLP: 3800)

That's when the many goblins fell to the ground sleeping. "Of course, my Goblins go to defense after attacking…"

"And I've got my trap card!" Klein announced as his face down disappeared into a large signal with a familiar 'O' symbol on it. "Ojama Signal! And when a monster on my side of the field is destroyed, I can special summon an Ojama Hero from my deck, or graveyard!"

That's when the Ojama Hero Yellow appeared back on the field with a bruised head, the Ojama was greeted with his two brothers. "So he's back!"

"Nice…too bad I've still got my turn, and I activate the continuous spell card, Yellow Luster Shield!" Xander shouted as a powerful yellow aura surrounded his goblins (2300/0 + 0/300). "This card increases the defense of all monsters on my side of the field by three hundred!"

"Okay…that was pretty pointless…" Klein stated as he noticed Xander place another card in front of him.

"I'll end my turn with a face down card…"

"Then I guess it's mine once more!" Klein laughed looking at his next card. "I'll switch my three Ojama Hero's to defense mode and end my turn…"

"I guess Klein was afraid of Xander's face down card…" Rena concluded watching Xander draw his next card.

"I've got you…" Xander chuckled gesturing his face down card. "I activate my trap card…Ultimate Offering!"

"Huh? That's what you were saving?" Klein questioned, scolding himself that he actually fell for a bluff.

"Yes…for you see…" Xander stated as a powerful aura began to engulf his Goblins.

Xander lifted a card in his hand that he had held since the beginning of the duel as a powerful glow began to surround his Yellow Luster Shield card. "…In order to bring out a card that will spell your doom…"

That's when the powerful aura spread over the Ultimate Offering trap card. "However, in order to bring out a monster this strong, I need to send one spell, one trap, and one effect monster on my side of the field to my graveyard…"

All three of Xander's cards turned into pure energy and shot into the sky, almost making pure waves of power blowing the hair and clothes on everyone in the area. "Meet a being of pure power! Meet the badass of my deck!"

"OVERLORD IRA!"

That's when the pure energy crashed into the ground before forming into a powerful dark flame. Klein took a step back when he saw a pair of glowing black eyes in the flames. Soon the pair of eyes showed that they were connected to a semi muscular figure that was slowly stepping from the flames. With each step that the figure took towards Klein, the figure's features were becoming more and more apparent.

It was a man with a sharp evil face that was topped with extremely long fiery red hair. The man was wearing a tight suit of black leather that showed off his muscular body. The man's black cape was fiery red on the inside (3000/2500). When the man noticed a freaked out Klein, a crooked smile appeared on his face.

"W-What in the world is that Tony?" Rena asked while in awe watching the new monster crack his neck and knuckles at the same time.

"I didn't think anyone here would have one of those cards…" Tony stated in awe at the sight of the monster.

'_Xander…I will allow this now…but you can not play Superbia…'_

"And now…I play Overlord's Wrath!" Xander shouted as a powerful fiery aura surrounded Overlord Ira. "In order to play this card, I must offer up two thousand life points…" (XLP: 2000)

"…However, my Overlord now can attack each monster you have on the field this turn!"

Klein was taken back when the Overload Ira absorbed the energy into his right hand. "Not good!"

"And that's not all…for each monster that's destroyed this turn you take one thousand points of damage!"

"Crap!" Klein cursed while his three Ojama brothers grabbed each other in fear.

"OVERLORD'S WRATH!"

His smile growing more demonic, Overlord Ira jumped into the air before throwing the powerful energy onto Klein and the three Ojama brothers, engulfing all of them. Koji lifted his glasses up to reveal that he had brown eyes. "BROTHER!"

When the explosion died down with Overlord Ira landing on the ground in front of Xander, Klein was left sprawled on the ground covered with smoke and confused marks in his eyes. (KLP: 800)

"It may not have been enough…but by the looks of him he can't really stand during his next turn…" Xander laughed making Overlord Ira to laugh as well. "Then it looks like I'll win this duel!"

"I don't think so!"

Everyone turned towards Klein who was slowly standing up on his two feet, although he still looked a little dazed.

Koji was streaming tears from his eyes. "Brother!"

"Huh!?!" Xander, Rena, Tony and Dias questioned watching Klein slap off some of the dust off his body.

"I have a high resistance to pain…" Klein replied drawing his next card.

"I don't understand…" Xander babbled as Ira looked confused as well. "That should have destroyed you!"

"Then you need a math lesson!" Klein shouted looking at his next card. "Like this! With Monster Reborn, I can add one Ojama Hero Yellow (1000/1000) back to my side of the field!"

In a bright light, the heroic Ojama Yellow appeared with a huge smile on his face. Klein wasn't done yet. "Next, I'll multiply my Ojama with my spell card Ojamirage!"

"This spell card creates Ojama Tokens on my side of the field with the same stats as a monster with Ojama in its name!"

When the spell card was played, the Ojama Hero Yellow began to laugh loudly as four more Ojama Hero Yellows (1000/1000x4) appeared on the field. "And next, I'll activate Brave Attack, which adds the attack of all monsters on my side of the field into one huge attack!"

"Huh?!?" Xander stated a little confused as all of the Ojama Hero Yellows jumped into the air. "Wait! What's going on!?!?"

"My victory! Attack!" Klein shouted.

With that announcement, all five Ojama Hero Yellows jumped into the air spinning until they resembled yellow wheels. Overlord Ira blinked at the sight of the wheels…

…That's when the Ojamas shot from the air and slammed directly into the Overlord Ira's stomach, making the strong monster cough up blood. Then all of the monsters shattered like glass that flew into Xander. The force sent Xander flying back as his life points began to drop. (XLP: 0)

"And now…I'm debt free!" Klein laughed lifting his hand up in a peace sign.

"Uh, brother," Koji stated walking up to his brother. "Don't forget that you still owe Ganryu…"

At that fact, Klein put his brother into a head lock and began to give him a noogie. "Dang it you four-eyed freak! I was enjoying my victory but you have to bring me down!"

"He's actually a good duelist for Slifer Red," Tony commented to Rena. "He's got an interesting strategy that's for sure…"

Rena looked at Klein and Koji, and she couldn't help but think about her own brother Guy.

/-/-/-/--////-

"So…you lost to a midget…" Dias stated walking with Xander out of the Slifer Red Dorm area.

"Please don't rub salt in the wound…" Xander sighed looking at his cards. "If only I was able to use Superbia, then that little guy woulda bit the big one!"

"You say that now…" Dias commented before putting his mouth to his face. "But…you must…"

"Sir!" Xander stated running over to Dias. "Is your medicine wearing off again?"

Dias didn't even get a chance to reply, for the next thing that came out of his mouth was a large spurt of blood erupting from his mouth and into his hand. Xander's eyes widened at the sight. "Sir!"

"I…am fine…" Dias panted wiping the blood from his mouth. "…As long…as we…get our…plans done…I'll be…okay…"

Dias turned towards the sky and a smile began to form, showing off his blood covered teeth. "The sky…it is…it is so…so beautiful…"

**/-/-/--//--/-/-/-**

_**Duelist Stats**_

_Name: Xander Taiga_

_Deck Type: Skill Drain _

_Xander was born into his family's business…being a loan collector and mercenary. Everyday, he was trained in many different forms of fighting, and collecting money._

_His deck revolves around his business, stripping people of something of important. It's quite a powerful deck that often cripples people's strategy._

_Overlord Ira…that card is an almost unknown._

**/--//-//-/-/-/--/**

**Card Stats**

**Ojama Hero Squad Calling/ Instant Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you have a face up 'Ojama Yellow', 'Ojama Black', and 'Ojama Green' on your side of the field. Send the three cards to your deck and special summon one 'Ojama Hero Yellow', 'Ojama Hero Black', and 'Ojama Hero Green' to your side of the field from your hand or deck.

**Image:** The Ojama Trio (only wearing red masks and capes) jumping into a Cyber Commander making him keel back.

**Ojama Hero Yellow / Light / LV. 2 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 1000 / Beast/Effect:** When this card is face up on the field, it is considered 'Ojama Yellow'. This monster is considered a normal monster.

**Description:** Ojama Yellow wearing a red mask and cape that sparkles in the light. On his chest is an emblem with a red 'O'

**Ojama Hero Black / Light / LV. 2 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 1000 / Beast/Effect:** When this card is face up on the field, it is considered 'Ojama Black. This monster is considered a normal monster.

**Description:** Ojama Black wearing a red mask and cape that sparkles in the light. On his chest is an emblem with a red 'O'

**Ojama Hero Green / Light / LV. 2 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 1000 / Beast/Effect:** When this card is face up on the field, it is considered 'Ojama Green'. This monster is considered a normal monster.

**Description:** Ojama Green wearing a red mask and cape that sparkles in the light. On his chest is an emblem with a red 'O'

**Ojama Signal / Trap / Effect:** This card can be activated when a monster on your side of the field is removed from your side of the field. Special summon one monster from your deck or graveyard with 'Ojama Hero' in its name.

**Image:** A signal with a large 'O' over a cartoonish city.

**Ojamirage / Instant Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you select a monster on your side of the field with 'Ojama' in its name. Special summon 'Ojama Tokens' on all available spaces on your side of the field with the same stats as the selected monster. These tokens cannot be used for a tribute summon.

**Image:** Multiple Ojama Yellows laughing at a confused Marauding Captain.

**Overlord Ira / Fire / LV. 9 / ATK: 3000 / DEF: 2500 / Warrior/Effect:** This card cannot be normal summoned or set. This card cannot be special summoned except by sending one face up trap, spell and effect monster on your side of the field to your graveyard. This card cannot be destroyed by spell, trap or monster effects.

**Description:** A dark many with fiery red hair topping his sharp face. His tight black leather clothes are covered with a large black cloak that looks to be on fire on the inside.

/-/-/-/--/-///-/

**Van: ** Everyone's getting strong…

**Leo:** True…but maybe you should try training.

**Van:** Hey! I just haven't shown off my best strategy yet!

**Tony:** But I thought that you trying your best stuff when you faced me.

**Van:** Oh yeah? Well, I'll show you…and all show everyone!

**_Root for the underdog next time… - Chapter 12: Hero of the Streets_**

**Van:** What the hell is up with that title!?


	12. Chapter 12: Hero of the Streets

_**Ya know, I come from a tough past…Go ahead and ask Klein and Koji, they were there. **_

**_But, one of the reasons I've decided to come here was to get away from my past…the same reason why I use my heroes._**

_**If you take a look back in history, you can see quite a variety of heroes…**_

…_**The ones with a goal in their mind…**_

…_**The ones who became heroes by accident…**_

…_**Heroes who were created with a purpose…**_

…_**Then there are heroes who are trying to change the world…**_

…_**and then there are the heroes who represent me…the ones trying to atone for their pasts. **_

_**I've looked at all the hero cards in the past that were created by Pegasus J. Crawford…honestly, there are many kinds, some that didn't even have hero in their name, but were known to be heroic.**_

_**There are the E-Heroes that I use…**_

…_**The famed Destiny Heroes that Edo Phoenix has in his possession (And by the by…he's my favorite tournament duelist).**_

**_Then there are the set of Akutare Hero cards, I personally never saw them in person, only on the computer, but from what I've seen…they were supposed to resemble pop idol heroes and I heard that one of the two sets was bought by an old TV star…whose name eludes me…_**

_**Why am I talking about heroes? Because the guy I'm facing right now…he happens to be a classic villain you see in classic comic books, animes and stories. **_

_**I know I can never be a hero…not with what I've got on my back…**_

…_**But, that doesn't mean that I'm not going to try!**_

_**/-//--//-/-//--/-/-/**_

_**Chapter 12**_

_**Hero of the Streets**_

/-/-/-/---/--//

Dias slowly walked through the night filled hallways, hours had passed since Xander's duel with Klein had occurred. In his glove covered hands, Dias held onto the many papers that he had prepared for this night. "When the day sky will darken…"

With a quick throw, the many papers began to float unto the walls themselves, as if held up by an invisible force. Dias kept walking through the halls as this occurred, his face not even flinching. "…And the black lightning strikes…"

When he reached a window, Dias turned towards the full moon and starred at the celestial body, tears beginning to swell up in his eyes… "…One will appear steeped in the bloody night…"

With one great throw the rest of the papers seemed to fly in a non-existent wind through out the rest of the hallways. "…To kill and to steal the lightning of darkness…

"A warning that it is coming…" Dias finished just as he coughed out a large amount of blood from his mouth that splattered over the once clear glassed window. "T…The… The Bloody Devil Hunter…"

/-/-/-/-/-//-//-/-/

The sunlight began to pour on Van's face, making him wake up. The morning was actually calm seeing has how that stiff was allowed to sleep in the infirmary…why he chose to stay there was beyond the others, but Van knew that the samurai duelists wanted to be alone…

"Probably still moping about his loss…" Van muttered to himself jumping from his bed and immediately headed into his closet, closing the doors behind him.

A couple of seconds later, Van emerged from his closet fully dressed in his regular school attire. He looked out the window to see many of the students just standing around the area. It was normal behavior on the weekend, and so Van immediately headed out to do his normal weekend activities…

…Mainly laze about and not do any homework.

"Hey! Van!"

That voice just ran through Van's mind till it reached his central processing, and it came immediately that the owner's voice was none other than… "Klein…"

The door flew open, nearly hitting Van square in the face, allowing Klein and Koji to enter the small room. "About time you got up Van! I still have more to tell ya about my duel against that dumb money collector!"

"Yeah…that's what I really want to hear about…" Van sighed loudly lowering his head. "Please Klein; you're like a broken record!"

"Aw come on!" Klein shouted slamming his foot on the ground. "I managed to take down that Overlord monster as if it were nothing!"

"I got it the first twenty times you told me," Van growled clenching his fist tightly. "And you don't have to tell me again!"

"Maybe you want a taste of my power?" Klein offered with a devilish smirk appearing on his face. "Because I'd be winning to give you a couple of good tastes!"

"Bring it on shorty!" Van shouted causing sparks to fly between the two Slifer Red duelists.

"Guys! Stop that!" Koji pleaded trying to get in between the two. "Sides…didn't you guys hear about happened at the school?"

"Huh?" Klein and Van questioned at the same time.

"A bunch of flyers were posted all around the school each with the same creepy message written on them…" Koji replied nodding his head up and down.

"What did they say?" Van asked actually curious about the messages.

"Well, I didn't really hear that part…" Koji replied scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.

Both Klein and Van fell to the ground with a loud sigh coming from both of their mouths.

/-/-//-//--//-/-/

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the duel academy's main building a muscular form was walking on the concrete sidewalk. Adjusting his American bandana, the older man turned his head side to side, as if he was looking for someone. His jeans, white T-shirt, and leather jacket were ruffled up showing that he had probably slept in them. "Damn dweebs…I thought I told them to get back to the boat before nightfall…"

That was then the nearest thing felt the sharp sting of the stranger's boot slammed up against it.

…The poor tree was cracked right up the middle of it. "Cause of that crap…I was left to sleep in that damn boat all night!"

That's when the man turned towards the school to see a large amount of students standing at the front holding up a large amount papers in their hands. The man seemed grin as he walked over to the students. "Maybe I'll be able to get something out of this after all…"

The man pulled a duel disk from his black vest and immediately strapped it onto his left arm. "Prepare yourselves…"

"The bandit is loose!"

/-///-/-/-///-/-/

In the Slifer Red Cafeteria, Van, Koji and Klein were enjoying a cheap, yet tasty breakfast courtesy of the school. Van had finished his breakfast and was sipping on his drink while he waited for his two Slifer Red duelists to finish. "So…you don't have any idea what was on those flyers?"

"Not really, students were already taking them down when I got there," Koji replied not noticing that Klein was sneaking things from Koji's plate. "But there was something that I did forget to tell you two…there was a mysterious blood stain that was splattered all over the glass windows. Odd thing was that the stains kept appearing on every other window…"

"That's just creepy…" Klein muttered not really caring because he was enjoying his meal.

"How'd blood end up on the windows?" Van asked raising an eyebrow. The thought appeared in his head that someone was fighting in the school and didn't stop…but there would have been other places with blood in the hallways, and if blood was just on the windows…

"The windows would have been broken…" Van muttered to himself not noticing a familiar figure had appeared behind him.

"Bravo Tenka!" Tony laughed scaring the three Slifer Red students.

"The barrel psycho!" Koji and Van shouted at the same time while Klein returned to his meal (as well as Koji's).

"Hey…that's not a bad nickname at all…" Tony stated to himself rubbing his chin. "But anyway…you're right, there were multiple instances showing that there was only one person who put up the flyers and was the cause for that blood."

"How long were you listening in our conversations?" Van asked raising an eye brow at the barrel obsessed Obelisk Blue duelist.

"Ever since these two," Tony was gesturing towards Klein and Koji. "Slammed themselves into your room…"

"What the heck!?!" Van shouted narrowing his eyes. "Were watching me sleep or something?"

"Actually…that's a secret…" Tony replied raising a hand to his chin.

"What a freak!" Koji shouted before noticing that Klein was stealing the last piece of food from his plate. "Klein! I was going to eat that!"

"Ya snooze, ya lose," Klein chuckled before stuffing the final piece of breakfast food in his mouth.

"Any who, I don't suppose any of you three know where Rena is do ya?" Tony asked rubbing the back of his neck with a slight blush to his face.

"Why? Do you have a fetish with that girl?" Klein teased ignoring the tears that were flowing down his brother's face.

"W-what makes ya say sumting like that?" Tony stuttered not noticing that his face was growing a little bit redder.

"Well…your face is a dead give away…" Van commented pointing towards the weird Obelisk Blue.

'_Come on karma! Give me something that I can work with here!'_ Tony began to plead with fate.

Yet nothing came. "Damn it!"

"Okay…is it just me or is this guy getting weirder and weirder every day?" Van asked turning away from the overreacting Tony, who was currently bawling on the ground.

"I'm just glad I don't see the guy that often…" Klein replied shrugging.

"Why me!" Tony shouted into the air with tears pouring from his eyes.

"Because you're weird!" Van shouted making Tony lower his head in shame.

"I'm not that weird!" Tony pouted rubbing the tears from his eyes.

"Dude…you're crying over being called weird…" Klein pointed out crossing his arms. "You are a weirdo!"

That's when Tony narrowed his eyes at Klein, and immediately the weird Obelisk Blue jumped to his feet with a fiery aura appearing around his body. "You want to keep pushing me shorty? Cause I'll show you what I can do if you want!"

"Name the time and place!" Klein shouted pulling a duel disk from underneath the table.

"How about right here and now!" Tony shouted lifting his duel disk up.

"Uh…maybe we should get out of here before sparks fly…" Koji suggested to Van getting a nod back, before the two slowly began to slink away when Tony and Klein started up their duel disks.

"Prepare to lose you chess freak!"

"Bring it you pint sized, Ojama using freak!"

//---//---/--////-/-//--

"Man, you're brother is still as hard headed as always…" Van commented as he and Koji walked through around the Slifer Red dorms.

"I know…" Koji sighed lowering his head.

"And here we have the Slifer Red dorm, where you two will be helping out as attendants while still providing the lessons in duel history, famous strategies and duelists."

"What! We get placed in the lowest of the low!?"

"Yeah! We're famous duelists for crying out loud!"

Curiosity got the better of Van and Koji, getting them to turn their heads to the right to see Principal Wright along with Rex and Weevil, who were currently arguing with each other. "Yeah…but did you forget that you were caught stealing packs, lost that bet to me when we dueled and then there's the fact that you two needed the jobs, so consider yourselves lucky!"

Rex and Weevil stepped back both in fear of getting fired and for the fact that Alan might flash them a couple of his family photos again. So the next second the two were on the ground bowing to Alan. "Yes sir! Thank you for allowing us to get these jobs!"

"Huh?" Alan seemed a little confused as to why these two were bowing to him…but hey, gotta work with what ya got. "Um…yes! Good to see that you two have taken a heart to these jobs I have given ya!"

"Man…what a couple of freaks…" Van commented not knowing what would happen when he said that…

"Why hello Slifer Red Students Van and Koji!" Alan shouted jumping to Van and Koji surprising the two. "How are you two this fine day?"

"What the?" Van questioned as Alan began to pull something from his pocket.

"I'm your principal! And here's a picture of my seven year old sister! Just turned seven!" Alan announced showing the picture of a little girl holding a teddy bear with hair that resembled his. "Isn't she just adorable?"

"What in the world is going on?" Koji pleaded to an invisible force. "Why does this keep happening to me!?!"

"…Is your friend alright?" Alan asked Van, putting away the picture.

"Asking the wrong guy…" Van replied taking a good look at Rex and Weevil. "…Uh, who in the world are those two?"

Just as Rex and Weevil were about to speak, Alan just jumped in front of them with a huge smile plastered on his face. "These two, Rex and Weevil are going to be attendants for your dorm as well as being two new teachers."

"…Great…more freaks for the parade," Van chuckled getting death glares from Rex and Weevil.

"Why you little…" Rex and Weevil started…

BOOM!!!

A powerful explosion filled the air, making the five turn their heads towards the academy where multiple stacks of smoke were beginning to rise from above the trees. Instantly, Alan narrowed his eyes and began to make a run towards the smoke. "Come on hurry up!"

"Do we follow him?" Van asked watching Rex and Weevil run after Alan.

"We got anything better to do?" Koji replied before the two began to run after the three members of the academy.

/--//-///--//--//-//-/-/

"Finish this weakling!"

A powerful explosion erupted from the ground in front of the rugged American man covering the Ra Yellow student. The force sent the student flying backwards shouting in pain. (RSLP: 0)

"That was pathetic you dweeb," The American man chuckled walking over to the knocked out duelist. "But a rare card is a rare card…" (BKLP: 8000)

Just as the man was about to reach down and pull out the duelist's deck, a long shadow was cast over the student. Craning his head towards the source, the American spotted Alan standing in front of the sun with Rex and Weevil behind them. "Halt you!"

"Well, well, well, the two dweebs got hooked up with a gray haired old man…" The American laughed pulling his sunglasses down to get a better look at the three. "I thought I told you two dweebs to get back to the boat within the hour…Are you purposely trying to piss me off?"

"I see…I thought you looked familiar…" Alan sneered rubbing his chin. "The former intercontinental duel monsters champ, Bandit Keith…the years have not been kind to you at all…"

"Shut the hell up!" Bandit Keith shouted just as Van and Koji ran up behind Rex and Weevil. "I don't need to be lectured by an old man!"

"Actually, my gray hair is natural and I'm only twenty-three years old," Alan replied raising an eyebrow. "So if you want to insult me, you gotta try something harder, you has-been…"

"Hmm…I know all about you," Bandit Keith replied crossing his arms. "Alan Wright, the principal here at the academy…knowing your standing here, you probably have quite a few rare cards in that deck of yours…"

"I should have figured, if Rex and Weevil were here for cards, then it was a given that you were too…" Alan replied turning to the side to see Van and Koji. "…Just how many cards have you taken?"

With a plastered grin on his face, Bandit Keith slowly pulled out a huge stack of cards from his pockets. That's when he gestured towards the bushes were multiple students from different leveled dorms were resting. "Each of these cards belonged to those weaklings…and here I thought that Obelisk Blue students were the best here…"

"What the hell is going on?" Van asked getting a good look at the cards that Bandit Keith had in is hands.

"Looks like the only good thing that came from this conversation is that I've found some more targets…" Bandit Keith chuckled lifting his duel disk up, instantly activating it. "So…who want's a taste?"

Alan turned towards Koji and Van, a smile appearing on his face… "Bandit Keith…how about a little wager?"

"Hmm…I'm listening…" Bandit Keith replied rubbing his chin.

"I and a student will face you in a two on one battle," Alan explained pulling a duel disk from almost nowhere, and slid it onto his duel disk. "You beat me or the duelist…You can every card in my deck as well as all the packs I confiscated from Rex and Weevil…"

"That seems sound…however," Bandit Keith interrupted pulling his sunglasses off to show his serious eyes. "I know that there must be a flip side to that coin…"

"Perceptive…correct, if you lose all cards you took are returned and you are to leave the island immediately," Alan finished his normally calm eyes as fierce as fire. "What do you say?"

"Those are pretty steep wagers…" Bandit Keith whistled looking directly at Van. "But I'll agree, as long as I choose the punk duelist you're dueling with…"

"Very well…" Alan replied pulling a deck from his pocket. "So…who will it be?"

Bandit Keith slowly lifted his finger up, and then gestured it towards Van. "That dweeb doesn't seem to be much of a challenge…so I'll take him as your partner."

"What!?!" Van, Koji, Rex, and Weevil shouted at the same time.

"Very well…" Alan repeated himself lifting up a second mysterious duel disk up to Van. "Are you ready Van?"

"Wait! What's going on here!?!" Van asked before he realized that the duel disk was slipped over his left arm. "Huh? How'd that get on there?"

"Get your deck ready," Alan warned as he shuffled his own cards and immediately slid them into his duel disk. "I'm ready…"

"Same here…" Bandit Keith replied snapping his dueling deck into his duel disk.

"What? Give me a second!" Van shouted pulling his deck from his pocket and furiously shuffled his deck.

"Duel!"

"I'm up first punks," Bandit Keith chuckled pulling his sixth card. Waving his free hand over his cards, he quickly formed his first strategy. "And I'll play a monster on the defensive, and place this card as insurance…" (BKLP: 8000)

"Then it's to me…" Alan said drawing his hand. A smile appeared on his face at the sight of his cards. "And I'll start off with this monster!" (A/VLP: 8000)

"One that's quite tenacious!"

Alan quickly slapped his card onto his duel disk allowing a powerful bright light to appear before him showing off a white haired teenaged guy with weird markings over his face. His tight white shirt exposed his chiseled chest, along with the two bracers on his fists; the youth also had bracers on his shins connected to his black pants (1200/1000). The warrior slammed his fists together and smiled brightly showing off a bright gleaming smile.

Everyone who was conscious in the area sweatdropped at the warrior's actions, however, Bandit Keith was able to speak his mind gracefully. "What the hell is up with that damn monster?"

"You'll see, but for now…" Alan replied sliding another two cards into his duel disk making a couple of face down cards appear behind the warrior. "I'll place up some back up and call it a turn."

"Man…that's just weird…" Van stated pulling his next card. At the sight of the card, his eyes widened. '_I…I drew the card for my true strategy already?'_

"I summon, Elemental Hero Clayman (800/2000) in defense mode!" Van shouted as his warrior made up of pure clay appeared before him crouching down. "And next, I'll set a card face down and end my turn!"

"Pathetic…" Bandit Keith sneered snapping his next card from his duel disk. "But unlike you two dweebs, I'll play something that's actually useful! The spell card, Cost Down!"

Keith's spell card flashed onto the field showing two swords piercing right through two monster card stars. Discarding one card from his hand, a monster card apparently, Keith then held up another card. "Now that I've gotten that effect out of the way…I'll summon Machine King (2200/2000 + 200/0)!"

From the ground before Bandit Keith appeared a large robotic being that was made from used junk parts. As the machine raised its arms, the gears inside it began to creak, making everyone realize that the machine was quite old. "Now then…Machine King attack that freaky monster!"

Responding to its master's orders, the Machine King raised its arms up before firing off its two fists towards the unnamed monster.

…However, Alan just smiled…

"I activate Die Hard Martial Artist's special ability!" Alan shouted slipping a card from his hand into his discard pile. "Show him your counter strike!"

Just as the fists were about to slam into the martial artist's torso, the warrior smiled and quickly slammed his feet into the fists sending them flying back into the very machine that launched them. The fists sent the machine into the air before sending it back into the junkyard. Bandit Keith's mouth hung open, ignoring the fact that his life points were beginning to drop. "What the hell just happened?"

Alan quickly wagged his finger as his Martial Artist crossed his arms and then shattered. "Simple, by discarding one card from my hand, I can double my monster's attack till the end phase. Just enough to send your monster's attack right back at ya!"

"Die Hard?" Van questioned raising an eyebrow at the monster. "Like the movie?"

"Wherever they came from, they were strong enough to take down Rex and I in a matter of a few turns…" Weevil stated crossing his arms and nodding along with Rex.

"I've never seen a type of card like that, but they are strong," Rex added.

"Yeah, but you two could never hold a candle against many duelists!" Bandit Keith shouted making Weevil and Rex lower their heads in shame.

"It's true!" Rex and Weevil shouted in the air covering their eyes.

"Man these guys are emotional…" Koji muttered to the side. "Reminds me of brother…"

"I guess I'll end my turn," Bandit Keith scoffed to the side.

"Then it's my move!" Alan announced pulling his next card. "Now then…I'll set a monster on guard, and call it a turn…"

'_Gotta let the kids have some fun…'_

"Okay my move!" Van announced pulling his next card. "I play Graceful Charity!"

With a quick snap of three of his cards, Van immediately slid two of the cards into his graveyard. "And now…I'll play Polymerization!"

"Heh…I happen to know a thing or two about those E-Heroes, I was actually hoping to take down a user of those stupid cards…" Bandit Keith snickered pushing his sunglasses up. "So…who you going to fuse?"

"I'll fuse the Clayman on my field…with the Clayman in my hand!" Van shouted lifting up the cards from his hand and duel disk.

"What? Fusing the same monster?" Bandit Keith shouted somewhat taken back. '_Impossible! From what I read about those useless cards, they could only fuse with other heroes!'_

The powerful vortex appeared over Van, sucking in the two same E-Heroes in it. The vortex began to shake violently, before shattering into a new form that seemed to float into air before crashing into the ground. The form seemed to look like Clayman, only wearing more jagged armor with his muscles showing off in the spaces in between, the warrior launched a loud battle cry into the air as he slammed his fist into the ground (1300/2600). "This makes E-Hero Titan Defender! And to wrap up my turn, I'll set another monster on the defensive…"

"Then it's my turn again!" Bandit Keith shouted nearly ripping his next card from his deck.

"Hold up!" Alan yelled getting everyone's attention. "Mr. Keith…but I hope you won't mind me getting out of this duel!"

Everyone stepped back at Alan's announcement, confused as to why he did something like this. "But don't worry; I still plan on keeping on my half of the deal. All you have to do is beat Van, and my deck is all yours…"

"Heh…I don't know what you're on…but I'll accept…" Bandit Keith snickered watching the holograms disappear as Alan turned off his duel disk. "Especially, when I have this!"

"Sir! Why did you just quit?" Van asked staring at the Principal who was still standing where the duel was taking place.

Alan just rubbed his growling stomach turning away from the group. "I missed breakfast…"

Everyone just sweat dropped as Alan began to walk away licking his lips. "Yum, I can already smell those rice balls."

"And he's the principal?" Bandit Keith asked before shaking it from his head. "Anyway, I summon Mechanical Chaser (1850/850)!"

From the sky above Bandit Keith flew down a strange winged machine with multiple arms, each holding onto a different weapon. "Mechanical Chaser! Attack that face down monster!"

The weird machine flew towards the face down monster, and just as the machine was about to stab the weapons into the face down card, the Titan Defender jumped in the way and knocked the machine to the side. (BKLP: 7250)

"What just happened, you dweeb!" Bandit Keith shouted at Van.

"I'm not a dweeb!" Van shouted stomping his foot on the ground. "And as for what happened was that if you attack while Titan Defender is out, you have to attack it!"

"Fine…I'll end my turn…" Bandit Keith stated narrowing his eyes.

Van quickly drew his next card, but then just added it to his hand. "I'll switch my face down monster to attack mode!"

The face down monster flipped up to show a mechanical hound howling into the air (800/1200). "Attack Mechanical Chaser!"

The hound jumped towards the weird looking machine, only to be slashed by the multiple weapons begin destroyed. The parts flew into Van's body making him shout out in pain slightly. (VLP: 6950)

"That was pathetic…" Bandit Keith laughed not noticing that two cards were slipping out of Van's graveyard.

"Oh I don't know what I was thinking, having Wroughtwieler attack…" Van stated with sarcasm dripping from his mouth.

"You fool…you haven't got a chance in the world now…" Bandit Keith laughed out loud.

"Dang it! Why does everyone call everyone else a fool?" Rex asked getting a few questioning looks from everyone.

"What are you talking about?" Koji asked looking at Rex.

"Well you see if you watch the tapes of Battle City, you see that a majority of the competitors called each other fools, said uh oh, or had bad laughs…" Rex answered with an annoyed look on his face. "If you don't believe me, then check it out yourself…"

"Shut up you dweebs!" Bandit Keith yelled scaring Rex, Weevil, and Koji. "As I was saying you idiots… I'll play the spell card, Premature Burial! With a cost of eight hundred life points, I can bring out a monster from my graveyard." (BKLP: 6450)

"Bring on that scrap of a monster you call Machine King!" Van shouted pumping his arm into the air.

Bandit's face seemed to curl up into a wicked smile. "Well…if you insist!"

As the spell appeared on the field, the ground began to open up in front of Bandit Keith allowing a large mechanized, flawless machine to erupt from the ground slamming it's fists together, causing sparks to fly through the air (2700/1500). "But he might have updated…"

"What in the world is going on?" Koji asked as the machine slammed it's feet into the ground.

"Remember when I played cost down?" Bandit Keith asked crossing his arms. "Well I discarded this monster from my hand to pay for it…Perfect Machine King! And for every other machine on the field, he gains five hundred points each!"

Sparks began to rage from all over the Perfect Machine King's body (2700/1500 + 1000/0). "Now then…Perfect Machine King! Attack that so called hero!"

The machine opened up the silos that were mounted on it's shoulders and unleashed a powerful fury of missiles that flew at Titan Defender.

"Nice try! I reveal my trap card, Negate Attack!" Van shouted as a powerful vortex appeared absorbing all of the missiles into it.

"Hmm…you got lucky punk…" Bandit Keith replied narrowing his brow.

"No luck…" Van replied pulling his next card. "…All skill!"

"What skill? You're a Slifer Red, the lowest of the low," Bandit Keith chuckled putting his arms behind his head. "Reminds me of me beating all punks when I was younger…"

"You shouldn't judge people on their outer appearance," Van replied lifting three of the cards from his hand into the air. "Like take you for example…right now I'm thinking that you're nothing more than an old geezer trying to be a punk teenager to get back your youth…"

That comment made a blood vessel appeared on the back of Bandit Keith's head. "Why you little ass!"

"But as I said, you can't judge on appearances…" Van chuckled as a powerful vortex began to form over his head. "The E-Heroes are a great example! They have potential if given the chance! I fuse the Sparkman in my hand…with the Sparkman in my hand!"

The vortex began to surge electricity before shattering into a powerful new hero. The hero seemed to float in the air showing that he was a taller, more muscular version of Sparkman. His golden armor was separated on his chest and had more mechanical looking arms and legs (2200/1800). "So let's give a round of applause to E-Hero Static Enforcer! Next I'll play Fusion Recovery! To add polymerization and Sparkman back to my hand!"

"Huh…none of your monsters are strong enough to take down my monsters…" Bandit Keith replied with a slight chuckle.

"Now I activate Polymerization!" Van announced as a powerful vortex began appear underneath the two fused heroes. "So I'll fuse Static Enforcer with Titan Defender! Now then…fuse together!"

The vortex began to suck the two heroes into it before it began to swell up and explode, allowing a powerful new heroic monster to step onto the field. It resembled the Thunder Giant, only looked to be a good five feet taller and it's purple jumpsuit had been replaced, as well as it's body, but pure electricity (2700/2000). "Into the almighty E-Hero Volt Colossus!"

"I don't care what that monster is! It doesn't have anything on me!" Bandit Keith shouted noticing that Van was lifting a card from his hand.

"That's where you're wrong! I activate Volt Colossus's effect! All I have to do is discard one card from my hand…" Van announced slipping the card, Sparkman, into his graveyard. "And he blows away all face up monsters on your side of the field!"

"But that means…" Bandit Keith shouted before realizing that he still had his face down monster.

"Yep! Your monsters are being sent to the scrap yard!" Van announced when his warrior began to lift his arms creating a powerful surge of electricity that flowed into the air. A second later, the electricity shot from the ground shocking the two machines that were on Keith's field. "And now…eradicate that face down card!"

The large Colossus slammed his foot into the face down monster, instantly crushing it. Yet…

…Bandit Keith was smiling. "Shouldn't have done that…"

"Huh?" Van questioned when all of a sudden the Volt Colossus shattered into multiple pixels. "What in the world?"

"That face down monster you blew away was Cyber Jar (900/900), when flipped up," Bandit Keith answered reaching for his deck. "We both pick up five cards and summon any level four or lower monsters from our deck. So let's see what your little deck has hidden…"

Both duelists immediately pulled the five cards from their deck and immediately lifted them up towards each other. And Van's eyes widened in shock, all of the cards Bandit Keith held were monster cards…

…and four of them were level four!

The other was a monster he had never even seen before.

'_A hero and that robotic dog again…nothing I can't handle…_' Bandit Keith just smirked as he took the four monster cards and slapped them on his duel disk. "Now then…meet my mechanical army! I summon…"

"A second Mechanical Chaser (1850/850)!"

"Machine King Prototype (1600/1500 + 400/0)!"

"Battle Footballer (1000/2100)!"

"And then I'll bring out Gear Golem of the Moving Fortress (800/2200)!"

In a flash the weird machine with multiple arms and weapons appeared…but then was followed by a machine that really did look like a combination of scrap metal. Next charged up a weird machine that resembled a football player, and a machine that appeared to resemble that of a spiked fortress appeared next to the rest of the machines. "What do ya think?"

"It's certainly a powerful army…" Van sighed looking at Wroughtwieler and E-Hero Avian (1000/1000), who were both crouching down in a defensive manner. "I guess I can only set a monster on the defensive and set a card face down. That's my turn…"

As the cards appeared in front of Van, Bandit Keith's smile became more and more venomous. "Real smooth move there genius…"

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Van asked with a blank face.

"I can't believe this guy didn't notice…" Rex sighed slapping his forehead.

"He might be worse than us Rex," Weevil added lowering his head.

"It's so obvious…" Koji added making a blood vessel appear on the back of Van's head.

"Okay! You don't have to insult me!" Van shouted, nearly bursting a blood vessel in the back of his head.

"Let me spell it out for you newb…" Bandit Keith chuckled drawing his next card. "Take a good look at my monsters…"

That's when Van finally got a good look at them. "What the?!? Your monsters!"

"That's right…Mechanical Chaser and Machine King Prototype are in defense mode…" Bandit Keith explained looking at his next card. "While the two strong defense monsters are in attack mode…"

"Why would you do that?" Van questioned when Bandit Keith immediately held up his newly drawn card.

"Simple…I have this!" Bandit Keith chuckled flipping the card around showing a demonic ritual on the card. "It's call curse of fiend! It switches the modes of all monsters on the field!"

"That means…" Van gasped watching all of the monsters on the field switching.

"You're a sitting duck…" Bandit Keith laughed pulling two of the cards from his duel disk. "Especially now, you dweeb, I sacrifice Gear Golem and Battle Footballer…"

The two machines shattered into pixels forming into one large machine. The machine slammed it's mechanical feet on the ground showing that it was a sphere like body in black and yellow metal. Around its body was a dark ring, one that made it look like a certain planet (2800/2200). "To summon The Big SATURN! My newest addition to my deck!"

As Bandit Keith continued to laugh, Alan walked back to the duel with a bowl of instant Ramen noodles. "So…did he win yet?"

"What the!?!" Rex, Weevil, and Koji shouted at the weird Principal. "You can't tell?!!?"

"Oh…so Van is winning!" Alan replied with a smile…making Rex, Weevil and Koji.

"Is this guy just dumb or was he dropped as a kid?" Bandit Keith asked crossing his arms.

"Yes! And it was a secret!" Alan pouted before slurping up the rest of his noodles.

Bandit Keith immediately slid a card into his duel disk, and his life point counter began to drop. "You see, by sending one card from my hand, and paying a thousand life points…I can boost my monster's attack points by a thousand!" (BKLP: 5450)

"Whatever…Mechanical Chaser! Attack that feathered freak!" Bandit Keith shouted as his machine flew towards the feathered hero, and immediately sliced the hero into nothing. (VLP: 6100)

"Machine King Prototype (2000/1500)…Attack that face down monster!" Bandit Keith shouted before his junkyard king machine shot a blue beam of energy at the face down and destroyed the face down card with ease.

"Thanks! The monster you destroyed was Magician of Faith (300/400)!" Van announced pulling a card from his graveyard. "So I'll take Fusion Recovery!"

"Yeah whatever…remember, I activated the Big SATURN's ability…"

The gravity around the huge machine monster started to make the ground shatter and start revolving around, increasing it's strength (2800/2200 + 1000/0). "And now…attack that useless mechanical dog!"

Van couldn't even watch as the large machine destroyed the mechanical dog, the force making him skid backwards. He didn't even notice that his graveyard spat out a pair of cards. (VLP: 3100)

"Oh yeah…don't even bother destroying Big SATURN with a card effect…you do that and you can kiss your life points goodbye!" Bandit Keith laughed out loud looking at his hand. "But just in case…I'll set this down and end my turn…"

"Dang it…don't think I'm done yet…" Van panted standing up.

"Face it punk, you can win…" Bandit Keith snickered as The Big SATURN's attack dropped back to normal. "Compared to me and the other big duelists…you'll be nothing more than someone that the strong step on…nothing more than a pedestal!"

That's when something snapped inside Van, with an unknown strength the Slifer Red duelist stood up and drew his card. "I'll show you who's a pedestal! You'll be the one who will stomped under my feet!"

Bandit Keith just raised an eyebrow as Van looked at his new hand. "Nice try kid, you're not fooling nobody with the tough guy act!"

"I'll show you…I play Polymerization! To fuse Avian with the second one in my hand!" Van announced as the two same heroes flew into the vortex. "And this allows me to combine them to become…E-Hero Feather Stormer!"

The vortex blew apart allowing an extremely muscular version of Avian; his green body suit is covered with strong dark green armor while two pairs of eagle wings are emerging from his back, to fly around the dueling area. His face was covered with an eagle mask (1800/1600). The warrior shouted into the air, before flying around Bandit Keith.

"Hey! What's this guy doing?" Bandit Keith asked before his set cards flew back into his hand.

"His special ability! It allows me to return all spell or trap cards back to your hand!" Van shouted lifting another card from his hand. "And now…I'll activate the spell card Fusion Recovery! So I take polymerization and E-Hero Avian back to my hand!"

"So what! Nothing you got will work!" Bandit Keith shouted nearly spitting at Van.

"This is what I got…I play Reincarnated Soul!" Van announced lifting his spell card, showing many fusion monsters rising up from a graveyard. "I simply return a fusion monster from my graveyard…"

One of the fusion monsters in Van's graveyard popped out of his duel disk and he immediately slid it into his fusion zone. "And then I can draw one card for every two levels on the returned monster! In this case, I draw three new cards!"

At the sight of the cards, Van's eyes widened, but then narrowed down at Bandit Keith. "Now then…prepare yourself…This will be the final turn!"

"Prove it ya punk!" Bandit Keith roared clenching his fists.

"If you want…" Van chuckled lifting his next three cards. "I fuse the two Burstinatrix (1200/800 x2) cards in my hand…to form…E-Hero Inferno Blazer!"

The vortex appeared once more, only this time exploded into a fury of flames forming into a more elegant version of Burstinatrix, with fiery red hair wearing crimson shoulder pads and chest plate armor. Her entire body was covered in a red as she crossed her arms (1950/1200).

"Kid…unless you have a fascination with heroes," Bandit Keith stated with his eyebrow starting to twitch. "I suggest you get a better deck and strategy!"

"I'm not done yet…" Van stated lifting his next card. "For this next card…I need to have performed two fusion summonses this turn…the spell card, Polymiraculous!"

"…Well that's a dumb name…" Bandit Keith with a sweatdrop appearing on the side of his face.

"I'll agree with you on that…but it's got a great effect!" Van announced when a very powerful vortex appeared underneath the two fused heroes. "It fuses the correct monsters…"

The two monsters were absorbed into the vortex, and immediately the portal began erupt with energy before a large, rugged version of Flame Wingman with metallic armor on his legs, a more ferocious dragon arm with miniature wings jumped from the vortex. His face is covered with a red helmet with multiple green feathers streaming from the back that flowed into the air as the hero floated in the air (2500/2000). "And creates the E-Hero Inferno Wingman!"

"Huh…big deal…it's not even strong enough to beat my Big SATURN!" Bandit Keith laughed not noticing the large amount electricity around the Inferno Wingman.

"I guess you don't know the other effect of Polymiraculous…" Van chuckled as his hero's muscles (5000/2000) began to grow. "It doubles the attack of the fused monster!"

"What the?" Bandit Keith shouted confused.

"And now, I activate the spell…Hero's Unending Justice!" Van shouted as a powerful aura appeared over his hero. "First…Inferno Wingman! Attack Mechanical Chaser!"

The powerful hero aimed his dragon arm towards the weird machine, before shooting out a powerful flame that engulfed the machine. Bandit Keith just stepped back as the flames made the machine explode. (BKLP: 2300)

"Nice try idiot! I've still got life points!" Bandit Keith chuckled before the Inferno Wingman floated in front of him. "Huh…?"

The Inferno Wingman suddenly blasted Bandit Keith with a powerful flame that sent him skidding backwards. "What the hell…" (BKLP: 450)

"My Inferno Wingman still has the same ability as the Flame Wingman…" Van explained.

"Well, too bad it's not enough…I happen to know something about that spell card that you played with the dumb name," Bandit Keith chuckled lowering his sunglasses. "At the end of your turn…your monster bites the big one!"

"True..." Van replied crossing his arms. "However…remember my Hero's Unending Justice?"

"That useless spell?" Bandit Keith questioned wondering where this was going.

"What you call useless will become your down fall!" Van stated as his Inferno Wingman flew into the air. "You see…if my Hero destroys a monster as a result of battle…he can attack once more as long as you have a monster on the field!"

"What!?!?" Bandit Keith shouted stepping back.

"Inferno Wingman! Attack the Big SATURN! Phoenix Flame!" Van shouted as the Inferno Wingman became engulfed in pure flames and flew towards the large machine.

"You can't do this to me!" Keith shouted before the Inferno Wingman charged towards the Big SATURN.

That when Alan jumped in front of Rex, Weevil and Koji holding up an incredibly large tent that covered up the battle scene. "Sorry guys!"

"What in the world are you doing?!?" Rex shouted trying to look past the tent.

"This scene is too violent and cool…"Alan replied…

…before he turned off the tent just when the Inferno Wingman smashed directly through the Big SATURN, destroying the monster as well as the rest of Bandit Keith's life points with him yelling in pain. (BKLP: 0)

"And that's game!" Van shouted pointing his finger at Bandit Keith before the holograms disappeared.

"No way kid…I refuse to lose to a punk…" Bandit Keith growled pulling a switch blade from his pocket and holding it towards Van. "Any last words?"

"OBJECTION!"

"Huh?" Bandit Keith asked looking at Alan who was resembling a famous pose from a familiar lawyer who…ironically, had the same last name.

"You lost!" Alan shouted getting Keith turning towards him. "So your threat…"

"Shut the hell up you family loving frea…" Bandit Keith started…

Before a powerful fist slammed up from underneath the jaw, sending the washed up duelist flying backwards. Everyone's jaws dropped at the sight of Alan lowering his fist. "…has been OVERRULED!"

"What's with the Phoenix Wright references!?!" Weevil asked as Alan lifted a KO'd Bandit Keith onto his shoulder.

"Dang…he's strong for a skinny guy…" Rex commented as Alan approached the four duelists.

"Rex, Weevil, we're going to take care of this guy," Alan replied with a smile that just seemed to make everyone nervous for some reason. That's when Alan turned towards Van. "And for you…you did good! Looking forward to seeing you in the next exam!'

Koji and Van just sweatdropped as Alan gracefully jumped away from the two with Rex and Weevil following behind him. "Man…people really are crazy…"

"…Yeah…" Van commented with his eye twitching. "…I just wonder what freaks Rena was facing…"

From the forest, Dias and a purple haired teenaged man were watching the duel finishing up. Dias turned towards the purple haired teen. "So…I take it you…have found your…opponent…"

"Fabulous…" The purple haired teen replied with a strange smile. "…I'll show him that heroes are no longer alive…"

"True…" Dias replied, turning towards the sky. "Soon…we'll see the beautiful crimson, blood sky…and I'll be able to live my life…"

//-/-/--/-//-/-

**Card Stats**

**Die Hard Martial Artist / Earth / LV 3 / ATK: 1200 / DEF: 1000 / Warrior/Effect:** During either player's battle phase, you may discard one card from your hand. If done so, double the attack of this card until the end phase.

**Description:** A white haired teenaged guy with weird markings over his face. His tight white shirt exposes his chiseled chest. With two bracers on his fists, the youth also has bracers on his shins connected to his black pants.

_**The following card appeared in 'A Tortured Duelist'**_

**E-Hero Feather Stormer / Wind / LV. 6 / ATK: 1800 / DEF: 1400 / Warrior/Fusion/Effect:** Elemental Hero Avian + Elemental Hero Avian. This card can only be special summoned via fusion summoned. As long as this card is face up on the field, this card's name is treated as 'Elemental Hero Avian'. When this card is special summoned, return all of your opponent's spell and trap cards back to his/her hand

**Description: **An extremely muscular version of Avian, his green body suit is covered with strong dark green armor while two pairs of eagle wings are emerging from his back. His face is covered with an eagle mask.

**E-Hero Inferno Blazer / Fire / LV. 6 / ATK: 1950 / DEF: 1200 / Warrior/Fusion/Effect:** Elemental Hero Burstinatrix + Elemental Hero Burstinatrix This card can only be special summoned via fusion summoned. As long as this card is face up on the field, this card's name is treated as 'Elemental Hero Burstinatrix'. When this card attacks, inflict 600 points of damage to your opponent's life points automatically

**Description:** A more elegant version of Burstinatrix, with fiery red hair and crimson shoulder and chest plate armor. Her entire body is covered in a red flame.

**E-Hero Inferno Wingman / Wind / LV. 7 / ATK: 2500 / DEF: 2000 / Warrior/Fusion/Effect:** E-Hero Feather Stormer + E-Hero Inferno Blazer This card can only be special summoned via fusion summon. When this card attacks your opponent cannot chain any spell or trap cards. When this monster destroys a monster as a result of battle, inflict the attack strength of the destroyed monster from your opponent's life points.

**Description:** A more rugged version of Flame Wingman with metallic armor on his legs, a more ferocious dragon arm with miniature wings. His face is covered with a red helmet with multiple green feathers streaming from the back.

E-Hero Static Enforcer / Light / LV. 6 / ATK: 2200 / DEF: 1800 / Warrior/Fusion/Effect: Elemental Hero Sparkman + Elemental Hero Sparkman. This card can only be special summoned via fusion summoned. As long as this card is face up on the field, this card's name is treated as 'Elemental Hero Sparkman'. Discard one card from your hand to destroy two face down cards on your opponent's side of the field. Your opponent cannot chain any effects in response to this effect. 

**Description:** A taller, more muscular version of Sparkman. His golden armor is separated on his chest and has more mechanical arms and legs.

**E-Hero Titan Defender / Earth / LV. 6 / ATK: 1300 / DEF: 2600 / Warrior/Fusion/Effect:** Elemental Hero Clayman + Elemental Hero Clayman This card can only be special summoned via fusion summoned. As long as this card is face up on the field, this card's name is treated as 'Elemental Hero Clayman'. While this monster is in face up defense position, your opponent's monsters must attack this monster.

**Description:** An extremely muscular version of Clayman only with more jagged rock like armor and his muscles are shown off through the brown body suit.

**E-Hero Volt Colossus / Light / LV. 7 / ATK: 2700 / DEF: 2000 / Warrior/Fusion/Effect:** E-Hero Static Enforcer + E-Hero Titan Defender This card can only be special summoned via fusion summoned. Once per turn, you may discard one card from your hand to destroy all face up monsters on your opponent's side of the field.

**Description:** A titanic version of the Thunder Giant, its armor is pulsing with electricity and its purple jumpsuit has been replace by pure electricity.

**Reincarnated Soul / Instant Spell / Effect:** Return one fusion monster from your graveyard back to your fusion deck, and then draw one cards from your deck for every two levels on the returned monster.

**Image:** A ghostly array of fusion monsters (E-Hero Flame Wingman, Bickuribox, and Black Skull Dragon) rising up from the ground

**Polymiraculous / Spell / Effect:** This card can only be used during the turn you perform two or more fusion summons. Send fusion material monsters on your side of the field or your hand to the graveyard. Then special summon the correct fusion monster from your fusion deck (this is considered a fusion summon), double the original attack of the fused monster.

**Image:** A fused warrior pumped up in front of a powerful vortex

**Hero's Unending Justice / Spell / Effect:** When this card is activated, select one face up monster with 'Hero' in it's name. When the selected card destroys a monster as a result of battle, the selected card may attack once more as long as your opponent has at least one monster on the field.

**Image:** The Elemental Hero Flame Wingman blasting multiple fiend type monsters.

**The Big SATURN / Dark / LV. 8 / ATK: 2800 / DEF: 2200 / Machine/Effect:** You can not Special summon this card from your Deck or Graveyard. Discard one card from your hand and pay 1000 life points, increase this card's attack points by 1000 points until the End Phase. This effect can only be used once per turn during your Main Phases. When this card is destroyed by an effect controlled by your opponent and is sent to the Graveyard, both players receive damage equal to this card's original attack strength.

**Description:** The machine with a sphere like body in black and yellow metal. Around its body was a dark ring, one that made it look like a certain planet

_The Big SATURN is a promotional card that is currently in Japan. Names and effects are subject to change._

/--//--/-/-/--/-/

**That is a good question…what was Rena doing?**

**Rena:** Well, besides breaking the fourth wall answering that question…

**Rukia:** We're enjoying the weekend!

**Leo:** It was actually quite relaxing…

**Rena:** Leo!?! What are you doing here?

**Leo:** Enjoying the day…

**Rukia:** Can this get any weirder?

**_Strategies collide next time… Chapter 13: The Unlucky Slayer_**

**Rukia:** Looks like I spoke too soon…


	13. Chapter 13: The Unlucky Slayer

****

Really? I can do this opening?

Well, I don't really know what to say…

…I never expected to do this…an opening…

So what do I say?

Um, how about the guy I'm facing? Sure that might work…

Well, needless to say, he's a familiar face to me, a duelist, an old friend, and right now…

…somewhat an enemy to me…

I've known this guy for practically my whole life, but for some reason seems to have changed dramatically for some reason…

What's really odd…is the fact that I didn't even know that he was ever in this academy. He was employed in the Edo Academy…I didn't even think he would be transferred here since last year…

I never thought I'd see him here, especially since his strategy is something that I really don't like…

The worse is that he wants to duel me!

But hey…at least I can see his cute companion!

/-//--//--/-//--/-/-/

Chapter 13: The Unlucky Slayer

/--/-/-/-/-////-/-

"Damn it…" Dais coughed kneeling to the ground in the forest. It had been a few hours since he placed the flyers around the school, but still he couldn't change the fact that he had pushed himself through out the night without his medication weakening him drastically. "…I shouldn't…have done…that…"

"Sir, don't speak," A cloaked man spoke with his slightly booming voice. "You should've had the others do that task…"

"No…I had…to do it…with my own…two hands…" Dais sputtered before standing up slowly. "…Now then…I suggest…that while…I'm meeting up…with Morty…you better find…someone you're willing…to fight…"

"No worries there, I just need to wait for Tori-chan to get here…" The cloaked teen replied turning his head to the side of the forest as Dais began to walk past him.

"…I don't…know how…you are…able to put…up with her…" Dais choked out shaking his head while pulling some of his pills from his pockets. "…Need medicine…"

"Yeah, see ya man!" The cloaked man chuckled throwing his cloak off his tall muscular body, he looked to be in his late teens to his early twenties. With the cloak no longer on his body, his tall spiky black hair springing upwards showing his matured face with a couple of scars on his cheeks. "…Now then…Tori, I thought you'd be here quickly…"

"Rennie-chan!"

The developed man turned around with a great smile on his scary looking face as he turned to his right towards the bushes. "Tori-chan!"

/--//--/-/-/-/--/-/

"…And so, that's what guys do when we're not around," Rukia finished with an accomplished look on her face.

"Really!?" Rena asked with a surprised look on her face. "Wait…how do you know that?"

"Trust me…I know guys like the back of my hand," Rukia replied lifting her hand up to signify her point.

"Really? Not even I knew boys did that," Leo chuckled appearing behind the two girls who were sitting on a bench near the school's entrance.

"It's true…" Rukia stated…

…Before it clicked in both Rukia and Rena's minds that Leo had appeared out of no where once more. The two jumped from their seats shouting. "LEO! STOP DOING THAT!"

"Ah, why would I do that?" Leo asked shrugging his shoulders before lifting up a small book to read. "And anyway, guys don't do that in our spare time…"

Rukia stepped up to Leo, who was still reading his book. "Oh yeah? How would you know Mr. Fancy Pants?"

"Simple Miss Nagata," Leo stated with a smile as he lifted his arms up to the sides. "I happen to be a guy and know plenty of other guys who don't do that."

"…I knew that was exaggerated…" Rena sighed rubbing her chin. "There's no way guys did that."

"…Well, maybe not in the open…" Leo muttered to the side with his book covering his lips.

"What'd you say?" Rukia asked with a raised eyebrow.

Closing his book, Leo just looked at the two with an innocent smile. "I didn't say a thing…"

"Leo…why exactly are you here?" Rena asked starring at the strange Obelisk Blue.

"The morning has yet to leave," Leo stated pocketing his book into his overcoat pocket. "Perhaps you two lovely ladies would like to join me at the Obelisk blue dinning hall for breakfast?"

"Is that even allowed?" Rena questioned, trying not to think about what the Obelisk Blue dorm served for breakfast. Hell, the Slifer Red dorm usually served cold cereal with orange juice.

"Ah, it is, you see as long you're with me," Leo replied with his hands over his heart, it almost seemed like he was really calming the scene. "You are allowed…so will I be accompanied by two fair maidens?"

"One moment…" Rukia requested before turning towards Rena as whispers floated between the two girls.

Leo just smiled as he crossed his arms over his stomach. '_I wonder what would make girls think us guys would do that?'_

"We'd be happy to take you up on your offer Leo!" Rena and Rukia replied at the same time getting a creepy yet satisfying smile from the Obelisk Blue duelist.

/--//-/--/-///-/-/

"Here we are…" Leo announced opening the Obelisk Blue cafeteria doors with Rena and Rukia behind him. As they looked into the extremely large breakfast hall, they saw that the ceiling was a good twenty feet from the ground with many beautiful paintings of nature and some very famous duelists who were in Obelisk Blue from other academies…

"Wow…" Rukia's jaw dropped at the mere sight of the room's radiance and blue colored theme.

"…It's a lot cleaner than our dorm's cafeteria," Rena whispered to herself lowering her head in envy.

"…To the Obelisk Blue Cafeteria…" Leo finished as he continued to walk over to one of the empty tables near the windows. But quickly, Leo turned around and smiled at the two Slifer Red girls. "To our seats ladies."

"It's really strange how he's really such a gentleman," Rukia whispered to Rena as they reached Leo's table.

"I kind of wish my brother would act somewhat like him…" Rena commented to herself before picturing her brother appearing in awkward and bad moments at the last moment. That just made her shiver in fear as she sat down. "NO!"

"…She's starting to become weird…" Rukia muttered to herself with a sweatdrop on the back of her head. '_Although, it sure does make things more interesting…'_

A second later, Leo lifted up a small menu that was on the table. "Now then, feel free to order anything on the menu…we just need to wait for the waiter…"

"Uh, Rukia?" Rena asked starring blankly at the menu. "…Do you know what this stuff is?"

"…I have no idea…" Rukia replied lowering the menu. "I can barely understand those words…"

"Oh, my apologies ladies, I seem to have given you two the French menus," Leo chuckled turning to the side picking up two some English menus and handing them to his guests. "That should be better…"

"Well, there are some things I know," Rena replied.

"Uh, hey there Leo, ya know!"

Leo was already smiling, but Rena and Rukia turned to see Asche standing at the side of the table with a notepad and a goofy smile plastered on his face. But what was different about him was the fact that he was wearing a blue waiter's outfit that was stretched to its limit thanks to his muscular body. "Oh, and here are Miss Rena and Miss…uh, I um, don't really know your name, ya know?"

Rukia just gave Asche a dulled glare. "I'm Rukia Nagata…"

"Ah, I see Miss Rukia, ya know…" Asche replied rubbing his chin in suspicion. "Anyway, can't wait for you and the two short guys to start working on Monday, Miss Rena."

"You don't have to call me by 'Miss'," Rena suggested with an embarrassed look on her face, remembering the short time that Leo had referred to her as Miss.

"Uh, sure, okay, ya know," Asche replied rubbing the back of his head. "I'm just used to calling Miss Cleo by that…"

"Ah yes, how is Miss Cleo?" Leo asked placing the menu on the table.

"Well…ya know, still making schemes to get hot guys," Asche sighed lowering his upper body. "…and getting some duelists out of the academy…"

"Wow…sounds like the spoiled princess you'd find at a high school…" Rukia snickered before turning towards the menu again.

"Oh no! Miss Cleo is nothing like that!" Asche shouted raising his head up with tears streaming from his eyes as he clenched his hand in pride. "She's a delicate flower who rose up from the earth of defeat to become an elite of the duel academy…ya know!"

"What? What makes you say that?" Rena asked not really believing what Asche just announced.

"Uh…sorry, but I'm not allowed to talk about that…" Asche chuckled before lifting the pad of paper up. "W'ever, what can I get ya?"

"Oh, yes, I will have some toast with a glass of milk," Leo ordered pushing the menu towards Asche. "Skim milk if possible…"

"Same as everyday eh Leo?" Asche commented writing down the order on his pad of paper. "I wonder why I even bother asking ya…"

'_Out of the all most expensive items on the menu, Leo gets the regular stuff!?!'_ Rena thought with a questioned look on her face.

/-/--//--/--/-/-/-/-/

"Rennie-Chan…how much longer till we find someone?" A sweet innocent voice chirped making 'Rennie-Chan' lower his head. "I'm tired…'

"Tori-chan…you've been piggybacking on me ever since we left the woods…" 'Rennie-chan' replied turning back to see a pair of innocent green eyes meet his dark green. "How could you be tired?"

"Everything's the same…" 'Tori-chan' yawned nuzzling her head on the back of 'Rennie-chan's neck. "…it's making me sleepy…"

A sweatdrop began to crawl down 'Rennie-chan's face turning back from the sleeping 'Tori-chan' that was on his back. "…Sometimes I wonder why I took her with me on this trip…"

"You should know zat answer better zan anyone… 'Rennie-Chan'!" Laughed an annoyingly familiar French duelist who appeared before 'Rennie-chan'.

'Rennie-chan' barred his teeth at the annoying French duelist, while trying to not wake up 'Tori-chan'. "To you Antonio, it's Renji…and what the heck do you want?"

"Now, now, now, what is wiz zis?" Antonio asked shrugging rubbing his elbows for some odd reason. "Are not ze two of us comrades? We should be working togezer…do you not want ze best for your little 'Tori-chan'?"

"To you, she's Kimatori," Renji growled trying to walk past Antonio, although the French duelist was following him keeping a couple of feet from each other. "Get lost…"

"Moi zought zat you would be delighted wiz moi's help," Antonio snickered rubbing his chin following Renji. "You know ze old saying, you scratch moi's back, moi will scratch yours…"

"Not interested, toupee boy," Renji scoffed not taking his eyes off the road in front of him towards the Obelisk Blue dorm cafeteria.

"It is a hair enhancement device!" Antonio protested with steam forming from his head.

"W'ever," Renji replied walking slightly faster. "Now this is the last time I'm going to tell you nicely, I don't want to wake up Kimatori…get lost you French Phony…"

"Fine zen," Antonio huffed walking away…somewhat in a sissy fashion.

"…I never get that guy," Renji scoffed shaking his head while trying to not wake up Kimatori. "…But I would never work with him…not even if Dias wanted me to…"

Renji slowly turned his head slightly and stopped walking to look at Kimatori, a smile appearing on his scary face. "…I have someone else to look after than myself…"

/-//--///--/-//-///

"That was a lot better than what the Slifer Red dorm serves us…" Rena sighed looking at her small plate.

"I'm glad that you enjoyed yourselves," Leo replied lifting his book up to read once more while sipping on his drink.

"So, why exactly did you invite us here?" Rukia asked still a little suspicious of Leo's invitation.

"Truth be told, I enjoy spending time with some of my friends," Leo replied closing his book to show his signature smile. "…And I thought it would be decent if I were to treat them to some of the breakfast that we Obelisk Blue enjoy everyday."

"Don't you have any Obelisk Blue friends?" Rena asked taking note that Leo's face still had his smile on it.

Leo didn't answer, he just combed his hair back with his hand and sighed…while still retaining his smile. "…Actually, my friends in blue are just Tony, Riko and his brother…I guess you could count Asche too, but he's more like driven by Miss Cleo…"

"Plus…unlike a number of Blues, I enjoy spending time with the other two dorm colors…"

"Who do you know in Ra Yellow?" Rena asked not noticing that Rukia was nodding at Leo's explanation.

"…I don't feel like telling…" Leo chuckled gesturing towards the door. "Oh look, a new pair of faces…"

"You say that with such a calm face," Rena stated before turning towards the door to see a scary guy standing in front of the door with a small girl resting on his back.

The scary guy's tall spiky black hair was springing upwards showing his matured face with a couple of scars on his cheeks. His muscular body was covered by a dark leather jacket with a dark gray shirt underneath and a pair of old fashioned blue jeans that had a deck case on it. The girl on his back seemed to be asleep and looked to be around six years old with bright red hair wearing a small version of a blue Japanese girl's school uniform with a longer skirt.

But it wasn't the fact that there were two new people that got Rena's attention, but rather…

"Renji? Kimatori?" Rukia questioned jumping from her seat and running towards the two.

Renji lowered his head and smiled brightly, but looked confused. "R-Rukia? What are you doing here?"

"I could as you the same thing!" Rukia shouted making Renji step backwards.

"Perhaps you two should take this outside so you don't cause a scene," Leo commented appearing between the two, slightly scaring them both.

"What in the!?!?!" Renji shouted waking Kimatori. "Where'd this guy come from?"

"Huh…Rennie-chan," Kimatori yawned loudly rubbing her eyes, that's when she saw a surprised Rukia. "…Rukia!"

/-//-/-///-//-/-//-/

A few minutes later outside the Obelisk Blue Cafeteria, the group of five were sitting at the open area. Kimatori was starring at Leo, and his bright smile. "Wow…how do you get your teeth to gleam like that?"

"Ah, young lady I brush my teeth twice a day and also chew some gum after every meal," Leo explained patting Kimatori's head gently. "And of course, stay away from sweets…"

"Aw man…" Kimatori sighed lowering her head.

"Dang it, that creepy guy freaked me out…" Renji commented starring at Leo with a sweatdrop on the back of his head.

"Welcome to our academy," Rena chuckled looking at Rukia. "So, how do you two know each other?"

"…He's my older brother, Renji," Rukia explained closing her eyes, turning away from Rena. "He's supposed to be in the Edo duel academy as a tutor…"

"And is this lovely young lady must be your younger sister?" Leo asked as Kimatori starred at Leo with hearts in her eyes.

"He called me lovely…" Kimatori sighed in love leaning on Leo's legs, all starry eyed.

"Actually…she's my daughter…" Renji answered with a dark look on his face. "Yet, we act more like brother and sister!"

"Father?" Rena questioned looking back and forth between Renji and Kimatori. "Then, that would mean…"

"Heh, yeah, I had a great at high school," Renji chuckled loudly before Rukia began to pull Renji's cheeks hard. "ARGH!"

"Don't act so damn proud!" Rukia growled pulling harder.

"OW! OW! OW! OW! OW! OW! OW! OW! OW! OW! OW! OW! OW! OW! OW! OW! OW! OW! OW! OW! OW! OOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" Renji cried trying to keep in his tears hidden in his eyes.

"Even Rukia gets crazy I guess…" Rena sighed to herself shaking her head. "…Though I'm one not to talk…"

After a few more minutes of stress added to his cheeks, Rukia had finally released Renji (who at the time was now rubbing his swollen cheeks). "Dang that stings… I see ya haven't changed since you got into the academy Rukia, though the uniform is a bit strange…"

"Whatever Renji, what are you doing here anyway?" Rukia asked not paying attention to Kimatori who as currently trying to find Leo, who had just seemed to have disappeared.

"Well, for a few reasons actually," Renji replied crossing his arms. "The first being that I'm being paid extra to come to academy to talk to the principal…but I haven't seen him. And that that leads me to my second reason, why I had to talk to the principal…"

"Is there something wrong?" Rena asked a little concerned as to what might be happening.

"Actually, I'm not supposed to say this…" Renji replied looking around and then focusing on Rukia's hands again…in fear of getting face pinched. "…But there's someone going around buying Duel Academia Stock…"

"What's so wrong about that? Everyday people do that…" Rukia stated rubbing her chin in confusion.

"Yeah, but here's the thing," Renji's voice seemed to become darker and deeper. "The stock are all being purchased by one group, and at a fast rate too…this week alone, almost half of the Pacific Duel Academy stock was bought out, and ten percent of this and the Edo academies were as well…by the same group…"

"Who's the group?" Rena questioned…even though she had no idea what was going on.

"…All the group calls themselves is Legendz…" Renji answered as Kimatori walked up next to him and wrapped her arms around his left arm. "…But enough of all that seriousness! Rukia! Still playing with that Red Eyes deck?"

"Well that was random," Rukia commented pulling her deck from her deck case. "But yeah, I still do…"

"…I see! Then I guess you know what I want to do then!" Renji laughed lifting Kimatori onto his shoulders.

"A duel perhaps?" Leo suggested appearing right in front of Renji. Scaring him and making Kimatori laugh in delight.

"WHAT THE?!?"

"Yay! Leo!"

"Sure, might as well see if you changed your strategy…" Rukia sighed.

/--//---/-/--/-//-/

A few minutes later, Rukia and Renji were standing across from each other with academy duel disks on their arms shuffling their decks. To the side, Rena and Leo were watching the duel with Kimatori sitting on top of Leo's shoulders, cheering loudly! "Go Rennie-chan! Go Rukia!"

"Ah, to be young and innocent," Leo laughed slightly making sure Kimatori wouldn't fall off him.

"Are you sure you're comfortable with her on your back Leo?" Rena asked starring blankly at Kimatori.

"Why of course Rena," Leo replied watching the two duelists walk away from each other. "She reminds me of my little sister…"

"I didn't know you had a sister," Rena realized blinking a few times.

"That is for another time," Leo laughed slightly noting the face on Kimatori.

"Ready little sis?" Renji asked snapping in his deck.

"Does the sun rise and set?" Rukia retorted pulling her five card hand.

"Then let's duel!"

"And you know what they say sis!" Renji announced pulling his sixth card from his duel disk. Looking at his hand, Renji's face slowly became a crooked smile. "…Age before beauty! And with that age comes a grand strategy! I summon, Art Tao!" (ReLP: 8000)

A bright light flashed in front of Renji, before dying down to show a mysterious blonde haired man playing a small flute with a nice tune with it. The young man was wearing a blue robe and black baggy Japanese styled clothing, on the top of his head, a black Priest hat sat on his blonde hair with two long white-feathered wings flowing in the wind with each note the man played (1500/1200). At the man's belt was a sharp katana that gleamed in the light. "And with his entrance…I call dark! I'll wrap up my turn…with a face down card…"

Rukia just smiled as she snapped off her next card. "Nice try big bro, but that monster's effect isn't going to surprise me!" (RuLP: 8000)

"Uh, Leo, what can that Tao do?" Rena asked listening to the calming music that the mysterious monster was playing.

"Well…you see the Art Tao gains five hundred points whenever the warrior battles with a type that is declared when it's called to the field," Leo explained not minding that Kimatori was cheering in joy.

"I summon, Luster Dragon (1900/1600)!" Rukia announced as the sapphire dragon flew from the sky above and crashed on the ground. "…Attack his Tao with sapphire claw!"

With a loud roar, the mighty dragon flew towards the surprised Tao with its claws ready slash right through the Tao…

Kimatori covered her eyes just as the dragon slashed right through the holy warrior.

In response, Renji stepped backwards but then quickly threw his hand over his face down card that flipped up showing a shadowed form standing before a panicked Goblin of Greed. "You'll have to do better than that! I activate my trap card, Hired Help!" (ReLP: 7100)

The trap card shattered into a taunting muscular brute crouching on the ground. As the warrior stood up, his fiery red hair flew back in the wind along with his ripped red cloak at his shoulders and his waist. From what everyone could see, the warrior was wearing tight black clothing under the cloaks showing his muscular body. His face was hidden by red mask that was hooked at the nose.

Then the warrior lifted a long sharp steel sword from his back that immediately erupted into many flames as the warrior roared his mighty battle cry (1700/800).

"Leo! What is that?!?" Rena asked uncovering her ears.

For some reason, Leo was still smiling, but he couldn't speak since the sight of the weird monster…but then his eyes narrowed and his smile turned into a frown.

'_What the? I've never seen Leo frown like that…'_ Rena thought taking note of Leo's face.

"Yay! It's the Pyro Mercenary!" Kimatori cheered loudly throwing her hands in the air.

"Well put Tori-Chan!" Renji laughed lifting up a card from his hand, and then immediately slid it into his graveyard. "I think you remember what my hired swordsman is capable of doing Rukia…but for our guests, I'll explain…"

"As everyone knows, a Mercenary is a hired gun…or in this case a hired sword…anyway, my Hired Help allows me to summon a level four or lower mercenary by paying five hundred life points. Then comes my monster's effect…"

The Pyro Mercenary raised his sword in front of his face, making the flames grow even larger (1700/800 + 750/0). "When my monster is summoned, I have to send a monster from my hand to the graveyard for cost, but then my Mercenary gains half of the discarded monster's attack added to his own…"

"Hmm…I think I can beat your monster," Rukia stated sliding a card into her duel disk. "So I'll set this card face down and call it a turn…"

Hesitantly, Renji picked up his next card and then smiled. "Let me guess…that trap is a monster destruction right?"

Rukia had one killer poker face, though not as serious as Leo's current face. "Well too bad! I summon, Dagger Mercenary!"

From one of the nearby trees leapt a completely black cloaked warrior who landed right next to the Pyro Mercenary. As soon as the warrior had a firm footing, the warrior threw his cloak off to show that he had combed back purple hair with many scars on his pale face (1400/600). As the warrior chuckled to himself he threw his cloak up to show that he had many daggers tied to his cloak over his black simple clothes. "And here's the kicker…when he's summoned, I can pay one hundred life points each turn, to destroy one spell or trap card on the field!"

"Yeah…I saw that coming…that's why I've got this card, Burst Breath!" Rukia announced as her face down card flipped up making the trap and dragon become pure energy. "Now…I tribute one dragon on the field and all monsters on the field with a defense lower than the attack of the dragon I tribute…is blasted from the field!"

"…Oh crap…" Renji cursed under his breath.

"Ooh! Rennie-Chan said a bad word!" Kimatori gasped putting her hands to her mouth.

"Dang it…there's two bucks in the swear jar…" Renji groaned slapping his forehead.

"Uh, brother? I hope you didn't forget about my trap card," Rukia sighed before the energy dragon flew towards the two mercenaries before exploding into a powerful flame destroying the two warriors.

"…That's just mean…" Renji sighed looking at his hand.

"Yay Rukia!" Kimatori cheered making Renji sweatdrop.

"…now that just stings…" Renji sighed even more picking up his next card. "…Good thing I have this! I play the spell card, Finish the Job!"

Renji's spell card flashed onto the field showing the Pyro Mercenary getting slapped upside the head by a mad Goblin of Greed. "Now…during the turn when some Mercenaries are destroyed, I simply pay a thousand life points per monster destroyed…" (ReLP: 5100)

Two orbs shot out of Renji's graveyard, before forming into the Pyro Mercenary (1700/800) and the Knife Mercenary (1400/600), both seemingly pissed off at Rukia. "…Then I can special summon the mercenaries that were destroyed! However, their effects are no longer usable…because I'm too cheap to pay for the best…"

"…Except for Tori-Chan!"

"Rennie-Chan! Be nice to Rukia!" Kimatori cheered with an innocent smile on her face.

"You really don't like to see daddy win, do ya?" Renji asked with a sweatdrop appearing on the back of his head.

"Nope! I just don't want to see Rukia get hurt!" Kimatori announced making everyone sweatdrop (except Leo, who was still looking at the mercenary cards).

"Man, that must really hurt," Rena commented to herself with a sheepish smile.

"My two mercenaries…attack Rukia, but, be gentle…" Renji requested getting weird looks from his two monsters.

The two monsters sighed loudly before walking to Rukia; however the two warriors then just rammed into her, knocking her to the ground. (RuLP: 4800)

"Rennie-Chan! That was too mean!" Kimatori protested against her father. "Rukia, are you okay?"

"Man, can't a guy get a break around here?" Renji sighed sliding his next card into his duel disk. "I'll end my turn…"

"Not bad bro, but I still have a few tricks up my sleeve," Rukia snickered pulling her next card from her duel disk. "And I'll show you what I can do!"

/-/-///-/Meanwhile/--//-/--/-/

"Well now Mr. Dashiben," Kryancelo started, his voice dripping with venom. "I think you remember our little deal…"

Ganryu just sat up in his bed, his uniform jacket slung over the side. "…"

"… I'll take that as a yes," Kryancelo came to conclusion walking over to the other side of the room. "So in accordance to our wager, you know that now you are the lowest ranked duelist in the Atlantic Duel Academy…"

"Oh, so that's how a Slifer Red got set up against an Obelisk Blue, let alone our best student…"

Kryancelo and Ganryu turned to the door to see Principal Wright standing in the doorway with a bowl of ramen noodles in his hand, slowly slurping up the noodles. "Thank you Kryancelo, for pointing out some talent!"

"What?" Ganryu and Kryancelo shouted at the same time, both confused on what Alan was talking about.

"If this duelist was able to hold out against the top duelists around here," Alan answered after eating some more of his noodles. "Then there are more potential duelists in the Slifer Red dorm…"

"Sir!?! You can't be serious!" Kryancelo roared with a stunned look on his face.

"Well, actually, I'm quite serious," Alan replied placing the empty bowl on a table in the room. "I mean, from the duel recon chips that we put in the duel disks, I can tell that we've got great potential in many of our students this time around! And with the two new staff members we've got, we'll be able to make the best out of them."

"So, where does that leave me?" Kryancelo asked a little worried that he might lose his job.

"Actually, I'm glad you brought that up," Alan continued with a dark look on his face. "About you setting up that wager with a duelist does contradict with this school's rules, so I will have to punish you both…"

"…But why don't we have some fun while punishing you two!"

Ganryu and Kryancelo just sweatdropped as Alan gave them both a strange smile. "Now if you two excuse me, I need to get back to a match that I left. Oh and Kryancelo…"

"Y-yeah sir?" Kryancelo shakily answered back gulping.

"…Remember! Tomorrow we're going to have a facility meeting with our plans for the school year! So don't be late!" Alan laughed before running off from the room.

"Y-yes sir…" Kryancelo replied somewhat embarrassed by his boss's actions.

"…that guy's an idiot…" Ganryu commented with a dulled look on his face.

"…Yeah, pretty much," Kryancelo sighed in agreement…must've been a blow on his pride to agree with Ganryu.

/-//-/---/-/-/-/

"I summon Masked Dragon (1400/1100)!" Rukia announced as the red armored dragon flew onto the field with a loud roar. "Attack his Knife Mercenary!"

Roaring loudly into the air, the dragon flew towards the smirking mercenary. All of a sudden, a bright yellow light appeared over the Masked Dragon, pulling it to the ground. Renji just chuckled as he gestured towards the large ancient jar with a dragon's face etched into it. "Sorry little sis, but I had a feeling I'd be facing you today…after all this is your academy after all. So I packed a Dragon Capture Jar in my deck…"

"I didn't think anyone used that card anymore…" Rena commented a little surprised at the card. '_Although it would make it difficult for Mana Dragon to be used…'_

"Just perfect…" Rukia growled looking at her hand.

"Yay! Rennie-Chan!" Kimatori cheered loudly making both Renji and Rukia sweatdrop.

"Uh…I'll place a card face down and call it a turn," Rukia sighed as the back card appeared behind her crouching dragon.

"Is it? Could it be…my turn?" Renji joked around lifting his next card. Immediately he slapped it onto his duel disk. "Rise up! Dark Blade (1800/1500)!"

From behind Renji jumped a muscular dark warrior clad in sharp black armor with two hooked swords at his waist. Quickly drawing his swords the warrior landed on the ground with in a fancy manner. "Now then, Knife Mercenary…attack her dragon!"

The Knife Mercenary jumped into the air and immediately threw a large amount of the knives he had hidden into the Masked Dragon's body, shattering the monster into pixels. Only a second Masked Dragon appear right where the first one was.

"I see you used your dragon's ability, fine by me!" Renji laughed as his Knife Mercenary landed in front of him. "Pyro Mercenary! Slay that dragon!"

With great speed, the Pyro Mercenary quickly slashed his fiery sword into the neck of the dragon, slicing it right through the dragon's neck. Only to have a third appear right in the same place. "This is really getting annoying…Dark Blade! Aw, you know what to do!"

The dark armored warrior flipped into the air before falling towards the dragon, stabbing it's two swords directly into the dragon's chest destroying the dragon. "Ha! I know you can't have another Masked Dragon in your deck, so it won't be possible to help you!"

"You're right brother, I don't have another Masked Dragon," Rukia replied as a card shot out from deck and she immediately slapped it onto her duel disk. "But I do have this guy!"

In the exact same spot as the Masked Dragons, a small green dragon appeared on the field lifting a shield and sword up in a defensive manner (700/800). "My Troop Dragon!"

"Okay…now you're just being annoying…" Renji growled sliding another card into his duel disk. "But I'm interested in seeing what you're planning…"

Rukia just drew her next card and then smiled. "I summon Dragon Dwelling in the Cave!"

Slamming on the ground, a large green dragon appeared on the field roaring loudly into the air making the ground shake (1300/2000). "And I'll end my turn…"

"Alright…" Renji replied pulling his next card from his duel disk. '_Oh little sis…I know exactly what you're going to do, however…little do you know that you're playing right into my hands…'_

"I summon, Goblin Attack Force!" Renji shouted before many armor wearing goblins ran onto the field, each wielding a club (2300/0) shouting into the air. "Attack the Dragon Dwelling in the Cave!"

It was an odd sight, seeing the dragon being clobbered by many different clubs and fists, before the dragon was shattered. "Next up, Knife Mercenary! Attack that Troop Dragon!"

"This is going to be repetitive…" Leo sighed still keeping his serious look on his face watching the Knife Mercenary throw many knives onto the Troop Dragon…

…Only to have a second one appear, to be sliced in two due to the Pyro Mercenary's sword…

…Making a third Troop Dragon land on the field, to get stabbed by the Dark Blade's swords.

"And on that note…I'll end my turn," Renji sighed as his many Goblins landed on their behinds sleeping.

"Okay…watch out bro!" Rukia announced drawing her next card. "I play the spell card, Mystical Space Typhoon! So say goodbye to your Dragon Capture Jar!"

Renji just flinched when his jar was immediately shattered into dust. But Rukia was hardly done. "Now, I summon Red Eyes Black Chick (800/500)!"

A small red egg appeared on the field, before shattering into a small cute black dragon with red eyes. The small dragon attempted to roar, but only squeaked…which in turn…

"It's so cute!" Kimatori squealed.

"Well, I hate to disappoint you Kimatori…" Rukia chuckled rubbing the back of her head. "But I activate my dragon's effect! Allowing to sacrifice him for the older version!"

The cute dragon squeaked loudly as a fiery aura surrounded its body, covering all of its features before the aura grew and the squeaking became a powerful roar. The aura disappeared turning into a powerful black dragon with piercing red eyes, the dragon roared loudly into the air (2400/2000). "Red Eyes Black Dragon!"

"Nice move sis…" Renji chuckled looking at one of the cards in his hand. '_Too bad it's all wasted…especially with what I have in my hand…_'

"But I'm not done yet!" Rukia announced taking her next card and slapping it onto her duel disk, taking the Red Eyes off her duel disk. "All I need to do is send my Red Eyes to the graveyard, and then I can special summon this monster!"

A dark aura surrounded the large dragon once more, and for a few minutes the dragon was completely covered before the aura was blown off by the wind…

…But the dragon had changed dramatically…it's arms were no more, but it's body was covered with dark green armor with many red jewels lining at the wings and head (2400/2000). The dragon roared loudly making the ground shake violently. "Red Eyes Darkness Dragon!"

"Ha, you just sacrificed a monster for a monster with the same attack!" Renji laughed out loud with his ego inflating.

"…Then I guess I'll have to power him up with his natural ability!" Rukia announced as her graveyard glowed brightly. "For every dragon in my graveyard, my Darkness Dragon gains three hundred attack points…and last I counted, there were ten dragons…"

"B-But that means!" Renji stuttered watching the many spirits of the fallen dragons float into the Darkness Dragon (2400/2000 + 3000).

"Darkness Dragon! Burn the Knife Mercenary!" Rukia commanded as her dragon began to breathe in deeply.

In a split second the dragon had launched a powerful black flame that had engulfed the Knife Mercenary, destroying the warrior in a painful destruction. (ReLP: 1100)

"Not bad at all sis…you've improved," Renji chuckled blowing some of the pixels away.

Rukia smiled at the compliment. "Thanks Renji…"

"But…unfortunately, I've improved more!" Renji continued nearly ripping his next card from his duel disk. "And Kimatori has helped me do that! Right Tori-Chan?"

"Right Rennie-chan!" Kimatori announced.

"Now watch, I sacrifice Goblin Attack Force and Pyro Mercenary…" Renji started before his two monsters shattered into pixels. "For the monster that you fear the most!"

"What!?! No! Not that card!" Rukia shouted as a large shadow appeared before Renji.

From the sky above, a powerful blue armored warrior landed on the ground softly. The warrior's entire body was covered with the armor, and on the warrior's back was a large sword that was the warrior's body length. The warrior slowly lifted his sword up and aimed it towards the Darkness dragon, as if the monster was waiting to fight (2600/2200).

"Buster Blader!"

"But…you never had that card before…" Rukia gasped watching her graveyard glow.

"Correct…however, thanks to Tori-Chan…" Renji replied waving to Kimatori. "I was able to get this card…and now, for his natural ability! For each dragon on your side of the field and in your graveyard, he gains five hundred attack points!"

Many souls of dragons appeared around the mighty warrior (2600/2200 + 5500/0). "Buster Blader! Attack with sword of the dragon slayer!"

The almighty dragon slayer leapt into the air, swinging his sword in the air behind him. Just as the warrior was about to slash the sword right down the dragon's head, a powerful mirror barrier appeared around the dragon, blocking the sword. "Nice try, bro! But I've got Mirror Force!"

"Too bad I've got a trap card too!" Renji shouted as his face down card dissolved. (ReLP: 100)

The force of the Buster Blader's sword began to crack right through the barrier, before destroying the barrier and slashed right through the Darkness Dragon. The dragon gave one last roar of pain before it was shattered into pixels. (RuLP: 2100)

"That was my Seven Tools of the Bandit, and all it costs is one thousand life points," Renji replied taking note that Rukia was on the ground kneeling. With a sigh, Renji slowly turned off his duel disk. "This duel is over with…"

"What are you talking about?" Rena asked walking next to Rukia. "Rukia has two thousand more life points than you do…"

"Yes, but I'd rather not attack my sister with my Dark Blade," Renji replied holding up one of the cards he still had in his hand. It was a quick play spell, Rush Recklessly. "As soon as I declared my attack, I would play this spell card to inflict an additional seven hundred life points…"

Renji held his hand up to Rukia, who immediately took her brother's hand. "Still have some work ahead of ya Rukia, but you're improving."

"Well…you've improved a lot as well bro…" Rukia replied shaking Renji's hand.

"Wheee!"

"That was a…interesting duel…" Leo commented with Kimatori shouting in joy on Leo's shoulders.

"Argh! Will you stop doing that?!?" Renji shouted glaring daggers at Leo.

"We've tried asking him…" Rena replied, taking note that Leo had his trademarked smile back on his face.

"Oh man…" Renji sighed looking at his watch. "I've got to meet with the principal, but could one of you watch over Kimatori for me?"

"I want Leo-kun to watch me!" Kimatori cheered making everyone but Leo sweatdrop.

"Leo-kun?"

"Huh?"

"Hmm…I've never been called that before…" Leo chuckled with a great big smile appearing on his face. "Mr. Nagata, I am fine with watching Kimatori…"

"Thanks man…It'll only be for a while," Renji sighed with relief.

"However, I would like to duel you sometime as payment," Leo finished with a serious smile on his face. "Also, just go to the Obelisk Blue dorm, tell the people at the desk 'Leo asked me to come here' and they'll direct you to me."

"Very well, I'll meet you at the Obelisk Blue dorm," Renji replied, but then his face turned extremely serious. "…And I'll owe you one duel…"

"Don't forget those mercenaries," Leo requested not noticing that Kimatori was sighing with boredom.

"You two talk too much," Kimatori complained making Leo smile in delight.

"True…now ladies," Leo turned towards Rena and Rukia, with a smile on his face. "Would you two care to spend some more time with me and Kimatori?"

"Sure…" Rena and Rukia replied walking with Leo away from Renji.

Renji waved the four off before they had disappeared into the distance. As soon as the four were no longer nearby, a familiar gothic leader appeared next to Renji. "…I take…it that…you have…found your…opponent…"

"Yes Dias, in fact I know he and I will duel each other…" Renji chuckled closing his eyes before combing his hand through his spiky hair.

"Childsman…interesting choice…" Dias commented before coughing slightly. "Excuse me…I haven't had…my medicine today yet…"

"Now worries sir…but I think that Childsman is actually more than what he appears to be…" Renji responded crossing his arms. "He knew about the Mercenary cards…so it might be fate, or pure coincidence…"

"But one thing's for sure…"

"He and I…are true enemies of each other."

"…Too bad…your daughter…seems to…be in love…with him…" Dias pointed out making Renji lower his head.

Tears began to flow from Renji's eyes. "That's what makes it so painful!"

/--//--/-/-/-/-/

Card Stats

Art Tao / Light / LV 4 / ATK: 1500 / DEF: 1200 / Spellcaster/Effect: When this card is normal, flipped or special summoned, declare one attribute. Whenever this monster battles a monster with the declared attribute, increase the attack of this card by 500 points.

Description: A young blonde haired man wearing a blue robe and black baggy Japanese styled clothes. On the top of his head is a black Priest hat with two long white-feathered wings. In his right hand is a small flute while on is belt is a finely crafted sword.

This card appeared in A Tortured Duelist

Hired Help / Trap / Effect: This card can only be activated after your opponent inflicts battle damage to your life points. Pay 500 life points. Special summon one monster from your hand with 'Mercenary' in its name from your hand or deck.

Image: a shadowed form standing before a panicked Goblin of Greed

Pyro Mercenary / Fire / LV. 4 / ATK: 1700 / DEF: 800 / Warrior/Effect: When this card is normal or special summoned, you may send one monster card from your hand to the graveyard. As long as this card remains face up on the field, this card gains half of the original attack points of the discarded monster.

Description: A warrior with fiery red hair flew back in the wind along with his ripped red cloak at his shoulders and his waist. From what everyone could see, the warrior was wearing tight black clothing under the cloaks showing his muscular body. His face was hidden by red mask that was hooked at the nose

Knife Mercenary / Dark / LV. 4 / ATK: 1400 / DEF: 600 / Warrior/Effect: When this card is normal or special summoned, you may pay 100 life points for each spell and trap card on the field. For each 100 life points paid, you may destroy the same amount of spell or trap cards on the field.

Description: A purple haired warrior with many scars on his face, wearing a dark cloak with many knives underneath his cloak.

Finish the Job / Instant Spell / Effect: This card can only be activated when a monster with 'Mercenary' in its name is destroyed. You may special summon all monsters with 'Mercenary' in their name that were destroyed this turn on your side of the field (you cannot activate their effect when you use this card's effect). Pay 1000 life points for each monster that was special summoned this way.

Image: the Pyro Mercenary getting slapped upside the head by a mad Goblin of Greed.

/-//--/-//--/-/

Kryancelo: Oh great, now I'm stuck doing this thing…

Alan: What exactly are you complaining about?

Kryancelo: W'ever…anyway, we're dealing with his creepy guy…

Dias: I'm not…creepy…

Kryancelo: …You cough up your own blood every few minutes!

****

Unleashing the cursed power of a pained soul – Chapter 14: Dias Never Cry 

Alan: …Real original title…Groovy!

Dias: Hey…I came…up with…that!

Alan: Whoops! Sorry there choky!

Dias: …Choky?


	14. Chapter 14: Dias Never Cry

****

… So…I guess…I am…the one…to do this…

…Very well…

I am a…cursed soul…destined to…roam this world…with a…diseased body…

…Why am I…here…you may…ask?

Well…there is…a way…

A way to…save…my plague…

…Yet, I…am always…torn between…my morals…

To live…many others…must suffer…this is the way…

The way that…man works…always stepping…on those beneath them…only to continue…in their own selfish ways…

It is sad…it is a chain…effect that will…continue in every generation…

Why must…people continue the chain? It is…simply sad…to see…why?

My affliction…why should…I bother? Right now…you're wishing that…I'd just…shut up…am I right?

I am…invisible…I walk through…the night…slaying my…personal demons…

I…AM…THE…BLOODY DEVIL HUNTER!

/--//--/-/-//-/-//

Chapter 14

Dias Never Cry

/--//--/-///-/-/-/

Falling to the ground, Dias lowered his head towards a deck of cards he held in his hand. A familiar form was standing next to him. "Sir? Are you alright? Do you require your medicine?"

"No…I am fine right now Alex…" Dias sighed leaning back on the tree behind him.

A blood vessel appeared on the back of the masked teen's head. "Not to be disrespectful, but my name is Black Tiger…"

"Yes, yes whatever…" Dias moaned covering chest with his left arm. "Soon, the time will come…do you have your charm?"

In response, Black Tiger lifted up his right arm and lowered the sleeve to show a large golden bracer with an Egyptian styled eye on the side. "I am adequately equipped sir…and with my new deck, I believe any opponent you set me up against will fail in a matter of turns…"

"Don't think that you're perfect," Dias warned slowly standing up on his feet, beginning to breathe heavily. "That only leads to defeat…"

"Yes sir…" Black Tiger replied covering the bracer. "Now then…what are your orders?"

"I will do…some more…scouting…" Dias explained b\pocketing his deck of cards. "You are…to keep…looking for…an opponent… that is… worthy…"

That's when a large gush of blood shot out of Dias's mouth, making him huddle over covering his mouth. Black Tiger quickly ran to Dias's side only to be pushed to the side. "Never you mind…I will…deal with…it myself…go…"

Surprised, Black Tiger turned around, allowing his black cape to float backwards in the wind. "…See ya sir…"

"Must find…water…" Dias coughed wiping the blood from his mouth.

/--/-/-//-//--/-//-/

"He always does this…" Kryancelo growled through his teeth as he slammed his feet onto the table. He wasn't the only one mad in the conference room on this beautiful Sunday morning.

Rex and Weevil were bickering about something related to a duel they once had with someone. Professor Alonso was busy playing a Nintendo DS, occasionally shouting out 'Objection' or 'Hold it!' Maria was currently working on her make up while Hughes…well, he was just sleeping.

"How many times does Alan do this?" Rex asked before turning back to his argument with Weevil.

"…All the time…" Kryancelo replied crossing his arms and lowering his head. "I am surprised that he still even works here…"

The doors immediately slid open, letting Alan enter the room slurping up a large amount of noodles. "Yum! I can't believe the kids in Slifer Red don't eat these!"

"Sir…" Kryancelo coughed waking Hughes as well as making the teacher fall out of his seat. "…Now can we get on with the meeting?"

"Yeah, sure I guess…" Alan sighed dropping into the seat at the head of the table. "…So…what's this meeting about?"

That comment just made everyone but Alan fall out of their seats out of embarrassment. Everyone jumped to their feet and glared daggers at Alan. "YOU'RE THE ONE WHO CALLED THE MEETING!"

"Hmm…I see…" Alan replied clapping his hands together. "Just having some fun you guys…but right now, I think we should start matters off with our two newest employees…Rex Raptor and Weevil Underwood…I know, you probably just remembered them…"

"Yeah…"

"I guess so…"

"…Pretty much…"

"Who?"

By this time Rex and Weevil had their tears streaming from their eyes as Alan continued. "Just as I thought, now then, these two will act as teachers to pay off their debt to us. Rex will be our on the scene duel explainer, since both of them were in the duelist kingdom and Battle City, they have a first shot glance at what happened…"

"And Weevil is our expert on detecting any illegal moves and card tricks…"

"Unique titles I see…" Alonso chuckled pulling his DS in front of him once more.

"Thanks!" Alan shouted with glee.

/--//--//-/-//-//-

Sunday, a day of rest after a long six days of working…or in Rena's case…

"BORING!"

And it was true, Rena was all alone today. Klein and Koji were busy trying to hit Van up for some money, while Van was trying to avoid them at the time. Ganryu was no where to be seen, Rena assumed that since he wasn't in the ward, he was probably relaxing by himself.

Even Rukia wasn't around; she was spending time with Renji and Kimatori while they were around.

And for some reason, Tony and Leo were nowhere to be seen either, more than likely they would appear when she least wanted them to.

But to burn the day, Rena was simply sitting at the bench looking at a few of the cards she had managed to get in the mail from her brother and dad. '_I'll have to make sure to get Guy something great for his birthday…'_

That's when something caught her at the corner of her eye…

Meanwhile…

'_So many people…_' Dias slowly walked between the massive crowd of students, none of them even noticing that he was walking past or beside them. '_…And yet I am so alone…any one of these people may hurt me in the future…'_

As Dias entered into the Slifer Red dorm area, he didn't even care that the student body had thinned out giving him much more room to walk. No matter where he was or how many people were near him…he always felt isolated.

All of a sudden, a small amount of blood coughed from his throat, forcing his right hand to his mouth to try to stop the blood from getting onto the ground. "No…not a…again…"

That's when Dias noticed that there was someone standing to the side of him, a familiar someone with a concerned look on her face. "Um…are you okay?"

Dias quickly stood up straight and placed his slightly blood covered hand behind his back. "Uh…yes…do not…worry…forgive me…but I…never caught your…name…"

"It's Rena…and you're Dias right?" At the sound of his name, Dias's eyes widened slightly…someone who didn't work under him actually remembered his name.

A few minutes later, after taking a lot of his medicine, Dias sat on the bench with Rena sitting next to him. There was an eerie silence as Rena kept looking at Dias. "So, that uniform of yours…is it a custom one?"

Dias turned towards Rena and raised an eyebrow, a second later; he pulled on the collar of his jacket. "Actually…yes, I prefer the color black. And I see that you have the usual uniform…"

"I…I don't have enough money to afford a custom one," Rena chuckled with a slight blush on her face as she rubbed the back of her head. "Anyway, what are you doing here? I'd figure that Obelisk Blue students would be working on studying on this day…"

So, the girl thinks that Dias was in the school, even more an Obelisk Blue student. Dias shook his head and seemed to show off his dulled look. "Actually, a lot of us prefer to relax on the day…a lot of people are lazy on Sunday…"

"I can see that…" Rena replied throwing her head back.

'_…This is the one that Rosenberg wishes to face? I wonder…maybe I should see what he finds an opponent in her…'_

"So…Rena, are you doing anything?" Dias asked catching Rena off guard.

"What?!" Rena questioned turning to the side. '_This is strange…well, stranger than usual…'_

'_Okay…she's somewhat weird…but who am I to talk?'_ Dias stood up dusting off his overcoat. "I apologize; I was just bored and hoped to spend the day with a friendly face…"

"Well, I don't mind," Rena replied standing up next to Dias. "I didn't really have anything to do either."

"Very well," Dias said in a somewhat of a dull tone, slowly walking towards the school. "Then how about we get an early lunch?"

"Sure, but we don't have much at the Slifer Red cafeteria," Rena sighed following Dias.

"No worries, we'll go to the restaurant in the school," Dias replied turning his head to Rena. "My treat…"

"Um, thanks," Rena state with a small tint appearing on her face.

/--///--//-/--/-/

"So it's decided, every Tuesday in the restaurant," Alan announced reading from a paper he had just written up. "Will now be known as Ramen Noodle day, were various types of Ramen Noodles will be served all day for free…"

"Sir…why did you just go on a random rant?" Maria asked with a sweatdrop appeared on the back of her head.

"I don't really know," Alan chuckled making everyone in the room sweatdrop once more. "But, enough of brightening up the room, in regards to the mysterious letters and blood that was discovered on the window yesterday…"

"…I am afraid I have to tell you all something…a month before the school year began, I received an e-mail. This e-mail had no return address, and had only this written on it…"

'_…When the day sky will darken… And the black lightning strikes… One will appear steeped in the bloody night… To kill and to steal the lightning of darkness… A warning that it is coming… The Bloody Devil Hunter…_'

Alan closed his eyes and sat back into his seat, covering his face with his hand. "…It just so happens to be the exact same text that was found on the letters here…"

"What?!?" Kryancelo roared slamming his hands onto the table. "Why weren't any of us alerted of this?"

"Oh come off your high horse Kryancelo…" Hughes sighed lifting his hat over his head. "Each year we got a prank that resembled that message from different academies…it's a tradition, but apparently now…"

"I understand the matters at hand," Alan replied his voice seemingly somewhat serious and sad. "…So I'll open the floor open to all suggestions…"

"And now we enter into the craziness…" Alonso chuckled rubbing his chin.

/--//--///--//--//-

"…And he got kicked into the ocean?" Dias asked before lifting his glass of water to his lips and drank some of it. "I must say, you certainly have some… 'Interesting' friends…"

"Way to put it lightly…" Rena chuckled thinking about all the embarrassing times that her friends were caught up in.

"…I am somewhat envious…" Dias slightly snickered lowering his head.

"Why's that?" Rena questioned somewhat confused on his comment.

"…Well…" Dias was somewhat hesitant talking about this subject. "…Let's just say, that it was hard for me to get along with others…"

That comment got Rena thinking about what Dias meant about that. She wouldn't know what that was like, Rena had actually many friends before she came to the academy, although, when compared with everyone here she met…

"…I'm surprised I've survived…" Rena surprised making a question mark appear over his head.

"What?" Dias questioned a little confused.

"Uh, never mind!" Rena blurted out with a slight blush on her face. The next second, she shook it off and tried to change the subject. "So, uh Dias…when Klein was dueling, you seemed to know what that eye patched guy was playing…"

"I happened to have faced a duelist like that Xander character," Dias replied closing his eyes. "It was a complicated strategy, but I managed to turn the ties in my duel…"

"If you don't mind me asking…" Rena replied lifting her drink. "But, what kind of deck do you run?"

Before Dias could reply, a calm voice stopped him. "Hmm…not bad for a Slifer Red chick…"

Rena and Dias turned to the side to see an odd Obelisk Blue duelist, standing before them both who was actually starring at Rena. The Obelisk Blue had dark hair combed over his left eye and face, while still showing a cocky smile on his lips. His thin complexion was covered with his first year Obelisk Blue uniform and black pants. On his left arm was a deactivated duel disk. "…A little flat and is a red…but not bad at all…"

"…I don't know if I should be complimented or insulted…" Rena sighed with a dark aura glooming over her head.

'_Oh joy, someone else to annoy me…' _Dias shook his head before he took another sip of his drink.

The weird Obelisk Blue had all of his attention on Rena, and had a devilish smile on his face. "I guess even a small rose can come up from the trash covered dirt…"

"Please leave," Dias stated calmly with his eyes closed.

"Oh, here's something I didn't notice," the player Obelisk Blue chuckled slowly turning his eyes towards Dias. "Some litter on the ground…"

Hearing that, Dias immediately stood up from his seat, his eyes still closed. "I'll say this once more, please leave…"

"Go back to the shadows, Goth," The player Obelisk Blue brushed Dias off and turned towards Rena. "Wanna have a good time?"

Dias didn't really care for the 'Goth' comment or the fact that this guy was trying to get a home run with Rena, but for the fact that this guy told him to go back into the shadows…

"Don't think that you're on a higher level than me," Dias stated with his mouth almost dripping venom from his mouth. '_This shall be the first of many…'_

"Hmm…I guess I'll have to push you back into the shadows," The player Duelist sighed combing his hair back. "Very well…I am Miles Murphy, the Dark Rose…and if we must settle this…let's settle this like men…"

"A duel it is…" Dias replied turning towards Rena. "May I borrow your duel disk?"

A little confused as to what was going on, Rena handed her duel disk to Dias who immediately fitted it on his left arm. Rena just sat there at the table for a few seconds before blinking in confusion. "…What just happened here?"

/--/-/-/--/-//-

"…Okay, so the ideas are these," Alan stated shuffling the papers that were before him. "First one, don't do a thing by Rex. Then we've got Kryancelo's plan to get everyone off the island. And finally…my idea…a ramen noodle kitchen…"

"Do you have an obsession with Ramen Noodles or something?" Weevil asked with his right eye twitching.

"Getting off topic," Alan replied placing the paper onto the table before him. "Anyway, everyone remembers the blood that was found on the window, correct?"

Thinking that Alan was actually serious, everyone nodded back to him, making him sigh. "Excellent…due to the duel academy's security squad and their technology, we were able to trace the DNA in the blood to see what family has that genetic code…"

"I swear, if it weren't for the technology, I swear you send the funds of our school to the security," Hughes sighed putting his arms behind his head.

"…And because of that, I think I know who may have sent those flyers as well as the e-mail we received earlier. I assume you all know about what happened to Swartzvauld family two years ago?"

Everyone's eyes widened at Alan mentioning that incident. The room went all silent until Kryancelo cleared his throat. "Y-You mean the family that was almost wiped out in that terrorist attack?"

"The exact same…" Alan replied crossing his arms over his chest. "I'd rather not go into the gruesome details on that day, but as we all remember, only two members of the family were spared from that fate…twin brothers…"

"So, you're saying that one of them or both of them are the cause?" Alonso figured out rubbing his chin. "Where's the motive?"

"Unfortunately I do not know that…" Alan admitted lowering his head. "However, one of the brothers can't be involved. For the past year, he's been on a dueling tour and as we know, he's not the sharpest tool in the shed…"

"So…who's the guy we should look out for?" Rex asked, somewhat afraid of the answer.

Alan lifted his head up and opened his eyes. "His name is…"

-//-/--/-/-/-/-

"…Dias Swartzvauld…"

The warm breeze flowed over the duel field as Rena watched Dias and Miles shuffle each other's decks. This seemed oddly familiar, like the time when Ganryu and Riko dueled each other. '_I don't think I'll ever get men…'_

"Nice introduction," Miles chuckled handing Dias his dueling deck, while taking his own. "Not that I'll remember your name after this…"

"One monster…"

"Huh?" Miles questioned as Dias turned his back to the player duelist and walked to the other side.

"The only monster that will appear on my field will be the same one and the same card," Dias predicted spinning around on his heel and turn towards Miles who was walking backwards. "That is what I will do…"

"Whatever Goth," Miles chuckled pulling his six cards. "I will not be bound by such plain chivalry…its dead…"

"Enough stalling…let the duel begin!" Dias announced pulling his five cards. "Make your move…" (DLP: 8000)

"Very well…" Miles chuckled lifting his hand up to his eyes. "Oh…I think I'll start by playing this spell card…Cost Down!" (MLP: 8000)

Miles's spell card materialized from the ground forming into a picture of two nobleman swords piercing two stars on a monster card. Miles immediately slipped a card from his hand into his graveyard. "I toss a card…"

"I know what your card does…" Dias interrupted crossing his arms. "So now you can lower the level of all monsters in your hand by two…making them easier to summon."

"…Correct, so I'll be able to summon…" Miles chuckled slapping his card onto his duel disk. "…Dark Ruler Hades!"

The ground before Miles began to darken as a large demonic figure began to loom over Dias. The demon had a laughing face wearing dark nobleman clothes you'd find in a Netherworld. The demon stirred the wine that he held in his crooked hand (2450/1500). Dias narrowed his eyes at the sight of the demon.

"And next, I'll set this card in the back row just in case…" Miles concluded with the back card appearing behind his demon. "…And I'll throw it do you Goth man…"

Dias slowly drew his card and turned towards Rena. "…I believe you asked what deck I run…correct?"

"Uh, yeah," Rena replied.

"Well, it must be irony…" Dias seemed to chuckle as he lifted another card from his hand. As he lifted it up, a powerful gust of wind appeared out of no where; making Rena and Miles raise their hands up to make sure that the dirt that was flying from the ground wouldn't get into their eyes. All of a sudden, Miles's set card shattered into pixels. "…That I get to face a deck full of demons…when my deck…is full of…Demon Slayers!"

Rena lowered her arms just as Dias slapped his card onto his duel disk, making a young man fall from the sky in front of him and land as if it was nothing. The man stood up showing his combed down hair covering the top of his face yet still showed his eyes and half serious and half joking grin. The man was wearing a large crimson red over coat with a strap over his bare (yet muscular) chest and was wearing rough cargo pants and boots. On the man's back was a large broad sword with the hilt of the blade looking demonic, and had two filled gun holsters at the waist of his back.

The young white haired man immediately stuck a back stance pose and raised his arms up, ready to punch the lights out of any opponent (1500/1200). "And this is the only monster that will appear! Legendary Demon Slayer Dante!"

"What the!?! They made a card out of him!?!" Miles shouted out a little frightened…obviously he was familiar with the series.

"DANTE!" Rena cheered out getting weird looks from Dias and Miles at the same time. Embarrassed, Rena rubbed the back of her head. "…My brother got me into the games and I just…well…"

Dias just shook it off as a card slipped out of his deck and into his hand. "…Back to the duel, I enact Dante's ability! When he is normal, flip, or special summoned to the field, I may take one equip card from my deck and equip it to him! And I choose…Rebellion!"

As Dias played the card, Dante drew his signature sword from his back and spun it around in his right hand as if it were nothing (1500/1200 + 1000/0). "Now then…Dante! Slay the Dark Ruler!"

With a slight grin, Dante ran at an incredible speed towards the surprised Dark Ruler, his sword sparking on the concrete ground before he jumped into the air and lifted the sword over his head. The Dark Ruler shot its free hand towards the Demon Slayer, but it was no use…

…Dante had just brought his sword right down the middle of the demon's hand before curving the sword to slice right down Hades's shoulder to the hip. As soon as Dante landed on the ground, he immediately brought his right foot up and slammed it into the bleeding chest of the demon, sending the top half of the demon flying off the rest of the Dark Ruler's body. (MLP: 7950)

At the sight of his monster being eradicated so easily, Miles stepped back as Dante casually walked back to Dias's field. Dias was busy placing two cards into his duel disk, which promptly appeared behind the Legendary Demon Slayer. "My turn ends with these two face down cards…still think you're on a level higher than me?"

"…Hmm, just like a dark guy to act all smug when they've only scratched the surface," Miles chuckled slowly drawing his next card. Dias could see right through this duelist's charade, trying to act tough even when facing something as strong as Dante. "You only have a slight lead, so I don't think you have much of a right to brag."

Two face down cards appeared in front of Miles, one horizontal and behind it a vertical one. "I'll set a monster and a spell or trap card face down…do you think you can win this with only one monster?"

"Well, for someone like you," Dias replied simply drawing his next card, not even looking at it. "It's required that I give you a handicap…"

"What!?!" Miles shouted with a blood vessel appearing on the back of his head.

'_…Dias really knows how to make someone mad…' _Rena thought with a sweatdrop dripping on the side of her head.

"Dante! Attack that face down monster!" Dias commanded as Dante balanced his sword on his arms, before throwing it right through the back of the monster card, making it flip up to reveal a small demon wearing a black cloak with a blue flame like body (200/500).

Before the demon cried out in death, it took careful aim and threw a hidden dagger right into Dante's chest, shattering the warrior into pixels. Dias seemed unfazed by this while Miles was laughing as if he just won the million dollar lottery. "Ha! Nice try Goth! But my Night Assailant destroys a monster when it's flipped up so nice try!"

"…Actually, I was hoping you'd do something like that…" Dias coughed out making Rena and Miles confused. "Cause then, I'd be able to strike you directly…"

"What are you talking about Goth?" Miles retorted with a dark look covering his uncovered eye. "The only monster you said you'd use is in the graveyard…"

"True, but if you know the game," Dias replied slowly lifting his left arm over his left face down. "Then you'd realize that cards in the graveyard are easier to get from the graveyard rather than the deck! I activate my trap card, Demon Slayer Creed!"

Dias's face down card flipped up showing a scroll that was written in blood being posted onto a wall with a familiar sword sticking from the top. Dias lifted a card from his hand, it was a monster known as Getsu Fuhma. "I can activate this trap by discarding one monster from my hand. Then from my graveyard, I can special summon a monster from my graveyard with the same level as the discarded monster. So take a guess who's coming back…"

"No!" Miles realized that he did just play into Dias's hands. And his face down card couldn't protect him from an attack.

The trap card just shattered into the famous Dante, this time with an angered look on his face at Miles. Just like before, a card slipped out of Dias's deck and he immediately slipped into his duel disk. "I believe you remember Dante's effect? So I can equip him with Twin Pistols: Ebony and Ivory!"

Turning around, Dante immediately pulled his trademarked ebony and ivory guns from their holsters (1500/1200 + 300/0) and aimed them directly at Miles. It was then that something surprised both Rena and Miles. Dante shouted out… "Jackpot!"

Before either one could ask, Dias threw his arm towards his monster. "Dante! Direct attack against the player!"

With the same great speed he displayed earlier, Dante appeared only a foot away from Miles both guns ready to fire at will. Before Miles could protest, Dante immediately unloaded a few rounds of bullets into the player duelist, making him shout out in pain as each bullet brought his life points down…

…by one point each… (MLP: 6150)

As soon as the bullets stopped, Miles slouched to the ground breathing deeply. '_…That…that…that hurt more than it was supposed to! W-w-what is going on here?_'

That's when Miles realized that Dante was still standing over him, just quickly reloading the pistols he had in his hands. Dias immediately explained as soon as Dante lifted his guns towards Miles once more. "My equip card also gives Dante the ability to attack twice…so enjoy your punishment…"

"But… I…" Miles pleaded before the salvo of bullets began to penetrate his body, making him scream in pain once more.

Rena couldn't even stand to look this time, as each gunshot made the screams grow worse and worse. '_It…it's too much to bear…'_

Miles was breathing hard once more as Dante playfully spun the two pistols in his fingers, slowly making his way back to Dias's field once more. (MLP: 4350)

"Still have enough strength to stand?" Dias asked with his eyes closed.

"S…s…so what!" Miles shouted jumping to his feet with an enraged look on his face. "I simply will not be beaten by a Goth!"

Dias just shook his head. '_…the fool doesn't realize it yet…his pride and lust will be his downfall…yet he has a decent amount of duelist spirit…and this I can use to my advantage…'_

As soon as Miles drew his next card, his face down card flipped up, revealing a red version of the pot of greed. "I play Jar of Greed! This allows me to draw an extra card!"

With a quick snap, Miles added the next card into his hand. Then immediately he lifted another card, this time a bright angel appeared over his head and snapped three cards from the top of his deck. "I play Graceful Charity! So I draw three cards…"

Miles immediately took the three cards, and then handed two over to the angel. "…And discard two! And now, I'll remove the Dark Ruler, Night Assailant, and one of the cards I discarded, Newdoria (1200/800)…"

"I already know what you're planning to do…no need to explain it…" Dias sighed rubbing his throat slightly. He would have to end this duel soon, or otherwise he'd be coughing up some more blood once more. Whenever his throat started to get dry, that was a sign that his blood was about to come up shortly…

"Fine…" Miles groaned as a dark shadow appeared in front of him as he slipped the three cards into his Obelisk Blue jacket. The shadow soon formed into a dark blue woman wearing scantly clad armor and in her hands was a broken marionette (2200/2800). A loud screech seemed to come from no where when the demon appeared. "Then I guess you already know about Dark Necrofear then…and I take it that you also know about Giant Orc!"

Like in Klein and Xander's duel, the large dark gray orc appeared with a loud roar, lifting its bone like club into the air (2200/0), ready to strike down any enemy. "Necrofear! Attack Dante now! And rid us of that accursed monster!"

The demon's eyes immediately shot open, allowing a dark light to zigzag across the field, zapping right into Dante's forehead. The warrior fell backwards as his body began to derezz and then scatter off. (DLP: 7600)

"Giant Orc! Attack him directly! Let's see how he likes it!" Miles laughed as the Giant Orc began to charge.

Rena turned to the side, not wanting to see the harsh direct attack that was about to occur. However, after a minute, she didn't hear a slam. As she turned around, her eyes widened. "…Whoa…"

Whoa was right, Dias had caught the Giant Orc's club, and not only that, but he was able to hold it up. A couple of seconds later the Giant Orc pulled back his weapon and just sulked back to Miles's side of the field, only to sit down on it's butt. (DLP: 5400)

"Hmm, not bad Goth," Miles chuckled fitting a card into his duel disk. "But let's see if you can top that!"

"I can…and will," Dias growled, his voice sounding a little scratchy as he drew his next card. However he just lifted his hand over his other face down card, show a picture of a dark cloud floating over a grave. "I play…Call of the Haunted! So now…I can special…summon a monster…from my graveyard!"

In a quick flash, Dante appeared for a third time, this time with a pissed off look on his face. As with the other two times, a card popped out of Dias's deck and he immediately slipped it into his duel disk. "Dante's effect once more! This…time, I'll equip him…with Beowulf!"

A bright light immediately covered Dante's hands and shins, when the light died down, Dante now sported a pair of glowing gauntlets and shin guards that had a weird essence to them (1500/1200 + 500/0). Miles could only chuckle out of amusement. "Heh, still two hundred and one points short of beating my Necrofear…and even then, I know you know what she can do…"

"Yes…however, Dante's new weapon gives him a unique ability…" Dias explained lifting his hand to block a cough. "…Dante! Attack the Dark…Necrofear!"

Unlike when Dante attack the previous times, this time he just jumped into the air where he was and for a second, it looked like he was stuck there until he lifted his right leg up and immediately shot towards the demon. In a quick second, the Dante's armored covered boot slammed directly into the Necrofear's face, sending the demon to the ground.

That's when Dante slammed his foot into the demon's head, sending a sickening crack echo almost through the air of the entire island. (MLP: 3350)

Miles fell to the ground at the sight of another one of his monsters being destroyed in a sadistic fashion. Dias took this opportunity to explain. "Beowulf also allows… my equipped monster to gain… half of the attack of the target… monster if that monster happens to be a… DARK attribute monster…"

"Dias…he has some strange strategies…" Rena gulped, but still couldn't help but feel lucky to see Dante here in front of her.

"Next I'll play Fairy of the Spring…" Dias announced pulling a card from his graveyard while slipping another into it. "I get one equip card back…but I can't play it this turn…So I'll end my turn…with two cards…face down…" Dias panted as a dark shadow began to envelope Dante. "Your Necrofear's effect now kicks in…and since I only…have one monster…"

"That means I get Dante…" Miles finished pulling his next card while Dante appeared on his side of the field. "Ya know, I don't really like this monster, so I think I'll tribute him…"

"Activate trap card!" Dias announced as a large machine appeared underneath Dante, before launching him into the air. "Compulsory Evacuation Device returns one monster to the owner's hand…So Dante is back where he belongs…with me…"

"Big deal, I can always sacrifice Giant Orc," Miles replied as his demon shattered into pixels. "In order to summon Great Maju Garzzet!"

The pixels reformed themselves into a creature that could only be described as pure evil. The monster was covered in bone like armor over its exposed muscles, that were beginning to deteriorate. The monster's yellow eyes were almost popped out as it roared a sickening battle cry (4400/0). "Now let's see how you like taking an attack this strong, you freakin' Goth! Sludge Acid Vomit!"

Throwing it's head back, the disgusting demon was breathing in deeply, making it's abdomen swell up…until the monster threw it's head towards Dias, unleashing an unsettling amount of what appeared to be dark purple vomit on Dias. The mixture completely covered him from head to toe and made him cough out some of his blood from his mouth as the vomit began to ooze off his body, making burns on his skin and clothes (yet his duel disk and cards were unaffected). (DLP: 1000)

"And, I'll end my turn," Miles laughed as Dias fell to his knees and began to cough out more blood. "Guess my attack did more than I thought…ha!"

That's when Dias slowly stood to his feet and wiped the blood from his mouth with his right hand. And as he drew his next card, he didn't care that his blood was slowly dripping onto the card stock paper that the cards were made of… "I…I summon…Legendary Demon Slayer Dante (1500/1200)…back to the…field…"

For the fourth time, Dante appeared on the field, this time with murder in his eyes, but, unlike last time, a card didn't pop out of Dias's deck. "I chose…to forgo Dante's effect…"

"Still struggling? I guess you can't compare to my skills," Miles laughed loudly, his ego growing bigger and bigger by the second.

Dias didn't care, he just slipped his next card into his duel disk. "I equip Dante…with Twin Pistols: Ebony and Ivory (1500/1200 + 300/0)…"

Once again, Dante drew his two trademarked pistols from their holsters, only this time he didn't perform any gun-hand tricks. All the while, Rena was a little scared of what was going on… "T-this is the worse duel I've ever seen…"

"Come on Goth…why don't you just give up?" Miles suggested shaking his head in disgust. "I mean, it's not like it matters if you win or not…"

'_…actually…it does…'_ Dias immediately lifted his hand over his other face down card, flipping it up to show a small white haired boy charging at many skeleton warriors with a katana in his hands. "I activate…Berserker Skills…This trap, cuts the attack of your…monster in half…"

A dark aura seemed to surround the Garzett, making it clutch it's head in pain and wander around the field as it's attack points dropped (2200/0). That's when the same dark aura appeared around Dante's hands, giving him strength (1800/1200 + 2200/0). "…And gives them to…a monster on my field…"

"N-n-n-n-nnnnnnnnnoooooooooooooooo!" Miles screamed as Dante leapt into the air with a spin.

"That's right…Dante! Attack his demon!" Dias commanded just before Dante unleashed hellfire made of bullets that pierced through Miles's demon as it were nothing but the air surrounding it.

The bullets continued to fly until the only thin that was left of the Garzett…was the dark blood it had left behind in it's spot. (MLP: 1550)

Miles fell to his butt as Dante landed on the ground, only a few feet away from him. That's when Dante slowly walked towards Miles, making a cold sweat beat down his entire body, telling him to get his ass in gear and get out of there! Dias smiled slightly, showing his blood covered yet somewhat white teeth. "…Remember, thanks to…Ebony and Ivory, Dante…gets another shot…"

"DIAS! DON'T!" Rena shouted from the sidelines, but her plea fell on deaf ears.

"Please! I surrender!" Miles announced quickly slapping his hand on top of his deck just as Dante was only a foot in front of him.

"Sorry…but that's not how…life works!" Dias shouted just as Dante pulled the triggers, one time per hundred attack points he had…

Rena turned around and covered her ears trying to block out the sounds and images of Miles being shot point blank multiple times. When she thought it was over, she slowly turned around to see that Dante and Dias were gone, but on the ground was Miles curled up in a small ball, slightly shaking from time to time…

Slowly, Rena walked over to him and saw that tears were streaming down his face as he began panting and chanting to himself. "…So…so…so dark…so very dark…cold…so cold…so very cold…"

From the shadows of the forest, Dias hid behind a tree taking his arm off of Rena's duel disk and pulling his deck from the slot. As soon as he pocketed his cards, he lifted another card from his pocket and smiled. "…One down…"

After a small chuckle, Dias pocketed that card as well and placed the duel disk outside a nearby bush so that people could see it. And then he turned his back and began to walk into the forest. '_…if that girl can't even stand seeing a person lose a D-Game…then I doubt I have to worry about Rosencrantz choice…even though I told him to choose a worthy foe…'_

/-/-/-/-//-/-//-

Card Stats

Legendary Demon Slayer Dante / Dark / LV. 4 / ATK: 1500 / DEF: 1200 / Warrior/Effect When this monster is normal summoned, flip summoned, or special summoned take one equip spell card from your hand or deck and equip it to this monster. If a 'Legendary Demons Swordsman Vergil' is in play, increase the attack of this card by 1000 points and this card cannot be destroyed by targeting effects. When this monster destroys a monster in battle, place a 'Devil Trigger Counter' on this monster. You may choose to 'Devil Trigger' this monster at any time it has 'DT Counters' on it, its attack and defense increase by 1000. When there are no DTCs on this card, this card returns to normal.

Description: The white-haired demon slayer himself, sporting his red overcoat, demonic sword and twin pistols. As well as his cargo pants and boots.

Rebellion / Equip Spell / Effect: Increase the attack of the equipped monster by 1000.

Image: A powerful broadsword with a demonic hilt.

Twin Pistols: Ebony and Ivory / Equip Spell / Effect: This card can only be equipped to a monster with 'Dante' in it's name. Increase the equipped monster's attack points by 300. The equipped monster may attack twice during the battle phase.

Image: A shadowed figure spinning a black and a white gun in his hands.

Beowulf / Equip Spell / Effect: Increase the attack of the equipped monster by 500 points. When the equipped monster battles a monster with a DARK attribute, increase the equipped monster's attack strength by half of the target monster.

Image: A pair of armored gauntlets and boots with a large four-legged demon behind them with only one good eye.

The preceding cards were created by Seeker of the Soul.

Demon Slayer Creed / Trap / Effect: This card can only be activated by discarding one monster card from your hand. Special summon one monster from your graveyard (disregarding summoning conditions) with the same level and has "Demon Slayer", "Demon Hunter" or "Demon Swordsman" in their name.

Image: a scroll that was written in blood being posted onto a wall with a familiar sword (Rebellion) sticking from the top

Berserker Skills / Trap / Effect: This card can only be activated when you have a DARK attribute monster on your side of the field. Select that monster and one monster on your opponent's side of the field. Decrease the attack of the selected monster on your opponent's side of the field by half of its attack and add that to your selected monster.

Image: small white haired boy charging at many skeleton warriors with a katana in his hands

/-/-/-/--//--

Duelist Profile

Name: Dias Swartzvauld

Deck: Demon Slayers

Dias… a mysterious man with a mysterious past. He has kept his past secret, although it is hard when his last name is part of an elite duelist family with many different strategies forming within them. It was the fact that his family was elite that they were targeted by a terrorist act. Since the family was diverse, nearly having members all over the world's country's by marriage, they were setting the grounds down for peace…or at least what appeared in the eyes nations.

After the incident, Dias was only left with his twin brother, the two main decks of the Swartzvauld family, and a massive amount of debt. Losing a majority of his family's fortune, his twin brother left to head into a four year dueling tour to regain the family name and fortune for the right reasons…

…Leaving Dias all by himself…

His deck was the more complicated of the family's decks, but with the last four years to himself, he kept training himself in the cards and acquiring the necessary cards needed to improve his deck with what was left of his family's fortune.

Dias feels a special connection to his demon slayer deck, maybe because it is the only thing that reminds him of his family…but, there's a deeper reason to it.

Why he coughs blood and what his future plans are, he prefers to keep to himself so he could prepare himself for his loneliness.

/-/-/--//--//-/--/

Van: Man this is crazy…

Klein: Students are dropping like flies…cool! I can get their wallets!

Koji: What!?! Brother!

Van: What's worse is the fact that the cold-hearted stiff is back in action…and he's dueling already!

Klein: Whoa! What kind of person wears that kind of stuff?

****

The Cold-Hearted stiff is back! Check it out – Chapter 15: Feudal Battleground

Dias: …About time…she got here…


	15. Chapter 15: Feudal Battleground

****

Hmm…I never got a chance to do one of these before…I guess I could talk about myself…

…Or rather, how about I talk about one of my clients? I think you know him pretty well.

His name is Dias, ya know the Gothic guy, around nineteen years old, black and white hair and sounds constipated half the time?

Well, whether you know him or not, you'll remember him through out the years of his life.

But as with many different great people in the past, there was a greater power sitting behind the throne. In a sense, Dias is one of those people with his team of duelists…

…One in particular happens to be working for one of my other clients; unfortunately, she won't be working for him for a while. While she has skills of an ancient way, she also has decent skills…

WHAT!?! You don't care about that? You're wondering who I am? And what I'm doing here?

Hmm…well, maybe I could let you in on one little detail about myself…but what could it be?

My green and black hair? Nah…maybe my dark disposition? Nope…

How about my fascination of different types of gum? Yeah! That'll do!

Wait, my times up for this?! Now wait just a sec…

/-/-/--/-/--/-/-/-

Chapter 15

Feudal Battleground

/-/---/-///-/-/-/

"Soon…within the…next few days," Dias panted in front of Antonio, Xander, Renji (he had left Kimatori with Leo) Black Tiger and a guy hiding in the shadows. The evening sun began to set behind the trees of the Academy's forest"…We will…be able to…begin our…ultimate mission…"

"And ma cherie," Antonio chuckled clasping his hands together. "Do not forget about ze promises zat were made to moi…"

"I see you're for your own selfish needs Antonio," Black Tiger sighed allowing his cloak to flow over his finely dressed outfit. "How pathetic…"

"And what makes you ze better man?" Antonio shouted narrowing his brow towards Black Tiger. "Last time moi checked, you were nozing but revenge hungry. Not to mention zat we boz have ze same target!"

"I had her in my sights first," Black Tiger retorted throw his cape up to lift his scythe like duel disk. "And unless you have the aim to try, then we should settle this like the customary gentleman way…unless you are trying to prove the rude Frenchman stereotype."

A blood vessel appeared on the French duelist's head, making him raise his own duel disk up. "Look at what you've done! You are making moi create wrinkles! How dare you do zat?"

"Great, and just when I thought that this couldn't get gayer," Xander laughed out loud getting a couple of glares from Black Tiger and Antonio. "Hey, you're just proving my comment to be truer and truer by the second like acting like gals!"

"Zen how about we kick your ass!?!" Antonio shouted before he and Black Tiger jumped on Xander and started to beat him up.

"…Okay…" Dias sighed watching three of his henchmen fight amongst themselves, that's when he slapped his forehead. "…Renji…Morty…you two…are the only…ones I can…count on…"

"Sir, I hate to lower myself to Antonio's level," Renji sighed lowering his head slightly in shame.

"HEY! MOI HEARD ZAT!"

Renji didn't even seem to be phased by that comment. "…But he did bring up the payment issue…while a majority of us are more than welcome to help you, the rest are waiting for a chance to get what we want…"

"There, there Renji," The shadowed figured named Morty chuckled crossing his arms. "You need not worry about what Dias promised you…he always keeps his word on his promises…"

"That's sometimes a bad thing…"

Dias's eyes widened at the sound of the voice, he had completely stopped breathing as he turned his head around to see…

/--//--//--/-/-//-/

"…Dias Swartzvauld…"

Alan sighed sitting at his desk in front of Rena, who had just finished explaining what had happened between Dias and Miles. Shaking his head slightly he closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. "I appreciate you telling me this Miss Akira…"

"Um, sir, what did Dias do to Miles?" Rena asked with the picture of Miles curled up still fresh in her mind.

Alan didn't say a word; all he did was cross his fingers in deep thought. Something that you likely wouldn't expect from a guy from the Wright family line.

"…Sir?" Rena questioned with a weird look on her face.

'_…I should tell her…_' Alan was conflicting with himself as he tried to figure out what to do. '_…but…if I did that…word might get out and cause a panic…Hmm, she's waiting for something Alan. Think up of something quick! What would Ed say at a time like this?_'

Uncrossing his fingers, Alan warmly smiled at Rena with his eyes closed. "…Miss Akira." Alan said in a soft tone making Rena a little more confused. "You need not worry about Mr. Murphy, this clearly happens to be a faulty duel disk error. I assume you know that with the duel disks, the students often allow their duel disks to inflict a type of pain to toughen them up…"

With that, Rena just looked even more confused. Taking note, Alan scratched the back of his head in embarrassment and chuckled slightly. "…Okay…sorry about that, you probably haven't had duel disk schematic class yet. It's a good class in case your duel disk ever acts up…"

"Yeah…sir, you mind continuing?" Rena requested while a sweatdrop began to slide down the side of her head.

"…Whoops…Heh, sorry 'bout that…" Alan laughed loudly with a goofy grin plastered on his face. "In case ya didn't tell, I kind of tend to drift off topic…"

'_Really…no one could ever tell that…_'

"Besides the point, in the duel disk class, students learn how to stop hackers from interfering with their duel disks," Alan explained with his face becoming more and more serious with each word. "More than likely, this 'Dias' must have been able to hack into Mr. Murphy's duel disk and increase the pain stimulators to a dangerous level…"

"Well…I guess that makes sense…" Rena admitted rubbing the back of her head. '_…But what about that guy still acting like what happened there?'_

"Good! Now then…I must wish you all a good day, I have an important call coming soon," Alan stated standing up and walking with Rena to the door. "So, please don't worry about this matter and please try to do good in your classes."

"Goodbye Principal Wright," Rena said before closing the door behind her.

As soon as Alan was sure that Rena was gone, he immediately took a deep breath and put his back onto the door. "Damn! That was tough! I don't know how Edward does that so easily…"

With each step Alan took back to his desk, his face became more grim. There was the stuff that was happening to the Pacific Duel academy right now, how the school was almost bought out by a single group that went by the name Legendz. Sitting down in his seat, Alan released a deep sigh and pulled out a large brown folder. "…This is going to happen again…I hate to do this, but I may have to implement a curfew for the students…"

"…Yet there's the risk that if I don't give the students a decent reason, they'll all rebel against me…"

Sliding the folder to the side, Alan opened another drawer of his and began reaching through the part of his drawer. "It's times like this, that the bottle is my only friend…"

From the drawer, Alan lifted up a small fancy glass along with a bottle of fruit juice. "Yep! A cold glass of fruit juice always calms my nerves…now all I need is some Ramen Noodles and I could create a dynamic plan!"

-//-/--/-/-/--//-/

Popping in the last pill before his water, Dias turned towards the mysterious man that stood in front him. All of Dias's henchmen were currently sent to their personal bases to prepare their decks for the duels they would all partake in, while the sun began to disappear behind the horizon. "Still need all of that medication I see…"

In response, Dias took a large sip of his water bottle and immediately began to pocket all of pills he had into his cargo pants. With his speech back, Dias started with a slight sigh. "…Yes, but that's why my plan's about to work…I need not to worry about them once this is done…"

The mysterious man chuckled as he slowly stepped forward into the small amount of light that was still available; showing his black overcoat that covered his entire body, save for his head. The mysterious man's dark green and black mixture of hair was combed backwards, pushing it out of his sharp, slightly tanned face. His razor sharp shark like teeth were curled up into a slight smile. "I have to admit…you seem adept at the ancient ways, which is a plus for me…"

"The real thanks is this…" Dias replied pulling a small beaten up book from his overcoat's inner pocket. The book had a small red cover on it with a small circle that had a cross in the middle of it. "This book, one of two, was written by my grandfather's own hand…"

"…I see, I knew the Swartzvauld family had a web of mystery surrounding the blood line," The mysterious man chuckled shrugging his shoulders. "But, where's the other book?"

"Quite simple, my brother has it in his possession," Dias answered turning his back to the mysterious man. "Anyway…what are you doing here?"

"Aw come on," The mysterious man slowly crept up in front of Dias, trying to match eye to eye with the Bloody Devil Hunter. "You think of me as a chess piece king…sitting in the back row, watching as he watches the pawns, knights, rooks and bishops fight against the others?"

"Unfortunately, I prefer to be the Chess player, not the chess piece. The one who is making the decisions and strategies for his pieces to command. And besides, as a player I'm able to enjoy the game, instead of being blocked from all of the fun…"

"…That made hardly any sense…" Dias stated with a large sweatdrop appeared on the back of his head. "But I get what you're saying; does that mean that you're actually planning on fighting along as the seventh duelist?"

"Oh me? Please, that would be too easy with my skills," The mysterious man replied with an inflated ego. "However, I did promise you a seventh duelist…so I managed to dig someone up…"

"Who pray tell is that?" Dias asked a little worried that his group was about to get even crazier.

Barring his shark tooth grin once more, the mysterious man turned around and waved his arms slightly. "She happens to be a duel assassin, her most recent work happened to take place at the Pacific Duel academy to steal a few cards…

"Sounds more like a common thief to me…" Dias replied crossing his arms in a slight anger.

"True, but she happens to know the ways of jutsu," the mysterious man replied rubbing the side of his cheek. "And besides the fact, you don't really have the time to be picky…what with that full moon coming soon…"

"Yes, I understand that…" Dias sighed knowing that the mysterious man was right about this little necessity.

"So…why exactly do you need seven duelists? And why did you need to have your duelists select their opponents?"

"It's really actually procedure…" Dias answered flipping through the ancient book he held in his hands. "In order for this 'ritual' work, not only do we need a good amount of duelist energy, we need ceremony duels…at least six before the last one. As for the duelists, I only require two of the duelists that participate in those duels, depending on the outcome…"

Dias snapped the book shut and immediately pocketed said book into his overcoat. "The six duels determine who is the most worthy…although I have to question two of my henchmen…I've seen that they both chose the same duelist and that's a problem itself. But from what I've seen when she watched my duel with the first victim, she won't even have a chance…"

"I'm surprised Dias…you seem to judge a book by its cover…" The Mysterious Man snickered closing his eyes.

"…What are you talking about?" Dias asked a little confused.

"Allow me to explain, one year ago, I had an employee who was trying to find a way to eternal life. He was able to create bodies for himself and kept changing every few years…but he thought he had found the perfect body and all he had to do left was to defeat one duelist in order to lock in his newest body."

"It looked easy enough to him; his opponent was a short duelist who looked like he just stepped out of a graphic novel. Heck, even my employee was able to beat down the kid to his last quarter of life points, thinking that he was able to win this in the next few turns. But the kid managed to turn it around and kept taking down whatever my employee threw at him…"

"…Interesting, but this girl was squealing about my favorite monster card," Dias replied and began to walk into the shadows. "And for the fact that she couldn't even stand to see the demon slayer kill the monsters of my opponent, that's enough to make me cough my own blood in disrespect…"

"Whatever Choky," The mysterious man laughed in return following Dias as the night sky began to blanket the sky. "But if you want to make sure that you get what you want, you'll have to find a way to get another duelist, and soon…"

"You don't think I don't know that?" Dias retorted shooting a death glare towards the mysterious man. "I've been looking in at the top three duelists of this school…"

"Say no more," the mysterious man replied as the two slowly emerged from the forest to see a pair of Ra Yellow girls walking towards the two in front of them. "Oh my, I see that the uniforms here are no different than the ones at the academy…"

"You're a perverted old geezer," Dias commented with a slight blush on his face when he caught a glimpse of the girls.

"…Look who's talking…" The mysterious man retorted making Dias lift up his duel disk.

"Aw forget you…I'm going to get started, and the others should be getting started as well…" Dias replied beginning to follow the two Ra Yellow girls shuffling his cards.

The mysterious man shook his head and whipped out a cell phone as he watched Dias confront the two girls. "I think I'm going to enjoy this…oh, hey there! I'm glad I caught ya…I know, I know I called you an hour ago, but can ya blame me? You're my only kid…I thought I told you not to call me BB…I thought you'd call me daddy or old man…"

/--/-/-/-//--/-/-/-//-

The next morning came too quickly for Ganryu; he was up early since he was forced to leave the quiet of the school's medic room. It was a seemingly quiet as Ganryu walked through the Slifer Red dorm…

…Almost too quiet…

"Well, well, well, look who finally showed his ugly mug!"

Ganryu slowly turned his head to the side to see Klein (who had a few bandages on his face from a fight apparently) and Koji. Klein had a grin on his face making him think that he was the head honcho around. "I can believe that you're still allowing your mug to be seen around the dorm after that awful defeat that gal gave ya!"

"Klein, are you sure you should be doing that?" Koji advised whispering it into his brother's ear. "I mean, after all, I thought you'd remember what keeps happening when you insult this guy…"

"Relax bro, take a look at the guy," Klein snickered back to his brother gesturing towards Ganryu.

Taking a good look at the cold duelist, Koji could see that Ganryu's usual cold and mean demeanor was a lost in a cold breeze, and was replaced with a saddened look that couldn't even look to belong to the young man. Klein's snicker brought Koji's attention back to him. "…Does the sight remind you of someone? It's the look of a broken man; I don't think we'll have to worry about him or his debt…"

In the next instant, a familiar boot covered foot slammed directly into Klein's face sending the pintsized duelists flying towards one of the alleys between the red huts. Koji gulped at his brother being kicked by re-enraged Ganryu. "Get this through your head, no matter what; you're paying me back all the money you owe me…PLUS INTEREST!"

"W-w-well, I see you're back to normal Ganryu…" Koji stuttered stepping backwards.

"…Whatever," Ganryu replied crossing his arms towards Koji. "…I'm not the kind of guy who takes a loss that badly…"

"…You were in bed for three days afterwards…" Koji stated making Ganryu sweatdrop slightly on the back of his head.

A small cough came from Ganryu's mouth before he began to glare daggers at the younger Drei brother. However, before Ganryu could say something…

"HOLY CRAP!!!!"

Klein's voice rang slightly getting Ganryu and Koji to turn to see Klein shaking in front of the alley. The two walked to Klein and peered around him to see two Ra yellow girls curled up with frightened looks on their faces. Koji slipped on his feet and landed on his behind. "W-w-wh-wha-what!?!"

Kneeling next to the girls, Ganryu placed his hand on the wrists of both of the girls and nodded. "They still have a pulse…" That's when a cold chill swept Ganryu's back, making him narrow his eyes. "You two go and get some help for these two…I'll stay here…"

"You're not the boss of us!" Klein shouted before he noticed that Ganryu had wrapped his hand around the collar of Klein's shirt. "Huh?"

"I wasn't…ASKING!" Ganryu roared throwing Klein into the sky making Koji's jaw fall to the ground.

"He's got quite an arm…" Koji chuckled before running after his flying brother.

Making sure that the two brothers weren't around; Ganryu lifted his duel disk from his backpack and began to shuffle his cards. "…Get out here…or I'll drag you out…"

"My…what a temper…"

The shadows from the trees nearby, a shadowed figure jumped from the branches and landed in front of Ganryu. His eyes narrowed at the girl standing in front of him, her light gray hair seemed to go past her shoulders, onto her loose gray vest over a black tank top that expose her slim midriff and voluptuous figure. With each step she took, her baggy gray cargo pants flowed back and forth as she snapped in a deck of duel monster cards into a duel disk strapped onto her left arm. "But then again…I find that attractive in a man…"

"I don't care…" Ganryu spat back making his eyes grow colder by the second. Then for a small second, he turned his eyes back to the two girls behind him and then back to this mysterious girl. "…Did you do this?"

The girl sighed in disappointment, shaking her head. "Not my handiwork, but rather my boss's…"

'_I guess brother was right…'_ Cracking his neck, Ganryu lifted his duel disk up in a defensive manner. "…Let me guess…your boss told you to find a strong duelist…"

"Man, you're good," The girl chuckled with a cute smile appearing on her face. "You got that right, and from what I managed to dig up in the computers was that you got yourself a small standing around here…Ganryu Dashiben…"

"I'm only giving you fair warning…" Ganryu replied activating his duel disk by snapping his arm to the left. "…Walk away right now…"

"Can't do that!" the girl replied activating her duel disk. "But I've got to do this! Oh, and by the by, the name's Seika…" (SLP: 8000)

"…" (GLP: 8000)

"Hello to you too, Mr. Personality…" Seika sighed pulling her five cards. "Let's get this on!"

/--/-/-/-/-/-/-//-

In the Slifer Red cafeteria, Rena had her head lowered on the table with Rukia and Van watching her weirdly. After a short while of silence, Van quietly asked… "What's up with you?"

"I just don't understand anything any more…" Rena sighed lifting her head slightly to show her tired look.

"…I guess the craziness around here finally broke through her," Rukia giggled lifting a hand to cover her mouth.

"I knew it was a matter of time," Van commented wagging his finger. "I mean, we've got that Cleo and Asche marching around with their supposed 'club'. And then there's Leo and the in-training stealth psycho popping up every few minutes…"

"Actually, I'd go with every other hour," Leo replied appearing behind Van with Kimatori on his shoulders

"That's beside the point Leo," Van stated holding his hand up to Leo. "And don't get me started on…wait a second…"

Van turned his head back to see Leo smiling behind him while Kimatori was waving to him. With a deep breath, Van cranked his head and then all of a sudden… "…AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!"

"Leo-kun! That was fun!" Kimatori laughed with a cute innocent smile.

"Man, can this day get any weirder?" Rukia asked, apparently having gotten used to Leo showing up out of no where.

That's when the ceiling above the group broke open making a dazed Klein land in the seat next to Rena, making her jump out of her seat. "Does this count?!"

/--/-/-//-//-/--/-/

"I hope you don't mind," Seika giggled pulling her sixth card into her hand. "But I'll go first…"

Seika's response was the harsh glare from Ganryu. "No matter how many times you do that…it just makes me want you more!"

"But for my first move…here's a guy who can really start things up… I summon Ninja Commander Ikusa!"

Slapping the sixth card onto her duel disk, a shadow appeared on Seika's side of the field…immediately forming into a ninja warrior dressed in a green jumpsuit with a katana slung across his back and a crescent moon on his cowl appeared, drawing his katana. (700/700).

At the sight of the monster, a large sweatdrop appeared on the back of Ganryu's head. '_Oh great…ninjas, just what I needed…_'

That's when a loud gong sounded, and Ninja Commander Ikusa faded into blur. Another shape formed out of him…forming into another Ninja, this one similar to him, but dressed in blue and lifting his hand in a hand sign (400/400). "And with Ikusa appearing, I can bring out Ninja Soldier Katana!"

Then behind the two ninjas appeared a mysterious face down card, allowing Seika to smile evilly. "And with this face down, I'll leave it up to you cold, yet cutie!"

"…I'm starting to really hate you…" Ganryu growled pulling his card from his deck. At the sight of the card, Ganryu immediately nodded to himself and then slapped it onto his duel disk. "I summon Samurai of the Flame in attack mode!"

In a large flame, an old samurai stepped from the blaze, his armor the exact same color as the flame that stood behind him. At the sight of the ninjas, the samurai pulled a large katana from his sheathe. The one thing that stood out about the samurai was the large banner with the Kanji written in fire on it (1500/1000).

Then with a fierce battle cry coming from the samurai, a card popped out of Ganryu's deck and flew into his hand. "And when my samurai is brought to the field, I can add 'Samurai of the Sky' to my hand…but enough about that…"

"Samurai of the Flame! Attack Ninja Soldier Katana!"

The old samurai ran quickly towards the dark blue ninja, not paying attention to Ikusa who was performing multiple hand signs. When Ikusa finished the last hand sign, the ninja disappeared into a large amount of cherry blossoms making the samurai stop in his tracks. "…What in the?"

"My trap card," Seika replied gestured towards her flipped up trap card showing a Lady Ninja Yae being surrounded by cherry blossoms. "Ninjitsu Art – Blossom Guard, by sending one face up Ninja monster on my side of the field to my graveyard, I can end your battle phase. And not only that, but I get a present…"

As the cherry blossoms disappeared into the wind, a single card popped out of Seika's deck and into her hand. "…It allows me to add a copy of the ninja that was used for the trap's cost to my hand."

"…And this is why I hate ninjas…" Ganryu sighed pulling two cards from his hand and slid them into his duel disk. "…End turn…"

"So are you like emo or something?" Seika asked making Ganryu harden his stare even more. "…Yeesh sorry for asking…"

"Just draw and make your move…" Ganryu sighed loudly while still keeping his cold glare.

Gracefully drawing her card, Seika lifted up a different card and slapped it onto her duel disk. Immediately, a second Ikusa (700/700) appeared, immediately foreshadowing Katana (400/400) to appear from the shadows. "And next I'll just set another card face down, ending my turn…"

"Nice try…But I have a guess as to what you're doing…" Ganryu stated drawing his next card. "…And it's not going to work…"

"Oh…and what exactly do you think I'm planning on doing?" Seika playfully asked wagging a finger towards Ganryu.

"…How about instead of telling you, I'll show you!" Ganryu announced slapping his card onto his duel disk. "I summon, Vengeful Fencing Samurai!"

The leaves that were on the ground began to fly upwards taking Seika's attention to the sky to see a mysterious form fall from the sky and land softly on the ground. The form stood up to reveal a young dark haired man with his hair tied up in a lone ponytail that blew steadily in the wind. His black robes cover his white muscle shirt while his silver gauntlets clamped onto his arms. The fencer slowly drew a black steel katana from his side (1800/1200).

"Hmm…reminds me a little bit of you…" Seika giggled making Ganryu and the Fencing Samurai glare at her.

"Whatever, I equip my Fencing Samurai with Volt Masamune!" Ganryu shouted fitting the card into his duel disk. From the sky above, a mysterious bolt of lightning struck the ground before the Vengeful Fencing Samurai forming into a black katana with a golden handle. The samurai grabbed the katana with his free hand and began to lift both of his swords into the air creating a large spark of electricity to surge through both blades (1800/1200 + 500/0). "Activate Fencing Samurai's effect! When he's the target for an equip spell card, I can destroy one spell or trap card!"

With great speed, the Fencing Samurai ran towards the face down card that was on Seika's field and immediately sliced and diced the card until it was nothing more than a bunch of pixels. Seika stepped back at the sight of her only defense was blown away. "…Oh crap…"

"Vengeful Fencing Samurai! Attack Katana number one!"

Seika's eyes widened as the cold samurai turned around and sliced his swords right through the ninja. (SLP: 6100)

"And don't forget about Samurai of the Flame! Attack her other Katana!"

Running fast like wildfire, the old samurai stabbed his katana right through the chest of the ninja making the warrior disappear into pixels. (SLP: 5000)

"End turn…" Ganryu stated crossing his arms.

"My, my, my, that was a good shot," Seika giggled slowly drawing her next card when all of a sudden a small amount of static electricity surged around her duel disk. "What in the world is going on?" (SLP: 4500)

"Simple, the Volt Masamune has another ability," Ganryu stated as his samurai lifted up the weapon into the air. "During each of your standby phases you take five hundred points of direct damage…"

"Oh well…I guess I'll have to do something about that…" Seika stated lifting up her next card. "I play Heavy Storm! So we'll just wipe these cards off the field!"

A powerful storm swept the ground blowing all the spell and trap cards that sat on Ganryu's field and took the Volt Masamune away from the samurai (2300/1200 – 500/0). Ganryu narrowed his eyes at this turn of events.

"Next…I'll sacrifice my last Ikusa…" Seika announced as her ninja disappeared into a cloud of smoke. "In order to summon…"

"Let me guess, Ninja Master Shogun?" Ganryu guessed crossing his arms.

"Him? No way! He made me lose the last time I dueled, so I got someone better!" Seika announced slapping her card onto her duel disk. "I summon Masked Shinobi!"

From the ground, a large cloud of smoke flew upwards allowing a new ninja to jump from the cloud and seemingly float in the air. Ganryu craned his head up to see a semi-muscular ninja float above him, wearing black baggy clothes with a zipped up gray vest grasping multiple kunai in his hands. Over the ninja's face, a white mask that resembled a wolf covered any idea who the ninja was (2400/1300). "And now…when he's normal summoned successfully, I can special summon three Ninja Genin Tokens!"

In three smaller clouds of smoke, three ninjas that resembled the Masked Shinobi appeared only wearing green clothing (500/500 x 3), each raising a kunai in their hands. "Next I'll activate my spell card, the A. Forces!"

Ganryu stepped back as the spell card appeared onto the field, creating a cool blue aura around all of the ninjas on Seika's field (MS 2400/1300 + 800/0) (NGT 500/500 + 800/0 x3). "And don't think that you're out of the blue yet! I activate Double Attack! So by discarding my Behemoth King of All Animals, my Masked Shinobi gets to attack twice! So take out both of those Samurai, with Skills of the Assassin!"

After receiving the command, the Masked Shinobi performed multiple hand signs. At the end, the Ninja created at least nineteen clones of himself that surrounded the two Samurai. Then in an instant, the ninjas charged in and threw their kunai into the two samurai, hitting in multiple vital spots. (GLP: 4900)

"And don't forget about my Genin!" Seika laughed loudly as her three genin jumped into the air above Ganryu and immediately threw their kunai into Ganryu's chest, sending him to the ground (GLP: 1000)

"…I…hate…NINJAS!" Ganryu shouted pulling the kunai from his chest one by one, not even caring that there was a small amount of blood dripping from the wounds.

"Ya know, you might want to give up, I'd rather not hurt a cutie like you," Seika offered wagging her finger back and forth. "Especially since as long as I have my tokens out, my Shinobi can't be targeted for an attack or monster effect."

"…Never…" Ganryu growled between his teeth.

"Suit yourself," Seika sighed pushing back some of the hair that fell in front of her face. "That stubbornness will be the end of you…"

Those words rang through Ganryu's head; the cold duelist lowered his head so that his hair darkened over his eyes. In his head was an image of an older version of Ganryu with a more developed face and longer hair. '_…That stubbornness will be the end of you…'_

'_…no…' _

'…no…no…'

'…I am…I was…I will…'

'…Never…'

'…Never again…'

'…Never again will I hear those words!'

'And anyone who speaks those words to me…'

"…Will be punished!" Ganryu roared into the air nearly ripping his next card from his duel disk. That slightly scared his opponent. "I am a Dishonored Hero! I will prove to anyone that I can make anything work for me!"

"And I'll start right here! Proving to you that there's no way I'd ever surrender to someone like you!"

Trying her hardest to stifle her giggle, Seika just made Ganryu even angrier. "Sorry, but maybe that speech would be a lot more impressive if the scores were different…"

"It's not like you're going to be able to turn this around with all of the tricks I've got stored up…"

That's when two cards reformed themselves on Ganryu's side of the field, showing two trap cards. The first one had a Samurai leaping from a scroll and the other had multiple samurai lifting their weapons in the air. "Ninjas aren't the only ones with hidden daggers…my two trap cards activate during my turn after they are destroyed. The first one is Restored Bushido! Now I can special summon one Samurai from my graveyard, and if you have more than three monsters I can special summon another Samurai from my hand!"

The trap card shattered into the Samurai of the Flame (1500/1000) as well as another samurai, this one was a young samurai wearing sky blue armor with a bow in his hands as well as having a quiver on his back. On the back of this samurai was a large banner with the kanji symbol for wind on it (1400/1400). "Meet the Samurai of the Flame and the Sky! And when the Samurai of the Sky appears, I can add the Samurai of the Void from my deck to my hand!"

The card shot out from his hand and the other trap card began to glow brightly. "And here's my other trap card, Call to War! During this turn if a monster with Samurai in it's name is added to my hand I can special summon it automatically! So Samurai of the Void, rise up from the darkness!"

A cloud of darkness seeped onto the field forming into a mysterious samurai wearing dark armor holding onto a large katana in his hands that seemed to be twice his body length. On his back was a large banner with the kanji symbol for void on it (1700/1400). That's when another card popped out of Ganryu's deck. "And now I can add Samurai of the Earth from my deck to my hand, and with my trap card I can automatically summon it to the field!"

That's when the ground opened up to allow an old samurai wearing earth green armor grasping a large spear in his hands. On the back of his armor was a large banner with the kanji symbol for earth on it (1200/1400). With this warrior's battle cry, another card popped out from the deck. "And take a guess at what this card can do, I can add Samurai of the Water now and summon it right now!"

A large torrent of water exploded onto the field into a samurai wearing sea blue armor spinning a golden trident in his right hand, like with the other four samurai this one had a banner on his back with the kanji symbol of water (1200/1400).

With all five samurai on the field a classical music found in old samurai films began to play making all samurai spin their arms slightly and balance on one foot. "Meet the Samurai of the Five Scrolls!"

"…That's one impressive rush…" Seika gulped slightly surprised at the five warriors appearing on Ganryu's field.

"And next I'll activate my spell card, Weapon Trade-In!" Ganryu shouted as his spell card appeared on the field showing a young samurai trading a spear for a sack of gold. "Here's how it works, I select five different equip spell cards from my deck and send them to my graveyard…"

Ganryu pulled his thinning deck from it's holster and began to fan out the cards, taking one card every few seconds till he held five in his hand. "So I send Tempest Sword, Inferno Blade, Aqua Rapier, Earthen Sword, and Void Sword to the graveyard!"

As soon as Ganryu slipped the five cards into his graveyard slot, he held up his deck once more and pulled a single card from the cards. "And next, I can take any spell, or trap card I want from my deck! And I choose this one!"

From what Seika could see on Ganryu's card was it was a spell card with five multicolored scrolls surging with power with a katana piercing right through all five of them. "And I'll play it immediately!"

A bright light engulfed Ganryu's field making all five of the samurai disappear, the light seemed to blind Seika before it began to condense into a large figure. Lowering her arm, Seika's jaw dropped at the sight of the monster that stood before her.

Floating in mid air was a handsome samurai wearing a golden armor with many golden wings flowing from the back, making the warrior seem like an angel. In the warrior's right hand, he held onto a golden katana, gleaming in light. On the back of the warrior, a banner with the kanji symbols for earth, water, fire, sky and void written on it was attached between the wings.

"And I'm not done! I activate this spell card as well!" Ganryu roared into the air as the next spell card appeared and then shattered before Seika could get a good look at it.

That's when five strange blades appeared around the angelic samurai, giving him more strength per blade. That's when Ganryu pointed his elbows to his waist and roared loudly into the air, his head being thrown back. "ATTACK!"

/--/-/-//-/--/-//-

"And that's when we saw them!" Koji explained to Professor Hughes while trying keep up with Hughes, Klein, Rena, Van, and Rukia who were running to the seen.

One name popped into Rena's head from Koji's explanation and continued to run after the others. '_Dias…'_

A minute later, the group arrived where the two girls were found and by the alley, Ganryu was leaning up against the wall with his eyes closed. He opened his eyes slightly at the sight of the group slowing down in front of them. "…Great…"

"Looks like the cold hearted stiff is up and moving," Van snickered before Ganryu slammed his foot into Van's chest sending the Slifer Red flying a few feet.

Hughes must not have noticed that act of violence; his attention was on the two girls in the alley of the two dorm huts. After a few seconds, Hughes shook his head and turned towards the group. "I'm glad you alerted me on this…Klein, Koji, and Van; give me a hand with these to the infirmary…"

"Why can't the cold stiff help?" Van asked pointing towards Ganryu.

"Cause I just got out of the infirmary and still need to recover me strength," Ganryu explained to Van sending a death glare his way. "And besides the fact that Professor Hughes requested you and the midgets do it, so get it done…"

"He does have a point Mr. Tenka," Leo added appearing behind Van with Kimatori sleeping on his shoulders.

"ARGH!!!" Van shouted jumping up into the air. "Stop doing that!"

"Sorry, no can do," Leo laughed before Van, Koji and Klein went to help Professor Hughes with the Ra Yellow girls. After the girls were helped, Leo turned his eyes towards Ganryu. "…Care to explain why you're covering your bleeding chest Ganryu?"

"What!?!" Rena, Rukia and Kimatori shouted out making Ganryu lower his head.

'_Great…I don't need the geek squad to stress on this…'_ Shaking his head in grief since Leo had to open his large mouth. Sometimes he really didn't like this guy, although he did freak out the geek squad on occasion.

"How'd that happen to the cold guy?" Kimatori asked getting a confused look from the usually cold-hearted duelist.

"…Who's this?" Ganryu asked back gesturing to Kimatori.

"My niece," Rukia answered making Ganryu raise an eyebrow. "Long story…"

"But right now, how in the world did that happen?" Rena questioned referring to Ganryu's ripped shirt and broken skin.

"…I just tripped…" Ganryu replied closing his eyes and walking away from the others. "…I'm getting some lunch…"

"I swear…I never get him…" Rena sighed loudly.

Unknown to the duelists, Dias, Seika and the mysterious man from the other night were watching from quite a distance. Seika fell to the ground and sighed loudly, rubbing the dirt off her face. "Aw man…this just hasn't been my best of luck…"

"Relax…a lot of…my minions lost…" Dias admitted crossing his arms.

"…Your work ethic must suck…" the mysterious man joked getting a small giggle out of Seika. "And you shouldn't be laughing…you were defeated just a few minutes ago…"

"Weren't you ever defeated before?" Seika asked making the mysterious man snapped his fingers slightly.

A dark aura appeared before the mysterious man while he turned his head towards the two 'clients' of his. "…I only lost once, and it was in an unfair battle against people who's only strength was in numbers and the apparent legal system…"

"I'm surprised…I thought…that you'd…stay longer…" Dias stated a little confused.

"I would…but my daughter has been doing a great job at work and I promised last night that we'd do something together…" The mysterious man answered getting his back to the aura behind him. "But I will offer you some advice…watch out for that samurai kid, he has a strange look on his face that reminds me of someone…"

"…So watch out for that Dashiben…"

And with that, the mysterious man disappeared into the dark aura leaving Dias and Seika alone in the covered area. "…Seika…" Dias spoke getting the duel assassin's attention. "…That Ganryu character…he is your…opponent on the…dark night…"

"I'm looking forward to it…" Seika laughed to herself crossing her arms. "Just give me the when and where…"

"…On the night…of the…" Dias replied turning his back towards Seika. "…Red Moon…"

"Till then…duel as many…duelists with this…"

That's when Dias tossed Seika a small coin with an eye of Horus on it, and then clapped the coin in her hand as if it were nothing. "…I have…a list for…you not to…target certain duelists…so return…to the main…base…"

/--/--/-/--/-/-//-/

Card Stats

Ninja Commander Ikusa / Dark / Lv.3 / ATK: 700 / DEF: 700 / Warrior/Effect: If this Monster is Normal Summoned in Attack Mode, you can special summon one "Ninja Soldier Katana" from your hand or deck in face up Attack Mode.

Description: a ninja warrior dressed in a green jumpsuit with a katana slung across his back and a crescent moon on his cowl

Ninja Soldier Katana / Dark / Lv. 2 / ATK: 400 / DEF: 400 / Warrior: This assassin is a longtime partner of Ninja Commander Ikusa, and is seldom far behind him.

Description: A ninja dressed in blue and lifting his hand in a hand sign

Note: Jean-Claude Magnum used the above two cards in the anime episode "Lights, Camera, Duel!"

Masked Shinobi / Dark / Lv. 6 / ATK: 2400 / DEF: 1300 / Warrior/Effect: This monster is considered to have 'Ninja' in the card's name. When this card is successfully Normal Summoned, special summon three 'Ninja Genin Tokens' (LV. 3 / Wind / ATK: 500/DEF: 500/Warrior) to your side of the field. As long as there are 'Ninja Genin Tokens' on your side of the field, this card cannot be targeted in battle or monster card effects.

Description: A semi muscular ninja wearing black baggy clothes with a zipped up gray vest with multiple weapons in his hands. Over his face is a white mask that resembles a wolf.

Vengeful Fencing Samurai / Wind / LV. 4 / ATK: 1800 / DEF: 1200 / Warrior/Effect: Each time this card is the target of an equip spell card, select one spell or trap card on the field and destroy it.

Description: A young dark haired man with his hair tied up in a lone ponytail. His black robes cover his white muscle shirt while his silver gauntlets act as shields. In his hands is a long sharp black steel katana.

Samurai of the Earth / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 1200 / DEF: 1400 / Warrior/Effect: When this card is normal, flip, or special summoned on your side of the field, you may add one 'Samurai of the Water' from your deck to your hand.

Description: An old samurai wearing earth green armor with a large spear in his hands. On his back is a large banner with the kanji symbol for earth on it.

Samurai of the Water / Water / LV. 4 / ATK: 1300 / DEF: 1100 / Warrior/Effect: When this card is normal, flip, or special summoned on your side of the field, you may add one 'Samurai of the Fire' from your deck to your hand.

Description: A young samurai wearing sea blue armor with a large trident in his hands. On his back is a large banner with the kanji symbol for water on it.

Samurai of the Flame / Fire / LV. 4 / ATK: 1500 / DEF: 1000 / Warrior/Effect: When this card is normal, flip, or special summoned on your side of the field, you may add one 'Samurai of the Sky' from your deck to your hand.

Description: An old samurai wearing fiery red armor with a large katana in his hands. On his back is a large banner with the kanji symbol for fire on it.

Samurai of the Sky / Wind / LV. 4 / ATK: 1400 / DEF: 1400 / Warrior/Effect: When this card is normal, flip, or special summoned on your side of the field, you may add one 'Samurai of the Void' from your deck to your hand.

Description: A young samurai wearing sky blue armor with a bow in his hands. On his back is a large banner with the kanji symbol for wind on it.

Samurai of the Void / Dark / LV. 4 / ATK: 1700 / DEF: 1400 / Warrior/Effect: When this card is normal, flip, or special summoned on your side of the field, you may add one 'Samurai of the Earth' from your deck to your hand.

Description: A samurai wearing dark armor with a large katana in his hands. On his back is a large banner with the kanji symbol for void on it.

Ninjitsu Art – Blossom Guard / Trap / Effect: This card can only be activated during your opponent's battle phase. Tribute one monster from your side of the field with 'Ninja' in it's name to end your opponent's battle phase. After this card's resolve, you may add one monster from your deck with the same name as the tributed monster to your hand.

Image: Lady Ninja Yae being engulfed in a storm of cherry blossoms

Restored Bushido / Trap / Effect: This card can only be activated during your turn after this card was destroyed. Special summon one monster from your graveyard with 'Samurai' in it's name to your side of the field.

Image: a Samurai leaping from a scroll

Call to War / Trap / Effect: This card can only be activated during your turn after this card was destroyed. When a monster with 'Samurai' in it's name is added to your hand, you may special summon it to your side of the field until the end phase of the turn.

Image: multiple samurai lifting their weapons in the air

Weapon Trade-In / Spell / Effect: Send five equip spell cards from your deck to the graveyard to activate this card's effect. After doing so, you may take any spell or trap card from your deck and add it to your hand. The deck is then shuffled.

Image: a young samurai trading a spear for a sack of gold

/-/--/--//-/--/-/

Rena: I just don't get why things are going on here…

Van: Could be weirder…

Rena: Don't jinx it! Please!

Van: Wouldn't put it past people around here…I mean we got the cold hearted stiff here…

Ganryu: …

Rena: Though you have to admit that there are quite a… 'colorful' bunch of people we got here…

****

Enter into unique duelists – Chapter 16: The Meek's Strength

Van: By colorful, you mean freaky.

Black Tiger: I'd say it's more fashion tolerate than freaky…

Rena: Look who's talking.


	16. Chapter 16: The Meek’s Strength

What? I-I-I get to do this? I can't…

…But, brother says that I really have to do this. So I might as well do this…

…My name is Koji Drei, the guy who usually falls into the background especially with my big brother talking out loud.

I really don't like dueling that much, but thanks to big brother we're now at a Duelist Academy trying to get an old friend back to reform a gang that all three of us were once a part of…

The interesting thing about that is my brother was the head honcho of the gang…yeah, I know, it seems impossible with his height and body type.

That being said, I never was able to get respect on my own, I had to follow my brother's shreds of respect. But, I think that it was a good system…

…Until now, my brother's big mouth got me into a bad situation with a strange guy…

…What? You think it's that one guy named after the shrimp? No, this guy…well, he's an uh, um, a…I don't really know how to describe him…

/-/--/-//--//-/-/

Chapter 16

The Meek's Strength

/--//--//-/--//-//

"Here ya go boss!" Xander chuckled placing six cards onto a table where Dias stood behind in a dark room. "Six more fer your collection!"

"…Impressive Xander…" Dias panted placing the cards to the side with a quite larger number of the same cards. "…That's…the best…amount tonight…"

Xander turned his head towards Seika, Renji, and the mysterious Morty and smirked a diabolic smile. "Did ya expect anything less? I'm a freaking bounty hunter! I know how to collect!"

"The only reason you're able to do that is because you have those Overlord cards," Morty sighed shaking his head. "They may be hard to master, but they basically are nothing more than a crutch…"

"You want to say that again!" Xander laughed loudly walking past Morty and the others. "I've actually done better than you by five other cards!"

"Haven't you ever heard the term… 'It's quality, not quantity'?" Morty asked rubbing his chin towards Xander. "All you've got to show for your victories are against the Slifer Reds…while the one I managed to acquire was in the top ten of the Obelisk Blues…"

"He's got ya there Patchy," Seika joked with a cocky look in her eyes.

Xander just closed his eye and headed towards the door, waving his hand slightly towards the group. "W'ever, I'm outta here. Dias, I'll be getting more of those cards…"

Just as Xander was about to open the door, the door flew open right into Xander's face sending the bounty hunter duelist to the wall with a dazed look on his face. Everyone just blinked at the person who just opened the door. "Ho, ho, ho! Moi is back! Please, everyone must hold zeir applause for moi!"

Antonio just waltzed into the hidden room, completely oblivious to the fact that he had just knocked out Xander, and slapped twelve cards onto the table in front of Dias. "Moi believes zat zis will help out your cause ma cherie…"

"Excellent…you've done well…Antonio," Dias complimented sliding the cards with the rest of them on the table. "…Keep up…the good work…"

"Of course, you can always count on moi on everyzing," Antonio replied, bowing to Dias; trying his hardest to ignore the glares he was getting from the others. "Unlike ze one-eyed wonder and ze shrimp of ze sea…"

"Speaking of…where'd Black Tiger go anyway?" Renji asked turning his head left and right.

"Great…and we don't…need this today…" Dias groaned standing up from his seat and turning towards a calendar that was posted on the wall. Tomorrow's date was circled in bright red ink and had a red crescent moon drawn on it. "…we've only got…a little more…than a single…day…"

/-/-/--//--//-/-/

"Dang it…so many students…" Black Tiger growled looking through a pair of binoculars while sitting in a tree. "…It's not fair…that French phony gets to duel against that girl and I'm stuck trying to find another target! But who am I going to…hey wait a minute…speak of Dias's devil hunter!'

Through the binoculars, Black Tiger watched as Rena was talking to Rukia and Van. Unfortunately at the fact of distance that he was, he couldn't make out what they were saying. 'I wonder…maybe if I follow them I could find my target…'

A few minutes later, Black Tiger was hiding in the nearby bush near Rena, Van and Rukia. Holding his breath, Black Tiger was able to listen in on what the group was saying. "…Duel disk malfunctions? That sounds like a load of bull…"

"…That's putting it bluntly," Rukia sighed rubbing the side of her head.

"Well, he's got a point there," Rena laughed slightly shaking her head. "I mean, a lot of students were found the same way…and all of them were hit with the same effect?"

"You'd think that at least one would've been able to take down the guy," Van commented not noticing that Leo just appeared behind him with Kimatori standing right beside him.

"Possibly…" Leo stated making the three Slifer Reds jump up from surprise.

"LEO!"

"Hello everyone," Leo greeted with a cheery smile on his, and it looked like he was starting to affect Kimatori.

"Hello everyone!" Kimatori announced with a great big smile.

"Oh no! He's a virus!" Rukia shouted getting a laugh out of Kimatori, who now had the top part of her hair similar to Leo's.

"Hmm…I can't help it that she wants to be like me," Leo snickered rubbing his chin, taking note that Kimatori was doing the exact same. "I actually find it quite flattering…"

"…Okay, how many people are you actually planning to teach how to be sneaky?" Van growled glaring daggers at Leo.

Back in the bushes, Black Tiger rubbed the bridge of his nose as a smile appeared underneath his mask. 'Hmm…I wonder…three of these duelists have been chosen as targets, maybe if I follow them I can find my own target.

'But if I go in my Black Tiger costume…I'll be found out. I guess this is a good thing that I have my real face.'

"…And then one day, I'll have an army of sneaky people to scare everyone," Leo joked around with a calm look on his face while Van's face was a complete stone statue. "…Just kidding!"

"Man…I swear one way or another, you're going to give me a heart attack," Van groaned lowering his head to the ground.

"One can only hope," Leo chuckled along with Kimatori. "But, I digress…I believe that you were all talking about duelists being unable to defeat these mysterious opponents?"

'…I already know who's behind this…' Rena thought turning her eyes slightly with a worried look in her head. Dias was still in her head, as well as that devastating duel. "What of it Leo?"

"Leo-kun's been seeing a lot of duelists train!" Kimatori cheered hugging Leo's hand.

"That is true…" Leo added turning his head to the side. "Perhaps maybe you three should see for yourselves…"

"Why not? We don't have anything better to do…" Van stated rubbing his chin before snapping his fingers. "Oh wait! Sorry! But I can't! I've got a paper that Professor Kryancelo assigned us…"

"I already got that done," Rena commented making Van step back in shock.

"Same here," Rukia added causing more shock to appear on Van's face.

"Am I the only one who didn't get it done?" Van questioned walking past the group with a dark aura surrounding his body.

"Hey Van! I'll give you hand with that paper!" Rukia shouted following Van.

"Well then, Rena, would you care to join us?" Leo offered raising his hand, quickly followed by Kimatori lifting her hand up.

"It'll kill some time!" Kimatori shouted with a graceful smile growing from her face.

"…Is this how you get people now?" Rena chuckled rubbing the back of her head. "…Using a little kid?"

"I'm trying to become a lawyer in the future…why not start to learn new tricks?" Leo replied with his trademarked smile.

"I'm in then," Rena laughed walking with Leo and Kimatori towards the school…

…Meanwhile, from the bushes, Alex (the Black Tiger's alter ego if you didn't remember) jumped out and slowly began to follow the three from a distance. 'Sometimes I wonder why I bother putting that mask on, I mean…I've got a good face after all…'

It wasn't long before Alex noticed that Rena, Leo and Kimatori were watching a duel that was already taking place before them.

"See…as you can plainly see, the duelists around here are training themselves," Leo explained gesturing towards the two duelists that were dueling. "And many of them are trying their hardest…"

"Um…who are these people?" Rena asked looking at the duelists.

Leo slowly gestured towards the other Slifer Red student who was dueling. The duelist was sitting on the ground; his brown hair was spiked off towards the side with yellow highlights. His uniform was opened to show his red shirt along with a pair of black jeans with white zigzag stripes racing down the sides. The teen looked to be half asleep and the only thing he had on his field were two face down cards behind two warriors.

The first one was a large warrior completely covered in black and silver armor with a shield and sword attached to the warrior's armor (1800/1600). While the other warrior was a young woman with long chestnut brown hair wearing a tight green suit that looked to be better suited to be worn in a hot area (1100/1200).

"…That's Kirk Thomas, he's actually a good duelist in the third year Slifer Reds," Leo explained rubbing his chin.

"That sounds familiar," Rena giggled turning towards the duelist that was facing Kirk. "And who's that?"

The duelist across from Kirk was a young girl who looked to be at least a year older than Rena and Leo, mainly because she seemed to be a few inches taller than both of them, her head topped off with red hair that was tied into two pigtails that were on both sides of the girl's head. From her Ra Yellow uniform, the skirt seemed to be a little bit longer. The only thing that the girl had in front of her was a spell card that had a picture of a weird square monster that looked to be angry. The girl seemed to have a whole hand of six cards.

"Oh, that would have to be Loire Sinclair," Leo replied as the Ra yellow girl named Lorie lifted up a card from her hand. "A decent student in Ra Yellow…"

"Alright Kirk…" Lorie announced slipping a card from her hand into her duel disk. "Let's kick this duel up to the next level! I play Polymerization!" (LLP: 3000)

A large white vortex appeared over Lorie's head, immediately pulling in three weird white square monsters with small wings with question marks over their bodies (300/100 x3). The vortex then shattered into what appeared to be an oversized version of the three monsters that formed into the monster (300/100). "MOKEY MOKEY!"

"So? What do you think of my Mokey Mokey King? A real big cutie right?" Lorie asked with a blush on her face, even raising her hands to her face.

Kirk just scratched the back of his head with his eyes closed. A second later a loud yawn escaped from the third year Slifer Red student. "…I guess so…what a drag…" (KLP: 5100)

"WHAT!?!" Lorie shouted throwing her arms to her sides with an enraged look written all over her face. That's when Lorie lifted her next card up. "No one makes fun of my monster and gets away with it…"

A bright light appeared onto the field, quickly forming into a small orb of pure light (500/500) that floated in the air in front of Lorie. "I summon Mystic Shine Ball in attack mode! Now then, Mokey Mokey King! Attack Warrior Lady of the Wasteland!"

"MOKEY MOKEY!"

The large fairy monster slowly floated towards the female warrior, who in turn drew her sword and jumped into the air to meet the fairy head on in battle. It was an amazing sight to see the warrior lady slice right through the large monster…

…and unexpectedly cause a large explosion above the field over Kirk and Lorie. (LLP: 2200)

After the smoke disappeared into pixels, three smaller versions of the Mokey Mokey King (300/100 x3) bounced onto the field chirping. "MOKEY MOKEY!"

"And now, thanks to the King's destruction I can summon Mokey Mokey one, two and three!" Lorie cheered lifting her hand up. "And I'm not done yet! Mystic Shine Ball! Attack the Warrior Lady!"

"…This is just annoying…" Kirk sighed as his Warrior Lady quickly sliced right through the orb of light. "I already know that you're Mokey Mokey Smackdown card will increase your fairies attack to three thousand each…"

"…You're no fun at all!" Lorie pouted as a powerful aura surrounded her spell card. "And you're right…" (LLP: 1600)

All three of the Mokey Monkeies shouted out as their bodies became pure red (3000/100 x3) and began to steam in anger. "…And that makes my Mokey Mokey monsters mad! Mokey Mokey number one! Attack Gearfried the Iron Knight!"

The first Mokey Mokey began to flap its arms and wings wildly, creating a powerful shockwave that made the Iron Knight shatter into a large amount of pixels. Kirk on the other hand… "…Are you done yet?" (KLP: 3900)

"Nope! Now, Mokey Mokey number two, take the stage!" Lorie commanded as her second Mokey Mokey chirped loudly making a second shockwave pulse through the air, destroying the Warrior Lady. "And since you're wide open…" (KLP: 2000)

"…Stop…I have a monster effect…" Kirk dully announced raising his hand slightly in the air.

"What the?" Rena questioned as Kirk slowly pulled his dueling deck from his duel disk and fanned it out. "Is there a reason why this guy doesn't get into the game?"

"Actually, there is a rumor that Kirk never wanted to come to the academy," Leo explained, failing to notice that Kirk turned his eyes towards the noble duelist.

'…Great…Just what I needed…' Kirk thought lifting another card up from his deck and place it on his duel disk. "…Due to Warrior Lady of the Wasteland, I'm permitted to special summon from my deck one level four or lower earth attribute warrior monster with fifteen hundred attack points or less…"

"…I choose a second Warrior Lady of the Wasteland…"

From behind Kirk, the second Warrior Lady appeared behind him raising her sword up (1100/1200) prepared to fight.

A sweatdrop rolled down Lorie's head before she shook it off. "Okay…now then, you could at least try to seem interested…"

"What's the point?" Kirk sighed lowering his head. "I already know that you're going to attack my Warrior Lady again, so get it over with…"

"Fine, you spoiled sport," Lorie pouted turning her head to the side. "Mokey Mokey number three! Attack his Warrior Lady!"

Kirk just pulled out his deck as a repeat of what happened only moments ago to his second Warrior Lady. "Once again I'll summon another monster…" (KLP: 100)

"Let it be something with some zing," Lorie requested shaking her head slightly.

"…Fine, I choose Hero Kid…" Kirk sighed as a bright light began to shine before him.

When the light died down, a small kid spun in front of Kirk wearing a red mask as well as a kid version of a spacesuit that you might've seen in an old futuristic show (300/600). The kid raised his hand up into a peace sign as two more Hero Kids appeared next to the first showing peace signs of their own (300/600 x2). "And when one's summoned, I can bring out the other two…"

"Okay…Since it's still my turn," Lorie continued unfazed by Kirk's move by lifting the last card in her hand. "I play Mystic Wok! So by sending one of my cute little Mokey Mokeies, I can gain three thousand life points!"

In a relaxing mist, one of the three fairies disappeared around Lorie, making her giggle slightly. "Ah! That feels great!" (LLP: 4600)

"…Are you done now?" Kirk asked with a stiffing yawn emerging from his mouth.

"Well, uh, yeah?" Lorie questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Good…" Kirk replied pulling his next card giving him two cards. "…I activate my face down card, Call of the Haunted so, yeah, let's get back Gearfried…"

A large coffin appeared before Kirk, opening up to release the famous Iron Knight (1800/1600) to raise his sword. "Next…I think I'll allow my Iron Knight to become a greater entity…I play Release Restraint!"

Light began to pour out from the lining of Gearfried's armor, making the knight roar out a loud battle cry that made the entire ground tremble. That's when the famous knight's armor shattered into millions of pieces allowing the monster's true form to appear.

With the warrior's long dark gray hair flowing in the wind, the new monster cracked his neck and raised his bandaged covered arms towards Lorie and glared daggers. The warrior's fancy lion cloth flowed slightly in the wind as the warrior crossed his arms in a fighting pose (2600/2200). "Gearfried the Swordmaster has just appeared…"

"And?" Lorie asked with a raised eyebrow.

"…Right, I sacrifice two of my Hero Kids," Kirk added when two of his kid monsters disappeared in a large flash of light. "…In order to summon Gilford the Legend!"

From the large flash of light emerged an extremely large warrior wearing dark armor roaring an extremely loud battle cry. From the dark helmet the warrior had on, a long head of hair flowed in the air (2600/2000). "And this warrior allows me to equip as many equip cards from my graveyard to any warriors on my side of the field…and I think I have four in my graveyard…"

That's when four cards slipped out from Kirk's graveyard and flew slightly into his hand. The next second, the lazy duelist slipped the cards in one at a time. "I equip Gearfried with Fusion Sword Masamune (2600/2200 + 800/0)!"

A dark katana flowed from the Swordmaster's hand; give the warrior a sterner look appearing on his face. "Next, I'll equip Gearfried along with Volt Masamune (3400/2200 + 500/0)…"

Next, a powerful jolt of electricity transformed the katana in Gearfried's hand into an extremely long katana that was surging with electricity. "Coming in third, I'll outfit Gilford with Lighting Blade (2600/2000 + 800/0)."

Reaching for a weapon on his back, Gilford pulled a mysterious sword with a large blade that was pulsating with electricity. "…I think it'd be rude if I didn't include Hero Kid, so I'll give him Divine Sword Phoenix Blade (300/600 + 300/0)…"

The Hero Kid looked confused as a powerful blade with the hilt in the shape of a phoenix appeared in his hands. Holding the blade up, the Hero Kid fell to the ground making everyone watching the duel laugh slightly.

"Nice move…" Lorie gulped at the sight of the powerful monsters appearing before her in a single turn.

"Thanks…but there's Gearfried's effect, so unfortunately you just lost your only defenses…" Kirk yawned loudly as the two Mokey Mokeies shattered into light.

"Um…you wouldn't want to hurt a girl would ya?" Lorie asked with tears appearing in the corners of her eyes.

"…No, but don't try to hurt her guys…" Kirk yawned as his three warriors flew towards Lorie.

/--/-////--/-/-//-/

"…Sir, I can't believe it…" Kryancelo stated with a shocked face. Along with Alan and himself, Kryancelo stood in Alan's office with the rest of professors, apparently, Alan just made an announcement.

"I know it's drastic," Alan sighed pushing some of the many bottles of fruit juice to the side on his desk. "…But we don't really have a choice…"

"Not that sir…" Kryancelo chuckled rubbing the back of his head. "…Just for the fact that you actually did something responsible."

"Well, I suppose…" Alan started until it hit him that he was just slapped with an insult…and it just took him a few more moments. "HEY! I'm able to make decent decisions!"

"You asked me what you wanted to wear this morning this sir…" Rex moaned adjusting his hat.

"Oh my…" Maria giggled holding a hand to her mouth.

"Sir…" Alonso sighed slightly lowering his head.

"Rex, what in the world were you doing with Alan?" Weevil asked with a raised eyebrow.

"The guy called me!" Rex shouted.

"Quiet!" Alan shouted getting everyone to be quiet; of course it was quite out of character for him. "Ah…now then, we'll make the announcement in an hour…"

/--/-/-//-/-/-/-/

'Hmm…that Kirk guy seems like a decent opponent…' Alex kept following Rena, Leo and Kimatori (who was now sitting on Leo's shoulders) through the academy, only this time, Alex was slowly licking a snow cone that he managed to get from the nearby stand. 'I mean, I think he'd be a good idea for me to choose…but then again, I'm still interested in seeing these duelists that are currently training…'

'Maybe I can get some other targets for the others while I do this…'

"But brother! Why'd you do that!?!" A familiar voice shouted getting everyone's attention.

Towards the side, Rena, Leo, and Kimatori (as well as Alex) saw that Klein was dragging Koji by the arm with a duel disk in his hand. "We don't have a choice in this matter! You've got to do this!"

"Well, well, well, what sort of trouble did you two get yourselves into?" Leo asked scaring the two short duelists.

"Will you stop doing that?" Klein shouted narrowing his eyes at the noble duelist. "Besides…this doesn't involve you!"

"Help me…" Koji pleaded with tears starting to stream from his eyes.

"Okay, what's really going on Klein?" Rena asked with a raised eyebrow at the two brothers.

Klein just stepped backwards with a cold drip of sweat beating down his head. However, Koji on the other hand… "Klein's trying to make me duel in a bet!"

"Oh my, but, don't you have a bad record with your bets?" Leo asked with his strange smile still appearing on his face.

"Shut up! With the bet I have with this guy I'll be able to pay off that old stiff and still come out on top!" Klein laughed before he pulled Koji's right arm once more and began to head towards the Ra Yellow dorms. "Now if you excuse us! We're going to get this over with!"

"Klein! You're not going anywhere!" Rena shouted stepping in front of Klein and Koji. "I thought you'd have more common sense on these things by now…"

"Well you thought wrong girlie!" Klein barked trying to walk past Rena, but the elf duelist just kept getting in her way. "…You're starting to get on my nerves…we've got a duel to get to…"

"Don't bother Fighting Dog of Duel Academy, I came to you," A calming voice stated getting everyone to turn towards the source of the voice…

…Which came from the guy leaning up against the nearby tree, his sharp black hair stood out from his Ra Yellow jacket which covered his baggy gray shirt and black pants. On his right arm was a special forest green duel disk. "Yo! When you two didn't show up, I kind of thought of searching for you…"

"Ah, just the guy we're looking for," Klein snickered as the mysterious Ra Yellow student walked towards him. "Good to see you again Jacques!"

"I suppose I should say the same," Jacques sighed heading towards Klein and Koji, not even paying attention towards Rena and the others. "But, since we're going to dueling for money, I don't really see the need…"

"Oh, of course," Klein stated before pushing Koji towards Jacques. "And here's you're opponent!"

"B, b, b, but brother!" Koji wept with tears streaming down his eyes.

"Koji! Just go out there and win!" Klein shouted waving his arms in the air.

"W-w-well…alright," Koji gulped holding his deck out towards Jacques, while Jacques followed suit.

"Klein! How could you do this to your brother?" Rena shouted at Klein, who didn't seem to be phased by the yelling.

"Yeah! Brothers are supposed to look out for their siblings!" Kimatori added with an angered look on her face, until she blinked a few times. "Uh…who's this guy?"

"Oh, you need not concern yourself Kimatori," Leo replied rubbing the top of the little kid's head. "You see, if I know this little devil, he probably changed his brother's deck…"

"You got that right fancy boy," Klein chuckled watching his brother and Jacques walk away from each other with their own decks.

"…Fancy boy?" Leo questioned with a large question mark appearing over his head.

"Let's duel this!"

"Alright, let's get this game started," Jacques sighed pulling his sixth card into his right hand. "…And I'll start with Enraged Battle Ox!" (JLP: 8000)

From the nearby forest, a large minotaur ran through the trees and skidded right in front of Jacques, wearing red and yellow armor wielding a large battle axe (1700/1000). The beast-warrior snorted from its nostrils looking down at the small, quivering duelist. "Nice bull…very nice bull…"

"Ya know, you're probably making him mad," Jacques suggested placing two cards into his duel disk, making them appear behind the Enraged Battle Ox. "…Because you're wearing red…although, he's always enraged…"

"Y-y-yeah…" Koji gulped drawing his card. Looking at his hand, Koji's breathing slightly relaxed. "Um, I-I summon a monster o-o-on the defense…"

"Come on Koji!" Klein shouted throwing his fist into the air. "Get some confidence!"

"Y-y-yeah brother…" Koji panted stepping backwards. "E-e-end turn…"

"Typical of a first year," Jacques sighed lifting his next card, looking at it; a smile crept onto his face. "Brings back good memories of my first year…But this isn't the time to reminisce, I summon Pitch Black Warwolf!"

A loud howl filled the air as a large black warewolf slammed onto the ground right next to the Enraged Battle Ox, wearing ragged dark armor wielding a hook saber (1600/600). From the wolf's mouth, a large mouth full of fangs were covered in drool. "Now then…first of, with my Enraged Battle Ox, all beasts, winged-beasts, and beast-warriors gain a trampling effect. And then my Warwolf prevents you from activating traps during the battle phase…"

"Anyone want to take a guess what deck this guy runs?" Leo asked innocently.

Jacques threw his arm towards his black wolf monster, raising his arm up high. "Warwolf! Attack that face down monster! Claw of the Dark Moon!"

With a loud howl, the Warwolf jumped high into the air before diving towards the face down monster that flipped up to show a large blue rat holding onto a small skull in it's claws (1400/1450). In a matter of moments, the wolf beast's sword skewered the rat right through the heart, shattering the monster into pixels. (KLP: 7850)

"T-t-that was my Giant Rat," Koji stuttered pulling his deck out and lifting another card from his deck. "S-s-since it was d-d-destroyed in battle, I can special summon an earth monster with less than fifteen hundred attack points…I-I-I choose a second G-G-Giant Rat…"

A second blue rat appeared on the field, lifting it's skull up towards Jacques. "…That's cool man, cause I still have my Battle Ox's attack…so go on and give it your best man!"

In a brutal charge, the Enraged Battle Ox used it's mighty battle axe to slice the second rat's head clean off, knocking the headless rodent's body into Koji's body. (KLP: 7550)

Koji lifted another card from his deck and fanned through it once more. "I, uh, um, get another card to summon…"

"Oh joy, let's see, are you going to summon another Giant Rat?" Jacques asked crossing his arm.

"N-n-n-no, I choose Toy Soldier…" Koji stuttered slapping the card onto his duel disk.

A small bright light appeared on the field forming into a small nutcracker like soldier wearing a red suit and holding onto a small popgun over his shoulder (800/300). The small soldier took aim with his popgun towards Jacques.

"Sssssssssoooooooooooooooo many references I can make right now," Jacques chuckled scratching the side of his head. "But, I'll spare the audience with that, and end my turn."

"A Toy?" Rena stated taking note of the huge grin on Klein's face. "Koji runs a toy deck?"

"Hnn, not exactly girlie," Klein snickered watching Koji draw his next card.

After Koji added his next card to his hand, the Toy Soldier pulled a small trumpet from the back of his belt and began to play a small tune making two cards float from Koji's deck and onto his duel disk. From behind Koji, two more Toy Soldiers (800/300 x2) ran out to join their fellow comrade. "T-T-T-Toy Soldier's effect a-a-a-activates, allowing me to special summon two more from my deck…"

"Oh joy…too bad they can't do anything against my beasties," Jacques sympathized with Koji with a saddened look on his eyes.

"A-a-activate spell card," Koji stuttered sliding his spell card into his duel disk, creating a spell card with a picture of the Toy Soldiers climbing down multiple stairs. "F-F-Forced March! N-n-now my Soldiers can attack directly this turn!"

"WHAT!?!" Jacques shouted as the three Toy Soldiers began to run towards him with their guns raised up high.

…However, the three Toy Soldiers (800/300 – 400/0) stopped before they made it across the field to catch their breaths. Jacques breathed a sigh of relief as he wiped off a small strand of sweat that beaded down the side of his head. "…Now that's just pathetic…"

"I now activate my spell card Fife and Drum Corp," Koji replied lifting his second card into his duel disk.

With an empowering song filling the air, more Toy Soldiers appeared only instead of their popguns, these ones held onto musical instruments following a lead Soldier lifting a baton in the air. The music seemed to make the Toy Soldiers on the field stand up proudly (400/300 + 400/0). "N-n-now all monsters with a thousand attack points or less get their points doubled this turn!"

"Uh oh," Jacques gulped when the three Toy Soldiers raised their popguns towards him. "Hey, wait a minute…those are just popguns, they can't do much…right?"

"Fire away soldiers!" Klein shouted when the Toy Soldiers pulled the triggers.

The three corks went flying towards Jacques, smacking him in the right eye, the neck and in the stomach. "MY EYE! WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY EYE!? THAT WAS MY GOOD EYE!" (JLP: 5600)

That comment just made everyone laugh at Jacques's expense, making the Ra Yellow duelist narrow his eyes towards Koji. "Nice cheap shot…but we'll see who'll have the last laugh…"

"I-I-I'll place two cards face down," Koji stuttered fitting the two cards into his duel disk. "E-e-e-end turn…"

Lifting his next card from his deck, Jacques slowly rubbed his right eye. "Dang that hurts…but this will hurt you a lot more! I activate the spell card, Cost Down!"

Fitting another card into his duel disk graveyard slot, Jacques quickly picked up his Enraged Battle Ox card from his duel disk. "And now, I'll sacrifice my Enraged Battle Ox, in order to summon this guy!"

The ground before Jacques shattered wide open, releasing what appeared to be an extremely large blue skin beast like monster. The giant's body was covered with a tattered yellow beast skin that was wrapped around by many different weapons. When Koji stared directly into the beast-warrior's single eye, the monster roared loudly creating a powerful shockwave (2750/2500).

"W-w-what is that thing!?!" Koji stammered stepping backwards away from the monster.

"Oh this guy? He goes by the name Sengenjin," Jacques explained crossing his arms slightly. "But he's the least of your worries, I activate my face down trap Call of the Wild!"

Jacques face down card flipped up to show a large wolf becoming more of a large version of it. "Now for the mere cost of five hundred life points…my Sengenjin can attack all of your monsters!" (JLP: 5100)

"I see, it's like a Diffusion Wave Motion for beast-warriors," Leo speculated rubbing his chin. "Very interesting…"

"Also works for beasts and winged-beasts," Jacques stated lifting his arm towards his Sengenjin. "But enough about that…Sengenjin! Attack his three Toy Soldiers!"

Lifting a large spiked mace from it's back, the large beast-warrior jumped towards all three of the panicking Toy Soldiers, immediately slamming it's large mace directly through the three monsters at once. The force of the attack sent Koji skidding backwards as his life point counter began to fall. (KLP: 2250)

"Lucky for you, my trap can only allow the monster targeted for this trap can attack," Jacques added as Koji stumbled back to his original spot on the duel field. "It'll be interesting to see how you react to this…"

Koji slowly drew his next card and immediately placed it onto his duel disk, creating a face down monster to appear before him. "E-e-e-end turn…"

"All you have now is defense…how interesting," Jacques sighed pulling his next card from his deck. "I play Pot of Greed, so now I'm allowed to draw two more cards…"

The large green, grinning pot appeared with a loud laugh as Jacques drew his next two cards. "Now then, I think I'll summon Panther Warrior (2000/1600)!"

With a loud roar, the purple panther swordsman leapt onto the field in front of Jacques.

"Brings back memories right Klein?" Rena joked getting a glare from Klein.

"Now then, Warwolf! Attack that face down defense monster!" Jacques commanded.

Once again, the Warwolf jumped into the air and then dived towards the face down monster that flipped up into a blue, humanoid-machine holding a rifle in a defensive manner (1350/1800). The machine lifted it's rifle up and blocked the Warwolf's attack, thrusting the beast backwards. (JLP: 4900)

"T-t-t-this is K-K-Kinetic Soldier," Koji stuttered noticing the death glare he was getting from the beast-warriors. "Uh oh…"

"Fine then…Sengenjin! Attack that soldier!" Jacques shouted before his large beast-warrior slammed it's mace into the machine, destroying the monster immediately. "And now…since I have him…I might as well use him!"

In a small flash of light, the Warwolf shattered into a million pixels, making the Panther Warrior roar loudly into the air before it charged towards Koji. "Now then…Panther Warrior…Charge!"

With a quick slash, the Panther Warrior sliced right through Koji's stomach, making the short duelist wince in pain. (KLP: 250)

"How can you stand here as your brother is taking a pummeling?" Rena asked starring at Klein. "And for your selfish gains none-the-less!"

Klein just mumbled to himself crossing his arms away from Rena.

"Ah, so you're really a softy on the inside," Leo commented as Kimatori giggled causing a small blush to creep up on Klein's face. "W-whatever! Now Koji! Now strike back with that combo!"

That's all it took to get Koji to smile at his brother. "R-r-r-right! I activate my trap card, Damage Condenser!"

One of Koji's face down cards flipped up into a large machine with a weird glowing tube in the middle of the machine. Taking a card from his hand, Koji slipped the card into his duel disk. "So by discarding one card, I can special summon a monster with attack points equal to or less than the attack I took…"

"Erk!" Jacques stuttered taking a step back.

"Wow, that's a nice trick," Rena stated as Koji fanned out his deck once more.

"You ain't seen nothing yet girlie," Klein snickered crossing his arms. 'Koji, you better not screw up your choice…'

"I-I-I choose KC One Clayton!" Koji announced as his large weird machine shattered into what appeared to be a large gunmetal gray tank with it's cannon aimed directly towards Jacques (500/1200).

"…That's it?" Jacques asked pointing towards the tank. "You spent a trap, life points and a card from your hand to get that piece of scrap out?"

"N-n-not just one," Koji stuttered slowly lifting his hand over his face down card. "But four! I activate Tank Units of Historical War! Now I can summon three Tank Tokens on the field!"

The face down card shattered into many different sized pixels that floated in the air until forming into three white tanks (800/1200 x3). Jacques didn't seem impressed at the sight of the small tanks. "Okay, first with the Toy Soldiers and now the army of tanks…what in the world is your deck supposed to be?"

Koji slowly drew his next card and sighed slightly at the sight of it. "…It's my army deck…one that my brother and I designed together!"

"I don't care if you made it with the queen of England!" Jacques laughed loudly crossing his arms.

"Well, you should care!" Klein shouted pointing his hand towards Jacques. "Cause you're about to have your ass handed to you! Do it Koji!"

"R-r-r-right brother!" Koji exclaimed raising his hand towards his tanks. "F-first off, my KC One Clayton gains five hundred attack and defense points for each Tank Token I have on the field… so that's fifteen hundred points!" (500/1200 + 1500/0)

"Heh, you think that scares me?" Jacques chuckled scratching the side of his head. "Nice try…"

"Next I play Shield and Sword!"

Jacques's eyes widened as all of the holograms began to waver, messing with the programming by switching the attack and defense of all monsters on the field (2500/2750) (1600/2000) (2700/500) (1200/800 x3).

"Oh boy…" Jacques gulped as Koji pulled another card from his hand up.

"I now switch my three tokens to attack mode," Koji continued as all three of the white tanks took aim at Jacques. "And activate the spell card, Limiter Removal!"

A powerful gray aura surround all of Koji's tanks, making their rusty gears become clearer and shine in the light (5400/500) (2400/800 x3). "A-a-and now, KC One Clayton, a-a-attack Sengenjin!"

With a loud boom, the tank fired a powerful blast that quickly exploded on contact with the large beast-warrior, making the beastie cry out in pain…

…As well Jacques. (JLP: 2500)

"A-a-and now, Tank Token! T-t-take down that Panther Warrior!" Koji shouted thrusting his arm towards the Panther Warrior.

With it's target in range, the large tank fired a powerful shot and destroyed the Panther in one good blast. (JLP: 1700)

"A-a-a-and now…" Koji stuttered raising his hand towards Jacques.

"…Just end it…" Jacques replied placing his hand over his deck, signifying his surrender. "…I don't feel like getting blown to kingdom come…" (JLP: Surrendered)

"Huh?" Koji questioned looking at Jacques putting away his cards and deactivating his duel disk. "W-what just happened?"

"You won…" Jacques stated simply.

"I…I won?" Koji replied as his holograms disappeared.

"Repeat after me," Jacques said, somewhat annoyed. "You…won…"

"Why's Koji having a hard time accepting his victory?" Rena asked looking towards Klein.

"…Here's the thing," Klein muttered slightly loud. "Koji almost failed his entrance duel…he's never been that great at dueling anyway…that's why it was supposed to be a perfect bet against him…"

"You bet against your brother?" Rena questioned with a blank look on her face.

"Hey…I lost didn't I?" Klein retorted walking towards Koji and Jacques who were exchanging handshakes. "Koji, I've got some business to discuss with Jacques…"

"Well, okay brother!" Koji replied, taking the hint and walking over towards the rest of the group.

"I'm surprised you're letting your brother off the hook," Leo stated with Kimatori nodding his head up and down. "Don't you usually rant on your brother?"

"…I've decided to give up on that," Koji sighed before walking with Rena, Kimatori and Leo towards the Slifer Red dorms.

As soon as the rest of the group was gone, Klein sighed and shook his head slightly and turned towards Jacques. "…I guess I owe you a large favor…"

"You better believe it," Jacques replied with a sneaky look on his face. "I could've activated that face down card…"

"I have my guesses on it…" Klein groaned slapping his forehead slightly. "So…what exactly do I have to do?"

"…Some time in the future," Jacques answered rubbing his chin slightly. "…I will call upon you, me and my… 'associates' will require your help for a few tasks…"

"…And who are these 'associates'?" Klein asked with a cold droplet of sweat beating down the side of his head.

"…Let's just say that they're really the 'spirited' type," Jacques stated rubbing the back of his head with his right hand.

Before the two could continue, a loud beeping noise rang through out the entire dueling academy.

Jacques and Klein just blinked a few times as the message kept repeating itself, while the other students were walking past them.

/--/-/-/-/-////-/-//-/

With all of the student body standing in the auditorium, Alan stood on the stage in front of the many different students…

…And boy, was he sweating bullets. 'Ugh, I hate public speaking…and the teachers…they're just standing in the crowds…'

"STUDENTS!" Alan shouted, his voice wavering slightly. "'Ahem', excuse me, anyway, there is something that I need to announce to you all…"

"A-as many of you have noticed…many students have been found curled up in ball muttering something. The staff and I have looked into his matter, however, until we have a definite manner for dealing with these strange occurances…"

"…A curfew will be in effect. All students are to be in their dorm rooms a nine o'clock sharp!"

That statement made the student body begin to shout loudly at Alan, but taking a deep breath, Alan just ignored the comments from them all. "Any student who is caught past nine o'clock…"

"…will be severely punished! No exceptions!"

"THAT'S UNFAIR!"

"YOU CAN'T TELL US WHAT TO DO!"

"HOW LONG WILL THIS CURFEW BE IN EFFECT?!?"

"THIS IS UNFAIR!"

"Now now, I know that this is bad…" Alan stated waving his hand. "Please try to understand, that this is for your safety."

'This can't be good at all…'

In the corner of the auditorium, Antonio, Xander and Alex stood there watching the student body complain. "My, my, my, zis doesn't seem to work in ze master's favor…"

"Yeah, but knowing the boss…" Xander commented not noticing that Alex whipped out a cell phone and dial a number. "He probably already has a plan for this…"

'I still need to find an opponent! None of the duelists I saw today will work!' Alex lifted the phone up this ear as the ring began to end. "Sir? We've got a big problem…"

/--//-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Card Stats

Toy Soldier / Earth / LV. 3 / ATK: 800 / DEF: 300 / Warrior/Effect:If this card is on your side of the field during your Standby Phase, you may Special Summon up to two "Toy Soldiers" from your hand or deck.

Description: A small nutcracker like soldier wearing a red suit and holding onto a small popgun over his shoulder

Forced March / Spell / Effect:During the turn you activate this card, the ATK of the Monsters on your side of the field is halved, and they may attack your opponent directly

Image: Toy Soldiers climbing up multiple stairs

Fife and Drum Corp / Spell / Effect: During the turn this card is activated, double the attack of all monsters on your side of the field with 1000 or less attack points

Image: Toy Soldiers holding many drums and trumpets, being led by another Toy Soldier holding a baton.

KC One Clayton / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 500 / DEF: 1200 / Machine/Effect: For each 'Tank Token' on the field, increase this monster attack by 500 points.

Description: A large gunmetal gray tank.

Tank Units of Historical War / Trap / Effect: This can only be activated when you have a face up 'KC One Clayton' on your side of the field. Special summon three 'Tank Tokens' (Earth/LV.4/ATK:800/DEF:1200/Machine) on your side of the field in defense mode.

Image: Many tanks charging forward.

Call of the Wild / Trap / Effect: Pay 500 life points. Select one face up level five or higher beast, winged-beast, or beast-warrior on your side of the field. During the turn this card is activated, that monster may attack all of your opponent's monsters (the monster is the only one that can attack this turn and cannot attack your opponent's life points.

Image: a large wolf becoming more of a large version of it

/---/-/-//-/-/-/

Duelist Stats

Name: Koji Drei

Deck type: Army Strike

Not the best duelist, Koji almost lost his entrance duel and didn't have much of a say in whether he wanted to come to the academy or not. Rather, his brother Klein made the decision for him…

Usually fading into the background, Koji is the most level-headed character you could meet, as well as the most normal…not counting his height…

With his brother modifying his deck, it looks like Koji really depends on Klein for a majority for his life.

-/-/-////-//-/-/

Dias: The time…has finally arrived!

Antonio: Zis shall be magnificent! Moi will be ze one laughing!

Dias: Under the…blood red moon…my life…

The time has finally arrived…next time – Chapter 17: A Knight's Mare

Dias:…will be renewed…

Antonio: Fabulous!


	17. Chapter 17: A Knight’s Mare

_**Oh ho ho! What is zis? What is zis?**_

_**Moi is glad zat all of you lovely people have decided to watch moi's most glorious moment of triumph! **_

_**Moi's magnificent name is Antonio Rosenberg, ze Junior Duel Monsters Champion of France. Alzough, zat title is starting to become more of a crutch to moi…**_

…_**If you heard ze rumors about moi, zen you would have heard zat I managed to defeat almost all of moi's opponents wiz ze French Revolution deck…**_

…_**However…**_

…_**Zat is not moi's true deck…**_

_**Moi never had an intention to use zis…zis…zis true medieval deck…zat change after two certain events took place.**_

_**Ze first would have to be when I first met ze master, Dias. He was nozing more zen what moi zought to be a wannabe duelist, looking for an easy shot to fame…**_

…_**WRONG! WRONG!!**_

_**Now zen, ze second shot was when moi…moi…moi…moi…moi…**_

…_**Moi was defeated by zat wench! Zat wench…she ruined moi's reputation! She ruined moi's dueling streak!**_

…_**But…But…Zat wasn't ze worst of it! That harlot…she…she…she…RUINED MOI'S HAIR ENHANCEMENT DEVICE!**_

_**And don't you dare say zat it's a wig! Or you'll be ze next to feel moi's wraz after moi deals wiz ze girl who ruined moi!**_

_**Zis shall be moi's crowning achievement! **_

…_**Don't you even try for a hair enhancement device joke!**_

_**Or you're next!**_

/--//--/-//-/-/-/-/-/

_**Chapter 17**_

_**A Knight's Mare**_

/-/--//-/-/--/-/

After Alan's announcement, many of the students were complaining to each other as they slowly walked back to their dorms. At the top of the main duel academy building, a mysterious figure watched over the entire island…

"You, who search for the land of dreams…

…his weird clothes flowing in the wind as his wild dark gray hair flowed in front of his eyes. "…Until everyone has carved your name into their hearts…"

"The smile which has overcome sadness…Can I put my trust in you?"

Then in a strange move, the weird teen jumped off the building and disappeared into a blur.

/--//--/-//--/-/

Meanwhile, in a dark Obelisk Blue room, Tony, Riko and Luntina were standing in different parts of the room. Sen was also in the room but was leaning up against the door to the room.

Tony slowly tapped his fingers on the table that was in front of him, while a clock slowly ticked every second. Those sounds echoed through out room until…

"Come on y'all!" Tony shouted slamming his hand into the table. "Why are we going ta let these varmints get da upper hand on us?"

Clearing his throat slightly, Riko raised his hand up and adjusted his sunglasses. "To hear that from a guy who plays chess and a chess deck, it is somewhat annoying…"

Tony just blinked a couple times in confusion. "…Huh!?!?"

"Well, you see Tony, this really isn't our battle," Luntina stated looking out the window. "As the top three duelists in the academy, we can't fight the rest of the school's battles. We can't interfere unless we need to…"

"…So you're saying that we let students just drop like flies left and right?" Tony asked with a very grim look appearing on his face. "The longer we wait, the more students will be hurt!"

"Do not worry, we will not allow anyone to remain in their trances," Riko replied relaxing back into his chair.

"But by the time that happens, it might be too late!" Tony shouted turning towards the door. "…Kaisaris Luntina, you may the best here, but to me, you're nothing more than an old gal who's afraid of doing anything!"

That comment…Luntina gritted her teeth and made her narrow her brow towards Tony, glaring daggers at the Chess Duelist. "OLD?!?! I'm only a year older than you!"

"Still technically old to me," Tony shot back not even turning his head to face the flaming Kaisaris standing directly behind him.

That's when Luntina grabbed the surprised Tony by the back of his neck and began to spin with Tony screaming loudly. Hearing this, Riko stood up and turned his head towards the door. "Sen! Get out of the way!"

"I'M NOT OLD!"

At the last second, Sen dropped to the ground as Tony flew towards the door and knocked it down and into the hallway. Luntina stomped her foot on the ground and glared directly at the dazed Tony. "Could an old lady do that!?! HUH!?! HUH!?!"

"Dat doesn't change a thing!" Tony shouted jumping onto his feet. Apparently he was able to make a quick recovery…although it looked like he still didn't get his common sense back.

"Tony…I've forgiven all the crap you've done in the past," Luntina growled cracking her knuckles making Riko and Sen shiver in terror slightly. "But right now…All I'm giving you is a ten second head start…and I suggest you take it…"

Running quickly, Tony fled through the hallway, running like a crazy man on fire and pushing many students to the side. After ten seconds, Luntina calmly lifted the door from the hallway and placed it back onto the hinges. "…I spend more money on repairs than anything else…"

"I must say it must be quite a show to watch you fight," Riko chuckled unaware that his brother Sen was still a little freaked out.

"…It is, but back to the matter at hand…" Luntina giggled back to her calm self. "Tony does have a point…but I don't think you or I should get involved unless we need to…"

"I'll give you that, but when exactly are we going to do that?" Riko asked scratching his chin slightly.

"…It's sooner than you think…" Luntina replied with a smile on her face. "But we'll have to wait a little longer…"

/----/--//--//--/-/

Standing outside the Slifer Red Cafeteria, Van, Klein, Koji, Ganryu and several other Slifer Red students were arguing amongst themselves.

"They can't do this!" One random Slifer Red guy shouted, pumping his fist into the air.

"We should rise up!" Klein agreed jumping into the air, apparently that got the other Slifer Red students to agree with him.

"Find the reason why we can't go!"

"Turn the place upside down!"

"…What?"

"I agree we need to do this!"

"We can't have our rights blocked!"

Van just blinked in confusion as he watched Klein rile up the male Slifer Red student body even more with each word he spoke. "…When did Klein get to get to be a public speaker?"

"He kind of had a class at the YMCA after you left," Koji explained shaking his head. "Sometimes I thought that maybe I shouldn't have suggested those lessons…"

Meanwhile inside the cafeteria, the remaining amount of the Slifer Red students was watching the others complain to each other. Rena and Rukia were sitting near the window so they could hear what the complaining students were saying. "…I heard things are never normal around duel academies…though I've heard that the establishment never really does anything about it…"

"…Maybe there's a good work ethic?" Rena suggested before looking left and right. "Oh thank goodness…"

"What?" Rukia questioned raising an eyebrow.

"I decided to keep an eye out for Leo from now on," Rena answered making a sweatdrop appear on the back of Rukia's head. "He's not going to get the drop on me anymore…"

"I wouldn't be so sure," Leo chuckled smiling in the seat next to Rena; Kimatori was sitting next to him as well smiling like the weird Obelisk Blue.

It took a couple of seconds to register with her, but Rena screamed slightly and jumped from her seat. "L-L-Leo! How'd you do that!?!"

"Hmm…science fiction, Rena," Leo chuckled in response combing his hand through his hair. "That happens to be the only reason how I'm able to come up with right now…"

"So, what do we owe this visit to?" Rukia asked smiling at Kimatori.

"We're trying to find Renji," Leo answered rubbing his chin slightly. "…Not that I'm complaining, but I think that a couple of days is more than enough to watch this lovely young lady…"

"I could always take Kimatori," Rukia suggested raising her eyebrow.

"No! I wanna be with Leo-kun!" Kimatori protested throwing her arms around Leo's right arm.

Leo smiled down at Kimatori and rubbed the top of her head playfully. "And who wouldn't want that?"

"Hey Leo, what'd you think about those hot heads out there?" Rena asked sitting back down next to Leo.

"…They looked like they're ready to riot," Leo simply answered with an innocent smile.

"Well, can't you go out there and talk some sense into them?" Rukia questioned with Rena nodding her head in agreement.

"…Not the best idea," Leo explained before clearing his throat slightly with a cough. "First of all, if I were to approach them to talk some sense, because I'm in Obelisk Blue, they might think that I might be making them inferior. Then I'd be their target…"

"But you're here all the time, everyone knows you here," Rena retorted blinking a few times.

"True, but, they know not the reason why I come here," Leo replied closing his eyes and leaning back to the wall the table was near. "You see, I only know a hand full of Slifer Red students very well, you and Rukia happen to be half of that group…"

"Who are the other half?" Rukia asked a little bit curious

"Mr. Tenka and Mr. Dashiben," Leo answered shaking his finger towards his head. "…So Rukia, do you know where your older brother is?"

"I haven't seen him since he left you with Kimatori," Rukia replied, and it was true, it was as if her older sibling had disappeared in thin air.

Leo slowly nodded his head in response and then closed his eyes in deep thought. And he kept silent for a few minutes making sweatdroplets appear on the back of the three girls' heads.

"Uh Leo?" Rena started tapping Leo's shoulder slightly…

…Making Leo open his eyes suddenly and smile towards Rena. "Yes Rena?"

"Something wrong?" Rena added before Leo stood up with Kimatori standing up with him.

"You need not worry," Leo smiled warmly as he started to walk away with Kimatori with him. "Now then, I must be going to find Renji, so please forgive me…"

"See ya Rukia!" Kimatori shouted following Leo out of the Slifer Red cafeteria.

-/-/-//-//--/-///-/

Popping the last few pills into his mouth, followed by bottled water, Dias leaned up next to a tree watching the sun beginning to set. Then, throwing the bottled water he glared at Antonio, Xander and Black Tiger (who was dressed in his full attire). Renji, Seika and the Mysterious Morty were watching Dias chew out the three. "So…Alan thinks he can stop my plans?"

"You have to admit that he has a good plan," Xander pointed out with a shrug. "I mean, don't we have to do the ritualistic duel at night?"

"Actually, yes," Dias replied somewhat impressed with Xander's point.

"So master," Antonio stepped forward with a questioning look appearing on his face. "How are we going to get ze duelist moi chosen to face?"

"Heh, you think too little like me," Dias chuckled reaching into his pocket and pulling out what appeared to be a blood red cell phone. "…this will be how we acquire your targets…"

The forest seemed to grow incredibly quiet as all six of Dias's followers became quiet. A sweatdrop appeared on the back Dias's head before Renji sighed slightly. "…Sir…what exactly does that have to do with anything?"

Coughing a few times, Dias flipped his phone open. "Allow me to explain…due to some research I've done on your targets, I've learned that they all happen to be related in one sense or another…"

Black Tiger then snapped his fingers together and then slammed his fists together. "Oh I get it! You're going to get one of them to come out as bait to lure out the others!"

"Exactly…except there are a few…complications…" Dias stated narrowing his eyes towards Black Tiger. Everyone could swear that they heard Black Tiger gulp loudly. "…Namely you Black Tiger…You don't have an opponent!"

"Sir! I-I-I-I tired!" Black Tiger pleaded falling to his knees and lowering his head to the ground.

"Not that it matters, I think I can find you an opponent anyway," Dias scoffed to the side spinning the cell phone in his right hand a few times. "Especially if the one person who I expect to show will…"

"Sir," Renji interrupted stepping forward and knelt down in front of Dias. "My opponent will appear without fail…"

"I see," Dias replied after slipping a card out of his pocket. "Now then…it's time to send a text message…"

"…That was so un-cool," Seika commented combing her hair back while Dias began to text his message...

"I can hear you," Dias stated not looking up from his phone.

"…Does Dias even know the number of the person he's sending the message to?" Morty asked rubbing his head slightly.

"Don't underestimate my research ability," Dias shouted finishing up the message and slapping his phone shut. "There! Now then…Seika…prepare yourself at the beach…"

"Oh…am I going first?" Seika asked with a sly look on her face.

"Night…is when we begin!" Dias shouted throwing his fist into the air along with the rest of his followers.

"Let's go!"

-/-//--//-//-//-/

With the night's sky beginning to cover over the duel academy, a familiar cold hearted duelist walked passed his dorm hut looking at a dark blue cell phone with a strap with 'Lunar Samurai' written on it. An hour ago, Ganryu had received a mysterious text message to meet him at his hidden place.

"Going somewhere…"

Ganryu's eyes widened, and he immediately snapped his head backwards just in time to hear…

"…little brother?"

"…Taikoubou…" Ganryu snarled narrowing his eyes at the mysterious teen that was leaning on the hut behind him.

Allowing his wild gray hair to float in front of his eyes, even though his hair was covered with a white bandana, the mysterious Taikoubou jumped from his leaning position making his dark blue short sleeved jacket float slightly over his yellow shirt with a blue and gold Ying-Yang symbol on the chest. With each step he took, his black pants flowed like a flag over his long blue shoes. "Oh little, naïve brother…do you still disdain me so much that you would use my full name? It's Tai…"

"What are you doing here?" Ganryu gritted through his teeth as Tai stopped a few feet in front of Ganryu.

"Hmm…well, the second chosen still has a while till he begins his first challenge," Tai stated shrugging his shoulders. "So since the third chosen was about to face their first challenge, I thought I might as well watch it…"

"So you actually have confidence in me…" Ganryu scoffed a little surprised with his brother's comment.

"…As a brother yes," Tai sighed shaking his head to reveal his sky blue eyes. "…But as a chosen one…sorry about that…"

Turning his back to his brother, Ganryu looked at the message he received on his phone sniffing slightly. "…Why…"

"I'm sorry…did you say something?" Tai asked raising a hand to his ear blinking a few times.

Instead of talking back, Ganryu just ran forward leaving Tai starring at his fleeing brother. That's when he looked down and then bent down to investigate something. With a grimace, Tai shook his head and stood up covering his face with his hand. "…How unbecoming of you Ganryu…"

"…To shed tears for a predestined cause…you know better than that…"

A few minutes later, in another Slifer Red dorm hut…

"…What a beautiful night…" Rena sighed looking out the window watching some of the fireflies fly about a few inches in front of her. "If it wasn't for the strange things happening here…"

"No use complaining about it," Rukia stated looking up from her textbook. "Until they catch the guys responsible for this strange stuff, we'll just have to bear it…"

Before Rukia could continue, a large amount of bangs slammed on the door to their hut followed by… "RENA! RUKIA! SOMEONE! ANSWER THE DOOR!"

Rena slowly opened the door to see Van, Klein and Koji standing in the doorway, panting crazily. Each of them had their duel disks on. Rukia stood up from her seat and with Rena asked at the same time. "What's wrong?!"

Being the first to catch his breath, Van stood up straight and looked right into Rena's eyes. "It's Ganryu…he never came back to the room…"

"What!?!" Rena gasped a little taken back. Rukia was a little shocked too, but was calmer about it…

"Let me guess…you guys are going to go out and find him?" Rukia questioned with a raised eyebrow. "Cause from the vibe I was getting…you guys hated him…"

"Yeah, but Koji wouldn't stop bugging me if I didn't do this," Klein growled glaring at Koji who was sulking. "Sides…there's a chance something bad will happen to him and I want front row seats to that!"

"…I don't need a reason to find him…" Van replied with a determined look on his face. "Now come…we need to find him!"

Rena and Rukia nodded to each other before following the three Slifer Red guys out into the night…

…None of them noticed that Tai was leaning on the side wall of the hut with his head lowered. '_…Ganryu…Even in your lowest hour, you still managed to help…_'

/---///--/-/-/-//

Standing on top of the Duel Academy main building, Dias looked over the island while looking at the watch he was wearing, the moonlight making his features standout even more. "Only a couple of hours to go…"

"And so it begins…"

Meanwhile, near the main building Rena was looking around for Ganryu with a flashlight in her hands. "Dang it…why do we always have to split up?"

"Ah, ze good old fashioned Scooby Doo tactic," A snobby voice chuckled sending shivers up Rena's spine. "So cliché, and yet, zis makes ze scene perfect for moi's fabulous entrance, no?"

Slowly turning around, Rena flashed her light towards the source of the voice to see Antonio standing behind her with an activated duel disk with a deck in it. A question mark appeared over Rena's head at the sight of the French Junior Champion. "Um…Do I know you?"

Antonio just fell to the ground in embarrassment before he jumped back onto his feet with a demented look on his face. "WHAT IS ZIS!?! DON'T YOU REMEMBER!?!?"

/---/-/-/Flashback--//-/-/-//

_A few minutes later, Rena was standing at her dueling arena with other students dueling on both sides of her from a distance. "…Aren't I the one who's usually late?"_

"_My apologies madam," A snooty voice filled with a rich French accent apologized. "Moi was in a small meeting…"_

_Rena turned her head from the side and saw that a person who would fit the Frenchman type. He was a skinny person wearing a pink dyed Slifer Red jacket over a tight black shirt and pants. On his left arm was a bubble gum pink version of the Academy duel disk. His slick black hair was short in the back, yet was large in the front. "Allow moi to introduce moi. I am ze lovely Antonio Rosencrantz!" At that, Antonio lifted up a small blue rose. "Moi is honored to have ze beauty of a lovely red flower as yourself; you must also be honored to face moi."_

"_Well…If a stomach cramp counts as honor…" Rena sighed lowering her head. _

"_Oh my," Antonio chuckled to himself before he laughed slightly to himself. "Mademoiselle you are one of ze more interesting moi has seen in ze beautiful academy so far…"_

"…_I'm sorry, but I can barely understand you," Rena sighed scratching the side of her head. _

_Hearing that, Antonio began to fall to the side before standing back up on his feet with his eyes narrowed. "H-how dare you!?! You are making moi angry! And when zat happens, wrinkles start to form! Moi has to be young to keep ze title moi has earned!"_

"_No!" Antonio shouted into the air._

_The dragon fired a powerful blast that immediately engulfed the legendary knight making him roar into pain. The warrior shattered into shards that flew past Antonio's head, scratching his face a little. "M-m-m-Moi's face! She is ruined!" (ALP: 1250)_

_That's when he noticed the angered Revolutionary Leader standing in front of him. "What ze? Get back you traitor!"_

"_You're the one calling him that after you betrayed his people," Rena replied crossing her arms. "Attack him directly!"_

_The Revolutionary Leaders slammed his fist directly into Antonio's face sending the French duelist flying with part of his hair flying off. Rena's eyes widened at the sight of the hairpiece falling to the ground. "He was wearing a wig!?!?"_

"_It's not a wig!" Antonio shouted crawling towards his wig, the top of his head was bald…which really explained the wig. "It's a hair enhancement device!" (ALP: 0)_

"_Whatever you say…" Rena whistled as the holograms disappeared._

_Antonio glared at the fading Revolutionary Leader. "Zat traitor…keep zat damned card! Moi hate zat card! You haven't seen ze last of moi!"_

_//-/-//-/- End of Flashback --//-//-//_

"Remember moi now!" Antonio shouted lifting up a small hand drawn poster of the flashback with many more pictures near his feet.

"Oh yeah!" Rena announced clapping her hands together. "You're the French bald guy!"

"Moi is not bald!" Antonio roared with tears appearing in his eyes. "Why can't anyone respecting ze balding! Ze 'ding'!"

'_Just when I thought this academy couldn't be even weirder_…' Rena thought watching Antonio over stress about his male pattern baldness. "So…what are you doing here?"

Taking a deep breath, Antonio recuperated his calm nature and smiled at Rena with a hint of wickedness. "Madam…you should know zat better zan anyone else here…after ze embarrassment madam handed to moi in zat match…"

A dark aura seemed to engulf Antonio making him look demonic; Rena couldn't help but step back. "You ruined moi's reputation! Ze next day after zat match, moi's well awaited sponsors dropped moi's contract!"

"It's not my fault that happened!" Rena retorted pointing her finger to Antonio. "That's a baseless conjecture!"

"Zen ze lovely madam wouldn't mind to a friendly rematch?" Antonio requested sliding a second duel disk to Rena.

Rena shook her head before she turned away. "I can't, I've got to look for someone…"

A large smirk appeared on Antonio's face as a dark mist began to surround the two duelists. '_…Foolish wench…you can't run away from moi's challenge…no one could…_'

Meanwhile, from a distance Black Tiger watched the whole thing from a pair of binoculars…

…And he was apparently riding what looked like a large ostrich with rein in its beak. "Hmm…I don't know who to root for…what do you think Terrance?"

The ostrich just turned its head to the right and squawked a little bit making Black Tiger turn his head towards Rena. "Yeah…I'm putting my money on her…"

"Squawk! Squa!"

"What!?! What would give you that stupid idea?" Black Tiger confronted with a blush under his mask.

"Squuuuuaaaaaaaaawwwwk…"

"Oh shut up! You're just a flightless bird!" Black Tiger shouted narrowing his eyes.

Back to the action…

Rena was walking away a few seconds looking left and right. "Where did this fog come from?"

"Why ma cherie, moi knew zat you would be back…"

Rena looked straight ahead to see Antonio standing right in front of her and the duel disk he slid to her at her feet. "What the…?"

"Are you ready to duel now?" Antonio asked curling some of his hair in his fingers.

"What's going on here?" Rena questioned pointing her finger towards Antonio.

"Why, whatever do you mean?" Antonio stated with an innocent look plastered all over his face. "All moi did was watch you walk away, zen ze next zing moi knows, is zat you're coming back to moi to duel…"

Still a little confused, Rena shook her head and looked down to the ground to see fog become darker and thicker. "Okay…I think you owe me an explanation…"

"Moi owe you nozing," Antonio replied lifting his duel disk up. "But, of course, if ma cherie beats moi (not going to happen) zen you will be allowed to leave…no if, ands, or buts…deal madam?"

A little shakily, Rena lifted the duel disk up and placed it onto her arm. Then snapping her dueling deck into the disk, Antonio smiled evilly. "Excellent…now zen…"

"Commence ze duel!"

"Duel!"

"Ladies first," Antonio stated lifting his five card hand towards Rena. (ALP: 8000)

"Thanks I guess," Rena replied drawing her sixth card. '_…Dang it…not the best hand…_' (RLP: 8000)

"…But, I summon Boomerang Elf!"

Running past Rena, a new elf appeared dressed in forest green clothing with a green cap covering his blonde hair. In his hands is an extremely large boomerang that he rested over his shoulder (1800/1500). Then a back row card appeared behind the smirking elf. "And I'll end my turn with a card face down…your turn…um, what was your name again?"

A blood vessel appeared on Antonio's forehead, making him nearly rip his next card off his deck. "IT'S ANTONIO! Now zen…moi will set a monster and set a card in ze back…zat is all…"

Slowly pulling her next card, Rena remembered Antonio making the same move in their duel with each other. "I'm not going to fall for that again!"

"Ah so ze madam remembers zis," Antonio snickered looking at his face down cards. '_…Zis is a tragedy…for ze madam; she has no idea as to what zis new deck is capable of…_'

"Well now, I'll set another card face down and end my turn," Rena continued placing the card into his duel disk.

"Tsk, tsk," Antonio sighed drawing his next card a little calmer. "…Moi zinks zat you are only delaying ze inevitable…"

Another card appeared next to his face down spell/trap card adding to the field. "…But, you will have to attack sooner or later…its human nature…"

With some realization, Rena drew her next card. '_He's right…by the look of his deck size, I may deck out sooner than him…the only way to win is to take him down!_'

"You want a fight?" Rena asked lifting her newly drawn card and slapping it onto her duel disk. "I summon Archer Elf (1300/450) in attack mode!"

From the sky above, landed the bow wielding elf glaring daggers at Antonio as he armed his bow. "And now…Boomerang Elf! Attack the face down card!"

With a mighty throw, the Elf threw his boomerang crashing into the face down monster, making it reveal itself to be a small cute knight dressed in crimson armor (0/0) before it shattered into pixels. Antonio couldn't help by smile… "Zanks! Now zen, moi will activate ze trap card…"

"…Forced Recruitment!"

Antonio's trap card flipped up to reveal many knights taking a peasant from his house with armor being strapped onto him. "And here's where moi's trap works, when a monster wiz 'Knight' in its name is destroyed, moi can special summon anozer knight from moi's deck!"

"What!?!" Rena questioned as Antonio fanned out his deck. "Is this a new deck?"

Antonio lifted his choice and then immediately shuffled his deck back into his duel disk and shook his head slightly. "Incorrect…zis deck is moi's original deck!"

From Antonio's trap, another knight appeared, this one dressed in pure silver armor wielding a sharp sword and big shield (1600/1000 + 400/400). "Meet ze infamous Blade Knight! And zanks to moi's beautiful trap, moi's knight gains one hundred attack and defense points added to his original stats times his level!"

"Uh…I'll end my turn," Rena sighed lowering her head slightly.

"Now zen," Antonio started as a card slipped out of his graveyard. With his newly drawn card and his card from the graveyard, Antonio had a decent sized hand. "Do you remember ze monster zat you destroyed? Zat was moi's Chibi Knight! And when ze card is in ze graveyard during moi's standby phase, moi can add ze card automatically back to moi's hand!"

"A warrior version of Sinister Serpent," Rena pieced together as Antonio raised his hand over his face down card.

"Correct! Now zen, moi will activate moi's face down trap card!" Antonio chuckled as his face down card lifted up to show many knights charging into a fire engulfed town. "It's known as ze Ruzless Battalion! So by discarding one 'Knight' from moi's hand, every spell and trap card on ze field is destroyed!"

Rena's eyes widened as a large fire engulfed both of her face down cards, destroying them instantly. "Moi will discard ze Chibi Knight for zat effect…and zen, moi will summon Rose Knight Soldier (1400/200)!"

In a large flurry of rose petals, a new knight appeared before Antonio, this one dressed in silver armor with many red rose emblems on his chest plate and shoulder pads. On his helmet is a large full bloom rose with a rose colored sword in his hand that he aimed towards Rena.

"Not good at all…" Rena gulped as Antonio lifted another card from his hand.

"Correct once again, however…you haven't seen anyzing yet," Antonio snickered lifting his next card towards Rena. "Allow moi to tell you a story…"

"Every person knows about ze knights of ze round table…so as a result, ze grand Pegasus based a small series of cards on zat legend…alzough a large number of ze cards haven't been fully released yet, moi has bee able to acquire some of zem!

"And, unlike ozer monsters, zese ones are special…so moi plays the monster spell card…Knight of ze Round – Sir Agravaine!"

"Monster spell?" Rena questioned as the ground began to rumble.

The earth behind Antonio's knights opened up to allow what appeared to be a large statue of an older man with a small goatee at his developed chin, dressed in dark metal armor with a forest green cape at his back. The knight's dark helmet covers his eyes, and at the side was a rather large mace. The statue then began to give off a powerful aura that surrounded both of Antonio's knights (2000/1400 + 400/400) (1400/200 + 400/400).

"A very rare form of a monster," Antonio explained looking up at his statue. "Now zen, like ze dreaded trap monster, ze monsters can be boz trap or spell cards! And as a continuous spell card, moi's knights gain four hundred attack and defense points…"

"But, enough of ze pleasantries…CHARGE!"

Rena lifted her arms up as both of the knights ran to her elves and then stabbed them both right through their hearts, destroying them both easily. "N-no!" (RLP: 6900)

"Oui-oui!" Antonio responded by fitting another card into his duel disk as his two knights walked back over to his side of the field. "Now zen, I'll set zis card down and zen end moi's turn…"

Rena slowly drew her next card and then a smile appeared on her face. "Okay, you like knights…then how about I use a card that a knight used!"

Antonio's eyes widened at Rena's comment, he knew what was going to happen. "…You wouldn't dare use zat combo…"

"I summon Obnoxious Celtic Guard!" Rena announced as the elf guard appeared before her raising his sword up in a defensive stance (1400/1200). "And now, I'll equip him with…Excalibur!"

In the Celtic Guard's hand, a new shining sword appeared strengthening the warrior to new heights (2800/1200). "Attack Blade Knight now!"

"How reckless! Moi activates ze monster trap," Antonio shouted as the ground shattered before him forming into a statue of a young man dressed in light silver armor with a long dark blue cape. At his side is spiked shield with a red cross on it, and from the back of the helmet, his long brown hair sprouted back, taking the slash from the Celtic Guard. "Knight of ze Round - Sir Aglovale! And when activated, your attack is negated and moi can draw one new card!"

The Obnoxious Celtic Guard jumped backwards before the statue disappeared into dust and Antonio added his new card into his hand. Rena shook her head slightly and looked at her thinning hand. "I'll set a card face down and end my turn…"

"Moi's turn!" Antonio laughed playfully drawing his next card. That's when the Chibi Knight card popped out of his graveyard. "And guess whose back! But back to ze action…moi will summon Gale Knight in attack mode!"

A powerful stream of wind slammed onto the field forming into a green armored knight wing two pairs of eagle wings coming from his back. In the knight's hands was a large green pike with many different feathers on it (1400/800 + 400/400).

Sending a card from his hand, Antonio smiled menacingly at his opponent. "Time for anozer effect, by discarding one 'Knight' monster from moi's hand, Gale Knight can destroy one spell or trap card on ze field!"

"No!" Rena shouted before her Obnoxious Celtic Guard's sword shattered in the wind (1400/1200).

"Moi is going to enjoy zis," Antonio snickered playfully pointing his finger towards Rena. "Gale Knight! Rid ze field of zat elf!"

It only took a second before the Gale Knight stabbed his pike right in the Obnoxious Celtic Guard's heart, making the warrior shout in pain before shattering into pixels. (RLP: 6500)

"Charge once more moi two knights!" Antonio roared before his Blade Knight and Rose Knight Soldier ran fast towards Rena. "Moi would brace yourself if moi were you!"

"What?" Rena asked before both knights stood in front of her.

Rena didn't know what happened, in a quick second her torso was burning with pain and she was flying backwards. "AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

When Rena fell to the ground, she clenched her eyes shut from the pain that was wracking her body. After a few seconds filled with pain, Rena opened her eyes to the side to see a small amount of blood on the ground next to shreds of what appeared to be white and red clothes. (RLP: 2700)

…Needless to say, but a bright blush crept on Rena's face while Antonio laughed loudly. "Oh ho ho! My, my quite ze quandary, moi never expected blue…"

Quickly getting to her knees, Rena turned around and covered her torso with her arms, trying to cover up some of the indecency. '_H-holograms aren't supposed to hurt that badly…and their not supposed to shred clothes either!_'

"Madam, you should hurry up," Antonio grinned to himself, he may have been a French gentleman, but that didn't go far with him. "For if cannot continue zis duel, zen moi will automatically win…"

"HOLD IT!"

Antonio and Rena turned to the side to see a darkened figure walking through the mist with what appeared to be a jacket in the figure's right hand. As the figure got closer and closer, Rena was able to make out who it was…

"TONY!?!"

The Chess duelist rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment was he turned his head slightly not to look at Rena and held up what appeared to be his custom jacket. "Howdy ma'am, looks like you could use a jacket…"

Antonio's brow wrinkled slightly as the third best duelist tossed Rena his custom uniform jacket, and the Slifer Red slowly began to put it on. '_Z-Z-Zis is impossible! No one should be able enter zis realm…unless…someone wiz anozer shadow charm was watching ze duel! Zat is it!_'

"Uh, Tony…" Rena stated zipping up the jacket up to her neck.

"Yeah ma'am?" Tony turned back while admiring the fact that Rena looked good in his jacket.

"…Thanks," Rena replied with a big blush on her face.

"No worries ma'am!" Tony laughed turning towards Antonio. "Now, beat this French guy!"

"Good luck wiz zat!" Antonio shouted throwing his arm to the side. "In case you didn't notice, moi has full life points while ze wench has almost a quarter of hers!"

"I'd watch what ya'll say boy," Tony replied crossing his arms over his chest. "She managed ta beat ya before…"

"Nozing more zan a fluke," Antonio chuckled with his eyes closed.

"I play Pot of Greed!" Rena announced as the green giggling pot appeared before her, allowing her to draw two more cards. "And now, I summon Elf Swordsman!"

In a flash of light, a new elf landed right in front of Rena rubbing the bridge of his nose over his goofy grin. His long blonde hair was held up with a forest green headband and has a light forest green vest and brown cargo pants. Although…he didn't have a sword anywhere on his person (1400/1600).

"Why's he called a swordsman…if he doesn't have a sword?" Tony asked bluntly with a raised eyebrow.

"Simple actually," Rena replied lifting another card from her hand. "You see, when he's summoned, I can special summon his sword from my hand! So say hello to the Sol Saber!"

At the Rena saying the name of the weapon, the Elf Swordsman lifted his hand up into the air and grinned even more as a golden saber appeared in the Elf Swordsman's hand with a sun emblem at the handle (500/500). "And as a union monster, Sol Saber gives my elf a bonus!"

The light seemed to empower the elf with a holy golden light (1400/1600 + 1000/1000), however, his goofy grin remained plastered all over his face. "Elf Swordsman! Attack Rose Knight Soldier!"

In a dashing speed of light, the Elf Swordsman sliced right through the rose themed knight and sent the pixels into Antonio, making the French Duelist grit his teeth even more. (ALP: 7400)

"Nice try madam!" Antonio roared lifting a card up from his hand. "But when ze Rose Knight Soldier is sent to ze graveyard as a result of battle, moi can special summon a Dark Attribute monster! And moi chooses ze second Rose Knight Soldier (1400/200 + 400/400)!"

In a flurry of roses, a second rose themed knight appeared on the field. "Ze army continues to grow!"

"Fine, I'll place a card face down and end my turn!" Rena finished up as a card appeared behind her swordsman.

"And moi will end zis miserable duel!" Antonio laughed pulling his next card from his deck. At the sight of his new card, an evil smirk appeared on his face. "Now zen…Moi get's back Chibi Knight back to moi's hand!"

"That thing's really becoming a pain…" Rena admitted with a large sigh.

"Zen allow moi to make zat pain become a reality!" Antonio offered slapping a card onto his duel disk. "Moi summons ze Eruption Knight (1900/800 + 400/400)!"

In a great explosion of fire, a new knight emerged onto the field wearing bright red armor with flames underneath, kind of like a knight version of Skull Rider. The warrior howled loudly into the night as Antonio lifted a card from his hand. "Now zen, if discards anozer knight card, moi can inflict zree hundred points of damage to you!"

"Oh boy…" Rena gulped as a small flame appeared around her.

"Burn baby, burn!" Antonio laughed loudly with his hand to his mouth. "Moi enjoys zat American line…"

After the flames died down, Rena just blew a little bit of smoke and shook her head slightly. "…Do you know how old that line is?" (RLP: 2400)

"Moi doesn't care," Antonio replied raising his hand to Blade Knight. "Besides, moi's Blade Knight will attack your swordsman and zen my knights will finish you off!"

"Don't hold ya breath French mate!" Tony shouted making Antonio raise an eyebrow at the chess duelist. "You're going ta get your wig blown off again!"

"It's a hair enhancement device!" Antonio shouted not noticing that one of Rena's face down cards began to flip up.

"I activate my trap card, Ceasefire!" Rena announced making Antonio blink a few times. "For each effect monster on the field, you take five hundred points of damage!"

"But zat means…" Antonio pieced together before a powerful aura appeared around him zapping away some of his strength. "D-D-Damn it all! You wench!" (ALP: 4900)

"…I can barely understand this guy…" Tony commented trying (not too hard) to stifle a laugh.

"Zat does it! As soon as zis duel is done," Antonio shouted pointing a finger towards Rena. "Charge my knights! Make ze wench suffer!"

Just as all four of the knights charged towards Rena, a powerful vortex appeared before all of them and pushed them back to Antonio's side of the field. "WHAT!?! What ze heck happened!?!"

"Negate Attack happened," Rena replied lifting up the trap card from her duel disk.

"Zat was just luck!" Antonio growled narrowing his eyes.

"Actually, you have Gale Knight on the field, you could've used his ability to get rid of the trap or even the equipped union monster," Tony pointed out with a smirk plastered on his face. "But too bad!"

"D-Damn it all!" Antonio growled through his teeth. "Moi ends ze turn…"

Rena couldn't help but smile when she drew her next card. "Watch this! I play Hall of the Ancients!"

A powerful blue aura appeared on the field as the Boomerang Elf appeared on the field in a crouching position with his large boomerang cover his body. "This allows me to special summon an elf monster from my graveyard, but he's not going to be staying long…I sacrifice him for Magical Swords Elf!"

The Boomerang Elf disappeared in a flash of light, and forming into the sword wielding elf with silver hair wearing common elf clothes and black sheathe (2450/1400). "And now…Magical Swords Elf! Attack his Blade Knight!"

Jumping into the air, the Magical Swords Elf spun his sword fast before sending a powerful slash of energy towards the knight. Antonio, however, didn't seem too displeased…

…Especially when a large powerful shield appeared before the knight taking the attack. "Nice try madam! But it'll take a lot more zan zat! Moi's spell card, Knight Shield, activate from moi's hand when you declare an attack against a Knight. All moi has to do is discard ze card and it's negated along wiz your battle phase!"

Rena shook her head as she lifted two cards from her hand and placed them into her duel disk. "I'll set these two cards face down, and shift my Elf Swordsman to defense mode!"

"And it's back to moi's turn," Antonio growled pulling his next card, and his Chibi Knight card appeared back into his hand. At the sight of his newly drawn card, Antonio began to snicker, and then began to laugh loudly. "Zis is it! Zis is ze end!"

"Not good," Rena gasped taking a step backwards.

"Got zat right!" Antonio replied slipping a card into his graveyard. "Zen, Gale Knight! Moi discarded ze Chibi Knight, so do your stuff and destroy ze card on ze left!"

Flying into the air, the Gale Knight threw his pike into the left card, shattering the trap card, Mirror Force. Antonio snickered as he lifted another card from his hand. "Oh…zat is too bad…now zen, moi will tribute Blade Knight…Gale Knight…and zen finally Molten Knight!"

All three of the knights began to glow a bright light and shattered into pixels until they formed into an extremely large form. "Moi believes zat you might remember zis guy…"

The light shattered to form into an extremely tall king covered in beautiful gold armor had multiple dragon emblems on it, with a flowing red cape attached at the shoulder armor. In the large knight's hands, was a finely crafted jewel encrusted sword that gleamed in the light as he lifted the weapon into the air (2950/2600 + 400/400). "Knight of ze Round – King Arzur!"

"Oh man do I remember this guy," Rena gulped as she looked up to see that the famous King looked to be getting taller by the second.

"But zis time, you get ze honor of seeing his effect in action!" Antonio shouted as his king became stronger by the second (3350/3000 + 700/0). "For each knight monster in ze graveyard, moi's king gets stronger by one hundred points!"

'Uh oh…" Tony muttered to himself.

"First of all, zat face down card is still a little troubling," Antonio stated as he turned a card on his duel disk and his Rose Knight Soldier crouched down. "So moi's knight shall take a knee in defense…and now, King Arzur! Attack her elves! Sword of ze round!"

The famous King lifted his sword over his head before he swung his sword diagonally towards the two elves. First splitting the Magical Swords Elf in two causing the elf roar in pain. (RLP: 800)

"And now for zat ozer elf!" Antonio commanded not noticing that his king had just stopped in his track. "What? What is zis?"

"My trap card, Elf Soul!" Rena answered as her face down card flipped up to show a blood drenched soldier being stopped by a transparent elf. "When you destroy an elf, this trap destroys your monster and inflicts half of its attack from your life points!"

"Zis cannot be!" Antonio shouted as his King began to rust over and then began to fall apart at his armor. The sword crashed into the ground sending a powerful shockwave through the ground making Antonio fall to the ground on his butt. (ALP: 2875)

"Way to go Rena!" Tony cheered pumping his fist into the air.

Rena smiled brightly and sent a thumbs up to Tony.

"…You…"

Turning slightly, Rena looked straight into the enraged eyes of Antonio who seemed to have blood vessels bulging at his forehead. "How dare you…not once…but twice! Twice you've made a mockery of moi's strongest monster!"

"Oh yeah? What're you going to do about it?" Rena asked a little tired from the duel already.

"Zis!" Antonio shot back reaching for his head. "YAH!"

The next thing that Rena knew what was happening, her entire face was entirely covered with something. After a second, Rena pulled whatever was on her face off and then immediately face faulted. "…you threw your wig at me?"

"Hair enhancement device!" Antonio growled unzipping his jacket breathing deeply. "Make your damn move!"

"Alright…" Rena replied drawing her next card immediately. "I switch my Elf Swordsman…and he'll attack your knight!"

With an even goofier grin on his face, the Swordsman sliced right through the Rose Knight Soldier. However…

"You foolish little wench!" Antonio laughed loudly as many rose petals began to flowed over the field. "Now zen, let us watch ze magic!"

All of the rose petals began to form together into a tall king dressed in silver armor with many red rose emblems on his chest plate and shoulder pads. Over his crown is a large full bloom rose with a rose colored cape from his back as the warrior stepped forward (2500/2400 + 400/400). "Since you destroyed a 'Rose Knight', moi can zen special summon ze Rose Knight King!"

"Oh boy…" Rena sighed looking at her hand. "I'll just set a card face down and end my turn…"

"Zen it's back to moi!" Antonio laughed loudly as he drew his next card along with his Chibi Knight card. "Now zen…Rose Knight King! Attack zat elf!"

Clasping his hands together, the Rose Knight King created a rose in his hands that immediately became a large beautiful sword that resembled a rose. With a quick slash the knight slammed his sword into the sword of the Elf Swordsman making dust fly up from the ground to block the scene. "Take zat!"

When the dust fell to the ground, Antonio's eyes widened at the sight of the Elf Swordsman still standing only without his sword (1400/1600). "I guess you didn't know that my sword takes the hit…and when it bites the dust, I can draw two more cards!" (RLP: 300)

"Very well…" Antonio growled looking at his small hand. "I have nozing…"

"Then it's back to me!" Rena announced pulling her next card. Her eyes widened slightly looking at the card. "Okay…I hope you're ready for this!"

"Bring it wench!" Antonio shouted narrowing his eyes.

"I summon, Saint Elf Swordsman!" Rena announced as a second bright light appeared on the field which quickly began to die down into a young elf with long blonde hair wearing a long white overcoat with silver trim over his black shirt underneath with a yellow cross on it. His black tight pants show off his toned legs, and on his back was a large cross like sword that the elf immediately drew (1500/1200).

"Heh, do you zink zat will help defend you, ma cherie?" Antonio asked with a wicked smile appearing on his face.

"I'm not defending," Rena replied making Antonio have a question mark appear over his head.

"What?" Antonio and Tony questioned at the same time.

"Next, I'll activate the spell card, L – Life Force!" Rena announced as a large 'L' appeared over Rena's head. "This allows me to special summon one level four or lower elf! And I choose…Boomerang Elf!"

For a third time, the boomerang wielding elf appeared on the field with a determined look on his face. "And now, Saint Elf Swordsman! Attack the Rose Knight King!"

"Are you demented?" Antonio asked as the Saint Elf Swordsman ran towards the Rose Knight King who lifted his sword up.

Both duelists smiled as their warriors clashed their swords together, and then, the unthinkable happened…

Everyone looked surprised as the Saint Elf Swordsman jumped up and slice the Rose Knight King's head of, making the knight burst into a large amount of rose petals. Antonio was almost speechless… "…W…W…W…W…W…H…H…H…H…" (ALP: 2825)

"How? It's my Saint Swordsman's ability," Rena explained as her Saint Elf Swordsman landed right in front of her and wagged his finger. "Whenever he attacks a dark attribute monster, he gains half of the target monster's attack points."

"…Oh…how you Americans say…" Antonio sighed as Boomerang Elf and Elf Swordsman appeared right in front of him…

…Just to punch him right in the stomach and whack him face first with a boomerang. As Antonio fell to the ground a large amount of the fog began to wrap around him. "…You haven't seen ze last of moi!"

Before the fog completely engulfed Antonio, Rena became completely exhausted and began to fall to the ground. "…Sleepy…"

"I got ya ma'am," Tony said catching Rena before she fell to the ground and sitting down to let her rest on him. Turning to the side to see what was left of Antonio…it looked to be his duel disk, the wig he had thrown at Rena, and his cards.

But there was one other thing…it looked to be a small pendant with a golden eye on it. At the sight of that coin, Tony's eyes nearly popped out of his head. Shaking it slightly, he noticed that Rena was dozing on and off in his arms. '_…you deserve to rest…man, ta be able to survive a shadow duel…ya really are the gal for me!_'

"Mwa ha ha ha!"

Snapping his head up, Tony immediately sweatdrop seeing a familiar mask wearing teenager riding on what appeared to be an ostrich at least a few yards away from him. "…What da?"

Black Tiger immediately activated his duel disk, revealing the dark scythe blade on it as he began to jump off his ostrich. "I am the assassin of the night!"

"I live in the dark and hide my face by day!" The mysterious person threw his duel disk arm to the right. "I am the embodiment of fear and evil!

"My name is…"

"Black Tiger, the old fashioned super hero," Tony replied carefully placing Rena on the ground, placing his hat underneath her head. "…Nice job for recreating the costume though…"

"…Okay then, I think you know what I'm here for then," Black Tiger stated pointing his hand towards Tony.

"Um…what'd give you da idea that I'd know what you're after?" Tony asked making Black Tiger fall to the ground.

"I am actually here to duel her," Black Tiger stated pointing towards the knocked out Rena on the ground.

"…" Tony couldn't even say a word, instead he let his actions do the talking fro him.

-/-//--//-/--//-/-

**Card Stats**

**Boomerang Elf / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 1800 / DEF: 1500 / Warrior/Effect:** Once during the battle phase, you may switch the attack target of this card.

**Description:** A young elf in forest green clothing with a green cap covering his blonde hair. In his hands is an extremely large boomerang

_Note, the following card was used by Tenma Gekkou _

**Saint Elf Swordsman / Light / LV. 4 / ATK: 1500 / DEF: 1200 / Warrior/Effect:** When this monster attacks a DARK attribute monster, increase the attack of this monster by half of the opposing monster's attack.

**Description:** A young elf with long blonde hair wearing a long white overcoat with silver trim with a black shirt underneath with a yellow cross on it. His black tight pants show off his toned legs, but on his back is a large cross like sword

**Elf Swordsman / Light / LV. 4 / ATK: 1400 / DEF: 1600 / Warrior/Effect:** When this card is normal, flip or special summoned, you may special summon one 'Sol Saber' from your hand or graveyard to your side of the field.

**Description:** A young cocky elf with a goofy grin on his face. His long blonde hair is held up with a forest green headband and has a light forest green fest and brown cargo pants. Although…he doesn't have a sword.

**Sol Saber / Light / LV. 3 / ATK: 500 / DEF: 500 / Warrior/Union:** Once per turn, if you control this monster on the field, you can equip it to a face-up monster with 'Elf' in it's name on your side of the field as an Equip Spell card, OR un-equip the Union equipment monster and special summon this card in face up defense mode. When equipped to a monster by this card's effect, that monster's ATK/DEF is increased by 1000 points. (if the monster that this card is equipped to is destroyed, this card is destroyed instead) If this card is destroyed, draw two cards.

**Description:** A large glowing yellow sword with a sun emblem on the hilt of the blade

**L – Life Force / Instant Spell / Effect:** Special summon one level four or lower monster from your graveyard with 'Elf', 'Half-Elf', or 'Celtic' in its name to your side of the field.

**Image:** A red 'L' with a red aura around it.

**Hall of the Ancients / Spell / Effect:** Special summon one monster from your graveyard with 'Elf' or 'Half-Elf' in it's name in face up defense mode. During the end phase of the turn this card was activated, return the special summoned card to your deck. The deck is then shuffled.

**Image: **An ancient structure with many statues of angelic elves

**Rose Knight King / Dark / LV. 8 / ATK: 2500 / DEF: 2400 / Warrior/Effect:** This card may be special summoned from your hand if a monster with 'Rose Knight' in it's name is destroyed by battle.

**Description:** A tall king dressed in silver armor with many red rose emblems on his chest plate and shoulder pads. Over his crown is a large full bloom rose with a rose colored cape from his back.

**Rose Knight Soldier / Dark / LV. 3 / ATK: 1400 / DEF: 200 / Warrior/Effect:** When this face up attack mode monster is destroyed as a result of battle, you may special summon one level four or lower Dark attribute warrior type monster from your hand.

**Description:** A knight dressed in silver armor with many red rose emblems on his chest plate and shoulder pads. On his helmet is a large full bloom rose with a rose colored sword in his hand.

**Knight of the Round – Sir Aglovale / Wind / LV. 6 / ATK: 500 / DEF: 500 / Warrior/Effect:** You may place this face down card into your spell or trap card zone (if so, then this card is considered a trap card). While this card is treated a trap card, you may flip this card up when your opponent declares an attack against a monster with 'Knight' in the card's name. Negate the attack and draw one card from your deck. After doing so, send this card to your graveyard.

**Description:** A young man dressed in light silver armor with a long dark blue cape. At his side is spiked shield with a red cross on it, from the back of his helmet, his long brown hair sprouts back.

**Knight of the Round – Sir Agravaine / Earth / LV. 7 / ATK: 500 / DEF: 500 / Warrior/Effect:** You may place this card face up in your spell or trap zone (if so, then this card is considered a continuous spell card). While this card is treated as a continuous spell card, increase the attack of all monsters on the field with 'Knight' in the cards' names by 400 points.

**Description:** An older man with a small goatee at his developed chin, dressed in dark metal armor with a forest green cape at his back. His dark helmet covers his eyes, and at his side is a rather large mace.

**Chibi Knight / Fire / LV. 2 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 0 / Warrior/Effect:** During your standby phase, if this card is in your graveyard, you may add this card to your hand.

**Description:** A small cute knight dressed in crimson armor

**Gale Knight / Wind / LV. 3 / ATK: 1400 / DEF: 800 / Warrior/Effect:** Once per turn, by discarding one card from your hand with 'Knight' in it's name to your graveyard, you may destroy one spell or trap card on the field.

**Description:** A green armored knight wing two pairs of eagle wings coming from his back. In the knight's hands was a large green pike with many different feathers on it

**Eruption Knight / Fire / LV. 4 / ATK: 1900 / DEF: 800 / Warrior/Effect:** By discarding one FIRE attribute monster from your hand, you may inflict 300 points of damage to your opponent's life points.

**Description: **A knight wearing bright red armor with flames underneath his armor for skin.

**Knight Shield / Spell / Effect:** By discarding this card from your hand, you may negate one attack against a face up monster with 'Knight' in its name and end the battle phase.

**Image:** A group of knights lifting up a large shield.

**Forced Recruitment / Trap / Effect:** When a monster with 'Knight' or 'Soldier' in it's name is destroyed by battle, you may special summon one monster card with 'Knight' from your deck. As long as that card is face up on the field, increase the attack and defense of the selected card by 400 points.

**Image:** Many knights taking a peasant from his house with armor being strapped onto him

**Ruthless Battalion / Trap / Effect:** By discarding one monster card from your hand with 'Knight', 'Soldier' or 'King', destroy all spell or trap cards on the field.

**Image:** Many knights charging into a fire engulfed town

**Elf Soul / Trap / Effect:** This card can only be activated when a monster on your side of field with 'Elf', 'Half-Elf', or 'Celtic' in its name is destroyed as a result of battle. Destroy one monster on the field, and inflict half of the attack or defense points of the destroyed monster from your opponent's life points.

**Image:** A blood drenched soldier being stopped by a transparent elf

/---/-///--/-/

**Van:** Damn it! Where's that cold hearted stiff!

**Rukia:** Man this is getting creepier by the second…

**Van:** Well, you could always, um, hold my arm if you want…

**Morty:** Aw…look at the love birds, makes for a perfect painting actually!

**Rukia:** What the!?!

**Van:** Oh great…another freak…

_**The Hero of the Streets against A Drastic Soul – **__**Chapter 18: A True Artist**_

**Morty:** Hold on there! I am an artist in dire need of a great inspiration!

**Van:** Ya still dress like a freak…

**Morty:** …Now that just hurts…


	18. Chapter 18: A True Artist

_**Well now…here we are again…**_

_**I've seen many different kinds of people I've met in my past. A lot of tough guys, poets, sarcastic jerks (Klein), pea brains, even a crazy eye or two…**_

_**But the weirdest would have to be those artistic types. Ya know, the ones with visions in whatever they do, such as writing, painting or even pantomime (Those mimes just creep me out…there I admitted it…)**_

_**I happen to be facing off a guy who calls himself an artist; he definitely looks the part, just what this academy needs, and a really creepy addition to the already odd bunch of characters…**_

_**Thing is…this guy is no slouch when it comes to his strategy…surely something I never expected…**_

…_**But I've got a few things up my sleeve!**_

_**/--/-////-/-/--/-///**_

_**Chapter 18**_

_**A True Artist**_

/-//--/-/-/-/-/-////-/

Only a few minutes passed when Rena's duel with Antonio just started…

…But of course, Van and Rukia had no idea that this was going on, they were currently looking for Ganryu on one of the beaches on the island…

…Currently unsuccessful…

"Man…Sometimes I wonder why I even bother…" Van sighed turning his flash light left and right to look over the beach.

"Then, why'd you even get everyone involved with this?" Rukia asked watching the ocean recede and return. "I mean…doesn't Ganryu treat you like dirt?"

"…Yeah…" Van replied while still looking around.

"Then why are you doing this?" Rukia continued making Van stop in his tracks.

Why indeed?

"…Hmm…Let's just say I've got abandonment issues," Van replied shaking his head from the memories that had just reappeared in his head.

"My, my, my, such a lovely night…"

That calm voice made Van and Rukia look ahead to see someone standing slightly in the water, apparently the person hadn't noticed them, he looked like he was more interested in what he was looking at.

Getting a little closer, Van and Rukia couldn't help but take note of the person standing in the water. His porcupine hair style was dyed (hopefully) a deep shade of purple on his sharp looking face. In the moonlight, the teen's pale skin was more noticeable. However, his long sleeved dark purple jacket had a long coattail to it and was wearing tight black pants. "…The night's sky is surely beautiful…"

Van shook his head in disgust, yet another weirdo had arrived on the already weird duel academy. '_Okay…who in the world is this guy?_'

"Excuse me!" Rukia shouted towards the weird guy.

"Hmm…Oh," The purple obsessed teen chuckled slightly turning his head towards the two Slifer Red students. "I'm sorry…I didn't see you there…"

"What in the world are you doing out here?" Van asked bluntly while the purple obsessed guy turned his head back to the moon.

"…Waiting…and watching…" The purple teen replied making question marks appear over Van and Rukia's heads. "Oh…I must apologize once more…I wasn't much help there…I'm watching the moon…"

"Why?" Rukia asked with a bored look on her face.

"… … You see…after midnight tonight…" The purple teen answered looking directly at the glaring moon in the night's sky. "…A legend is said to appear…the moon will turn a beautiful blood red…and this island was the best place to view it…"

"Oh come on…there's no way something like that could happen…" Van moaned before noting the serious look on the purple haired teens face, being completely serious. "…Right?"

"You're allowed to think what you want," The purple teen replied relaxing his look before walking from the sea and onto the sand. "But, I am also eligible for that as well…"

"Oh wait…where are my manners…I haven't even given you two my name yet…"

"It's alright, we're in a hurry anyway," Van said shaking his head. "We're trying to find someone…"

"Nonsense, there's always time for introduction," The purple teen laughed slightly reaching into his pocket. Then with great force, the mysterious teen lifted up what appeared to be a beautiful purple rose that he threw on the sand in front of the two Slifer Reds. "I am the artist Morty…"

"No last name?" Rukia asked.

"Think of me like the artist formally known as Morty," Morty laughed clapping his hands. "And you two said that you were looking for someone…correct?"

"Have you seen someone here?" Van questioned with a surprised look on his face.

"Actually, I think I might've…" Morty replied rubbing his chin with his right hand. "But, I can't really remember…"

Both Van and Rukia fell to the sand face first with embarrassed looks on their faces. "You've got to be kidding!"

"Nope…but, even if I can't help you…" Morty replied turning towards the sand behind him and then pointed towards some footsteps that were going across the beach. "Nature will be able to…all you have to do is follow the footsteps that were left behind me…"

"But a lot of people walk on the beach…" Rukia pointed out as Morty walked towards the footsteps and bent down towards them.

"True…but earlier this day there was a strong wind blowing the sand," Morty explained standing up and pointing to where the footsteps were heading. "And the wind didn't stop until nine thirty-two pm. So it's a good guess that these foot prints belong to the person you're looking for especially since these foot prints are large enough for a guy…"

"Thank you very much," Rukia thanked bowing slightly.

"Yeah, that was a great help man!" Van shouted before following the footprints with Rukia next to him.

Morty smiled as he watched the two walk away, and when they were a good away in the distance. "… … What a cute couple…too bad I have to take that teen's life…"

/--//-//-/-//-/-//-

Before Antonio's defeat, Dias had already begun drawing what appeared to be a large rune, the one that resembled the rune that was on his family's book. After finishing it, Dias stood tall and smirked broadly. "Finally…now then, all I need to do is to wait for the final duels to be done…"

"Very impressive Dias…very impressive indeed…"

Standing at the opposite side of the large rune, was the mysterious green and black haired man who slowly walked towards Dias…however there was a second person walking with him. The person was a young man who looked to be the same age as Dias only slightly dark blue hair that was combed back over his semi pale skin… however the rest of his body was covered with what appeared to be a black overcoat with many red clouds on the design.

"…Who's this guy?" Dias asked pointing towards the overcoat wearing teen.

"Dias Swartzvauld, meet Lucian Walker," The green haired man introduced to Dias. "I've got him working on the other project…"

"I see…" Dias muttered to himself starring directly at Lucian. "Nice style…"

"… … …" Lucian was the strong silent type and proved it quite nicely by not even looking at Dias, but rather at the rune that Dias had drawn. "…These runes they resemble a separation spell…"

"Separation spell?" Dias questioned with a confused look on his face.

"Lucian here happens to be a smart guy when it comes to dual personalities," The mysterious man explained crossing his arms over his chest. "And learning on how to separate them from each into physical manifestations, all due to the…"

"…Not now sir…" Lucian interrupted lifting his hand up to the mysterious man.

"Oh…right!" The mysterious man laughed rubbing the back of his head.

"So, why are you two here anyway?" Dias asked rubbing his chin.

"Well, ya see, Lucian here needed to watch this for his research and plan," The mysterious man answered sitting down on the roof. "And why not let him view this one, I mean, Kurro isn't a slouch when it comes to duels…but still, he's no master of the shadows. Doesn't even know about them."

"In a sense, I'm nothing more than an example?" Dias pieced together crossing his arms.

"…Yeah…" Lucian answered before leaning on one of the walls nearby.

/-/--//--/-///--/

"Dang it! We've been following these foot prints for at least a mile!" Van shouted falling to the sand on his knees.

"Hey, uh Van…" Rukia said placing her hand on Van's shoulder. "Um…where'd this fog come from?"

Van lifted his head up and indeed, a mysterious dark fog had already surrounded the two, and yet the moonlight was still able to light up the beach. '_What the hell? What in the world is this fog?_'

"Oh my, I didn't think that you guys would be back so soon…"

Van looked up to see Morty standing before the two Slifer Reds with a duel disk on his left arm and in his hand was a deck of cards. An innocent smile was pasted on his face and yet there was a sinister aura to him. "…I see you didn't find your friend…too bad…"

There was something about this guy…something that Van couldn't put his finger on, it was just an unsettling sickness in his stomach when this guy Morty talked to him just now. "What's with the duel disk?"

"Well, you need it to duel don't you?" Morty asked gesturing towards the duel disk on Van's arm. "So you care for a duel?"

"Huh? What will that accomplish?" Rukia questioned as Van stood up straight.

Morty smiled and snapped his fingers as a powerful wind began to sweep across the beach making Rukia and Van cover their eyes.

When Van opened his eyes he noticed that the wind hadn't moved the fog, but it moved something behind Morty. "Rukia!"

Somehow, Morty had used that sandstorm to knock out Rukia and place her behind him. "Now then…I hope you will duel me now that you have incentive…"

"Who in the world are you?" Van asked lifting his duel disk up. "…Wait, you were in Madison Square on St. Patrick's Day two years ago?"

Blinking a few times in confusion, Morty just snapped his deck into his duel disk. "I have no idea what you're talking about…and don't take this the wrong way, I'm only doing this for someone else and I don't mean to take your girl friend hostage…"

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" Van shouted crossing his arms in an 'X' shape over his chest. "There's nothing going on with me and Rukia!"

"…Ya know what they say though…if you deny," Morty chuckled lifting a hand to his mouth. "…Then you supply."

"I think you've got the wrong saying," Van commented with a surprised look on his face.

"Regardless, I still think that you two look cute together…" Morty continued reaching into his pocket once more. Only this time, he managed to pull out what appeared to be another rose, only it was pure gold and had a golden eye on it flower. Morty then threw the rose between both himself and Van. "Sad though…you'll never be able to experience true love…"

"What are you, a love freak?" Van questioned before the two duelists activated their duel disks.

"Whatever, let's begin…"

Immediately, the two duelists fanned out their five card hands, although Morty had done his drawing a little fancier than Van. "I feel sad for you Van…so you may begin…" (MLP: 8000)

"Okay, I'll…" Van stopped himself as he realized what Morty just said. "Hey! How do you know my name?" (VLP: 8000)

"…I have my ways…" Morty replied tapping his foot on the sand few times. "Plus I heard your girl friend talk about it a few times before you saw me…"

"For the last time! She's not my girlfriend!" Van shouted pulling his sixth card, looking at it, Van nodded to himself. "Alright…I'll summon a monster face down on the field and set a face down…your move!"

Morty swiftly drew his next card and then looked at his hand. "…Hmm…that face down card would have to be your Clayman (800/2000), correct?"

Even though Van had a very decent game face, he couldn't help himself from looking a little shocked. "Wha?"

"It's a standard opening move for a hero deck," Morty replied looking at his hand before lifting a card and placing it onto his duel disk, making a face down monster appear before him. "…And I think I know what you're planning so I'll just set a face down monster…and call it a turn."

"What is with you anyway?" Van asked bluntly slowly taking his next card. 'First you preach that you're an artist, and then you say that you think that Rukia and I are a couple…now what? Are you some kind of human duel monster strategy computer?"

"I am an artist, but you know that we tend to be…" Morty started before began to think to himself. He certainly didn't want to insult himself or anyone else who might be there. "…Well, how about eccentric? Yeah, that'll do nicely…"

"Who are you talking to?" Van questioned making Morty sweatdrop slightly.

"Whoops! Sorry, I tend to do that kind of stuff," Morty apologized rubbing the back of his head with his right hand. "But yes, I am quite eccentric and always try many different ways to do so."

"Yeah, I guess that makes some sense," Van stated before shaking his head and lifting another card from his hand. "Now then, I discard Elemental Hero – Captain Gold from my hand to activate his ability!"

"That's a new one…" Morty chuckled as Van placed the card into his graveyard, and then another card shot out of his deck. "…what exactly can he do?"

"Simple, after I discard him, I can take my Skyscraper from my deck and add it to my hand!" Van explained lifting his duel disk up and opening the field card slot. "And why wait to play it? I could use a change from this darn foggy beach…"

Morty just looked left and right as the sand flew up forming into many different tall buildings with the moon appearing over the city. However, the fog was still around the two duelists and knocked out Rukia. "Hn…I see…"

"…That's all you have to say?" Van asked a little bit embarrassed. Immediately shaking it off, Van took another card and slapped it onto his duel disk. "Well, you won't be saying much after this! I summon E-Hero Sparkman!"

Leaping from one of the tall buildings, the electrifying blue jumpsuit hero (1600/1400) leapt from the buildings right next to Van's face down card. "Next I'll flip up Clayman!"

"I knew it," Morty chuckled crossing his arms as the bulky armored hero stood up next to Sparkman.

"Know this! Sparkman! Attack his face down monster!" Van shouted throwing his hand towards Morty's face down card.

In a matter of seconds, the Electrical Hero shot a powerful jolt of electricity into Morty's face down card, zapping it until it flipped up into a large blue rat clutching onto a large skull (1400/1450) that couldn't take the electricity and shattered into many pixels.

All Morty did after that was clap his hands a few times. "Bravo! Bravo! That was my Giant Rat, and when destroyed in battle I can summon…"

"I know how the card works," Van interrupted as a second Giant Rat appeared this time standing up tall.

"Then I suppose you're going to attack once more?" Morty replied with a smile appearing on his face. "With no set cards, you're in the proper position to damage my life points…"

'…_He's trying to bait me…there are many dangerous monsters that fall under this artist's rat's ability…_' Van thought biting his thumbnail. '_So the question is attack, or not attack. He's probably expecting me to attack…unless he's expecting me not to attack, so that he can attack, or he's expecting me to attack so he cannot attack when I attack so he can't attack…oh just screw that! I'm attacking!_'

"Clayman (800/2000 + 1000/0)! Attack his overgrown rodent!" Van roared as his Clayman slid in front of the rat and slammed his fist directly into the rodent's jaw shattering it into pixels. (MLP: 7600)

A small chuckle escaped from Morty's lips before it turned into a full blown evil laugh. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA! Thanks Van! Now then I think it's time I brought out my deck's strategy!"

As Morty fanned his deck out, a cold sweat dripped down the back of Van's head. '_…Okay, he knew I would attack and now he's probably going to attack…_'

"Now then, it's time for you to meet one of my masterpieces!" Morty announced slapping his chosen card onto his duel disk. Immediately the ground that the Skyscraper field card had covered began to turn to sand and began to build itself up into a moaning figure. The sand immediately warped and hardened into what appeared to be a Japanese samurai wearing full body armor with a dulled look on his face. In the monster's hands was a long spear with a gleaming metal tip. The one thing that stuck out was with the exception of the spear head, the samurai was made entirely out of clay (1500/0).

"…What in the world is that?" Van questioned starring blankly at the clay samurai.

"This is the Clay Spear Soldier, one of many unique masterpieces," Morty chuckled as what appeared to be the dark fog began to get stronger with even second. "Of course, I'll have to wait to show you my full power…"

"I may not know what your monster can do…" Van replied looking at his small hand, and then shook his head slightly. "…But you can't do anything against my two heroes!"

"Heroes fall with time my friend," Morty stated drawing his next card. "As to many things, eventually, all the cities we know and come to depend upon will someday crumble to dust…" Morty's duel disk slipped upwards and the field card zone snapped open as he fitted a card into his duel disk. "And even then, whatever destroys that will eventually disappear…but for right now, I play this card!"

Van looked up at his many buildings, something was happening to them, but he couldn't tell what it was until all of the windows shattered into many shards of glass that fell over the duelists. When the glass fell over Van, he thought that he could actually feel the small shards fall on his body. '_But that's impossible!_'

That's when the buildings overflowed with sand that fell around Morty, Van and Rukia, sucking up the buildings once more into the depths of the earth. As soon as the last of the Skyscrapers was under the sand, Morty snapped his fingers and the sand began to build up like the Clay Spear Soldier, only forming this time into a large Edo styled castle with many statues that resembled the Clay Spear Soldier, each wielding a different Japanese styled weapon. "Allow me to show you my masterpiece, the Clay Masterpiece Castle!"

"Yeah, but it looks like your sand castle doesn't have a thing on me!" Van shouted throwing his arm to the side.

With another snap of his fingers, the clay behind Morty began to rise up and form what appeared to be a cage. Van's eyes widened to what was inside the cage. "RUKIA!"

"Aha! You do care about her!" Morty laughed loudly pointing his finger towards Van. "But enough about that confession…" Taking another card from his hand, Morty slapped his next card on his duel disk. "I summon Clay Sword Soldier!"

One of the statues that were on the Clay Masterpiece Castle came to life, and stood next to the Clay Spear Soldier, this one brandishing a sharp gleaming sword (1750/0). "And now…Clay Spear Soldier! Attack that would be Clayman!"

Coming to life, the Clay Spear Soldier charged towards Clayman, it's spear ready to pierce right through the hero's heart when all of a sudden a powerful vortex appeared before the soldier sending it skidding backwards.

"Nice try, but I was ready for your attack with my Negate Attack," Van chuckled sliding the trap card into his duel disk. "So I was safe all the time!"

"More than you know boy," Morty replied lifting two cards from his hand, and then slid them into his duel disk. The two cards emerged from the clay and appeared behind the two Clay Soldiers. "But take it from me…if you don't lower your shields, you won't be able to advance…many people realize this, but don't accept it due to having a bad experience or are just afraid…"

"…" Van was speechless when he heard those words. Then time seemed to slow down slightly as many thoughts reappeared in his mind…

/--//-/---//-//-//--///-/

_Two Years Earlier_

"…So, you've got everything Van?"

"Need you ask Klein?"

"G-G-Guys…we shouldn't do this…"

"Quiet Koji! We don't have much time before we get spotted!"

This conversation…it was all too familiar to Van, this conversation had led to Van's rehabilitation.

When he was only a toddler, Van's father had walked out on him and his mother, making his life miserable. In order to provide Van with the necessities of life, Van's mother had to take many jobs, nearly driving her to the brink of death.

Unfortunately for Van, when he reached his teen years he fell into the wrong crowd, his intentions were good, by tying himself the gang, he was able to gain access to funds to help him and his mother…

…It was that gang that he met Klein and Koji…and his first love…

It started out as a crush, for him, when he met her; she was being cornered by a rival gang. After a miraculous fight with a few bruises, Van managed to get the girl like you would normally see in a romance novel. In fact, it was this girl who had taught Van how to duel in the first place.

Since their encounter, Van managed to see the gang much less and was able to get into a better crowd while still being able to spend time with the girl who helped him change his life, she even gave him a beautiful necklace that she had for a long time. Van still has the necklace to this day and keeps it well hidden from everyone.

Yes, things for Van couldn't have been looking better…

…Until one night, when Klein and Koji appeared at Van's door, begging for Van's help in one last big scheme. Although Van's first answer was initially no, Klein was able to persuade Van into joining in this job…

…It was only going to be a simple heist to restore some funds for the gang…

…But it ended with tragedy; during the heist, Van didn't realize that the girl he owed so much to followed him to stop this. When she tried to stop him, a rival gang had appeared trying to stop Klein's plan…

…And well…she got caught in the crossfire…

/-/--//--/-/-//-/

'_After that…I didn't want to do that kind of stuff anymore…_' Van clenched his hand tightly holding his cards. '_Not after making someone with good intentions to suffer like that…I don't want anyone else to feel that because of me!'_

With a loud yawn, Morty slowly rubbed his chin. "Hey! Are you going to get your turn done?"

"Just watch," Van snickered lifting up one of his cards. "I activate my Pot of Greed spell card! Allowing me to draw two more cards!"

Picking up his two new cards, Van eyed the strange field card around him. '_I don't know what this card can do…but I think I can pull this off!_'

"I play Polymerization! Allowing me to fuse Sparkman and Clayman on the field…" Van announced as a powerful vortex appeared behind his two heroes. After a few seconds the two heroes were sucked into the vortex before shattering into the large Thunder Giant (2400/1500). "Now! I activate my Thunder Giant's ability! All I need to do is discard one card from my hand…"

Van held up a monster card in his hand before sliding into his graveyard, allowing the Thunder Giant to roar loudly with a powerful surge of electricity around the Hero. "And you can kiss your Clay Sword Soldier goodbye!"

The electricity surged from the Thunder Giant's palm and crashed right through the clay warrior, sending the remains of the clay flying over the Clay Castle. But something was wrong…

"I activate my combo!" Morty laughed throwing his hand over his left face down card which revealed it to be a trap card, showing a large clay soldier releasing what appeared to be many orbs of light from its body. "First I chain my Clay Soldier's demise with Soul's Backlash and whenever a clay monster is destroyed, you take three hundred points of damage!"

A ghostly hand grasped at Van's throat, choking him slightly, he could've sworn that he was actually being choked by something. (VLP: 7700)

"Next, thanks to my Sword Soldier's ability," Morty continued fanning out his deck and taking a single card. "I can take a spell or trap card with Clay in its name and add it to my hand, so I choose Recycled Clay. And now my Castle gains a counter!"

"What can that do?" Van asked not noticing that the Clay Spear Soldier grew slightly bigger (1500/0 + 100/100)

"For each counter on my field card, all Clay monsters gain a hundred attack and defense points," Morty answered crossing his arms and wagging his right finger. "So continue your move…"

"You're not the only one with a combo," Van stated lifting up his duel disk as a dark shadow appeared behind him. "Thanks to Necroshade in my graveyard, I can summon a Hero without tribute! So say hello to E-Hero Bladedge!"

From the shadow, a golden armored hero appeared with blades on his arms and back, landing onto the sand (2600/1800). Van stood proudly at his two monsters, while Morty on the other hand…

Clapping his hand a few times, Morty grinned so wide that it could rival the very moon that Morty was watching earlier in length. It was actually quite weird to see someone smile like that, unless he had a plan. "Ho ho ho! That was a good move that rivaled mine! So what are you going to do now?"

"Simple! Thunder Giant! Destroy that Clay Spear Soldier!" Van shouted throwing his arm towards the spear wielding clay samurai. With a quick nod, the large hero slid on the sand and lifted his hand over the clay warrior. Then within an instant a powerful surge of electricity erupted from the Hero's hand and zapped the soldier in pixels…

…But something was very wrong, especially since Morty's life points didn't fall, but Van's did. (VLP: 7400)

"WHAT!?!?" Van shouted before the sand in front of him began to form up into two smaller versions of the Clay Spear Soldier (250/250 + 200/200 x2) and then lifted their weapons up. "What the hell is going on!?"

"Simple, my clay monsters can't make damage to either of us," Morty explained as he shook his finger slightly. That's when his face down card flipped up showing many different Clay Soldiers charged towards a large Golden dragon. "Then my Spear Soldier gives you two Clay Tokens. And my field gains another counter, and finally my trap card, Calling an Army, so when a monster is destroyed in battle I can summon a level six or lower 'Clay' monster from my deck!"

The trap card shattered into many pixels and formed into a larger clay soldier with a spiked helmet with a red tint to his clay armor, and instead of a sword, the soldier wielded two Japanese styled fans (2300/2300 + 200/200) that flapped up and down a few times. On the monster's face was a mask that resembled a look of sadness. "And I choose Clay General of Flames…Do you still wish to attack?"

'_Destroying his monsters just makes them stronger…and who knows what this monster can do…Ah forget it, I'm attacking!_'

Throwing his hand up towards the new Clay monster, Van narrowed his eyes. "Bladedge! Attack his soldier!"

Skidding on the sand, the armored hero sliced his blades directly through the General's torso, shattering the monster. And yet again, instead of Morty's life points lowering, Van's did due to Morty's trap card. (VLP: 7100)

The two tokens on Van's side of the field immediately grew another size as their points increased (450/450 + 100/100). "Thanks for the counter…and yet there's more, I get a nasty surprise since you destroyed my General, two in fact!"

The sand flew upwards before turning into two smaller versions of the Clay General of Flame, both of them lifting their swords up in a powerful stance (1500/1500 + 300/300 x2). "Meet my two Clay Grunt Tokens, very useful…"

"Damn it…I'll end my turn," Van growled looking at his hand.

"I guess I get to continue then," Morty chuckled drawing his next card. "Ya know, even if you lose this, you might want to try to hook up with this girl." Gesturing towards the knocked out Rukia, Morty made the note at the blush that grew on Van's face. "But for right now, I'll activate my spell card, Graceful Charity! Allowing me to draw three cards…"

A bright light appeared over Morty's body as he swiftly pulled his three next cards and then lifted up two more cards from his hand, both of them monsters. And from what Van saw, they were named Clay General of Ice and Clay Tiger. "And now I must discard them to the graveyard, so my Clay Masterpiece Castle gains two more counters!"

Van's eyes widened as the two Clay Tokens (550/550 + 200/200 x2) and the two Clay Grunt Tokens (1800/1800 + 200/200 x2) began to grow much larger. Van glared deeply at Morty before raising a finger towards the clay artist. "Hold it! I thought your castle gains counters whenever a clay monster was destroyed…"

"That's half of it! The rest is when they're discarded," Morty explained lifting up his next card. "But they'll come right back to me, I activate Recycled Clay, allowing the two clay monsters to come right back into my hand!"

"Dang it…he knew this was coming," Van growled through his teeth watching as Morty swiftly took his next two cards.

"True…oh and I suppose I should tell you this," Morty commented lifting his hand up towards his two token monsters making them raise their fans up into the air. "Unlike my monster cards, my tokens can inflict damage, including the ones on your side of the field…"

"…Aw crap…" Van cursed under his breath as both of Morty's Clay Grunt Tokens charged towards the Clay Tokens.

In a quick second, the first Clay Grunt Token slashed his fan directly through the other token, shattering it into many piece shattering them back into Van. The pieces were sharp so they managed to cut his left face cheek slightly. '_What the hell?_' (VLP: 5950)

"And now, my field spell gains another counter!" Morty announced as the three clay monsters grew larger once more (2000/2000 + 100/100 x2) (750/750 + 100/100). "But now, Clay Grunt Token! Attack the other token!"

It didn't take much for the other Clay Token to be shattered into many shards flying back into Van, this time cutting his uniform jacket. "What the hell is going on!?!?" (VLP: 4700)

"…You'll soon see," Morty sighed while his two tokens grew larger once more (2100/2100 + 100/100 x2). Next Morty held up another spell card from his hand towards Van. "…But for right now, I'll play my spell card Token Thanksgiving. Which allows me to destroy all tokens on the field and then I gain eight hundred life points per token that is destroyed with this card's effect, and since my two tokens will be destroyed, my field spell gains two more counters on it!"

Van's eyes widened as the two large Clay Grunt Tokens dissolved into mud as a blue aura surrounded on Morty, healing the small scratches that were on his body. (MLP: 9200)

"And to wrap up my turn, I'll place a monster on the defensive," Morty groaned crossing his arms over his chest. "Ya know, you actually seem to be a real good person, so don't take this the wrong way when I win…"

"Where the hell did that come from?" Van asked pulling his next card, at the sight of his new card Van narrowed his eyes towards Morty. "You take Rukia hostage and force me into this creepy duel, and you say something like that!?! You can take that attitude and shove it!"

"Oh, that's hurtful," Morty moaned with a few tears streaming from his eyes. "I'm just doing this…well, I can't really say, but still…"

"Save it!" Van shouted lifting his card up into the air. "And don't think that you can win this so simply! And here's how!"

Slapping his newest card onto his duel disk a small shadow appeared on the ground before Van, making Morty look up to see a shadowed figure fall from the moon that he was admiring quite a while ago. When the figure landed on the ground in front of Van, Morty's eyes widened at the sight of a new monster standing up in front of Van.

The monster was dressed in what appeared to be a battle scared black gi with a white muscle shirt underneath on his semi-muscular body. Covering the young man's was a black mask with a crescent moon on the forehead with his long black hair streaming backwards. When the young man noticed that he was on the battlefield, the monster raised his hand up brandishing a sword made of pure purple energy (1600/1000). "Meet the E-Hero Crescent Saber!"

"WHAT!?! There's another E-Hero!?!" Morty shouted taking a few steps back. "I never even heard of this card!?!"

"It's a promo that someone gave to me many years ago!" Van shouted snapping his fingers towards Crescent Saber. Immediately the mysterious E-Hero lifted his energy blade high into the air above his head. "And now, by canceling his attack, I can return one monster on the field back to its owner's hand! And take a guess which one I'm choosing!"

In a flash of purple light, the face down monster on Morty's side of the field vanished and then appeared back in Morty's hand. "…this is going to hurt me…a lot…"

"You got that right! Bladedge! Thunder Giant!" Van shouted before his two monsters turned their heads towards him. "Attack directly!"

Both Heroes skidded towards Morty with their fists raised and then when they reached the opposing Morty, they both slammed their fists directly into Morty's stomach. The force made Morty keel over when the two heroes jumped backwards, grabbing his abominable area… "…C-cheap shot…" (MLP: 4200)

"I'll end my turn…" Van replied with a dark look appearing on his face. "I won't anyone I care about end up in pain!"

Standing up slightly with a bleak smile on his face, Morty rubbed the back of his head. "Ya know…by the way we're saying, if anyone was watching this duel, they'd probably think that you're the bad guy while I'm the good one trying to protect the girl from a dark foe…"

"Like that would happen…" Van scoffed to the side with a stern look on his face.

"But now then…I think it's time that I turn this duel back in my favor!" Morty announced snapping his next card from his deck. At the sight of the card, Morty smiled brightly towards Van. "And I think I'll do it right now! I activate, Clay Life Spark!"

A powerful light flashed on the field forming into a familiar Clay General of Flames (2300/2300 + 900/900) raising his fans into the air, and then Morty slipped a card into graveyard through from his hand, making the Clay General grow to an enormous size (3200/3200 + 100/100). "The spell card allows me to special summon one clay monster from my graveyard and the card I discarded was my Clay Tiger to get another counter on my Castle!"

"Oh boy…" Van gasped with his eyes widening at the large Clay General standing only a few feet from his monsters.

"Clay General of Flames! Attack his newest E-Hero!" Morty shouted before his large Clay General threw his two fans towards Crescent Saber, slicing the poor hero in two. (VLP: 3100)

"Wait a minute! I thought your Clay monsters couldn't inflict damage!" Van protested with a blood vessel appearing the back of his head.

"…It's true, with the exception of my Tokens and Generals," Morty explained sticking his tongue out with an embarrassed look on his face. "They can damage you…"

"Aw crap…" Van cursed again.

"Now then, I'll activate one of my quick play spell cards right now," Morty chuckled lifting up another card from his hand, immediately forming into a spell card with a picture of a rich man looking at many different clay statues. "Selling Masterpieces! And it allows me to automatically destroy all Clay monsters on my side of the field!"

With a white orb misting out of the large Clay General of Flames, the monster fell to the ground, sending clay over the entire field on both players. (VLP: 2800) (MLP: 4700)

"And now, I'm allowed gain five hundred life points and don't forget!" Morty laughed as two large mounds of clay flew up forming into the large Clay Grunt Tokens (1500/1500 + 1100/1100 x2). "Now then, Clay Grunt Token suicide with Bladedge!"

The fan wielding soldier jumped towards the armored hero lifting his blades up, then with a quick movement both monsters collided with each other exploding into a large dark cloud and rain of clay. (VLP: 2500)

That clay landed on the other Clay Grunt Token (2600/2600 + 100/100), making it grow even more. "Now then! Clay Grunt Token! Attack his Thunder Giant!"

With a quick throw the two fans flew directly into the Thunder Giant, slicing the monster into many different pieces, and sending the wind directly into Van, knocking him back. (VLP: 2200)

That's when a large signal with a black 'H' was on the light flashed on the dark mist, allowing the E-Hero Avian (1000/1000) appear on the field crossing his arms and his wings over his body. "Nice try! But I activated my Hero Signal allowing me call out E-Hero Avian in defense mode!"

"Very well, I'll end my turn…" Morty stated crossing his arms. "And let's see how you deal with this…"

"Just watch me!" Van shouted lifting his next card. With a broad smile, Van lifted up two cards. "I play Polymerization! Allow me to fuse Avian with the Avian in my hand!"

A large vortex appeared over the field sucking in the two similar E-Heroes, into the more armored version of the original hero flapping his wings a few times. "And form into E-Hero Feather Stormer (1800/1400) and when he's summoned, all spell and trap cards on the field are blown back to the owner's hands!"

A large tornado swept the field blowing the clay castle disappear into sand and into a large sand tornado, making the two duelists cover their eyes (1500/1500).

Lowering his arm, Morty's eyes widened at the sight of his castle completely gone and back in his hand along with his trap card. "NO!"

"Feather Stormer! Destroy that token!" Van roared before his hero flew quickly towards the Clay Grunt and sliced right through the stomach and crushed the soldier easily. (MLP: 4400)

"Oh joy…" Morty sighed with a slight chuckle to his voice. "Oh well…I guess this means I'll have to be able to try this again…"

'_Does he think I'm going to let him use that castle again?_' Van thought to himself crossing his arms over his chest. '_I'm not dumb enough to fall for the same tricks._'

"I play Magical Mallet!" Morty announced lifting two of his cards from his hand up. "Now I can shuffle as many cards as I want from my hand back into my deck and draw the same amount of cards…"

With a quick shuffle, Morty swiftly drew his next two cards and with a large depressed look plastered on his face he looked towards Van. "Oh man…"

"What's wrong? Bad draw?" Van asked raising an eyebrow.

"Actually…it's exactly what I need to win," Morty sighed lifting a card up from his hand and sliding it into his duel disk. "I play Trap Booster!"

Morty's spell card flashed in front of him, showing what appeared to be a bear trap on a rocket booster, creating a dark red aura around him. "Now once I pay five hundred life points, I can activate a trap card from my hand…so take a quick guess which card I'm playing!" (MLP: 3900)

Taking the other card from his hand, the Soul's Backlash trap card reappeared on the field. Van was confused at the card that Morty played. "What's that going to do for you?"

"Simple," Morty replied with a grim face taking his next card and slapping it onto his duel disk. "I'm going to bun your life points out slowly…and to do so, I'll summon Clay Scout Soldier!"

From the sand arose another clay samurai grasping at the ground to pull itself free, and standing tall, the Clay Soldier lifted proudly a large banner flag with the kanji for 'Clay' written on it (700/700).

"What the? What's that going to do?" Van asked a little worried.

"Oh, I'm surprised you didn't figure that out," Morty sighed slowly lifting his hand up towards his Clay Scout Soldier. "Live and learn I guess…well, learn at least…Clay Scout Soldier! Attack his Feather Stormer!"

Charging quickly towards the upgraded hero, the scout lifted his flag up ready to bonk the hero. Unfortunately, the Clay Soldier was too slow and the E-Hero slammed his fist into the monster's chest shattering the monster easily.

"And now! Soul's Backlash! Drain him!" Morty shouted as a dark aura surrounded Van.

Van grunted as the dark aura seemed to drain him of his energy, making him breathe heavily. "S…s…so what? Now you're wide open…" (VLP: 1900)

"But I'm not done, when Clay Scout Soldier is destroyed," Morty started to explain reaching into his deck and fanning it out slightly. After glancing at the cards, Morty easily selected another card from his deck and slapped it onto his duel disk, and another Clay Scout Soldier (700/700) appeared before him. "I can special summon a level three or lower Clay monster, and my Clay Scout Soldier counts! Attack once more!"

Van's eyes widened, as realization just struck him like a ton of bricks, Morty was going to use the clay monsters to keep suicide attacking his monster while the Soul's Backlash trap card would drain his life points steadily. And Morty would be safe thanks to his clay monster's inability to inflict damage to both sides.

Feather Stormer just sliced right through the Clay Scout Soldier, shattering the monster into many fragments. That's when the dark aura reappeared around Van, draining him of his energy once more. (VLP: 1600)

"Next, I'll summon my third Clay Scout Soldier!" Morty announced as his third banner lifting samurai appeared on the field. "Attack!"

With each attack on his life points, Van fell to the ground with his life point counter dropping slightly with each counter attack. He was trapped… '_But this is his last scout soldier…this is all he can do this turn…_' (VLP: 1300)

"And now thanks to my Clay Scout Soldier's ability I'll summon a new soldier!" Morty shouted with tears beginning to form in his eyes. From the ground another clay soldier appeared, with the dulled look on his face as the other monsters and the clay like body, but this one had a large chain in his hands (0/1350). "My Clay Chain Soldier has arrived and he'll attack Feather Stormer now!"

Spinning the long chain, the Clay Chain Soldier threw the chain towards Feather Stormer. However, the Feather Stormer managed to grasp the chain and pull the soldier towards him just to deliver a powerful fist to the soldier's face, shattering it into the fragile pieces of clay.

…And on cue the dark aura began to surround Van once more, this time making him close one of his eyes in pain. "D-Damn it…but now I've got you…" (VLP: 1000)

"…You'd be right," Morty sighed before the ground began to break up once again in front of him, and then the Clay Scout Soldier reappeared on the field raising the banner high in the air (700/700). "But…I'm not done yet…"

"Wha-what the…how'd he come back?" Van questioned before the Clay Scout Soldier began to charge towards his hero.

"Well…my chain soldier when destroyed allows me to special summon a clay monster from my grave," Morty explained watching as his soldier was easily crushed by Feather Stormer, allowing the dark aura to surround Van once more. "So I chose Clay Scout Soldier and I'm allowed to special summon another clay monster from my deck." (VLP: 700)

"But…but…" Van panted lowering his head to the ground, he still couldn't figure out why his body was wracked with pain. Through out the entire duel, there was something eating at him, but now, it seemed like it was trying to swallow him whole.

"I'm sorry," Morty sniffed lifting his next card and immediately slapped it onto his duel disk. "Hopefully, after this whole ordeal is done with, you'll be able to face me again some day…"

The ground shattered upwards, this time to release a jumping Clay Soldier, only this one looked to have larger and longer arms than the other Clay Soldiers. And this soldier didn't seem to wield a weapon and expressed it by raising its large fists (1400/0). "…But right now, Clay Tekagi Soldier must end this…attack his Feather Stormer!"

Charging violently, the large fisted Clay Soldier raised its fist towards the Feather Stormer who lifted his fist in response and both slammed their fists together. However the Feather Stormer's fist crashed right through the Soldier's fist and then body…

…Creating the dark aura around Van once more, this time making him growl in pain. (VLP: 400)

"I-I-I'm still here…" Van coughed trying to support himself. He didn't notice that the sand underneath him was starting to bulge slightly.

"No…you see when my Tekagi Soldier is destroyed, you automatically take five hundred points of damage," Morty replied shaking his head and lowering his head to allow his hair to cover his eyes. "…I'm sorry…"

Van looked down, just in time to receive a powerful clay fist right to his face, sending him flying backwards and his eyes blank. (VLP: 0)

As soon as Van's body landed on the sand, the dark clouds of fog disappeared into a mist allowing the beautiful beach scene to reappear. Wiping some tears from his eyes, Morty lifted Rukia up and headed towards Van. "…I'm sorry, but I didn't have a choice…I can at least make someone who cares for you be by your side…"

Lowering Rukia next to Van, Morty looked up into the sky, glaring at the moon that was getting closer towards the middle of the night's sky. "…Dias…is this really necessary?"

With a shake of his head, Morty began to slowly proceed towards the Duel Academy's building. And when he was at least ten yards from the beach, he turned his head around to see that Rukia was awake. "VAN!" Morty heard her shout, followed what sounded to be crying…

…But the tears…

…They belonged to Morty, one tear each step he took from the two Slifer Red duelists. "…I'm sorry…"

/-//--//--/-/-/-/-/

_Duelist Stats_

_Name: The Artist Formally known as Morty_

_Deck: Clay Masterpieces_

_As an artist, Morty tried his hand at several different kinds of styles trying to make a name for himself, and well…his art wasn't the best around. So he turned to music…again slammed to the ground…_

_But for poetry, well…he managed to get a little into it and managed to succeed with it. He still enjoys his clay models that he usually made with his own hands…_

_As for how he got involved with Dias is a mystery, but he really knows how to duel and that's what probably managed to attract his skills._

/--/-/-//-/-/-///-/

**Trap Booster / Instant Spell / Effect:** Pay 500 life points. You may activate one trap card from your hand.

**Image:** A bear trap with rocket boosters on it.

_This card was used by Zane/Ryo._

**Clay Spear Soldier / Earth / LV: 3 / ATK: 1500 / DEF: 0 / Rock/Effect: **Negate all battle damage involving this card. When this card is destroyed and sent to the graveyard special summon two Clay Tokens (Earth / LV: 1 / ATK: 250 / DEF: 250 / Rock) on your opponent's side of the field in defense mode.

**Description:** A Japanese samurai with a spear, only entirely made out of clay.

Clay Sword Soldier / Earth / LV: 3 / ATK: 1750 / DEF: 0 / Rock/Effect: Negate all battle damage involving this card. When this card is sent to the graveyard, you may take any spell or trap card from your deck that has 'Clay' in its name and add it to your hand. 

**Description:** A clay Japanese samurai wielding a sharp sword.

**Clay Tiger / Earth / LV: 3 / ATK: 500 / DEF: 500 / Rock/Effect:** Negate all battle damage involving this card. When this card is sent to the graveyard, each player may special summon one level six or higher monster from his or her hands.

**Description:** A clay tiger with a black paint stripes.

**Clay General of Flames / Earth / LV: 6 / ATK: 2300 / DEF: 2300 / Rock/Effect:** Negate all battle damage involving this card that is done to you. When this card is destroyed and sent to the graveyard, you may special summon two 'Clay Soldier Grunts (Earth / LV: 4 / ATK: 1500 / DEF: 1500 / Rock)' on your side of the field.

**Description:** A larger clay soldier with a spiked helmet, and instead of a sword, wields two Japanese styled fans.

Clay General of Ice / Earth / LV: 6 / ATK: 1900 / DEF: 1900 / Rock/Effect: Negate all battle damage involving this card that is done to you. Each time a token monster is destroyed while this card is in your graveyard, you may destroy one spell or trap card on the field. 

**Description:** A small clay soldier with multiple spikes emerging from his shoulders, shins and in his hands are two crystal daggers.

_The previous cards were used by Vergil in Duelist Open Destiny_

**Clay Scout Soldier / Earth / LV. 2/ ATK: 700 / DEF: 700 / Rock/Effect:** Negate all battle damage involving this card. When this card is sent to the graveyard you may special summon one level three or lower monster with 'Clay' in it's name from your deck or hand to the field.

**Description:** A clay samurai holding onto a flag with the symbol of earth on it.

**Clay Chain Soldier / Earth / LV. 3 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 1350 / Rock/Effect:** Negate all battle damage involving this card. When this card is sent to the graveyard, you may special summon one monster with 'Clay' in it's name from your graveyard in face up defense mode.

**Description:** A clay Japanese samurai wielding a long silver chain with a large scythe at the end

**Clay Tekagi Soldier / Earth / LV. 3 / ATK: 1400 / DEF: 0 / Rock/Effect:** Negate all battle damage involving this card. When this card is sent to the graveyard, inflict 500 points of damage to your opponent's life points.

**Description:** A clay Japanese samurai with longer arms and large fists.

**Clay Life Spark / Instant Spell / Effect:** Special summon one monster with 'Clay' in its name from your graveyard. Discard one card from your hand.

**Image:** A Clay Soldier with its hands up holding onto an orb of white light.

**Selling Masterpieces / Instant Spell / Effect:** Destroy all monsters on your side of the field with 'Clay' in their name. For each one destroyed, increase your life points by 500 points.

**Image:** A rich man looking at different clay statues.

**Recycled Clay / Spell / Effect:** Add two monsters from your graveyard with 'Clay' in your graveyard to your hand.

**Image:** A lot of clay in a small garbage can.

**Clay Masterpiece Castle / Field Spell / Effect:** As long as this card is face up on the field, whenever a monster with 'Clay' in it's name is destroyed or sent to the graveyard, place one counter on this card. For each counter on this card, increase the attack and defense of all monsters with 'Clay' in their name by 100 points.

**Image:** A large Edo styled castle with many different Clay Samurai Statues at the front.

**Soul's Backlash / Continuous Trap / Effect:** Each time a monster on your side of the field with 'Clay' in it's name is destroyed, you may inflict 300 points to your opponent's life points.

**Image:** A large amount of souls leaving the Clay General of Flames.

**Calling an Army / Trap / Effect:** When a monster on your side of the field is destroyed as a result of battle, you may special summon one level six or lower monster from your deck with 'Clay' to your side of the field.

**Image:** A large amount of Clay Soldiers running towards a large golden dragon

**E-Hero Crescent Saber / Dark / LV. 4 / ATK: 1600 / DEF: 1000 / Warrior/Effect:** Once per turn, by skipping this monster's attack, you can return one monster card on the field to it's owner's hand.

**Description:** A young man wearing black baggy torn clothing with a white shirt underneath. His white hair is tied up in a tail and his face is covered with a samurai mask with the exception of his mouth. In his hands is a large sword with a crescent moon in it. And over his face was a dark mask with crescent moon on the forehead.

//-//-/-///-/-/-/

**Renji:** A dark past…

**Leo:** A bleak future…

**Renji:** …Two warriors…one of darkness…

**Leo:** And one of light…

**Renji:** …At once, very different…

**Leo:** …And very similar…

_**Clash with the two warriors… Next time – **__**Chapter 19: Yin and Yang**_

**Leo and Renji:** …Will collide in a large battle!

**Kimatori:** I don't know who to root for…


	19. Chapter 19: Yin and Yang

_**Hmm, I have returned to speak on these openings, and I suppose I have a real purpose to why I'm speaking on this one today…**_

…_**I am a noble duelist, always trying my hardest to improve myself and make people understand that I am a pure down to earth kind of guy…**_

…_**And yet…people often think that I am too perfect as it seems. That I must have some dark secret, and that is true…but who doesn't have a skeleton or two hidden in their closet?**_

_**When I saw Renji's mercenaries, it opened up a dark memory that plagued my thoughts for years in the back of my mind. I suppose it was a self-defense mechanism for me to suppress it, I can now remember what that memory was clearly…truly something that I never want to experience again…**_

…_**However, I'm not a dumb person, nor am I an ignorant person at that…I know that I'll have to face my past head on like many others before me, that's a given.**_

_**The only thing I fear of…is the day after I face my past…I fear that I may not be able to be able to retain who I believe I am…**_

_**Oh well, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. Right now…I'm dealing with someone who doesn't realize the powers he's using are not to be trifled with by anyone's hands…**_

…_**I guess I'll have to be the one to show him of his mistake…**_

_**/-/--/-/-/-///-/-/**_

_**Chapter 19**_

_**Yin and Yang**_

_**-/-///-/-//-/-/--/-//**_

"…And then there's Antonio with his Knight deck," Dias explained to the mysterious man and Lucian, all of them trying to kill time before the midnight hour arrived on the scene. "Honestly though, he may be my most loyal lackey, but he's by the far one of the weirdest…"

"…Oh yeah…well I've got a guy on my team who's name is dead drunk," Lucian topped crossing his arms over his chest.

"Dang…oh yeah, well Antonio's bald and won't admit it!" Dias shouted back with a determined look on his face. Apparently he didn't want to be topped by the weirdly dressed Lucian. "What do you think Big Boss?"

The mysterious green and black haired man blinked a few times before pointing to himself. "Me? Well, I think I've got the two of you beaten when it comes to who has the weirdest people working under them…"

"Oh yeah?! Who?" Dias and Lucian challenged Big Boss at the same time making the green and dark haired man fall on his back in surprise.

Jumping to his feet, Big Boss shook his head a few times and grinned showing his shark like teeth. "Hmm…do you want me to not include you two? Cause if that's the case allow to say that I've got a metal man, a kunoichi, a baseball player, a guy who looks like a chick, someone who usually is half asleep, and finally a guy who thinks he's two guys…need I continue?"

Both Dias and Lucian jumped back slightly at the fact that they didn't want to hear what their boss had marked them. Big Boss snickered as he placed his finger points on each other. "Heh…good, now then…choky, I believe you told me that someone working under you uses a Mercenary deck, is that correct?"

Dias blinked a few times before it registered with him that Big Boss had just marked him with the name 'Choky'…not the most respectable name out there, but it could've been worse. "Yes sir…and why would that matter?"

"Simple…a lot of the cards he'll probably use…" Big Boss answered before snapping his fingers creating a large dark aura appeared around him. "…Happen to be in my deck. Where is he supposed to duel?"

"He said that he was actually preparing himself outside the Obelisk Blue dorm here," Dias answered just before Big Boss disappeared in the dark aura.

A few awkward moments passed by before Dias turned towards Lucian with an interested look on his face. "So…you specialize in dual personalities?"

"…Yeah…it's actually quite interesting…" Lucian explained starting to rub his chin. "I've actually discovered that in some people, they have hidden personalities in their minds…and I may have figured out a way to unleash those personalities into physical manifestations…"

"Then what's stopping you?" Dias asked raising an eyebrow at Lucian.

"…Simple…" Lucian answered raising a finger towards the moon. "…A proper testing subject…"

/--//-//--/-/-/-/

Staring at the top of the ceiling, Leo couldn't sleep…

So many thoughts began to plagued mind; some that he couldn't even comprehend…a good example would be…

'_Why am I sleeping on the couch?_'

It was true, ever since left in his care; Leo had allowed Kimatori to sleep in his king sized bed. Thank goodness that his room was extremely big enough to fit actually quite a few people in it and sill be well furnished.

Sitting up from his makeshift bed, Leo turned his head and smiled towards his bed where his guest was sleeping. He couldn't help but smile; as a matter of fact he was actually enjoying this experience. After all, he had a little sister that in a matter of months he would have to look after when he wasn't experiencing his life as a duelist…

Maybe once he got back, he'd teach her a thing or two about dueling, its ups and downs, the fundamentals, and maybe get her a deck of her own…

…And yet, there was the voice in the back of his head, nagging at him that he shouldn't do that…His parents had taken more interest in the newest arrival in the family, but it should be natural for someone to get that thought when a new member arrives in his life. But Leo was better than that, at least he hoped was that he was…

Combing his hand through his hair, Leo turned his body to sit on the couch regularly, showing that he was sleeping in dark blue attire…presumably his pajamas. Something was bugging him in the front of him mind…

Finding himself standing in his bathroom, Leo splashed his face a few times with some water at his sink. Then staring at his reflection in his mirror, Leo combed his other side of his hair with his left hand. '_…It's time…_'

A few minutes later, Leo was dressed in his regular Obelisk Blue attire with his duel disk on his left arm, his deck in his pocket, exiting his dorm room quietly not to wake up Kimatori. As he walked through darkened halls of the Obelisk Blue dorm building, Leo still had his concentrated smile plastered on his face…

…Quite the mask that he had on his face at the time…

He knew what he was heading towards, each step sending shivers climbing up his spine slightly. Yet Leo kept walking forward, not showing any change in his character defining smile, as if he were used to this feeling before and was growing accustomed to it.

It was only a matter of minutes before he reached the main hall of the Obelisk blue dorm, fully lavished with the finest lovely blue furniture and blue tiles all over the room. Portraits of the Tormentor himself were hung by the large windows, slightly covered with the royal blue curtains that looked as though they could cover the entire student body of the Obelisk Blue dorm if they were all taken down.

All in all, Leo knew for a fact that the school should have sent a lot more of the funds that went to the Obelisk Blue to Ra Yellow and Slifer Red. But he knew what would've happened if the school had decided to do that. Parents would complain, the Obelisk Blues would become relentless on the attacks with the Slifer Reds.

Standing before the two large doors, Leo lifted up his duel disk and immediately activated his duel disk. "…No time like the present to get this done with…"

Slamming both of the large doors open at the same time, Leo slowly exited the dorm to stand on the bridge that was connecting the building to the main island, quite an interesting feature. With each step he took on the bridge, Leo noted that a mysterious dark fog began to surround him as he got closer and closer to the middle of the bridge…

…Where he was met with a familiar face…

"Odd…I was just coming to get you…"

Leo flicked some of the hair out of his face before he looked directly into the scar covered face of Renji. "I told you before…this is just payment for looking after Kimatori…"

"I see…well then, for the past few days I'll have to give you a proper duel," Renji replied snapping his deck into his activated duel disk.

"Oh, before we begin, I must admit…that is a unique belt," Leo stated before taking a few steps backwards in order to duel.

Renji slowly touched his golden belt buckle, slowly feeling the texture of the golden eye in the middle of it. "Why thank you…I recently got it…"

"Excuse me…I hope you don't mind me interrupting…"

Both duelists turned their heads to the side to see Big Boss sitting on the edge of the bridge with his arms crossed over his chest and an interested look plastered on his face. "But I just wanted to say to you two that I hope you won't disappoint me…"

"Who in the world are you?" Renji asked with a confused look on his face.

Cackling a little bit, Big Boss jumped to his feet as he pulled a packet of gum from his pocket and immediately pulled a strip from the pack and placed it into his mouth to chew a few times. "The name's Big Boss…jus' wanted to observe a duel…"

"Not to be a downer, but how did you know about this duel?" Leo questioned still have his smile on but raising an eyebrow at Big Boss.

"I was jus' sittin' on this bridge and you two come up with duel disk and say duel," Big Boss answered through his gum chewing and then blowing a large bubble. "…Oh, and by the way, it's not hip to say downer anymore…"

"Saying something's hip isn't very hip either," Renji stated making Big Boss develop a large blood vessel to appear on the back of his head.

"…Don't tempt me to kick your ass," Big Boss growled before sitting down.

"Well then, now that we've got the pre-game entertainment out of the way," Reiji chuckled taking his attention from Big Boss and focusing towards Leo.

"No need to say it," Leo replied lifting his duel disk up. "But we'll say this!"

"DUEL!"

Snapping his sixth card into his hand, Renji slowly looked over his hand and nodded. "Alright…I'll start this duel off nice and easy…with this!" (RLP: 8000)

Opening up his field spell card zone, Renji slipped the card into his duel disk as a bright red light began to infuse the field beneath the two players. Leo's eyebrow began to rise at the sight of the familiar circle around them. "…Hmm…I can't say I'm surprised…" (LLP: 8000)

"Ah so you know about the Excelled Transmutation…" Renji smirked slipping two cards into his duel disk and slapping another card onto his duel disk, allowing the cards to appear before him. "Then you know that whenever any increase of life points is activate, it doubles the amount automatically…"

Silently drawing, Leo scanned his hand and nodded to himself before lifting up a card from his hand. "…I'll call forth, Airknight Saber to the field in attack mode."

From the sky above, an angelic being floated down from above before floating a loft in front of Leo. Big Boss and Renji both stared in amazement, seeing the white winged man in front of them. The man's long blonde hair streamed down his back past his blue robe's shoulders, and in his right hand, the man slowly lifted up a nobleman's sword (1700/1000) and smiled Leo's patented smile.

"Oh great…a monster version of this guy," Renji sighed slapping his forehead bluntly. "And what pray tell can this guy do?"

"Well…I could attack but those face down's worry me," Leo replied looking at his hand. "And I don't really have anything that can destroy spell or trap cards…"

"Then allow me to quell some of those fears," Renji chuckled pressing a button on his duel disk, instantly flipping up one of the face down cards that was set before him. The card flipped up to show what appeared to be three women dancing in the rain. "By activating Solemn Celebration!"

"Hmm…I'm not familiar with that card," Leo admitted rubbing his chin in interest.

"But I am," Big Boss chuckled pulling out another packet of gum from his pocket. "Now for each card this guy draws, he gains five hundred life points…a more updated version of Solemn Wishes."

"Ah, I see, and with his field card…" Leo pieced together as he looked at his hand.

"I'll be able to double what I get," Renji finished with a chuckle escaping from his mouth.

"Well, if I didn't know any better, I'd say that you want me to attack…" Leo continued snapping his fingers towards his angelic warrior. "Attack his face down card, Airknight Saber!"

Flying swiftly towards the face down monster, the Airknight Saber immediately sliced his sword directly through the face down monster, flipping the card up to show a dark cloaked man with many different chains restricting his movements (200/800) before shattering into many pixels. Renji smiled as many chains began to wrap around the two duelists' decks. "Thanks, that was my Chain Mercenary. And when he's destroyed, we both can draw two cards…"

"…And thanks to your trap you gain five hundred for each and your field card doubles it," Leo interrupted, not really impressed with Renji's move while he drew two more cards.

"Correct," Renji growled lifting his two cards as many different streams of lights from above and below began to float around his body. (RLP: 10000)

"But…my Airknight has a special ability too," Leo continued taking one of the cards from his hand and immediately discarding it to the graveyard. "If he destroys a monster as a result of battle, I can discard one light fairy monster from my hand…and he gain three hundred attack points and can attack once more in the battle phase…"

"So wait… that means…" Renji gasped just as the Airknight (1700/1000 + 300/0) appeared before him lifting his blade in front of the mercenary duelist.

With a quick slash the powerful warrior immediately sliced his blade on Renji's torso, sending him staggering back. Leo smiled brightly and innocently. "Yep…you're back to where you started." (RLP: 8000)

That's when a face down card appeared before Leo as his angelic warrior reappeared before him (1700/1000). "And, I'll end my turn with that."

"Not bad angel boy…" Big Boss applauded clapping his hands a few times while still chewing some gum. "But let's see how the mercenary man deals with this…"

Slowly drawing his next card, a large amount of light floated around Renji's body healing the large cut on his chest. Scanning his hand slightly, Renji immediately lifted another card. "Now then, I'll summon Bolt Mercenary!" (RLP: 9000)

In a great bolt of dark lightning, a powerful surge of electricity began to surge in front of Renji, forming into a cocky looking man wearing a large blue overcoat with black suit underneath. Electricity began to spark from the man's black braided hair and into his fists (1650/1000).

"Hmm…I see, but your monster happens to be fifty-one points short of besting my monster," Leo stated while rubbing his chin. "However, I know for a fact that monster has an effect…"

"Correct," Renji responded lifting his arm up to show that his life point counter was beginning to drop slightly, and to show that the Bolt Mercenary was creating a large amount of electricity in his hands. "By paying life points equal to half of one of your monsters, my mercenary can automatically blast your monster into pieces!" (RLP: 8150)

Leaping into the air, the Bolt Mercenary launched a powerful bolt of electricity zapping directly into the Airknight Saber's body, instantly killing the celestial warrior. "Oh yeah! What do you think about that?"

"…I think that you made a mistake," Leo pointed out wagging a finger at Renji's kneeling down Mercenary. "Because you used that monster's effect, he can't attack this turn…"

"True, but I can activate spell cards still," Renji chuckled lifting up his hand playfully and then lifting up another card. Slipping the card into his duel disk, a large spell card appeared behind his mercenary, showing a teary eyed Pyro Mercenary returning a large sack of gold to a Goblin of Greed. "Like my Refund spell card. Which allows me to return one Mercenary back to my hand, to increase my life points by his attack or defense points, and my monster happens to fall in the category!"

"And with his field spell," Big Boss chuckled sitting down on the concrete bridge. "He'll gain twice the life points."

The Bolt Mercenary disappeared into a large mist forming back into Renji's body, seemingly making his muscles grow slightly. (RLP: 11450)

"…Is that all?" Leo asked bluntly with a yawn following. '_I could get some sleep…but oh well…_'

"I'm good…" Renji replied crossing his arms.

"Draw…" Leo said slowly lifting his next card. Moving his eyes left and right a few times over his hand, Leo immediately lifted one card up and slapped it onto his duel disk. "I summon Cyber Petite Angel (300/200) in attack mode!"

With a loud squeak, a small cute pink circle appeared before Leo with a pair of cute plastic wings. A card immediately slipped out of Leo's deck and into his hand. "And due to its effect, I can take the ritual spell card from my deck to my hand. And why not play it right now?"

Taking another card from his hand and the Cyber Petite Angel into his graveyard slot, as a bright light formed in front of him. "My Machine Angel Ritual spell allowed me to send Cyber Petite Angel and my Airknight Shield (1000/1500) to my graveyard, to summon Cyber Angel Benten (1800/1500) to the field!"

The bright light shattered into the beautiful black haired angel opening up her battle fans towards Renji. "And now, attack him directly, Benten!"

Jumping towards the Mercenary user, Benten raised her fans up and immediately slapped Renji across his face…although…it looked like nothing happened. "…Ha, that didn't hurt at all!" (RLP: 9650)

"At least that's a start to taking you down," Leo chuckled combing his hair back a little bit.

"And I still have this; I activate my face down trap card!" Renji shouted slipping a card from his hand into his graveyard, allowing a large machine appear before him surging with electricity. "Damage Condenser allows me to discard one card from my hand, my Bolt Mercenary, I can special summon a monster whose attack is equal to or less than the damage I took…" Fanning out his deck, Renji knew exactly which card he wanted and slapped it onto his duel disk. "…and I've got the perfect monster! Mercenary Quick-Draw!"

A mysterious wind blew across the bridge, moving the fog slightly to allow a western styled cowboy to walk in front of Renji, shattering the machine into many pixels. The cowboy had his hat covering his eyes, but had his long brown hair exposed tied into a tail that went past his black overcoat duster. Throwing his duster up, the Quick-draw lifted up an old fashioned gun (500/1000) towards Leo…

…Who just smiled along with Big Boss…

"I must say it's nice to see a Western themed monster in the game once more," Leo stated not noticing that Big Boss was nodding along with him.

"That's the truth there man," Big Boss muttered lifting up another piece of gum into his mouth.

"Personally, I don't really like this card's theme," Renji stated crossing his arms over his chest. "Oh well, why don't you end your turn so I can show you what this guy can do…"

"Very well, I'll set this card and end," Leo replied with the card appearing before him and behind his angel.

Taking his next card, Renji grinned widely at the card before him and immediately held it in front of him, especially since his life points increased once more. "Now then, I activate the spell card, Call to Arms! Now, I can special summon all copies of a warrior monster on my side of the field with five hundred attack points or less, and my Quick-Draw happens to fall under that category…" (RLP: 10650)

In a mysterious wind, two more Mercenary Quick-Draws (500/1000 x2) appeared directly next to the original. With all three nodding to each other, the three quickly lifted up their guns towards Leo. "And my Quick-Draws have special abilities, they can attack you directly!"

Not even when all three of the mercenaries jumped up into the air and took aim towards him…

…Leo kept his smile on his face when the three bullets pierced right through his body's torso. The only thing that he was in pain was the fact that he groaned slightly. (LLP: 6500)

When the three quick-draws hid their guns under their overcoats, a bright light began to infuse with Renji's deck. "And when my three Quick-Draws inflict damage to your life points, I can draw a card. And since all three managed to hurt ya…I can draw three cards! You know what that means?"

"You gain more life points…" Leo answered gaining his composure back.

A powerful light engulfed Renji, making his muscles bulge even more from the healing power that was in the Solemn Celebration. (RLP: 13650)

"Correct! And to end my turn, I'll place a card back on the field," Renji chuckled placing the card into his duel disk. "And let you have a chance to screw up…"

"How kind," Leo replied looking at his newly drawn card, a smile appeared on his face before he lowered his towards the ground. "…But sometimes…"

Both Renji and Big Boss looked in anticipation at Leo…

Then all of a sudden, a mysterious dark aura flowed out of Leo's body, making Renji and Big Boss lean back slightly from mysterious power that seemed to come from the very core of Leo. "…That kindness can be a crutch!"

The air got thicker, making Big Boss's breathing more labored. '_T-this aura! I haven't felt this since I first met…him…'_

"Now then, I'll play my spell card, Angelic Choir!" Leo announced, and in a shower of many feathers, many celestial beings materialized floating behind him, singing a heavenly song that seemed to calm down the dark aura around Leo.

"W-what's going on?" Renji questioned as more and more angels began to appear around the two duelists, each of them singing beautifully adding more and more volume to the sound.

Three cards then popped out of Leo's duel disk graveyard, and immediately he pocketed them into his uniform overcoat's front pocket. "The angels of heaven, each of the angels set into many categories…some warriors against demons…others, messengers of peace, or guardians for our weak human minds…"

That's when three angelic beings appeared next to Benten, all of them male with short neatly trimmed blonde hair, wearing white shirts with red crosses on the front, while on the back showing their huge white feathered wings. Across their waists were bright red clothes over their white pants. Then, all three of the angels lifted their arms up, and bows appeared in their hands, all armed with glowing white arrows (1000/1000 x3). "Meet the first assault, the Airknight Archer Tokens! All I had to do was remove three fairies in my graveyard from play, and I was able to summon them…"

"Uh…you should know that it'll take a lot more than those angels to beat me!" Renji roared lifting his arm up. '_Sides…even with his tokens out…he's playing right into my hands…_'

"Now then! Airknight Archers! Attack all of the Quick-Draws!" Leo commanded his three angels to fly up into the sky pulling back on their arrows of light piercing directly through all of the Mercenaries' chests, making them roar in pain.

The light from the arrows flowed back into Renji, making him grunt in pain. (RLP: 12150)

"And now, Benten! Attack him directly once more!" Leo ordered when his dark haired angel jumped in front of Renji once more, slamming her fans into his face once more. (RLP: 10350)

"…I'm…not…down for…the count," Renji growled through his teeth as he glared daggers at the four monsters that plagued his sight.

"…Then let the countdown begin," Leo chuckled lifting two other cards from his hand and then slid them into his duel disk. And then, with a quick spin, Leo lifted another card, and all of the angels that were still around the duelists began to sing even louder. "Now I activate the spell card, Ascending Attack!"

As soon as Leo slid the card into his duel disk, the three Airknight Archers began to form into a beautiful white light that immediately flew into Renji's torso, knocking the wind out of him. "OOF!" (RLP: 8850)

"This spell card allows me to send any amount of fairy type monsters from my side of the field to the graveyard," Leo explained as many white feathers began to fall onto his duel disk, and then his gun shot wounds began to heal themselves. "And I can decrease your life points by halve of their attack points…and the other half heals me…" (LLP: 8000)

'_Such a strategy…_' Big Boss was stunned to see this noble duelist enact such a precise high level technique. Not to mention that the cards that this 'Leo' had were not the most common of cards to find in a pact. '_…Maybe I should look into this kid if he survives…_'

"Ha, beginner's luck," Renji chuckled drawing his next card, and immediately was showered with the light from his trap and field spell. "Won't last much longer…" (RLP: 9850)

"Luck has nothing to do with it," Leo replied crossing his arms.

"You say that now, but watch! I activate my trap card!" Renji shouted throwing his arm over his face down that immediately shattered and then began to form three different figures on Leo's field. "Ojama Trio!"

When the three forms were finished recreating themselves into the familiar Ojama Yellow, Ojama Green and Ojama Black (0/1000 x3) covered with bandages and bruises…

…as if they were already involved in a huge battle…

'_Brothers! What are we doing here?!?'_ Yellow shouted turning towards his two brothers.

'_How should I know? Last thing I remember we were being blasted by that Overlord!_' Black responded sitting down on his rump.

'_Uh, guys…who are these guys?'_ Green asked making all three of the Ojamas look around, and focused their sight on Leo.

'_AGH! It's the fancy boy!'_

'…_Fancy boy?_' Leo sweatdropped, as he probably could've guessed who was currently using these guys in a duel…

"Next, I'll activate my spell card, Stray Lambs!" Renji continued before two round sheep appeared before him (0/0 x2); both looked to be asleep though. "Now, I know what you're thinking…what's with all the tokens?"

"You don't need to explain it," Leo sighed shaking his head. "You plan on special summoning Selfless Mercenary, since I obviously have more than two tokens on my side of the field. And due to his effect, all of the tokens on the field would be destroyed and his attack would be eight hundred times the number of tokens that were destroyed because of that…"

"Heh, sounds like you used to use the mercenaries yourself…" Renji pieced together holding up the same card that Leo just explained to the group.

"…Just make your move," Leo, for the first time, growled at his opponent.

"Well then, why wait!" Renji shouted slapping his next card onto his duel disk. "I special summon Selfless Mercenary!"

With a bright light emerging onto the field, the handsome black haired mercenary leapt to the field, wearing his signature dark clothes. His long black hair went past his shoulders exposing his glowing green eyes. In his hands is a powerful, yet familiar sword that looked to be twice the man's size (0/0). "And just as you said earlier, every token is destroyed and added to his att…"

"Activate trap card!" Leo interrupted as a powerful fiery explosion of holy fire erupted before the Selfless mercenary, making him take a step back. "Angel Blast activates when you activate an effect that destroys monsters!"

A beautiful angel flew from the flame and crashed directly into the Selfless Mercenary's chest, wrapping her arms around the Mercenary. Just as the Selfless Mercenary look down into the angel's eyes, both he and the angel disappeared in a bright light. "And not only does it negate your monster's effect, it destroys it…although, it looked to me like he was more than willing to go…"

"Damn it, I'll place a card face down and end my turn," Renji growled as his next card appeared before him.

Just as Leo drew his next card, all three of the Ojama Tokens jumped from their spaces and began to float around Leo…making the angel duelist somewhat uncomfortable with their bikini briefs. '_This guy saved us without a second thought!'_

'_I don't see how the shorty could hate this fancy boy!'_

'_He's okay in my book!'_

"Heh, it appears I'm very popular with these guys," Leo chuckled looking at his card, making his eyes narrow in on the card. "…I guess it's time…I activate the spell card, Angelic Gift!"

Once more, all of the angels appeared around Leo as he pulled out his deck and fanned it out as he began to search it. Then, three bright feathers fell onto his deck and the three cards slipped into Leo's graveyard. "My spell card allows me to send three light attribute fairy monsters from my deck, and I can choose two effects…"

Leo immediately shuffled his deck back into his duel disk and then lifted three cards from the top of the deck. "I'll choose the latter and draw three new cards…and I'll play one of them! My second Machine Angel Ritual!"

That's when all three Ojamas disappeared into light, this time forming into the more muscular Cyber Angel Idaten (1600/2000). Immediately, another card popped out of Leo's graveyard and into his hand. "And due to her effect, I'll take back another spell card from my graveyard…but I'll save it for now.

"Idaten! Benten! Attack his two tokens!"

With a quick jump the two Cyber angels immediately shattered the two sheep tokens without trying. "And I'll end my turn!"

"Heh…we'll see how long you feel superior…" Renji scoffed pulling his next card from his duel disk, engulfing him in light, and making his muscles grow larger. "Now it's time to play a card that has been known to annoy opponents…" (RLP: 10850)

Many bright lights shot from the skies above, forming into swords that created a cage around Leo and his two cyber angels. "…Swords of Revealing Light…a decent card from the age of Mutou…"

"I agree fully," Renji stated taking another card from his hand and slapping it on his duel disk, making it appear before him. "That's all…"

Leo drew, and looked at his card. Then with a shake of his hand, Leo's two Cyber Angels knelt down in a defensive manner. Benten raising her fans up to her shoulders and Idaten crossing her arms over her chest. "I'll end…"

Snapping his next card, more light began to fall on Renji's body, making him even more muscular. "…Hmm…I'll play Pot of Greed! So I get to draw two more cards! And I think I don't need to remind you what happens after that…" (RLP: 11850)

As the large giggling green pot appeared in front of Renji, the mercenary duelist immediately drew his next two cards, making a powerful shower of light flow over his body. His muscles almost growing too big for his baggy clothes. (RLP: 13850)

"And, to end my turn, I'll set another monster on the defensive and placing a card in the back," Renji stated placing his next cards onto his duel disk. "Turn end!"

Once more, Leo simply drew his next card and shook his hand. "I'll choose to pass this turn."

"Bad move fancy boy," Renji snickered drawing another card, and making more light appear around his body. "Now my strategy is about to kick in!" (RLP: 14850)

"I summon Bomb Mercenary!"

Crashing on the ground in front of Renji, a bulky older man stood up wearing a suit of armor that resembled stone bricks. The thing that gave this mercenary his name…were the many bombs that were strapped around the monster's body (400/2000). "And now I enact his special ability! By destroying him, I can destroy all face up monsters on the field with equal or less defense power! And I think that counts your two monsters! All of mine are face down!"

The large bulky Mercenary jumped into the middle of the two surprised Angels, and then immediately exploded in a fiery explosion, immediately destroying all three of them.

"And now, I'll play Finish the Job! I think I don't need to explain what this card can do!" Renji shouted as his Bomb Mercenary appeared once more on the field, crossing his arm. (RLP: 13850)

"Next I'll flip up my other two monsters! Arise!"

The two face down monsters flipped up, immediately forming into a young woman with flowing white hair, wearing a bright sky blue jacket with a white blouse and black pants. On her arms are two blades that resemble eagle wings. At her legs is a pair of guns strapped with belts, which were immediately drawn and pointed towards Leo (1000/800).

The other flipped up into a blonde haired teenaged man wearing a red jacket and brown pants. Around his left arm is a bronze thread with a hook at the end that he spun around a few times (1000/400).

"Meet my Mercenary Tempest and Chain Grappler Mercenary!" Renji laughed before his Mercenary Tempest jumped high into the air with a powerful whirlwind following her. "And I'll activate Mercenary Tempest's special ability to return all of your spell and trap cards back to your hand!"

Watching as the lone card on Leo's field flipped back into his hand, making him wide open for an attack. "…So…how do you aim to beat me with those monsters?"

"They're only part three of my plan," Renji responded taking another card from his hand and lifting it up over his head, making all of his Mercenaries disappear in a dark light. "Here's my fourth part! I activate my spell card, Infinite Pay!"

The three mercenaries that became a dark light shot up into the sky…a few minutes later a large amount of money from different countries began to fall from the sky. Big Boss smiled brightly and began to dance in the money. "It's raining money! My childhood dream has come true!"

Leo and Renji sweatdropped at Big Boss dancing in the money. Shaking that sight off, Renji turned towards Leo and smiled as he slipped the rest of his hand into his graveyard slot. "Any who, my spell card requires me to tribute three Mercenaries and the rest of my hand…but in return, I can summon the badest of the bad!"

"It's the 'worst' of the bad," Leo pointed out making Renji mad.

"Don't care!" Renji shouted as an extremely large shadow appeared behind him.

From the sky crashed down, an extremely large man wearing dark silver armor over his chest, shoulders and arms, each with their own cannons and missiles placed on his armor geared up his weapons. His developed face has a stream of metal silver hair flowing backwards and his long, baggy silver hakama pants cover his muscular legs. The man looked to be the product of over use of steroids and growth hormones (0/0). The man roared loudly in the air as a dark aura surrounded him and Renji. "Say hello to my little friend! Surplus Mercenary! And for his attack and defense points, I can pay any amount of life points to add to his attack and defense points! So I'll pay all but one!" (RLP: 1)

Renji's body became a large amount of smoke that flew up into the Surplus Mercenary, making him roar in a powerful fashion (13849/13849), and then began to take aim with his cannons. That's when something happened to the mercenary; his hair became the same shade as Renji's and a duel disk appeared on his left arm. "Heh, heh, heh, I like this form…"

"You merged with your monster…interesting," Leo sighed as if he knew what that was like before. "You do realize what might happen if I manage to defeat that monster, correct?"

"I highly doubt that you'll be able to beat this," Renji replied with a much deeper voice than his own. "Now then, 'I' attack you directly! Blitzkrieg Overload!"

Crouching down, 'Renji' took aim with his many cannons at Leo and immediately fired an overkill of ammunition, lasers and missiles making an large amount of smoke cover Leo's side of the field.

"…Don't you think that was a little much?" Big Boss asked, his pockets stuffed with all of the money that had fallen from the sky earlier.

"You want some of this?" Renji asked pointing towards his torso armored monstrosity of a body. "I doubt that fancy, angel boy could survive any attack from me…"

"Wrong!"

That voice rang through the entire area, making Renji and Big Boss turn to see Leo standing before them, his clothes in tatters and his body bleeding at the arms, legs and chest slightly. (LLP: 1075)

"WHAT!?!? HOW DID YOU SURVIVE!?!!?!" Renji shouted pointing his large hand towards Leo.

"Remember earlier in the duel when I first played my Ritual spell?" Leo stated lifting up a monster card that depicted an angel lifting up a large golden shield. "I discarded my Airknight Shield, and by removing him from play, I can cut any damage I receive in half for one turn and one turn alone…"

"Damn it!" Renji roared slamming his large fist into the ground.

'_Not bad at all kid…_' Big Boss noted rubbing his chin.

"And since you're out of cards, it's my turn once more!" Leo announced looking at his next card. And immediately, he set it onto his duel disk, making a face down monster appear on the field. "I'll end my turn with a face down monster…"

"I'll chain with my other card!" Renji shouted his face down card flipped up. "The original Solemn Wishes does well for me!"

"Then please go on…" Leo wished while all of the swords of revealing light disappeared and Renji drew his next card, immediately having a large amount of light surround his body (RLP: 2001)

"And now, I'll use my ability to add fifteen hundred and one life points to my attack and defense!" Renji laughed as his body began to grow extremely larger (15350/15350). "Next, I'll play Shield Crush! So kiss that face down card and your life goodbye!" (RLP: 500)

A powerful bright light shattered the face down monster, however Leo didn't look worried. "Now then…this is the real end for you!"

Once more, a powerful onslaught from the one man arsenal fired towards Leo, aiming to kill him…however…

"I activate Winged Kuriboh (300/200)!"

Renji's eyes widened as a powerful white barrier appeared around Leo, blocking all of the weapons that were aimed to destroy him. "Damn it! You used the cheapest trick in the book!"

"…Then you should've seen it coming," Leo simply replied drawing his next card. "However, I doubt that you'll see this coming…I play Magical Shard Excavation! So at the cost of two cards from my hand, I can take back a spell card from my graveyard and put it in my hand."

"Heh…nothing you've got can do any damage…" Renji chuckled with a demented look on his face.

Big Boss shook his head as he crossed his arms. "Poor fool…he can't see that he's about to lose, he's drunk on power…"

"I activate the spell card, Angelic Choir!" Leo announced as the large amount of angels appeared around him once more. Taking five cards from his graveyard, Leo immediately pocketed them and five Airknight Archers (1000/1000 x5) appeared on the field lifting their bows and arrows towards Renji. "So since I removed five fairies, I get five tokens…"

"So what?" Renji asked, obviously not remembering what happened last time those Archers appeared on the field.

"So this…I play my spell card, Ascending Attack!" Leo shouted as all five of the angels became beams of light, making Renji's eyes widen in shock. "Now then! Attack!"

All five of the beams of light flew around the field before they pierced right through Renji's new body, making him roar loudly in pain. In a matter of minutes, Renji's new body shattered leaving a battered and bruised version of his own to fall to the ground. Immediately, the 'holograms' disappeared and Leo walked towards his opponent, to stand above Renji. "…I win…"

"Heh…hehe…Bravo Leo…" Renji coughed with a smile on his face as the weird fog began to wrap around his body. "…I know…I can't ask for anything…but can you do me a favor?"

"…Kimatori?" Leo guessed crossing his arms.

"Yeah…watch her for a while for me if you could…" Renji chuckled before the fog had completely engulfed his chest. "…after this…I need to find myself…"

"I will be honored," Leo answered just as the fog completely engulfed Renji and then dissipated to the wind. "…It's the least I can do…"

That's when a large amount of clapping caught Leo's attention to the side to see Big Boss standing nearby with a smile on his face. "Impressive young man…very impressive…"

"…Big Boss was it? I'll play your game for now," Leo stated making Big Boss's eyes widen immediately. "…But know this…I know who you really are, and know what you're up to…"

"R-really?" Big Boss stuttered a little confused and scared that this kid might actually be his downfall.

"…Nope!" Leo replied making Big Boss fall backwards in embarrassment.

As soon as Big Boss jumped back onto his feet, he glared daggers at the now empty bridge. "You little basta…hey…where'd he go?"

"Hello once more," Leo greeted from behind Big Boss, scaring the green haired man.

"Jebus!" Big Boss shouted jumping forward grabbing his heart as if he was about to have a heart attack.

"Enough fun stuff," Leo chuckled stiffening his look. "I may not know what you're planning…but I do know who you are. In case you don't remember me…we met seven years ago at my family's estate."

With that, Big Boss was shocked that this character actually knew who he was, and now he remembered where he met this brat before. "Y-you're Leonardo Childsman aren't you…if so, then my offer still stands…"

"I'm still thinking on it," Leo replied turning his head towards the moon. "However, I think right now you and I are enemies…"

"I see…I guess we'll meet in the future," Big Boss replied before disappearing in a dark aura.

"Till we meet again…" Leo sighed turning towards the sea.

/--/-//-/-/-//-/-/-//

Card Stats

**Angel Blast / Trap / Effect:** You can activate this card when your opponent activates an effect that destroys monsters. Negate that effect and destroy that card.

**Image:** The shadow of an angel with glowing white wings in front of a holy flame.

_This card was first used by Asuka_

**Selfless Mercenary / Dark / LV. 7 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 0 / Warrior/Effect:** If there are at least two token monsters on your opponent's side of the field you may summon this card without tribute. When this card is summoned to the field, destroy all tokens on the field. For each token destroyed this way, increase the attack and defense of this monster by 800 points.

**Description:** A handsome black haired man wearing dark clothes. His long black hair goes past his shoulders and he seems to have glowing green eyes. In his hands is a powerful, yet familiar sword.

_This card first appeared in A Tortured Duelist_

**Airknight Saber / Light / LV. 4 / ATK: 1700 / DEF: 1000 / Fairy/Effect:** When this card successfully destroys a monster as a result of battle, you may discard one LIGHT attribute Fairy type monster from your hand. During this battle phase, increase the attack of his card by 300 points and this card may attack once more.

**Description:** A handsome angel with long blonde hair wearing a blue robe with a nobleman's sword in his right hand.

**Airknight Shield / Light / LV. 4 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 1500 / Fairy/Effect:** By removing this card from play from your graveyard, for one turn, all damage you take during the turn this card was removed from play is halved.

**Description:** A handsome blonde angel wearing a green robe holding onto a large shield.

**Angelic Choir / Spell / Effect:** When this card is played, you may remove any number of LIGHT Fairy type monsters from your graveyard. For each card removed by this card's effect, special summon one 'Airknight Archer Token' (Light/LV. 3 / ATK: 1000/DEF: 1000/Fairy) on your side of the field.

**Image:** Many angels singing together in a beautiful area.

**Ascending Attack / Spell / Effect:** When this card is activated, you may tribute as many LIGHT Fairy type monsters on your side of the field with 'Airknight' in their name. Then inflict half of the tributed monsters original attack points from your opponent's life points and increase your life points by the same amount.

**Image:** Many Airknight Archers taking aim at a dark foe.

**Angelic Gift / Spell / Effect:** Send three LIGHT Fairy type monsters from your deck to the graveyard. Then select one of the following effects;

Destroy three spell or trap cards on the field.

Shuffle your deck and draw three cards.

**Image:** A beautiful female angel staring in the eyes of a bruised up young man.

**Chain Grappler Mercenary / Wind / LV. 3 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 400 / Warrior/Effect:** When this card is destroyed as a result of battle, you may special summon one level four or lower monster from your graveyard with 'Mercenary' in it's name (you cannot special summon Chain Grappler Mercenary with this card's effect).

**Description:** A young blonde haired teenaged man wearing a red jacket and brown pants. Around his left arm is a bronze thread with a hook at the end.

**Mercenary Quick-Draw / Wind / LV. 3 / ATK: 500 / DEF: 1000 / Warrior/Effect:** This card may attack your opponent directly. When this card inflicts damage to your opponent's life points, you may draw one card.

**Description:** A brown haired cowboy wearing a black poncho with multiple cards on it. His guns have built in revolvers.

**Bolt Mercenary / Light / LV. 4 / ATK: 1650 / DEF: 1000 / Thunder/Effect:** Once per turn, while this card is face up, you may destroy a face-up monster on the field by paying Life Points equal to the half of the original ATK of the selected monster you chose. However, by activating this effect, this monster cannot attack this turn.

**Description:** A young cocky man wearing a blue overcoat with black clothes underneath, his braided black hair was thrown back to show his sharp face. All around his body sparks of electricity surge around him.

**Bomb Mercenary / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 400 / DEF: 2000 / Warrior/Effect:** You may destroy this face up attack mode monster to destroy all face-up monsters on the field with the defense strength lower or equal to this monster's defense strength.

**Description:** A bulky older man wearing a full suit of armor that resembled gray bricks with many bombs attached to his body.

**Surplus Mercenary / Dark / LV. 9 / ATK/ DEF/ Warrior/Effect:** This card cannot be normal summoned or set. This card cannot be special summoned, except by the effect of 'Infinite Pay'. As long as this card is on the field, you may pay any amount of life points. This monster's attack and defense points are equal to the amount of life points you paid. When this card would be destroyed by a spell or trap card, you may discard one card from your hand to keep this card on the field.

**Description:** An extremely large man wearing dark silver armor over his chest, shoulders and arms, each with their own cannons and missiles placed on his armor. His developed face has a stream of metal silver hair flowing backwards and his long, baggy silver hakama pants cover his muscular legs.

**Chain Mercenary / Dark / LV. 2 / ATK: 200 / DEF: 800 / Warrior/Effect: **When this card is sent to the graveyard, all players may draw two cards from their decks.

**Description:** A dark cloaked man, with his body completely covered with chains, suppressing his movements.

**Mercenary Tempest / Wind / LV. 3 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 800 / Warrior/Effect:** Once while this card is face up on the field, you may destroy all of your opponent's Spell and Trap cards on the Field.

**Description:** A young woman with flowing white hair, wearing a bright sky blue jacket with a white blouse and black pants. On her arms are two blades that resemble eagle wings. At her legs is a pair of guns.

**Refund / Instant Spell / Effect:** Select one face up monster on the field with 'Mercenary' in its name and return it to your hand. Increase your life points by the same amount of the monster's attack or defense points.

**Image:** A teary eyed Pyro Mercenary returning a large sack of coins to a Goblin of Greed.

**Call to Arms / Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated by selecting one face up warrior type monster with 500 or less attack points. Special summon two more copies of the selected card from your deck on your side of the field.

**Image:** Three Hero Kids jumping into action.

**Excelled Transmutation / Field Spell / Effect:** Each time your life points increase, double the amount you gain.

**Image:** A large transmutation circle with a large amount of lead being turned to gold.

**Infinite Pay / Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you have three monsters on your side of the field with 'Mercenary' in their name. Tribute all three to the graveyard and discard your entire hand to special summon one 'Surplus Mercenary' from your hand, deck, or graveyard. During the turn this card was activated, you cannot attack.

**Image:** A large amount of coins and dollars falling from the sky onto a town with a dark shadow behind it.

**Solemn Celebration / Continuous Trap / Effect:** For every card you draw, you may increase your life points by 500 points.

**Image:** Three women dancing in the rain.

**/-/--/-//-/-/-/**

**Klein:** Bwa ha ha ha ha! With all of our allies fallen, I, the Lone Wolf of the Atlantic Duel academy will rise up, and become the hero of the story!

**Koji: **…But brother…only Van lost…

**Klein:** Quiet Koji! They don't know that!

**Koji:** …They just read it…

**Xander:** Kinda gotta agree with four-eyes here.

_**Will Klein's big mouth be able to engulf his opponent? Find out in – **__**Chapter 20: A Sinful Requiem **_

**Klein:** Who has a big mouth!?!?

**Xander:** Well, if the shoe fits…or in this case if the fist fits in the mouth…

**Koji:** That's not even a saying…


	20. Chapter 20: A Sinful Requiem

_**I'm not a man of many words, I'm not a man of vengeance, and I'm a man who's only trying to get ahead in life by any means necessary…**_

…_**And yet, why are there people who want to kick my ass? **_

_**This guy is already broken our deal about leaving me and Koji alone, hell, I don't even know why I even bothered getting out of the dorm to find that cold-hearted stiff.**_

_**It's good news if he's caught after the curfew, cause then he'll be getting out of the academy and I'll be able to get out of his damn debt!**_

_**Hell, I'd even be able to get back to my plans…**_

_**What? What are my plans? Well…that's for me to know and for you to find out eventually. **_

_**But…for right now, I've got to be able to get by this bounty hunter and his deck of sins…which is a lot harder than it sounds…**_

_**/--//--/-//-/-/**_

_**Chapter 20**_

_**A Sinful Requiem**_

/-/-//-/-/-///--//-/

While the duels with the other were just getting into the start, Klein and Koji were out in the middle of the woods, searching for Ganryu…

…Against Klein's better judgment. For all he cared about, was that as long as Ganryu got busted for being out during the curfew, it was no skin off his nose.

"Mind telling me why I'm out here again?" Klein yawned turning the flashlight towards Koji.

"It was Van's idea," Koji started flashing his light into Klein's eyes. "And you said it would be a good idea to join him so we could get his trust once more!"

"…Are you sure? That doesn't sound like me," Klein questioned with a large eyebrow. "'Sides, ya ask me, this can only be good news for us! No more debt!"

"I have you on my tape recorder saying it," Koji sighed lifting up a large silver tape recorder. "Would you like to hear it?"

"…No thanks," Klein sighed crossing his arms. "Let's find that cold-hearted bastard, grab some mushrooms, Bob's your uncle and head to bed…"

"For the last time Klein, you don't do that joke right," Koji groaned adjusting his glasses over his eyes.

"Truly, ya need to study up on comedy acts…"

Klein and Koji slowly turned towards the source of the voice to see none other than Xander leaning up against the base of a dead tree. A cruel smile plastered over his face, Xander lifted up his duel disk immediately. "Guess whose back?"

There was only thing that came to Klein's mind at the sight of Xander, one action that he could use at this very moment and executed it perfectly…

"BROTHER ATTACK!"

Xander's good eye widened just before his head collided with the thrown Koji's, sending them both flying a few feet back. When both of them landed on the ground, Klein ran past the two, grabbing Koji's by the ankle and running at top speed. "Come on Koji!"

"…Who uses their brother as an attack?" Xander moaned with his eyes completely engulfed in a dizzy spin. "Honestly!?!"

Rubbing his head as he got up, Xander lifted his right hand over his eye patch and began to pull it. "I guess I've got no choice…if I can't get him to agree to this on a mundane term…"

As soon as Xander ripped off his eye patch, a bright yellow glow shot from his face, making a mysterious, yet very familiar black smoke appear through the forest's trees. When the light died down, Xander chuckled to himself lowering his hand down to show that he was wearing another eye patch…

…only this one was made out of gold and had a golden eye etched into it. "Then I'll have to bring the big guns out!"

"Brother! Why are we running?" Koji asked trying to not get debris in his face. "I thought you didn't owe that guy anything anymore!"

"I don't!" Klein shouted still running at top speed…he didn't notice that he just passed Xander who was leaning up against a nearby tree. "But he's damn persistent and I really wouldn't think that he'd keep his word!"

A few seconds later, for the third time Klein passed by Xander who now was just getting bored now watching the two brothers run past him a few times. Soon he just got tired of it and stuck out his leg just as the two were about to pass him again, making them both trip to the ground.

"Are you two finally done with that crap?" Xander asked, his mouth dripping intensely with venom. "Cause I'd like to get this job done with right now…"

Spitting out some of the dirt that got in his mouth, Klein glared daggers at Xander. Koji on the other hand…he hit his head on a tree root and was knocked out. "Just what the hell is wrong with you?!? We had a deal; I don't owe you anything anymore!"

"Oh, I'm not here to collect any money you owe to me," Xander refuted lifting his duel disk up, activating it immediately. "You've got a bounty on your head…and I've come to collect you!"

"Who could have a bounty on me?" Klein questioned raising an eyebrow at the statement. "I haven't done anything to make enemies…okay, but at least not to make someone put a bounty over my head…"

"And yet here we are," Xander chuckled reaching into his pocket, brandishing a switch blade. "Now then, I think you recall how I work…all you need to do is duel me. Win, and I'll let ya go…lose…and well, I don't really have to say now do I?"

"…" Klein just activated his own duel disk, shuffled his deck and raised it over his face. "Let's get it on…"

-/-/-//-///--/-//-/

Big Boss had already left to view Leo and Renji's duel, leaving Dias and Lucian looking over the academy, taking note of the many orbs of dark fog appearing on various parts of the island. "…Do you honestly think that your plan will work?"

Dias rubbed his chin in response and turned towards Lucian with a determined look on his face. "It doesn't really matter if my subordinates win or lose to these fools. As long as seven duels are completed, I can survive this ordeal…"

"…but don't you only have six subordinates?" Lucian questioned with a question mark appearing over his head.

"I must be the seventh duel…you dolt…" Dias growled crossing his arms.

"…No need to be rude about it," Lucian replied.

/-/-/-/--//-/-//-/

"DUEL!"

"I'll start off shorty!" Xander laughed pulling his six cards. "And I'll start by summoning one monster on the defensive!" (XLP: 8000)

The brown backed card appeared before Xander in a horizontal form. "And that's all…"

"…Okay…that's weird…" Klein muttered to himself, pulling his next card. "With your other deck, I would've thought you'd play only high attack monsters…" (KLP: 8000)

"I've wised up since then," Xander muttered under his breath while rubbing his chin. "Just make your move…"

"Fine! I hope that you're prepared for this!" Klein laughed loudly lifting up a card from his hand. "So I'll start by setting my own monster face down…and then I'll place another card in the back row! So let's see this new strategy you've got!"

"…As you wish," Xander chuckled lifting his next card. "Now then…since neither of us declared an attack, I can play the spell card, Sloth's Requiem."

Klein blinked in confusion as a large musical score basking in a bright green light, and then a very relaxing song began to fill the air. So relaxing, that it could make someone fall asleep as if it were a lullaby. "What the…what's with this thing?"

"Like I said…this spell card can only be activate after two consistent turns when neither of us declares an attack," Xander explained as his deck glowed brightly before a card shot out from his deck and into his hand. "I first can then select one spell card with 'Requiem' in my deck and add it to my hand…but then, during this turn, one of my monsters can attack you directly!"

"Oh boy…" Klein growled before the ground began to shake violently. "What the?"

"I summon the monster that will attack you directly this turn!" Xander shouted slapping his next card onto his duel disk, making the ground shatter to release the large Giant Orc (2200/0). "Giant Orc! Charge directly!"

Klein just gulped when the Giant Orc stomped towards him and immediately slammed its massive bone like club into Klein's chest, sending him flying to the side slightly. After standing up, Klein immediately grabbed his chest in pain and coughed. "W-W-what da heck…" (KLP: 5800)

"And now…my Orc takes a little break," Xander chuckled before his Orc fell backwards to sleep. "Next, I'll place a card face down…and end my turn."

"…You just made a big mistake," Klein chuckled standing up straight. "I can take that big lug down right now! But first, I'll flip up my face down monster, Ojamagician!"

The face down monster flipped up into what appeared to be a fancy blonde haired man wearing a mask that resembled Ojama Black's face and with a fancy sparkling red cloak covering the rest of his body. (800/1200)

"…Oja what?" Xander asked before a yellow blur jumped out from the Ojamagician's cloak.

"Ojamagician! Get it right the first time!" Klein shouted as the yellow blur slowed down to become a crouching Ojama Yellow (0/1000). "And as for my magician's trick, I can special summon an Ojama in defense mode to my side of the field, so I chose Ojama Yellow!"

That's when Ojama Yellow turned around and grinned at Klein, making the short boss blink a few times. '_Huh?...You're not the boss!'_

"…Currently I am!" Klein shouted at Ojama Yellow making the small creature step back slightly. "So cooperate with me…or I'll immediately send you to the junkyard!"

'…_You remind me so much of the boss…except with the height…_'

"…Whatever, now then, I'll play Polymerization!" Klein announced when a powerful vortex appeared underneath Ojama Yellow and allowing Ojama Green (0/1000) to appear next to him. "So Ojama Yellow and Green, its time to fuse!"

The large vortex then shattered into what appeared to be a large knight dressed in silver armor…only having a red sparkling bikini brief and having two long yellow eyestalks (0/2500). "And they fuse into the Ojama Knight!"

'_Jolly good!'_ The Ojama Knight announced lifting his sword up into the air.

"…Okay, you mind playing a monster that doesn't suck?" Xander asked before two old versions of the Ojama Yellow and Green that resembled a pair of grandparents. "What the?"

"_Morty, where are we_?" The Ojama Yellow grandma asked lifting up a cup of tea.

"_I don't know, I haven't been driving_," The Ojama Green grandpa replied before taking a large sip of tea.

"_Thank goodness for that_," The Ojama Yellow grandma sighed shaking her head. "_Your driving should be against the law_…"

"You mind clarifying what the hell these things are?" Xander sweatdropped at the sight of the arguing grandparents.

"Gladly, as long as my Ojama Knight is on the field," Klein explained before his knight raised up his round shield. "The Ojama Grandparents get to stay at your side of the field, and you can't use those monster zones. But now, I'll equip my Ojama Knight with the spell card, Shield Attack!"

A powerful green aura surrounded the Ojama Knight, making him grow larger and larger (2500/0). "This switches my monster's attack and defense! And speaking of defense, your overgrown zit is easy pickings for my Ojamagician…attack his monster!"

The fancy magician ran towards the Giant Orc, only to be stopped by another music score, only in a bright pink. The music score wrapped around the Ojamagician and shattered it into a million pixels. (XLP: 9200) (KLP: 7000)

"Nice try, but I activated the trap card, Lust's Requiem," Xander stated lifting another card from his deck. "Not only does it destroy an attacking monster, we can increase our life points by the defense points of the monster that was destroyed. And like my previous one, I can get another Requiem card added from my deck."

"No skin off my nose!" Klein shouted throwing his arm towards his Ojama Knight. "Attack that Giant Orc!"

In a matter of seconds, the Ojama Knight sliced right through the Giant Orc's body, making the demon screech out in pain and shatter into many pixels. "And to wrap up my turn…I'll place these two cards face down…"

"Hmm…haven't you realized it yet?" Xander chuckled lifting his next card up from his deck. "This duel has be predetermined…you sealed your fate when you came out tonight…"

"Okay, you done being weird?" Klein asked with a sweatdrop appeared on the back of his head. "And what are you talking about? There's hardly a large difference in our life points…"

"It's not what's in the score," Xander replied lifting two cards up. "But rather what's going to be on the field! I play my spell cards, Greed's Requiem and Envy's Requiem!"

That's when two music scores appeared around the two duelists, one sounding exactly like rock'n roll and the other sounding like a sad song. The one on the top was glowing pure gold while the one on the bottom was dark blue. "And now then, here's how they work. Greed works if a monster was destroyed on both of our fields. We're now allowed to draw two cards each…"

Two cards spat out of both duelists' decks allowing them both to replenish their hands. "And as for Envy, if everything on my side of the field was removed from the field last turn, I can add the same number of cards from your side of the field and play the exact type of cards from my deck…so I get one monster and two spell or trap cards from my deck…of course for this I have to pay two thousand life points and I'm only allowed to play up to three cards…" (XLP: 7200)

Three cards then spat out of Xander's deck and immediately were placed on to his duel disk, forming into a large flurry of sparks. "So I'll special summon my Sangan, play my spell card the Dark Door and my trap card Mirror Wall…"

It was only a second when the three cards appeared on Xander's side of the field, before they shattered back into a dark light. "And now…by sending all three of them away…I can summon an all too familiar face…"

A powerful explosion erupted onto the field, forming into the infamous Overlord Ira, his fiery red hair resembling a powerful explosion over his sharp face and leather black clothes (3000/2500). A wicked smile was planted on the Overlord's face, making the Ojama Knight step back. "Overlord Ira…one badass who can never die!"

"…I seem to recall that my Ojamas managed to bring him down a peg," Klein snickered making Xander and Ira make blood vessels appear over their heads.

Overlord Ira raised his right hand in front of his face, making his hand turn a blaze in an unholy fire before he spoke in a dark voice. "_Listen you little punk…I'm a freakin' badass overlord! Your little freakin' freaks might've been freakin' lucky once, but that won't be happening again you freakin' midget!'_

"Does he have a fascination with that word?" Klein asked after taking a large gulp in fear.

"…I'm going to enjoy shut your foolish yap up!" Xander laughed loudly raising his hand up towards Ira. "Take his Knight down to hell!"

"_With freakin' pleasure!_" Ira shouted throwing his powerful flame towards the panicking Ojama knight.

"_Good sir!?!_" The Ojama Knight shouted lifting up his shield.

"I got your back!" Klein shouted as his face down card disappeared and immediately made the Ojama Knight disappear into light, quickly forming into the Ojama Yellow and Green crouching down. "De-Fusion allows me to return Ojama Knight back to the fusion deck and bring back two of the three Ojama Brothers!"

"Fine then…Continue the attack!" Xander ordered only to receive a glare from Ira. "Huh?"

"_Don't you dare try to order me around, or I'll burn you into a freakin' crisp!_' Ira growled before turning back to the two panicking Ojamas. "_But…for right now, I think it's time to burn some trash that blew onto the field…_"

"Don't think so! I activate my trap card, Negate Attack!" Klein shouted as a vortex appeared before the two Ojamas, absorbing the powerful flame into it. "So nice try!"

"_Hey bro! Who's this guy?_" Ojama Green asked gesturing towards Klein.

"_He's just like the boss! Only shorter!_" Ojama Yellow answered, making him and Ojama Green turn towards Klein with starry eyes. "_And he just saved us!_"

"Fine…I'll end my turn with just one card face down," Xander growled crossing his arms allowing the card appear behind his monster. "And then…Ira will be able to tear you limb from limb!"

Klein was silent as he drew his next card, and his eyes widened at the sight of it. Thanks to Xander's Greed's Requiem, he managed to draw what he needed…and yet at the sight of this new card, Klein closed his eyes and couldn't help but think about how he first got into this mess…

/--//-/-/-/-/Four Years Ago-/--//-/-/

"Brother…I'm cold…" Koji moaned getting closer to his brother Klein. Their clothes were torn and looked to be old and from the church poor box.

Klein was silent, looking up into the sky as the snow began to fall from the sky. Before the Drei twins meet up with Van, before they joined up the gang, before they even knew about the duel academy and were faced with financial companies…

…there was pair of kids who were dumped onto the streets thanks to their parents, who didn't want to have children in the first place. For four years they were left to their own ways, barely being able to stay alive, stealing food just to survive and staying close to each other in the winter to keep warm…

"…I know bro," Klein sighed watching his breath appear before him. Grabbing his brother closer to keep his slightly younger brother warm, Klein turned his head to the side to see the people walking past the ally…

…how he envied and loathed them at the same time, those people was disgusting. They had everything that Klein and Koji needed, and took it for granted everyday of their life…but what made Klein sick, was the fact that those people didn't even acknowledge his existence.

Sure, occasionally there was the missionary who would bring them food, clothes and etc., but Klein didn't enjoy the fact that they wanted him to converge to their religion. To Klein…

…Everyday was a living hell for him and his brother…

Until, that 'guy' appeared in front of the two brothers, offering them his hand to the sweet life. "…Are you two cold? Are you two scared? Do you wish to get what has long eluded you for the past few years?"

"Do you want to be treated with the respect…that all humans choose to either keep or toss to the side as if it were regular trash?"

It wasn't much of a choice for Klein and Koji…both of them immediately took the 'guy's hand and their lives were changed drastically.

That 'guy' was a big man in an underground crime league, but even though he was head of it, he made sure that no innocents were killed and often made sure that he would provide many 'funds' to the city.

However, he was a man to be feared nonetheless, no one could stand up to him and live to tell the tale.

Klein and Koji, they weren't so much as adopted children, more along the lines of picked up thugs. For the next two years of their lives, Klein was trained to fight and be a con artist while Koji on the other hand was taking a different approach to the game…

…Eventually, Klein and Koji were put in charge of the gang that they managed to get from that 'guy'. Eventually, Klein and Koji met Van and managed to get him involved in their gang after some sort of accident…

Odd…how a different accident was the cause of the gang's disband. Klein was supposed to prove to that 'guy' that he was able to support his gang. Unfortunately, thanks to a girl that Van had his eyes on got in the way.

Needless to say…that 'guy' wasn't pleased at all. Not only did he disband the small gang, but he kicked Klein and Koji out on the street.

Unlike the last time, Klein and Koji had money to their name thanks to the so called 'unsuccessful' heist, enough so for them to get temporary jobs, a small apartment and a new life to get ready…

…And that's when duel monsters came into their life. Of course, they've known about duel monsters for a long time, hell, that 'guy' was a duelist himself in the underground league…there was even a rumor that he had a stake with the Emperor of the Underworld…

Due to Klein's intelligence network, he was able to keep tags on all of the previous members of his gang. He had a plan…and he was going to do whatever it took to get that plan to work.

Even if it mean borrowing money from a notorious loan agency…of course, Klein didn't know they sent professionals after you…and he didn't even think they sent people who were own his age group chasing after him to duelist academies.

No sense on dwelling on the past…

/--/-//-/-//-/-/-//

"Hello? Are you alive over there?" Xander asked raising an eyebrow while Ira was snoozing while standing up.

"…Huh? Yeah, just blanked out," Klein replied looking at his next card. "Okay then…Watch and learn! I summon Ojama Black in attack mode!"

In a black blur, the last of the Ojama Trio was now standing in front of Klein alongside his two brothers (0/1000). "_Aw man! I was enjoying a good meal…and I get dragged out of here!_"

"Oh just shut up!" Klein shouted before switching Ojama Yellow and Green to attack mode. "Now watch and learn how the weak can become strong! I play Shield and Sword!"

All of the monsters seemed to totally wake up, especially Ira (2500/3000) who was holding his chest while the Ojamas (1000/0 x3) began flexing their muscles. "_What the hell?_"

"Now then…I play a familiar spell card! I play Brave Attack!" Klein shouted as all three Ojamas jumped into the air in front of the surprised Overlord Ira. "Since Ira's a badass…well…why not just show you!"

All three Ojamas began to spin around the confused Overlord Ira, increasing in speed as the circle they were in began to shrink around and around Ira. With a loud scream, Overlord Ira shattered into flames that flew back into Xander. "IRA! NO!" (XLP: 6700)

"Heh…I guess your Overlord was all talk," Klein chuckled looking at his hand. "But back to the duel, I'll place a card face down, and when I end my turn my three Ojamas bite the dust!"

"_WHAT!?!_" All three Ojamas shouted before shattering into pixels.

"Your move ya one eyed freak," Klein commented crossing his arms.

"Very well…Now then since you technically destroyed a monster as a result of battle last turn," Xander chuckled as a red music score encircled him. "I can activate Wrath's Requiem! This continuous trap has a nasty ability, during my standby phase, if you destroyed one of my monsters in battle last turn, you automatically take half of its attack points!"

"Wha?" Klein asked before a red transparent version of Overlord Ira appeared behind him, cackling a venomous laugh.

"_Heh…payback time ya little jackass!_" Ira laughed before engulfing Klein in a powerful blood red flame, making the short Ojama duelist fall to the ground. (KLP: 5500)

"Oh, and don't worry, if I do the same, I get the same effect damage," Xander chuckled lifting two more cards from his hand. "However, it won't be a handicap…I play the continuous spell card Gluttony's Requiem!"

Just as the card was played, a bright orange musical score appeared around Xander's body, playing some music that sounded like polka music. "Now as long as this card out, I can negate all effect damage done to me! And I'm not done yet…I'll play the last of the sinful requiems, Pride's Requiem!"

This time a silver musical score surrounded both of the duelists, playing a powerful dark song that made both duelists' decks glow brightly. "What in the world?"

"Here how my spell works! We both take the strongest attack or defense monster from our decks and add them to our hands!" Xander laughed taking another card from his deck while Klein did the same.

"What is up with these music cards?" Klein asked looking at his monster.

"I'll get back to that later," Xander replied lifting up another card. "Now then, I'll summon the monster I got from Sangan. I bring out Newdoria (1200/800)!"

With a loud cackle, the sickly looking fiend monster appeared on the field, only to have it, and the two scores disappear into a dark light. "However, I won't be needing it for long…I send my spell, my trap and my monster to the graveyard in order to bring out the real master of my deck!"

As soon as the cards had disappeared from the field, a mysterious dark shadow began to form from the ground, a dark flame surrounded it as the shadow immediately flew into the air while still on the ground. "_Who dares to awaken me from my peaceful slumber!?_"

The shadow and the flames shattered into the fog covered forest making Klein cover his eyes for a few seconds. When he lowered his arm, Klein was met with the sight of a new demonic being standing directly in front of Xander…

…the being looked to be a demonic kid with sleek purple hair with two long strands of hair pointed backwards. Around the kid's neck was a long baggy red scarf that flowed back into the air, and his thin body was only covered with a pair of red shorts (3500/2500). Lifting his right hand, a powerful purple aura surrounded his hand. "_What kind of moron would wake the great and powerful Overlord Superbia? Answer me my vassals!_"

"Don't make me laugh Superbia," Xander scoffed to the side crossing his arms towards Overlord Superbia. "If anyone's a vassal, it would be you…and I'm your master!"

"_WHAT!?!"_ Superbia roared with his eyes turning a demonic yellow, then glaring towards Xander. "_A mere human dares to try to order me around?! I'll kill you!_"

"Looks like I'll be able to win this easily if your own monster is going to kill you," Klein stated before Xander lifted up another card in front of his face.

"Hmm…what do you take me for?" Xander asked fitting the card into his duel disk as all seven of the musical scores surrounded Overlord Superbia. "I play the Chains of Sinful Music!"

"_What the hell are these things?_" Superbia questioned before the many scores wrapped around his body and making his skin burn at touch. "_ARGH!!_"

"Heh, as you can see this continuous spell chains my monster into an obedient vassal," Xander chuckled sliding the rest of his hand into his graveyard. "Of course, in order to play this I need to discard my hand and have the seven sin requiems in my graveyard. But in return, the selected monster gains a nasty effect…"

"…More on that later! Superbia! Attack that punk directly!"

Grunting in pain, Overlord Superbia charged towards Klein at a fast speed, preparing a powerful fist. Just before the fist collided with Klein, powerful spike armor appeared all over Klein's body. "I activate my trap card, Sakuretsu Armor! So your monster bites the big o…"

The fist just collided with Klein's face sending him flying into a tree, snapping it in two and making the armor shatter like glass. Xander laughed loudly as Superbia painfully floated back to Xander's field. "Ha ha ha ha ha! Nice try! But Superbia is completely immune to all monster effects…spells…or trap cards!" (KLP: 2000)

"Man…what a punch…" Klein stuttered standing up before spitting out a bloody tooth into his hand. "…MY TOOTH! I LOOK LIKE A HOCKEY PLAYER! Whoa…talk about déjà vu…"

"Keep the jokes up," Xander chuckled crossing his arms over his chest. "I'll take you down in a matter of turns!"

"We'll see about that," Klein growled walking back to his side of the field and immediately drew his next card. That's when a powerful red aura appeared underneath Klein's feet, making his eyes widen before the aura flared up around his body. "ARGH!" (KLP: 1000)

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that during the standby phase that the selected monster inflicted damage, I can cut your life points in half," Xander explained with an innocent look plastered over his face. "Sorry I forgot to mention that…"

"Oh your going to pay for that…" Klein panted looking at his hand, then as he slipped his next card into his duel disk, a bright light appeared over his body. "I activate the spell card, Graceful Charity! So I draw three and discard two cards!"

With a quick snap of his deck, Klein immediately did so. "Now then, I'll play my next spell card, Pot of Avarice!"

Flipping through his graveyard, Klein immediately held up five monster cards, the three Ojamas, Ojamagician and a mysterious monster called Blitzkrieg Jet Shot. That's when he immediately shuffled them into his deck and drew two more cards. "Next, I'll place two cards face down, then activate the spell card, Emergency Provisions to send both of the cards to the graveyard!" (KLP: 3000)

When the cards disappeared into light, three cards shot out of Klein's deck and into his hand. "And one of those cards was Ojamagic. Allowing me to return the three stooges back to my hand!"

"Big deal! Not like those weaklings can really do any damage…" Xander commentated crossing his arms over his chest.

"Maybe so, but with my spell card, Ojama Get Ride," Klein replied placing the three Ojamas into his graveyard. Two cards then slipped out of Klein's deck and he immediately slapped them onto his duel disk. "With it, I can special summon two level four or lower union machine type monsters from my deck!"

"Heh…I can think of a few combos with that," Xander stated watching Klein lift the two cards up. "Go ahead and bring out the XYZ or the Assault Cannon Beetle, neither of them will make a difference!"

"…Damn it…" Klein shouted as large mechanical beetle appeared on the field with a large set of pincers (1500/1800) and a large orange spider like machine along side it (1000/2000). "I special summon Beetron - 2 and 3 Beetle Turbo and Spider Base, and then I'll normal summon Beetron – 1 Beetletops (1700/1400) in attack mode!"

From the sky above, another insect robot appeared on the field, this one resembling a much larger beetle. "And now…I'll fuse them all together to form the biggest…the coolest…the Assault Cannon Beetle!"

At those very words, the three machines shot directly into the air, disassembling and then re-assembling into a large combination of the three machines with a large cannon at the head, a stinger and a pair of pincers (2400/2800).

Xander couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of the monster. "So? All you're doing is provide me with some entertainment before you die!"

"Did I say I was done?" Klein asked lifting another card up. "Now then, I'll play Ojamandala! So with a simple pay of one thousand life points, I can bring back the gruesome threesome!" (KLP: 2000)

In a loud shout of laugh, the three Ojamas reappeared on the field laughing (0/1000 x3), and making Xander twitch. "Do you have some sort of fascination with those freaks?"

"You'll see," Klein chuckled lifting another card from his diminishing hand. "And now, I'll play Polymerization! This time fusing the Ojamas, into the king!"

In a bright flash, all three of the Ojamas disappeared into a large vortex that immediately shattered into the large white king wearing the bikini briefs and cape (0/3000) laughing loudly. "Okay…are you seriously trying to piss me off?"

"…Yeah…and prepare yourself!" Klein shouted lifting up his next card.

"Bring it!" Xander shouted.

/--/-//-/-//--//-

From atop the duel academy, Dias shook his head at the sight of the many shadow games disappearing from his view. The first one was at the beach were Morty was centered at, the second one was at the Obelisk Blue bridge where Renji was waiting for his duelist to appear.

Unfortunately for Dias, he was unable to determine whether his duelists won or lost. But he was able to tell that something was wrong with the duel that was stationed at the very front of the dueling academy. It had dissipated for a few seconds before reforming itself again.

The only way he was able to truly tell if someone had lost, was due to the aura that appeared at different ends of the runes he had created on the roof of the school. There were currently three auras around the rune, and in the next few minutes…

…A fourth one appeared at the corner, this one actually making the top of the roof bask in a blood crimson light.

"…So, how do you know if your people won or not?" Lucian asked sitting down behind the ledge with his eyes closed.

"I informed them all to call me on my phone," Dias answered lifting up his blood red cell phone. "As soon as they win…but apparently either my duelists don't own phones, are too lazy to buy minutes…or happened to lose…I haven't gotten a single call all night."

"Are they in your fave five?" Lucian asked lifting up his own phone that was a dark purple with a strap around his hand connected to it with the word 'Lunar Samurai' etched into the strap.

"…You actually read the Lunar Samurai?" Dias questioned raising an eyebrow.

"Maybe…" Lucian replied before Big Boss appeared behind the two with a cackling chuckle escaping from his mouth.

"Man Lucian, you've got a girly phone!" Big Boss laughed clapping his hands together a few times.

"…I like purple," Lucian moaned rubbing his finger on the roof.

Before Dias could comment, his own cell phone began to use it's ring tone that sound somewhat like the DMC3's theme song, Devil's Cry. "Excuse me."

Flipping his open, Dias immediately raised it to his ear. "Yeah?"

"…Uh huh…good, now, get back to your dorm room so you don't get caught…"

"…What do you mean you've got a bounty to collect?"

"…Fine…whatever…just make sure you get back here…"

"Good…now hurry up with that bounty…"

"Hmm…so, you hired a Bounty Hunter Duelist," Big Boss thought out loud scratching his chin slightly. "Interesting, I'll have to take in consideration with that fact…"

"Ya know, shouldn't we be checking up on Kurro?" Lucian asked crossing his arms over his chest.

"Ah what's the rush? We've got plenty of time before his plan blows up in his face," Big Boss chuckled looking over the side of the duel academy to see the fog in front of the school was beginning to dissipate and another aura began to light up behind him, making the area even more blood red. "Well, well, well, looks like another duel is done…"

/-/--//--/-/-//-/-//-

"And that's, Check…"

A large chess piece of a king and queen fell on top of Black Tiger's body, making him shout out in pain as the last of his life points dropped rapidly. "NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" (BTLP: 0)

"Don't interrupt!" Tony shouted with a blood vessel appearing on the back of his head and fist. "…As I was saying…That's Check, and Mate!" (TLP: 4000)

Just as his two chess pieces disappeared along with the fog, Black Tiger looked up at Tony and starred at him in fear. "No…nnnnnnnoooooooooo! I don't want to go there! Please! Help me!"

Tony scoffed his head to the side as Black Tiger was immediately engulfed in the mysterious fog as his scream began to get higher and higher, until it had disappeared along with Black Tiger's body.

Sitting on the ground with a deep sigh, Tony threw his head back and chuckled slightly. "Woo boy! I haven't had a duel like that in a long time! Pumps da blood back into da system!"

"…I see you're as energetic as usual Tony…"

Turning his head slightly, Tony was starring at a smirking Tai who had Rena held up in his arms. Apparently she must've fallen asleep during Tony's duel with the Black Tiger.

"Nice ta see ya again Tai," Tony laughed trying to get up…but being unable to do so because of the previous. "Sorry, I'd get up, but I'm tired!"

"…You always have that positive attitude don't you Tony?" Tai chuckled walking towards Tony, still carrying Rena in his arms. "Still collecting those barrels?"

"Ya'll better believe it!" Tony announced with a grin plastered over his face. "So…why are you here again?"

"Actually, remember last year when I told your fortune?" Tai asked laying Rena down in front of Tony.

Tony's eyes widened as he immediately thought about what had happened under a year ago. "You don't mean…"

"Yep…" Tai simply replied nodding his head.

Tony's eyes immediately became watery and filled with sparkles as he clasped his hand together. "This is the girl I'm destined to fall in love with!"

A little embarrassed, Tai's eyes began to shift to the side before he slapped his forehead. "…Not that you dope! The other thing!"

"…Oh!" Tony shouted slightly embarrassed himself. "Oh! Oh…uh oh…"

/-//-//--//-/-/-//

**Card Stats**

**Ojama Knight / Light / LV. 5 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 2500 / Fusion/Beast/Effect:** [Two Ojama monsters When this card is face up on the field, select up to two monster card zones, those selected zones cannot be used.

**Description:** A large knight dressed in silver armor…only having a red sparkling bikini brief and having two long yellow eyestalks

**Shield Attack / Equip Spell / Effect:** A monster equipped with this card has it's attack and defense switched.

**Image:** And old cartoonish man bonking a cartoonish man on the head with a wooden shield.

_The following cards were first used by Jaden/Judai in the anime. On a side note, the Ojama knight is actually a promo card in Japan._

**Beetron–1 Beetletops / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 1700 / DEF: 1400 / Machine:** _A high-performance fighting droid. It is able to integrate with other machines for a variety of combat techniques._

**Description:** A large mechanical beetle with wings and a pair tires at it's base

**Beetron-2 Beetle Turbo / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 1500 / DEF: 1800 / Machine/Union:** Once per turn, during your Main Phase, if you control this card on your side of the field, you may Equip it to your "Beetron-1 Beetletops" as an Equip Spell Card OR change it back to a Monster in face-up Attack Position. When Equipped to a Monster by this card's effect, increase the ATK/DEF of that Monster by 400 points. (One Monster can only be Equipped with one Union Monster at a time. If the Monster that this card is Equipped to is destroyed in battle, this card is destroyed instead.)

**Description:** A smaller mechanical beetle with a pair of metallic pincers at it's head

**Beetron-3 Spider Base / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 2000 / Machine/Union?**

**Description:** A large orange tower of a spider with long legs

**Assault Cannon Beetle / Earth / LV. 7 / ATK: 2400 / DEF: 2800 / Machine/Fusion/Effect:** [_Beetron-1 Beetletops + Beetron-2 Beetle Turbo + Beetron-3 Spider Base_ This card cannot be Special Summoned except by returning the above-named cards from the field to your deck and reshuffling; then, Special Summon this card from your Fusion Deck. (You do not use "Polymerization") For each Monster you Tribute on your side of the field, inflict 800 points of damage to your opponent's Life Points.

**Description:** A combination of the three Beetrons.

_The preceding cards were first used by Chazz/Manjyome. Another side note, the effect of Beetron-3 is actually unknown. _

**Sloth's Requiem / Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated after you and your opponent(s) have not declared an attack. During the turn this card is activated only one of your monsters may attack and the attacking monster may attack your opponent directly. After this card's resolve you may take one spell or trap card from your deck with 'Requiem' and add it to your hand (the selected card cannot be activated the turn this card was activated.)

**Image:** A green music score making the Ojama Black sleep in front of it.

**Lust's Requiem / Trap / Effect:** This card can only be activated when your opponent declares an attack with a monster. Destroy the attacking monster and increase all players' life points by the defense power of the destroyed monster. After this card's resolve you may take one spell or trap card from your deck with 'Requiem' and add it to your hand (the selected card cannot be activated the turn this card was activated.)

**Image:** A hot pink music score in front of the Dark Magician Girl standing in a sexy pose.

**Greed's Requiem / Instant Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you have two or more cards in your graveyard with 'Requiem' in your graveyard and after at least one monster on all players' fields were destroyed. All players may draw two cards. After this card's resolve you may take one spell or trap card from your deck with 'Requiem' and add it to your hand (the selected card cannot be activated the turn this card was activated.)

**Image:** A gold music score with many coins falling over it.

**Envy's Requiem / Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when all cards on your side of the field were removed from the field during your last turn or opponent's last turn. Pay 2000 life points to play one effect monster, and activate one continuous spell card and one continuous trap card from your deck. After this card's resolve you may take one spell or trap card from your deck with 'Requiem' and add it to your hand (the selected card cannot be activated the turn this card was activated.)

**Image:** A blue music score with a small girl crying behind it.

**Gluttony's Requiem / Continuous Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you have two or more cards in your graveyard with 'Requiem' in their name. As long as this card is face up on the field, negate all effect damage done to you.

**Image:** A bright orange music score being eaten by a large demon

**Wrath's Requiem / Continuous Trap / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you have two or more cards in your graveyard with 'Requiem' in their name. As long as this card is face up on the field, whenever a monster is destroyed as a result of battle, inflict damage to the player that destroyed the monster during this card's owner's standby phase.

**Image:** A blood red music score being shattered by a large muscular man.

**Pride's Requiem / Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you have four or more cards in your graveyard with 'Requiem' in their name. All players must then take the highest attack or defense monster from their decks and add them to their hands. After this card's resolve you may take one spell or trap card from your deck with 'Requiem' and add it to your hand (the selected card cannot be activated the turn this card was activated.)

**Image:** A silver music score with a handsome man standing in front of it.

**Chains of Sinful Music / Continuous Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you have "Sloth's Requiem", "Lust's Requiem", "Greed's Requiem", "Envy's Requiem", "Gluttony's Requiem", "Wrath's Requiem", and "Pride's Requiem" in your graveyard, discard your entire hand and select one face up monster on the field. Whenever the selected monster inflicts battle damage to your opponent's life points, during their standby phase, decrease their life points by half of their current life points. When the selected monster would be destroyed, you may remove one of the cards listed above to keep the select monster on the field. When none of the listed cards above exist in your graveyard, destroy this card. When this card is destroyed, remove the selected monster from play.

**Image:** Many different colored Music Scores wrapping around Overlord Superbia, making him roar in pain.

**Overlord Superbia / Dark / LV. 10 / ATK: 3500 / DEF: 2500 / Warrior/Effect:** This card cannot be normal summoned or set. This card cannot be special summoned except by sending one face up trap, face up spell and effect monster on your side of the field to your graveyard. This card is unaffected by spell, trap or monster effects controlled by your opponent.

**Description:** A demonic kid with sleek purple hair with two long strands of hair pointed backwards. Around the kid's neck is a long baggy red scarf, and his thin body is only covered with a pair of red shorts.

**Overlord's Wrath/ Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you have a monster on your side of the field with 'Overlord' in its name. Pay 2000 life points. During the turn this card is activated, a monster with 'Overlord' on your side of the field may attack all of your opponent's monsters. For each monster destroyed this way, inflict 1000 points of damage to your opponent's life points.

**Image:** The Overlord Superbia lifting his hand up with a powerful dark orb of electricity.

**Ojamagician / Light / LV. 3 / ATK: 800 / DEF: 1200 / Spellcaster/Effect:** [FLIP: When this card is flipped face up, you may special summon one 'Ojama Yellow', 'Ojama Green' or 'Ojama Black' from your deck in face up defense mode on your side of the field.

**Description:** A fancy blonde man wearing a fancy red cloak with Ojama Yellow's eyes popping out from the bottom. Over his face is a mask that resembles Ojama Black's face.

/-/-//-/-/-/-/

**Seika:** Rematch time!

**Ganryu:**…

**Seika:** Ninja versus Samurai! The battle continues!

**Ganryu:** …?

**Seika:** I'll take you down in a matter of seconds!

_**The Feudal Battle continues! Next time with – **__**Chapter 21: Bushido Versus Ninjitsu!**_

**Ganryu:** …Who are you again?


	21. Chapter 21: Bushido Versus Ninjitsu

…_**Again? You're making me do this thing again?**_

_**What a pain…**_

_**I don't get why you people keep bugging me for my opinion. It's really not all that important.**_

_**Who am I really?**_

_**We already went over this, I'm a Dishonored Hero and I won't stop until I get to the end of my story.**_

_**Already I have an annoying re-occurring villainess, what with her ninjas and all…god, I really hate ninjas…**_

_**Just the aspect that they don't have any honor in fighting, striking from the shadows and stabbing in the back. The way of a cowardly assassin…**_

…_**I guess I'll show that honor can defeat those cowardly methods…**_

_**-//--//-/-/-///-//-/**_

_**Chapter 21**_

_**Bushido Versus Ninjitsu **_

_**/--/-/-/-//--/-/**_

_With the night's sky beginning to cover over the duel academy, a familiar cold hearted duelist walked passed his dorm hut looking at a dark blue cell phone with a strap with 'Lunar Samurai' written on it. An hour ago, Ganryu had received a mysterious text message to meet him at his hidden place._

"_Going somewhere…"_

_Ganryu's eyes widened, and he immediately snapped his head backwards just in time to hear…_

"…_little brother?"_

"…_Taikoubou…" Ganryu snarled narrowing his eyes at the mysterious teen that was leaning on the hut behind him._

_Allowing his wild gray hair to float in front of his eyes, even though his hair was covered with a white bandana, the mysterious Taikoubou jumped from his leaning position making his dark blue short sleeved jacket float slightly over his yellow shirt with a blue and gold Ying-Yang symbol on the chest. With each step he took, his black pants flowed like a flag over his long blue shoes. "Oh little, naïve brother…do you still disdain me so much that you would use my full name? It's Tai…"_

"_What are you doing here?" Ganryu gritted through his teeth as Tai stopped a few feet in front of Ganryu._

"_Hmm…well, the second chosen still has a while till he begins his first challenge," Tai stated shrugging his shoulders. "So since the third chosen was about to face their first challenge, I thought I might as well watch it…"_

"_So you actually have confidence in me…" Ganryu scoffed a little surprised with his brother's comment._

"…_As a brother yes," Tai sighed shaking his head to reveal his sky blue eyes. "…But as a chosen one…sorry about that…"_

_Turning his back to his brother, Ganryu looked at the message he received on his phone sniffing slightly. "…Why…"_

"_I'm sorry…did you say something?" Tai asked raising a hand to his ear blinking a few times._

_Instead of talking back, Ganryu just ran forward leaving Tai starring at his fleeing brother. That's when he looked down and then bent down to investigate something. With a grimace, Tai shook his head and stood up covering his face with his hand. "…How unbecoming of you Ganryu…"_

"…_To shed tears for a predestined cause…you know better than that…"_

Ganryu hated his brother…

…his father…

…heck, if it wasn't for his mother, he'd probably loathe his entire family.

If you were to ask Ganryu why he hated his family, you'd probably receive a harsh glare or two and get slammed down by Ganryu's feet. Obviously a topic that was sensitive to the cold Samurai using duelist.

If he would think about anything that was somewhat remotely related to his family matters…well…he would break out of the cold hearted stiff character Ganryu had worked so hard to make.

One of the reasons why Ganryu often sought to be alone was the third reason why he had his own secret area on the island. He needed to look at a picture he always kept hidden on his person, what the picture was or where he hid it…were only in Ganryu's mind.

Standing at the beach surrounded by the many large rocks, Ganryu looked up to see that the sky was cleared of clouds. Allowing the moon light to gleam over the beach, a single shadow was cast over the white sand. "…Was this a joke?"

"Well, well, well, glad to see you again cutie."

Ganryu turned his head around to see Seika sitting atop some of the rocks that surrounded the beach, her chin in her hand supporting an evil yet charming smile. "I'm happy to see that you accepted my invitation…"

"…Who are you again?"

Seika could feel the imaginary sword stab right through her skull, sending her falling head first into the sandy beach. Now he may have been cold, but that didn't mean that he had to remember everyone who annoyed Ganryu…they had to annoy him constantly for him to remember people like that.

"IT'S SEIKA!"

"…Nope, sorry, but I don't remember you…" Ganryu replied crossing his arms, making Seika fall back into the sand embarrassed. "…So many people annoy me…how do you expect me to remember every single person?"

"We dueled only at least a week ago!" Seika shouted throwing her arms to the side to glare daggers at the cold-hearted duelist. "Remember! I played with ninjas!"

"…Thanks for reminding me…" Ganryu sighed shaking his head. "So…did you call me out here just flirt and annoy me?"

"Hmm…well, that was half of the plan," Seika teased rubbing her chin. "You see…I was hired to duel you…"

"We already dueled, and incase you don't remember, I managed to defeat you easily," Ganryu replied bluntly with a bored look on his face.

"Ah, ah, ah!" Seika interrupted wagging her finger towards Ganryu. "If you face me again, you won't be disappointed…"

"…Why should I?" Ganryu asked with a dulled look on his face before he began to walk away. "This was a waste of time…"

Seika immediately grinned as she reached for the pouch on the side of her left leg.

In a quick second, Ganryu stopped as three kunai pierced the sand in front of him, readying a large glare for Seika, who stood behind him spinning a kunai in her right hand. "…Still care to walk away?"

"This is the last time…after this, you never come near me again," Ganryu growled lifting his duel disk up to activate it.

"Hmm…oh, you're just too mean…" Seika pouted slipping on her duel disk. "But, I'll leave you a little something to remember me by…but, I don't plan on losing…"

Ganryu didn't see that there was a familiar fog appearing around the two duelists, slowly engulfing the beach.

"Duel!"

/-/-////--//-/-/-///

The shadows were beginning to wrap around the top of the roof on the duel academy, everything was beginning to come to an end…

Dias on the other hand, was taking his medicine as usual; hopefully, it would be the last time he would have to take these things. Big Boss and Lucian blinked a few times watching Dias down the pills in a matter of seconds. "Man…if that stuff wasn't legal for you, I'd consider you a druggie."

Finishing the drink of water, Dias narrowed his eyes towards Big Boss's comment. "Get off my case BB, I need these to live."

"Hey, hey, hey, my bad," Big Boss apologized raising his arms up in a defensive manner. "I'm just not used to watching people taking that much medicine. The only time I saw it was in a manga I stole from my daughter when I was bored one day."

"…You must be old if you have a daughter…" Lucian joked taking a step away from Big Boss.

"Hey! I've still got a few good years left!" Big Boss shouted stomping his foot into the ground and waving his arms into the air. "I workout every day, I keep my sexy body, and I eat right everyday! Unlike you brats, I'll be able to live for a long time!"

"…You'll still look older than us no matter what," Dias commented making Big Boss fall to his knees with tears falling from his eyes. Although…the dark aura above Big Boss was a little too much, so Dias shook that sight from his eyes. "One last duel, before the ceremonial…and then…and then…"

"All your hard work will pay off…" Lucian finished.

"Correct…now then…" Dias stated slipping on a blood red duel disk on his left arm and lifting up his deck. "I have to prepare my cards…"

"Good luck with that…" Lucian wished.

///-///-//--/-/-/-//

"Now then cutie…how do you want to do this?" Seika asked lifting up her first five cards. "Do you want to flip a coin…perhaps you'll be a gentleman and allow me to go first…or…" (SLP: 8000)

"Draw!" Ganryu shouted pulling his sixth card into his hand. (GLP: 8000)

It was then that Seika's fantasy shattered into small pieces of glass.

"I summon Samurai Grandmaster – Lau in attack mode!" Ganryu announced as his dual katana wielding samurai appeared in front of him, spinning the two blades in his hands (1800/900) while glaring at Seika.

"And I'll set a card face down…turn end…"

"Hmph! Don't think things will be the same like last time!" Seika shouted drawing her sixth card. "Especially since I have this gal! I summon Tekagi Kunoichi!"

A small gust of wind began to wrap around the two duelists, making the sand fly up into the air, blind sighting Ganryu's eyes.

Slowly wiping his eyes clean of the sand, Ganryu was met with a new ninja…this one a young kunoichi wearing a more soft combination of the blue ninja suit. Her long dark hair was tied back with a light blue headband with a few strands in front of her crystal blue eyes. In her hands, was pair of hand claws that gleamed in the moon light as she raised them up into the air towards Lau (1000/400).

"Oh great…weaponry ninjas…just we this needed," Ganryu growled apparently familiar with the set. "What does this one do?"

"Why not ask her yourself?" Seika asked lifting her hand up to her kunoichi who smirked wildly. "Attack Lau, Tekagi Slice!"

In an incredible speed, the Tekagi Kunoichi ran towards the confused samurai, and then with a great leap, the dark haired beauty flew into the air. While Seika immediately pulled out a small golden coin. "Now then! I activate my kunoichi's effect! So I have to flip a coin, and I'll call heads!"

The coin flew up into the air, making Ganryu a little confused as the coin fell on the ground…

…the head's side face up…

The result however didn't catch Ganryu's eye…it was the golden eye that was on the coin.

He didn't even notice that his Samurai Grandmaster was easily ripped to shreds by the deadly kunoichi beauty, until the pixels slammed into him. "What the?"

"Confused? Good!" Seika laughed as her kunoichi landed in front of her with her tongue slightly sticking out. "But allow me to explain cutie! My kunoichi allows me to flip a coin when she's engaged in battle, and if I call it right like I just did…"

"…The opposing monster takes the hit instead!"

"Oh joy, a copy card of Sasuke Samurai…" Ganryu growled slapping his head.

"What ya going to do…" Seika shrugged her shoulders before two set cards appeared behind her kunoichi. "Especially now that I have these in the arsenal."

"What am I going to do?" Ganryu asked lifting his next card up. "I think that's simple…I'll destroy your monster! I summon Drunken Samurai in attack mode!"

Materializing onto the field, another samurai staggered onto the field. This one wearing partially damaged red armor with a black baggy suit underneath it. The samurai had a large black sword that was slung over his shoulder and a gourd at his right waist. With a loud slurring battle cry, the Drunken Samurai fell backwards (1750/1050).

At the sight of the monster's behavior, Seika couldn't help but laugh loudly making Ganryu narrow his eyes in annoyance. "Heh! Looks like your warrior had a little too much of the sake."

"…Attack her ninja!" Ganryu ordered receiving a blank stare from his Drunken Samurai, as if Ganryu was crazy. "Just attack already!"

Staggering back to his feet, the Drunken Samurai ran rather quickly towards the Tekagi Kunoichi. And as the samurai was only a foot away, Seika reached for her coin. "Now then…I can now activate my monster's eff…"

"Or you would, if my Samurai didn't negate the effects of monsters he attacks!" Ganryu interrupted making Seika drop her coin.

"WHAT!?!?!"

In a felt swoop, the Drunken Samurai brought down his large katana at a diagonal slash on the nervous kunoichi…

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!

"…gong?" Ganryu asked now taking note of the large golden gong that his samurai was planted face first into.

"Actually, it's my Edo Gong," Seika stated lifting up a card from her hand. "Not only does it negate your attack, but now I'm allowed to special summon one level four or lower monster from my hand. And I think I'll choose…this guy!"

The sand began to recede allowing another ninja to jump up, this one a rough looking shinobi wearing ripped green camouflaged ninja pants with a fishnet shirt (exposing his toned chest) and a camouflaged vest. A scar raced on the bridge of his nose and his messy emerald hair went past his shoulders. In his hands are multiple iron-spiked caltrops that he immediately threw over onto Ganryu's side of the field (1550/700). "Say hello to my little friend, Makibishi Shinobi!"

"Heh…my samurai can easily beat both of your ninjas," Ganryu stated, until he noticed that his Drunken Samurai jumped up and down, shouting in pain (1750/1050 – 400/0). "What the?"

"Ya gotta watch out for those caltrops," Seika advised wagging her finger towards Ganryu. "Those things will lower all of your monster's attack points by one hundred points for times their level as long as my Makibishi Shinobi is out."

"…I'll set another card face down…" Ganryu growled with the brown backed card appearing behind his Drunken Samurai. "Turn end…"

"Aw…can't you at least make this fun?" Seika pouted lifting up her next card. Looking at her next card, Seika's pout immediately became a cute smile. "Well…if you won't then I will! Especially with my Shinobi-Zue!"

A dark red blur jumped from the rocks behind Ganryu, capturing the cold-duelist's attention towards in front of him. Standing in front of him with a cocky look on his face, was a lone wolf shinobi wearing a red ninja suit wearing with a white bandana covering his dark hair. In his hands was a long red staff that seemed to have blades slicing out of the sides (1200/900). "He kinda reminds me of you cutie."

"Ugh…will you stop calling me that?" Ganryu growled rubbing his temples, he was hoping that he wouldn't have to go through another duel like this, where the duelist he was facing was not only using a type of monsters that pissed him off…but the fact that his opponent had an apparent crush on him was enough to give him ten migraines in a row. "So demeaning…"

"Oh, whatever you say…handsome," Seika giggled making Ganryu slap his head in his palm.

"Can we take five? I want to bash my head against one of those rocks to kill myself," Ganryu asked pointing towards one of the surrounding rocks.

"Aw…but can't you wait till I use my Shinobi-Zue's ability?" Seika asked crossing her arms over her chest. "With him out, he boosts the moral of all ninjas on the field by one hundred points times their levels…"

A powerful fiery red aura surrounded all of Seika's ninjas, making the Tekagi Kunoichi (1000/400 + 300/0), the Makibishi Shinobi (1500/700 + 400) and the Shinobi-Zue (1200/900 + 300/0) stronger. "Now then…Shinobi-Zue! Attack handsome's Drunken Samurai with doppelganger jutsu!"

Performing multiple hand signs, the Shinobi-Zue created ten copies of himself that appeared all around the beach, making the Drunken Samurai look a little confused (not that difficult) and worried. Then taking the staves from their backs, all ten copies of Shinobi-Zue launched themselves towards the samurai and immediately slammed the bladed staves into the open parts of the samurai's armor…

…Making the samurai shatter back into Ganryu. (GLP: 7850)

"And now…tell me if this hurts handsome," Seika sighed raising her hands towards her other two shinobi. "Tekagi and Makibishi…direct attack!"

The kunoichi and shinobi leapt into the air, both of them preparing to strike Ganryu. "Go! Scapegoats!"

At the last minute, four multi-colored goats (0/0 x4) flashed onto the field, two of them taking the attacks from the two shinobi protecting Ganryu from the two ninja. "Nice try…"

"Oh well…well, my ninjas will be able to take you down soon, they're the best…" Seika stated proudly slamming her fist against her chest. "It's too bad that there are rookies out there who…"

"Enough!" Ganryu shouted slamming his foot into the ground. "Look! I hate ninjas! I hate the fact that people find them as entertainment! For all I could care, is that…that…that…there's a blue haired freak all the way across the world using them!"

"Who knows!?! Maybe he's a ramen noodle loving freak who actually came from a damn hidden temple of ninjas!"

Seika blinked quite a few times, she didn't know if Ganryu just made that off the top of his head or what…

…The amount of words Ganryu were the most he used not used on a duel…

…all she knew was this…

…There was definitely someone one sneezing at that comment right now…

/--/-//-/-//-/-/

"Man…that Ganryu has quite the tongue on him…" Big Boss admitted raising an eyebrow. He, Dias and Lucian were watching the duel from a dark portal that Big Boss managed to create from his own power…

"Ya got to admit though…he's able to come up with strategies with his samurai deck…" Dias admitted.

"Quite so…" Lucian added.

Neither of them noticed that Big Boss was rubbing chin in deep thought…as if he was planning something. It was defined by the ever growing smile filled with jagged shark-like teeth. '_Ganryu…Ganryu Dashiben, normally a Dashiben would be a thorn in my side…_

"Uh…sir?"

'_But if I were to play this correctly…'_

"Big Boss?"

'…_I could possibly use this to my advantage. I just need to prepare a few things…'_

"Hello! Anyone in there?"

Big Boss blinked himself back to reality just in time to see that Dias and Lucian were staring at him as if he were crazy. "What? Did I just miss something?"

"You were just dazing off into space…" Dias pointed out making Big Boss sweatdrop.

"Some birds thought you were a statue," Lucian added pointing towards the pigeon that was on top of Big Boss's head.

"Hey! This isn't some free bird house!" Big Boss shouted slapping away the bird in his hair. "You want to stay here; you're going to pay me big bucks!"

Now it was Dias and Lucian's turn to sweatdrop at Big Boss waving his arms at the bird that kept trying to get back into his hair. "Don't just stand there gawking! Help me!"

"Uh, I'm not sure to help…" Dias admitted.

With a well timed and aimed punch, Big Boss slammed the bird flying off the side of the building. Although, an impressive sight, it was somewhat pathetic for the strange Big Boss get into a fight with a bird. Even more so that he was celebrating his minor victory…so much so that Dias and Lucian's sweat droplets began to grow larger.

"Uh…yeah, uh, Lucian…I've got a new order for you," Big Boss coughed trying to change the subject from his recent battle with the bird.

"What is it sir?" Lucian asked, somewhat a little wary of what Big Boss was going to ask of him.

"Head to the Pacific Academy, watch Kurro from the dark and monitor his success," Big Boss stated opening up two dark portals behind him. "You'll know what to do when the time comes…I have another mission to fulfill, and Dias good luck with the rest of what you need to do."

"It was a pleasure Big Boss," Dias replied crossing his arms over his chest. "Hope to work with you in the future."

"If only," Big Boss sighed before Lucian entered the first dark portal. "Till later…"

"Later," Lucian added before disappearing with his dark aura.

"May our paths cross again Dias, I hope we'll be on the same one," Big Boss warned before disappearing into his aura with a dark smile on his face. "See ya!"

The roof was lonely now…especially since Dias realized that quite a few of his underlings wouldn't be returning anytime soon. "…This had better work…"

/-/-//-//--/-//-//-/-/

"Draw!" Ganryu announced pulling his next card, after scanning it, Ganryu immediately slapped the card onto his duel disk, making the face down card appear in between the two remaining Scapegoats. "I'll just set a defense monster and call it a turn…"

"Not much of a turn," Seika sighed immediately drawing her next card. "Unlike what I'm about to do! I activate the spell card Pot of Greed!"

The green giggling pot appeared before Seika allowing her to immediately draw her next two cards and shatter the pot into many small pixels. "Next, I'll activate the spell card Summoning Jutsu! This allows us both to special summon one level four or lower monster from our decks in defense mode…"

"So take your pick…"

"Fine…I'll choose Bushido Scroll," Ganryu stated fanning out his deck.

"Then I'll choose Ninja Commander Ikusa," Seika giggled lifting her card up.

At the same time, both duelists slapped their selected cards onto their duel disks, making two large clouds of white smoke appear on the field. Seika's green suited ninja Ikusa (700/700) appeared along with the Ninja Soldier Katana (400/400), while on Ganryu's field the smoke disappeared to show a fancy old scroll with a samurai drawn on it (800/400).

"Now then…I think I'll sacrifice Katana for this! Go Ninja – Ken Shinobi!"

Performing another hand sign, the blue clothed Ninja Katana disappeared into a larger cloud of smoke. When this cloud disappeared, another ninja appeared this one a scarred older ninja with a black cloth covering his face and samurai like ninja clothes with a dark colors on it. His face (or what's showing) had multiple scars and had his dark gray hair tied back into a small ponytail going down his back. In his right hand was a small sword that looked somewhat like a katana (2200/1800 + 600/0) that the ninja spun in his hand.

"And now…All four of my Shinobi! Attack his monsters!" Seika commanded as all four of her shinobi other than Ikusa jumped towards all of Ganryu's monsters lifting up their individual weapons.

The face down monster flipped up to show another Bushido Scroll, but along with the other scroll and two scapegoats it was sliced in half by the ninjas. "Unfortunately…I have no other monsters to attack you with this turn so I'll set this card face down…"

The brown backed card appeared next to Seika. "And I'll call it a turn…"

"And during the end phase," Ganryu stated looking through his deck and lifting it up to look through it. "I can take a monster with 'Samurai' or 'Shien' in its name from my deck and add it to my hand!"

"What?!? How in the world are you…" Seika asked before Ganryu lifted up two cards from his deck.

"Those Bushido Scrolls are the cause," Ganryu answered flipping the cards to show that the cards he chose were Samurai of the Void and a samurai that Seika couldn't see what it was. "When destroyed, during the end phase they fall in battle I can add a samurai monster to my arsenal."

"Well then…bring it on handsome," Seika challenged as Ganryu drew his next card.

"As you wish," Ganryu took up the challenge pulling his next card. '_Damn it…I still don't have the Book of Five Rings in my hand…and I still don't have Weapon Trade in to pull off my combo…oh well, I guess I'll have to use a different technique._'

"I summon Samurai of the Void (1700/1400 – 400/0) in attack mode!" Ganryu announced slapping the card onto his duel disk allowing the dark armored samurai to appear with his banner with the kanji for void on his back. Another card popped out of Ganryu's deck and he lifted it up. "And as you remember my samurai allows me to take another one from my deck."

"Don't forget! Your monster loses four hundred attack points due to the Makibishi Shinobi," Seika reminded as one of Ganryu's face down cards.

"Go trap card, Ultimate Offering!" Ganryu announced slapping his next card onto his duel disk. "So I pay five hundred points and I can perform a second summon this turn! So say hello to my Samurai of the Earth (1200/1400 – 400/0)!" (GLP: 7350)

From the sand the earth green samurai erupted from below lifting up his spear and banner. But Ganryu wasn't done yet, another card shot out of his deck and into his hand. "Next! Pay another five hundred to summon Samurai of the Water (1300/1100 – 400/0)!" (GLP: 6850)

This time from the water, the aqua blue samurai leapt next to his fellow feudal warriors, making another card slip out of Ganryu's deck which immediately was slapped onto his duel disk. "Coming up on the list is Samurai of the Flame (1500/1000 – 400/0)!" (GLP: 6350)

"And lastly…it's time for Samurai of the Sky (1400/1400 – 400/0)!" Ganryu finished slapping the last samurai of the five scrolls falling from the sky to glare at Seika. (GLP: 5850)

"I think you remember the samurai of the five scrolls…"

"Oh…yeah…I never got the chance before but those samurai remind me of a certain five colored heroes from a kid show," Seika stated making Ganryu face fault.

"What the? They're not the Super Sentai…" Ganryu growled slamming his fist together.

"You said it, not me," Seika commented making Ganryu growl even more. "Besides…they can't even take down my weakest Ninjas…"

"That's why I've got this…I play another spell card called Wartime Tactics!" Ganryu announced slipping his next card into his duel disk, making the card appear showing many samurai charge towards a burning castle. "Now during the end of this turn alone, if any of my warrior type monsters inflict damage to your life points, I can destroy one monster on the field!"

"Pretty nice effect…too bad you can't inflict any to me," Seika stated, not knowing that Ganryu had another card in his right hand.

"Then I'll play the spell card, Battle Charge!" Ganryu stated as many knights and samurai charging towards each other. "Now watch and learn, all I just have to do is pay two thousand life points…" (GLP: 3850)

Pointing towards his Samurai of the Void (1300/1400 – 650/0), Ganryu cleared his voice and shouted loudly. "Samurai…CHARGE!"

Seika's eyes widened as the Samurai of the Void appeared directly in front of her and slashed his katana across Seika's stomach sending her staggering back. "W-what the?" (SLP: 7350)

"You see, Battle Charge allows me to declare a word, and all monsters who share that word in their name can attack you directly," Ganryu explained as his Samurai of the Void returned to his side of the field. "All I need to do is cut their attacks in half…and I choose Samurai."

"Uh oh…" Seika gulped as the remaining four samurai appeared in front of her.

"Samurai of the Flame (550/1000), Water (450/1100), Earth (400/1400) and Sky (500/1400)," Ganryu growled lifting his hands up towards Seika. "Slice and dice her!"

The Samurai of Flame sliced his large katana, Water and Earth slammed their trident and spear, while Sky pulled back on its bow. In a quick second the four launched their attacks on Seika, making her scream loudly. (SLP: 5250)

"D-Damn it…you really like tough love don't ya handsome?" Seika chuckled as all of samurai jumped away from her.

"…In a sense," Ganryu replied slipping another card into his duel disk. "I'll place this card…and end my turn. And now, thanks to Wartime Tactics…all of your monsters bite the big one!"

In a powerful blast of wind, each of Seika's ninjas shattered into pixels and left the field making Seika immediately bare on the field. "True…but now you lost a lot more life points than I did…"

"You look at the field, and you tell me whose going to win," Ganryu replied crossing his arms.

"Hmm…alright…I say…I'll win!" Seika stated pulling her next card off her deck. "I summon Shinobi Kan!"

Seika's shadow began to waver left and right until it began to crawl on the ground and seemed to stand up from the ground. The shadow then transformed into a fully black clothed ninja that had red eyes, that narrowed down at Ganryu (1600/1200). "Shinobi Kan! Attack his Samurai of the Earth!"

Disappearing back into the shadows, the Shinobi Kan faded from the field, making all of Ganryu's samurai turn their heads left and right. However, the Samurai of the Earth cried out in pain before he fell face first into the sand with many kunai and shuriken stuck between his armor.

A few behind Ganryu, the Shinobi Ken tossed up a small shuriken in his hands before disappearing again to appear in front of Seika. (GLP: 3450)

"And I'll place two cards face down, that's all," Seika giggled with the brown backed card appearing in behind her Shinobi Ken. "I like to see what you can do handsome…"

"… … … … Please…don't call me that…" Ganryu sighed slapping his forehead with his hand and then combed his hair back.

"Way to suck the fun out of pet names," Seika pouted before Ganryu drew his next card.

'…_Finally…_' After adding the next card into his hand, Ganryu immediately held his hand out over his face down card. "I activate my trap card! Go Call of the Haunted! Now I can special summon my Samurai of the Earth back!"

In a dark cloud the familiar samurai garbed in forest green armor appeared gasping for air. "Now then…I'll play a familiar spell card, go, Weapon Trade-In!"

Quickly fanning out his deck out once more, Ganryu pulled out five separate cards and immediately slipped them into his graveyard. "All I need to do is send five equip spell cards, and then I get a spell card. So I'll send my Tempest Sword, Inferno Blade, Aqua Rapier, Earthen Sword, and Void Sword to my graveyard…"

"And I'll chain with my trap card!" Seika laughed as her face down card flipped up showing many ninja throwing lit bombs at a stone building. "It's a card known as Exploding Tag Assault! It activates whenever you send cards from your hand or deck to the graveyard. After they enter the graveyard, they are immediately removed from play!"

Ganryu's eyes widened as he took his newest spell card from his deck, but all five of his cards were immediately removed from play putting a wrench in his strategy…

…Oh well…

"You may have stopped my first plan…" Ganryu growled lowering his head.

"Eh?" Seika blinked in confusion before a dark aura seemed to appear around Ganryu's body.

Then, quickly snapping his head up, Ganryu revealed that his eyes were now glowing a bright golden yellow color, narrowed to look directly into Seika's soul. Even knowing that she was being glared at those cold eyes…

…chills flowed up and down Seika's spine, making her breathe deeper. '_Wha…what is this?_'

"But I have another way!" Ganryu shouted with a very cold tone added to his voice. A powerful dark flame seemed to appear behind all five of his samurai, making them all grab their heads in pain. "The way of the Dishonored Hero! I activate the spell card, Bushido Dishonoring! I must now remove all five of my samurai from play…"

The dark flames grew too powerful for the samurai to survive for long, all of them shattered into the flames that seemed to surround Ganryu. The chills that were sent up Seika's spine were immediately exchanged for the extreme heat of the flames that seemed to grow with each passing second.

"…And now…I can summon my deadliest monster…"

The flames seemed to rise even higher, curtaining the large shadowed being that immediately parted the flames with what appeared to be large blood red claws…

…Whatever what Seika had her eyes gazed upon…it could hardly even once been considered human. It was a demonic being with dark midnight blue skin wearing rusted covered blood red samurai armor that had a pair of black bat wings protruding from the busted out armor in the back. At the demon's hands, were long thick blood red claws…the same ones that had parted the flames…

When the demon locked eyes with Seika, the monster opened up its fanged mouth and allowed its tongue to hang out with a loud cackle filling the air.

"Oh…my…lord…" Seika gasped taking a few steps back, however, her ninja stood tall and didn't seemed phased.

"Meet my Demon Bushido Samurai…the deadliest monster in my arsenal…" Ganryu introduced, his eyes still glowing bright golden yellow.

"But…where are his…" Seika started until Ganryu lifted his hand up.

"His attack and defense are half of the combined attack of the Samurai that were removed from play," Ganryu explained. "And the Samurai of the Five Rings were used…"

The Demon Bushido Samurai cracked its joints loudly (3050/3050) and immediately laughed loudly once more. "Attack her Shinobi Kan!"

Roaring loudly into the air, the demonic samurai immediately slammed its bloody claws on top of the ninja, crushing it into pixels. (SLP: 3800)

"Heh! Jokes on you! I chain my shinobi's destruction with my trap card!" Seika shouted fighting back with her trap card flipping up to show multiple ninjas firing off many flames from their hands. "I activate the trap card, Ninjitsu Art – Phoenix Flower Jutsu! And now, whenever I special summon a ninja monster to the field, I can inflict five hundred points of damage to you!"

Ganryu just blinked a few times as Seika immediately pulled out her deck and flipped through it selecting her own card. "And I'll choose this! Go Shinobi Genin in defense mode!"

Flipping into the air, another ninja appeared wearing a dark version of the other ninja's clothes with red eyes and long way black hair (700/400). In a matter of seconds, the ninja prepared a few hand signs and released a flame that engulfed Ganryu's body. (GLP: 2950)

"And guess what? I can special summon all copies of my Shinobi Genin from my deck," Seika stated lifting up her next two cards and slapping them onto her duel disk, allowing the two copies of the Shinobi Genin appear to fire off a pair of powerful flames into Ganryu. (GLP: 1950)

"With these defenses, I'll be able to take you out easily," Seika giggled placing her finger on her chin.

"…Wrong…you won't be able to take anyone out tonight…" Ganryu growled gesturing towards his Demon Bushido Samurai. "Cause my monster has a few other tricks he can use…continue the onslaught!"

Seika's eyes widened as the demonic samurai immediately appeared in front of her first Shinobi Genin and slammed its claw onto the dark ninja. The force sending Seika flying backwards, making many scratches appear on her skin and clothes. (SLP: 1150)

"You see…my Demon can attack again as long as you have another monster on the field and has a trampling effect…" Ganryu stated as his samurai began to cackle loudly with a demonic laughter. "And now…any last words?"

"Uh…don't end this?" Seika tried.

"…Oh, sorry, but no…" Ganryu cackled throwing his hand towards another one of Seika's Shinobi Genin. "What I was looking for was please…Destroy that ninja!"

With a powerful, red blood swipe, the Demon Bushido Samurai sliced the small Shinobi Genin as if it were nothing more than the very air it breathed itself. The force of the claw was strong enough to make Seika fly again, this time skidding against the sand to the rock walls, knocking her against one of them. (SLP: 0)

As the fog began to dissipate, all of the monsters and cards on the field disappeared as Ganryu slowly walked over to see Seika weakly raise her head up. "Well…I guess you win…handsome…"

"…Who sent you?" Ganryu asked kneeling down to be eye level with Seika.

"… …I guess you deserve that answer…" Seika giggled as the fog began to wrap around her feet. With what energy, Seika lifted her hand up and pointed towards the main duel academy building. Only this time, the roof of the building was lit completely blood red. "I-If you go up there…you'll find the guy who hired me…"

Nodding with his scowl on his face, Ganryu started to walk away from Seika, until he felt a small tug on his pants. Turning around, Ganryu saw the pathetic look that was on Seika's face. "A…a word of a-advice…"

Ganryu nodded once more, waiting for the advice, not noticing that Seika's legs were completely covered with the mysterious fog. "C-Come closer…"

A little bit wary, Ganryu knelt down once more and leaned in to hear what Seika had to say…

…That's when he felt something press up against his lips…

…his eyes widened…his heart nearly stopped…

…When he regained his composure, he realized that his lips were locked with Seika's, the fog now going a lot faster around her body now. As soon as Seika pulled away, she couldn't help but smile. "Hmm…later handsome…"

Still flabbergasted, Ganryu didn't realize that the fog had completely taken over Seika and dissipated with Seika disappearing with it.

"Heh…didn't expect that…"

With a new voice, Ganryu jumped to his feet and turned around to see Big Boss sitting on a rock a few feet between the two. Big Boss obviously amused seeing this, began to clap his hands. "A kiss between two enemies…not to mention between strangers! You certainly know how to add a kick of spice to a night's festivities…"

Shuffling his deck, back into his pocket, Ganryu raised his fists up in a back stance fighting form, preparing for anything.

"Aw…it's nice to see that you're willing to fight," Big Boss chuckled jumping off the rock and taking a step towards Ganryu. "But, I've come not to fight…but rather to give you this…"

With a flick of his fingers, Big Boss produced a small white card and presented it to Ganryu. A little wary, Ganryu snapped the card from Big Boss's hand to see that it was a business card, with Big Boss written in gold with a small chibi version of Big Boss himself giving a thumbs up. Underneath the picture was a cell phone number.

"I know you, you're probably seeking a chance to be a hero," Big Boss stated shrugging his shoulders. "Perhaps I may be able to help you with that…"

"Who are you?" Ganryu asked.

"Read the card," Big Boss stated before he turned towards the main duel academy building. "But, I don't expect your answer now…don't you have to go somewhere?"

"…" Ganryu just glared at Big Boss as he slowly began to leave the hidden beach.

Big Boss just snickered to himself as he watched Ganryu disappear into the distance. "Well…if my plan works, then I may have my next pawn in my game of chess…"

/--/-/-//-/-/-/-//

**Card Stats**

**Tekagi Kunoichi / Wind / LV. 3 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 400 / Warrior/Effect:** This monster is considered to have 'Ninja' in the card name. If this card battles a monster, flip a coin and heads or tails before damage calculation. If you call it right, destroy the opponent's monster with this effect.

**Description:** A young beautiful young kunoichi wearing a more soft combination of the blue ninja suit. Her long dark hair is tied back with a light blue headband with a few strands in front of her crystal blue eyes. On her hands, are pair of hand claws that gleam in the right light.

**Makibishi Shinobi / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 1500 / DEF: 700 / Warrior/Effect:** This monster is considered to have 'Ninja' in the card name. As long as this card remains face up on the field, lower the attack points of each face up monster on your opponent's side of the field by 100 times their level.

**Description:** A rough looking guy shinobi wearing ripped green camouflaged ninja pants with a fishnet shirt (exposing his toned chest) and camouflaged vest. A scar is on the bridge of his nose and his messy emerald hair goes past his shoulders. In his hands are multiple iron-spiked caltrops.

**Shinobi-Zue / Dark / LV. 3 / ATK: 1200 / DEF: 900 / Warrior/Effect:** This monster is considered to have 'Ninja' in the card's name. As long as this card remains face up on the field, increase the attack of all face up monsters with 'Ninja' in the card's name by 100 points times the number of stars on each monster.

**Description:** A fiery red ninja suit wearing ninja with a white bandana covering his hair. In his hands is a long staff that seems to have blades kept inside of them.

**Ninja - Ken Shinobi / Dark / LV. 6 / ATK: 2200 / DEF: 1800 / Warrior/Effect:** This monster's effect can only be used once per turn during your opponent's battle phase. Negate one monster attack against a monster with 'Ninja' in the card's name and decrease your opponent's life points by half of the attacking monster's original attack points.

**Description:** A scarred older ninja with a black cloth covering his face and samurai like ninja clothes with a dark colors on it. His face (or what's showing) has multiple scars and has his dark gray hair tied back into a small ponytail going down his back. In his right hand is a small sword that looks somewhat like a katana.

**Drunken Samurai / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 1750 / DEF: 1050 / Warrior/Effect:** When this card attacks a face up effect monster, negate the effect of the monster this card attacks.

**Description:** A samurai wearing partially damaged red armor with a black baggy suit underneath it. A large black sword is slung over his shoulder and a gourd at his right waist

**Shinobi Kan / Dark / LV. 4 / ATK: 1600 / DEF: 1200 / Warrior/Effect:** This card is considered to have 'Ninja' in it's name. When this card is destroyed and sent to the graveyard, you may special summon one 'Ninja' card from your hand or deck.

**Description:** A black clothed ninja with dark blue skin and red eyes.

Shinobi Genin / Dark / LV. 2 / ATK: 700 / DEF: 400 / Warrior/Effect: This card is considered to have 'Ninja' in it's name. When this card is special summoned, you may special summon two 'Shinobi Genin' from your hand, deck or graveyard. 

**Description:** A black clothed ninja with dark blue skin and red eyes, its pitch-black hair is flying wildly into the air.

**Ninjitsu Art – Phoenix Flower Jutsu / Continuous Trap / Effect:** Whenever you special summon a monster with 'Ninja' in it's name, inflict 500 points of damage to your opponent's life points.

**Image:** Multiple ninjas firing off multiple flames from their hands.

**Demon Bushido Samurai / Dark / LV. 10 / ATK/ DEF/ Fiend/Effect:** This card cannot be normal summoned or set. This card cannot be special summoned except by the effect of 'Bushido Dishonoring'. The original attack and defense of this card is half of the combined attack of all the monsters that were removed by 'Bushido Dishonoring' card effect. When this monster attacks with a higher attack than the defense of a monster in defense mode, inflict the difference to your opponent's life points. When this card successfully destroys a monster as a result of battle, if your opponent has another monster on the field, this card may attack again.

**Description:** A wicked, battle-scarred samurai wearing a broken, blood red armor with a pair of devil wings spurting out of his back. Instead of a weapon, the samurai has blood red demonic claws.

**Bushido Dishonoring / Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you have five face up monsters on your side of the field with 'Samurai' in their name. Remove all monster cards on your side of the field. Special summon one 'Demon Bushido Samurai' from your deck or graveyard.

**Image:** A dark samurai figure lifting his bloody sword with a dark flame behind him.

**Edo Gong / Trap / Effect: **This card can only be activated when your opponent declares an attack. Negate the attack and special summon one level 4 or lower monster from your hand.

**Image:** A Japanese Samurai being slammed up against a large golden gong.

**Summoning Jutsu / Instant Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated during a player's main phase. All player may special summon one level four or lower monster from his or her deck.

**Image: **A young blonde ninja riding on top of a large toad.

**Bushido Scroll / Wind / LV. 3 / ATK: 800 / DEF: 400 / Winged-Beast/Effect:** During the end phase this card is destroyed as a result of battle you may add one monster with 'Samurai' in its name from your deck to your hand.

**Description:** A fancy old scroll with a picture of a samurai.

**Exploding Tag Assault / Trap / Effect:** This card can only be activated when your opponent sends cards from his hand or deck to the graveyard. Remove all cards that were sent to the graveyard.

**Image:** Many ninjas throwing lit bombs at a stone building

**Weapon Trade-In / Spell / Effect:** Send five equip spell cards from your deck to the graveyard to activate this card's effect. After doing so, you may take any spell or trap card from your deck and add it to your hand. The deck is then shuffled.

**Image:** a young samurai trading a spear for a sack of gold

**Wartime Tactics / Spell / Effect:** During the turn this card is activated, each time any of your warrior-type monsters inflict damage to your opponent's life points, you may destroy one monster on the field.

**Image:** Many samurai charging towards a large burning Japanese castle

**Battle Charge / Spell / Effect:** Pay 2000 life points. Declare one word. All monsters with the declared word may attack your opponent directly this turn. All battle damage your opponent receives from monster affected by this card effect are cut in half.

**Image:** Many knights and Samurai charging towards each other.

**/---///--/-/-/-//-/**

**Dias:** Finally…my time has come! All that's left…

**Ganryu:** Dias!

**Rena:** Stop this!

**Dias:** Aw…perfect timing…Finally…my rebirth, shall begin!

_**The showdown has finally arrived! Next time on the Duelist Twilight special! – **__**Chapter 22: Duel for a Duel**_

**Rena:** …Dias…what are you wearing?


	22. Chapter 22: Duel for a Duel

_**Vyser D:**__ And now…a very special chapter for you all…so much so that it will be extra long, with a lot more action, more people being freaked out by Leo, more explanation and finally…a very familiar face will appear in the end of the chapter if you have happened to been reading my other stories…_

…_But for now…_

_Let's get it on!_

_/--//-/--//-/--/_

_**This is it…this is finally it…**_

_**After many years…all of those years…since I was cursed with this disease.**_

…_**Although…after thinking about all these years…I never thought I'd say this…**_

_**But…I'll miss my daily habits. I know that I'll have to rid myself of this disease in order to live…**_

…_**Part of me wishes that I didn't have to fix myself this way…but without the large amount of money needed...for the surgery, I'd be doomed.**_

…_**This is my last shot, and all I have to worry about now is finishing off these two fools…but do they honestly think that they can defeat my deck?**_

_**Not with the strategy that I have…with every card that I specifically chose…not only will I defeat the demons that reside within my sickly body…**_

…_**But I will defeat these two insects!**_

_**When the day sky will darken…**_

_**And the black lightning strikes… **_

_**One will appear steeped in the bloody Autumn to kill and to steal the lightning of darkness…**_

_**A warning that it is coming…**_

_**I, the Bloody Devil Hunter!**_

_**/-/-/-/-/-/-//--/-//-/**_

_**Chapter 22**_

_**Duel for a Duel**_

_**/-//--//-/-/-/--//-**_

There Dias was…all of the cards that his lackeys had collected for him over the previous week in his hands. With every step he took towards the runes that were painted atop of the roof of the Duel Academia's main building, the cards began to glow a bright blood red.

"With many sacrifices…"

Dias stepped into the middle of the circle like rune, and immediately lifted up his hands into the air as a powerful wind began to whip through out the roof. "…Will come a purification that will be the bane for this sickly body…"

Releasing his grip, the wind began to carry the many cards from Dias's hands, surprisingly allowing the cards to fly towards the edges of the rune. All of them standing up straight and not moving in the wind. "…And allow a life to be renewed!"

The rune's blood crimson light surged upwards towards the moon, completely engulfing Dias and slowly ripping his clothes from the sheer power. Soon, the light became so thick that Dias's figure disappeared…

…the only thing that allowed anyone to know that Dias was still around was the laughter that surged through out the light.

/-/-/-//-/-/-/

"…I see you're as energetic as usual Tony…"

Turning his head slightly, Tony was starring at a smirking Tai who had Rena held up in his arms. Apparently she must've fallen asleep during Tony's duel with the Black Tiger.

"Nice ta see ya again Tai," Tony laughed trying to get up…but being unable to do so because of the previous. "Sorry, I'd get up, but I'm tired!"

"…You always have that positive attitude don't you Tony?" Tai chuckled walking towards Tony, still carrying Rena in his arms. "Still collecting those barrels?"

"Ya'll better believe it!" Tony announced with a grin plastered over his face. "So…why are you here again?"

"Actually, remember last year when I told your fortune?" Tai asked laying Rena down in front of Tony.

Tony's eyes widened as he immediately thought about what had happened under a year ago. "You don't mean…"

"Yep…" Tai simply replied nodding his head.

Tony's eyes immediately became watery and filled with sparkles as he clasped his hand together. "This is the girl I'm destined to fall in love with!"

A little embarrassed, Tai's eyes began to shift to the side before he slapped his forehead. "…Not that you dope! The other thing!"

"…Oh!" Tony shouted slightly embarrassed himself. "Oh! Oh…uh oh…"

"That is correct…I think I may have actually found out the identity for the third…" Tai started.

"…May I ask the third what?" Leo asked placing a hand on Tai's shoulder.

"ARYGAH!" Tai shouted out in fear, jumping away from Leo and towards Tony.

"Hey there sempai!" Tony laughed lifting a hand up to his forehead to salute his sempai…in sneakiness and the arts of scaring the crap out of people. "What's up?"

"…I just finished facing a dark duelist," Leo answered with his eyes closed; he didn't think it was very necessary to mention Renji's name. These two didn't know him and Rena was currently asleep. "I think that maybe someone sent a duelist or two to try to retrieve something."

"Did you notice something strange in those duels sir?" Tony asked fixing his hat while Tai was trying to catch his breath by clutching his chest, his eyes bulging widely. "When I dueled against that Black Tiger character, I took a few direct attacks from him and got a quite a few cuts…"

"Congrats are in order then," Tai breathed heavily gaining a majority of his composure back from Leo's sudden appearance. "You two, and possibly this girl have survived your first darkness games…not many people can do that…"

"Why is that?" Leo questioned raising an eyebrow while placing a hand on his hip.

"You might want to get a drink before I get into my explanation," Tai warned crossing his arms and immediately sat down onto the ground. After a few seconds, Leo and Tony just blinked at each other, so Tai began. "Very well…now then, a darkness game is more of a connection to a different realm where…"

"…Where duel monsters actually become real…" Leo interrupted.

Tai blinked a few times as did Tony, both slightly confused as to how Leo knew what he was about to say. "Uh…right. Any who…for those have never been in a shadow game before will often turn one of two ways in the duel. They will either become very clear headed…"

"…Or revert to basic animalistic instincts clouding their judgment and make rash decisions," Leo interrupted once more, this time to receive a glare from Tai.

"Oh, I'm sorry, is this 'your' story?" Tai asked this time a little annoyed that Leo kept interrupting him. "Would you like to tell it?"

"Gladly," Leo accepted making Tai fall face first into the ground. "You see, a darkness game is not only a battle between two duelists or warriors, it's also a battle of will. Whoever has a stronger will or mind will most likely be the victor in the deadly match. Usually, only a duelist can only lose only one darkness game…the reason is that usually that the darkness game has a punishment for the loser."

"The punishment is usually selected by the players at the beginning of the darkness game, however if a player doesn't select a punishment, there is an initial punishment. Although, in the cases that you and I have just experienced, Tony, would have to be that our opponents had selected an alternate punishment."

"If you knew that then why didn't you select a different punishment?" Tony asked raising an eyebrow at Leo. Of course he really didn't care for the answer right now; he was more interested in seeing that Rena was still wearing his blue blazer.

"Well, for one, I really didn't know it was a darkness game," Leo answered crossing his arms over his chest. "I for one didn't usually believe in this stuff…"

"…Then how do you know so much about it?" Tai asked quite confused that he was being one upped by a pretty boy who didn't really believe in the subject that they were discussing.

"It's called a book," Leo retorted with his mysterious smile appearing on his face. "For all I knew at the time, I would've just registered that someone hacked into my duel disk to make the pain simulators malfunction to trick me. But when I saw my opponent disappear in the mist…well, need I go on?"

Both Tai and Tony were speechless, taking turns looking at the surprised faces they both had put on.

With the occasional bird chirp or echo of the breeze, the three teens were completely silent all of them waiting for the others to say something.

"…Out of my way…"

All three of the teens turned to see Ganryu, his Slifer Red jacket slipped over his shoulders with a dark look on his face. Tai narrowed his eyes at Ganryu and combed his hand through the front of his hair. "What exactly are you going to do little brother?"

"Little brother?" Tony and Leo asked each other.

"…I don't need to say my reason to you," Ganryu spat out at his older brother. "So get the hell out of my way before I make you get out of my way…"

"Still trying to change your destiny?" Tai sneered standing in front of his brother to place a hand on Ganryu's shoulder. "How many times do we need to go through with this…?"

"Get your hands off me," Ganryu growled before grasping Tai's wrist in a stiff grip. Then with a quick twist, Ganryu immediately threw Tai into the air and sent him flying a few feet from the group. "Destiny? Ha! Like I'll let some crap like that write my story!"

Then turning towards Leo and Tony, Ganryu began to glare daggers at the two Obelisk Blues. "You two want to try to stop me?"

"Nah, I prefer to keep my consciousness," Leo answered taking a step to the side.

"And I can't really see myself winning against you," Tony added lifting Rena out of Ganryu's way.

"Good," Ganryu replied walking past the three and into the building, waving his hand behind his head. "If you want to see a real duelists' duel…then come up to the roof in a couple minutes."

After a few seconds of more silence, between the two Obelisk Blues, Tony gestured towards the knocked out Tai. "Um…should we help him or…"

"Nah, he'll be fine," Leo answered before looking up towards the top of the building to see the blood red light flow into the sky towards the moon. "Right now…I believe that we should head up to the roof as well…and I think we should bring Rena with us."

"What!?!" Tony asked looking down at Rena in his arms. "We don't know what's going on up there! There, there, there could be a monster, or a crazy guy, or…or…or…"

"A duel that one of us should duel," Leo interrupted before he slowly headed towards the main building's doors. "We've got to at least try to stop Ganryu. Plus, I don't think you want to leave a lady out here alone."

"…Yeah…I see what you mean…" Tony sighed following the annoying Obelisk Blue.

/-//-/--/-//--//-/-/

There he was…

…All that was needed was the final duels and he'd finally be freed. And he knew that the duelists were on the way…all that he needed to choose who would be his victim(s) and Dias would be spending his life in great health and the next year in a tropical paradise.

The light created by the rune began to recede back into the roof, but not before leaving its mark in the sky. The entire moon above the Academy was a pure blood red, making the night's sky become a dark crimson.

"With the crimson moon finally in place…" Dias chuckled shaking his hair from the front of his face. "It'll only be a matter of time before…"

"That's enough out of you."

Dias turned his head around slightly to see Ganryu standing at the door to the stairs, with his eyes closed and his arms crossed in front of him. "If you talk too much then my story will get boring."

"Boring? Please you samurai jerk, don't think that you can top me easily," Dias shot back narrowing his eyes at Ganryu. "I'm on a level higher than you will ever be…"

"Oh yeah?" That's what Ganryu to open his eyes, but a few seconds later, he wished he had never opened them in the first place. "W-w-w-what the!?!"

//--/-//--//--/-/-/

"Geez…why didn't Alan install an elevator here?" Tony gasped slowly trying to make his way up the stairs. Normally it wouldn't be much of a stretch for him to make it up this many stairs, but then again he wasn't normally carrying someone in his arms.

"Hey…Leo? Where'd ya go?"

For all Tony knew right now, Leo was probably already at the roof or was thinking of a way to freak out people in the newest ways possible.

"Uh…Tony?"

Looking down in his arms, Tony's eyes met with Rena's. After taking in some key factors on the fact that she was in his arms, he didn't have his blazer on, was slightly bruise and it was on her instead, a large blush crept onto her face. "What happened?"

After getting Rena feet first on the stairs, Tony began to explain to her that after her duel with Antonio, that Tony had to duel some masked freak. Then how Leo and Ganryu showed up and why they were in the stairway. "…and den ya basically just woke up and I started telling ya about why we were here. Nuh'ing happened so don't worry."

With the blush still on her face, Rena looked at the blue blazer on her body. "I guess I'll have to get a new uniform then…"

"I'll give ya a hand with that," Tony offered slamming his hand onto his chest.

"My, quite the pair you two make," Leo chuckled while hanging upside down from the rope he managed to tie onto a higher section of the stairs.

"What the!?!" Rena and Tony shouted as Leo jumped from the rope and landed on the stairs.

"Well? What did you think? Too 'Spiderman' clichéd?" Leo asked fixing his hair slightly while Rena and Tony slowly regained their composures.

"Leo, how do you keep doing that?" Rena asked clutching her chest.

"Practice, practice, and more practice," Leo answered before he continued to walk up the stairs. "Now then, shall we continue to the top?"

"…Is he even human?" Rena whispered to Tony while she walked behind Leo.

"I've been wonderin' dat myself," Tony replied.

"Do you two wonder if I can hear you?" Leo asked suddenly appearing behind the two.

"WAGH!"

//---//---/-////-/

After a couple more minutes of walking up the stairs, the three students finally reached the top of the stairs, ended by a doorway that was blocked by a familiar shadow…

"Ganryu!" Rena, Tony and Leo shouted (Leo however sounded a little calmer than the other two) at the same time. And yet Ganryu didn't turn his head or even move.

"Uh…what da heck are ya looking at?" Tony asked as he and Leo looked past Ganryu…

"Holy…" Leo started.

"Crud…" Tony finished.

Rena had many question marks appearing around her head, confused what had made the three guys freeze up in place. "Is it that bad?"

"Rena! No!" Tony shouted getting in front of Rena.

"This is not made for the eyes of a young girl such as yourself!" Leo added, this time a little distressed instead of the calm version that everyone had come to know.

"Oh come on, you two are probably blowing it out of proportion…" Rena sighed as she managed to push past the three boys…

…And they were right, she wished that she wouldn't be watching what was in front of her now. Standing the blood red rune, glowing around his body, was none other than Dias…however…he had gone through a very drastic change in an outfit.

He still had his overcoat on (even though it had a few rips on it), however it was open to show his drastic change. His body was fully muscular and was clearly seen, due to the fact that he was wearing a tight pair of black shorts that didn't do anything to hide his physical features there. "Why hello there…"

"MY EYES!" Rena shouted immediately covering her eyes.

"We tried to warn ya," Leo and Tony sighed shaking their heads.

"I don't see what's wrong," Dias commented shrugging his shoulders. "I mean, if you've got the body, why not show it off?"

"How about for decency's sake?" Rena asked still having her eyes covered.

"Oh come on, it's got that…primitive look to it," Dias chuckled rubbing the side of his head. "Besides, you try to change when you're up here and your clothes just ripped to shreds."

After a few minutes of getting a spare pair of pants and regaining composure, Dias coughed loudly to get everyone's attention. "Now then…can you stand to look at me now?"

"Freakin…I don't even know what to call you," Ganryu growled in protest that he couldn't actually think of a proper insult.

"Whatever," Dias chuckled wagging his finger towards the group. "Now then, I believe you people wanted something with me?"

"I can barely stand the sight of this pervert," Rena groaned lowering her head.

"…Pervert?" Dias asked.

"Enough talk!" Ganryu roared activating his duel disk. "I came for a worthy opponent…and apparently you're the one I'm supposed to face."

Shaking his head, Dias seemed to have more energy than he was before, and yet, there was still quite a few things missing. "Now, now, now…I can understand you wanting to duel me quite well…"

"However, against one duelist, that's too easy."

"I'm more than a challenge for you," Ganryu growled walking slowly towards the rune.

"…I don't think you're listening," Dias stated closing his eyes for a second. With each breath he took, the blood red aura began to go wild, immediately flaring past all of the duelists. "…I'm not giving you a choice in the matter! And I'll allow my power to choose who will duel me!"

The powerful rune quickly receded inward till it was back to its original circular form, only this time having three people inside the rune. One being Dias, of course, the other two…

"Oh my," Leo stated rubbing his chin.

"Aw crap…" Tony cursed under his breath.

"Well…this was unexpected…" Dias stated looking at the two duelists in front of him.

"This can't be good," Rena sighed combing her hair through her fingers.

"Great…I get stuck with the flat chest," Ganryu growled slapping his forehead.

"Beggars can't be choosers ya know," Dias chuckled activating his duel disk. "Now then…ready yourselves! This will be a duel that you soon won't forget!"

"Yeah…I don't know how I got in this circle," Rena stated heading for the edge of the rune. "But, I'm still tired from my last duel so…"

An invisible wall stopped Rena right in her tracks, and even though she couldn't see it, a blood red fog seeped over the roof. And then with a loud laugh, Dias got everyone's attention towards him once more. "Nice try, but like I said before, you don't have a choice in the matter! The only way out of here, is for one of you to be victorious against me!"

"…Great, I do enjoy giving my opponent a handicap…" Ganryu chuckled lifting his duel disk up.

"You know! I'm standing right here!" Rena shouted, still a little hurt from the flat chest comment.

"Enough of this mindless babbling!" Dias shouted snapping his newly shuffled deck into his duel disk. "Its time to duel and it's time to face your doom! Either you duel or you lose!" (DLP: 8000)

Without hesitation, Ganryu slipped his dueling deck into his disk with the life point counter flashing immediately. "I whole-heartedly agree…enough of this meaningless talking!" (GLP: 8000)

"…Looks like I don't have a choice…" Rena sighed preparing herself like Dias and Ganryu. (RLP: 8000)

"Good, and now that you're both ready," Dias chuckled pulling his six card hand. "We can finally get the torment rolling! And I'll start off!"

"With a fairly simple move…A monster on the defensive and two cards face down…and now, why don't one of you make a move?" The three cards appeared before Dias, all three of them face down in front of the Bloody Demon Hunter.

"Gladly!" Ganryu shouted pulling his sixth card.

"Heh…and now first of all, I'll activate my devastating trap card!" Dias shouted throwing his arm over his first face down card, flipping up to show a store clerk staring at fake money while a bald thief makes off. "It's a trap that goes by the name, Fake Out! My trap automatically activates when one of you has more five cards…you get to send five of those cards a one way trip to the graveyard! So…Ganryu was it? Say goodbye to your hand!"

Before Ganryu had a chance to protest, five ghostly hands shot out of his graveyard, flying around his body before snatching five of Ganryu's cards. "Damn it…It'll take a lot more than that to stop me!"

"Then please…continue with your turn," Dias snickered crossing his arms.

"Grr…fine…I'll set a monster and call it a turn…" Ganryu snarled through his teeth. Already this freaky pervert managed to cut off his advantage and was now resorted to top decking…

…he had no choice now but to depend on the flat chest…

"Next please…" Dias joked waving his hand towards Rena.

"…Leo…who do you think has the advantage here?" Tony whispered watching Rena draw her next card.

"Really quite hard you see…in a sense, Rena and Ganryu should," Leo thought out loud while rubbing his chin. "Because they have two strategies that duelist over there will have to think on his feet to deal with both of them at the same time…however, that there lays their weakness…"

"I…I summon Learning Elf (1400/1500) in attack mode!" Rena announced as the blonde elf wearing a green tunic and cape appeared before her, reading her tome. "And I'll place two cards face down…to end my turn…"

"Well…this is boring," Dias sighed pulling his next card, creating powerful sparks on the field. That's when his other face down card flipped up to show a trap card with the Dark Ruler Ha Des rubbing his chin at a familiar white haired warrior (who was reaching for his sword). "But I'll spice it up! I activate the trap card…Devil's False Security! All I need to do is pay 1000 life points…" (DLP: 7000)

The sparks surged more intensely underneath Rena's two set cards, making them fly back into her hand. "And all spell and trap cards on the field get sent back to our hands! Of course…to get an early lead this is all necessary."

"He probably should've saved that…" Tony muttered under his breath.

"Yes…However, he's probably got something planned for this turn," Leo concluded.

"Next up! I'll flip my face down monster, so come out Demon Slayer Dante!" Dias shouted as the face down card flew up into the as if it were a blanket, allowing a different version of Dante to stand. This version still had the white hair, with his red overcoat strapped up and wearing larger black gloves (800/600). The slayer smirked widely as he drew his sword.

"Heh…what's that thing going to do?" Ganryu mocked as Dias lifted two more cards from his hand.

"Glad you asked! Cause first of all…I'll equip Dante with a very special sword," Dias announced as a powerful bright golden light shined next to the blood red moon. Soon, the golden light began to spin towards the roof, before piercing the concrete, revealing that the golden light was in actuality a sword…

…But not just any sword, but a finely crafted golden sword with a dragon like hilt that had a silver ring between the wings along with a blue gem floating in it. Eyeing the sword slightly, Dante immediately pulled it free and held both of his swords in the air. "A blade that has been guarded by dark sorcerers for ages, generations and eons! Feast your eyes on the Sword of Baltandars!"

"I've seen better equip cards in the discount bin," Ganryu scoffed.

"Hmm…well…you'll see what it can do sooner or later," Dias stated taking the other card and slipping it into his duel disk. "And after I set this face down card…it'll be sooner! Dante! Attack Rena's Learning Elf!"

With a wide grin, the Demon Slayer slowly began to walk over towards the elf, both of his swords dragging on the ground, creating slight sparks. In response, the Learning Elf immediately opened her tome and began to chant. "I think you need to take a couple math classes Dias…my elf has more attack points than your demon slayer…"

"I think my equip spell has something different to say…" Dias chuckled as a blood red aura appeared around the Sword of Baltandars. Then with a mighty slash, Dante sent the aura to the Elf that surrounded her immediately. The aura started to seep into the elf, making her shout out in pain.

Then a horrible transformation began to take place with the elf, her hair began to grow long, her skin turned a dark purple as two demonic wings cut through the back of her clothes. Whatever stood in front of Rena now…it was no longer the elf that she always knew. "W-W-W-What…m-m-my elf…"

"…Is now a demon," Dias finished before Dante sped up his charge towards the elf, both swords creating a large amount of sparks (800/600 + 1000/0). Then in a quick slice, the demonic elf cried out in pain. "And guess what? My Demon Slayer gains a thousand attack points when he battles with a demon!"

"Well, at least I can draw a card…" Rena started until Dante appeared in front of her and grabbed her hand. "Huh?" (RLP: 7600)

"Sorry, but your elf has to go to the graveyard…" Dias explained before Dante jumped back to his side of the field. "But Dante removes any monster that he destroys from play! So your draw is dead…"

"Interesting combo…" Leo admitted a little concerned for his friends, but more interested in the moves. "This Dias knows his dueling…his move basically created a small wall for himself."

"I think I'll end my turn," Dias chuckled before flapping some hair from his face. "So…let's see how you can beat me now?"

"I'll show you how!" Ganryu shouted nearly ripping his next card off the top of his duel disk, and immediately held it up. "First, I'll play the spell card, Coins of the Underworld!"

A powerful flame surrounded the three duelists, allowing many coins fly up from the ground. "This spell card forces us all to discard our hands and draw from the bottom of decks till we have five cards."

"Fine by me," Dias chuckled lifting up his two remaining cards to show Devil's Final Roar and Demon Hunter Trish. "I've got a copy of that card in my deck as well…"

"Ganryu! I had a full hand!" Rena protested slipping her cards into her duel disk and drew from the bottom of her deck.

"Whatever," Ganryu growled looking at his five card hand. He was never one to work with anyone, let alone Rena. "Now then, I'll flip up my face down monster, Drunken Samurai (1750/105)!" From the face down card the Drunken Samurai staggered out onto the filed raising his sword.

"And next…I'll summon Crescent Moon Samurai (1700/1200)!"

In a flurry of cherry blossoms the female samurai wearing metallic silver armor appeared next to the drunken samurai, spinning her spear with one hand. "And guess what, you can make my Drunken Samurai a demon if you want…but it won't matter. My samurai will still negate your monster's effect!"

"Then by all means…attack," Dias challenged looking at his hand, more specifically a blue bordered card and spell card. '_I've got plenty of moves to defeat you…_'

"Drunken Samurai! Attack Dante!" Ganryu ordered throwing his hand towards the demon slayer. Lumbering towards the Demon Slayer, the Drunken Samurai immediately sliced down upon the annoyed demon slayer. (DLP: 6050)

"Next…Crescent Moon Samurai…"

"I activate my trap card! Brothers in Blood!" Dias shouted when his single card flipped up showing Dante standing back to back with another man who look very similar to him only wearing a blue overcoat and having his hair combed back. "When a monster on my side of the field is destroyed, I can special summon another monster from my deck that has the same attribute and type. So since Dante just went to the graveyard…how about we bring a more favorite version?"

The trap card shattered, allowing the Legendary Demon Slayer Dante (1500/1200) to jump onto the field drawing his sword, Rebellion, from his back (1500/1200 + 1000/0). "And due to his ability, I'll equip him with Rebellion from my deck…still want to attack?"

"Grr…I'll place two cards face down…" Ganryu growled with the two cards appearing behind his two monsters. "You better not screw this up, flat chest…"

"You could try treating me with some respect!" Rena shouted with a blush on her face while she drew her next card. A face down monster appeared before her and two set spell or trap cards appeared in front of her. "That's all…"

"Hmm…I can say I'm not surprised…" Dias chuckled drawing his next card, increasing his hand to six. "Although…I do have to thank you Ganryu…if it wasn't for your spell card, then I wouldn't have been able to draw one of the most devastating cards in my deck…"

"Great…" Ganryu snarled through his teeth.

"Now I'll activate the spell card, Opening the Gate to the Demon World!" Dais laughed as the ground began to rumble loudly, before the roof shattered behind him forming into a large demonic gate. "Now I'll send Getsu Fuhma and Demon Slayer Lady to the graveyard…and now…gates of the demon world…release the being from inside!"

The gates slowly began to open up, allowing many dark spirits to stream out of marvel flying around the top of the roof. Their mere presence made Tony and Rena jump and shiver. Leo just allowed the spirits to fly around them, as if they weren't even there.

When the gates were fully opened… a single man stepped from the gates, wearing fancy dark clothes underneath a dark blue overcoat with a sheathed katana in his left hand. With each step the man took, the gates began to close and he raised his head up to show that he was a dead ringer for Dante, only his hair was combed backwards (2800/2600). "Allow me to introduce Dante's brother…the Legendary Demon Swordsman Vergil…"

The two sons of Sparda turned towards each other, shooting glares towards each other before returning their glares towards Ganryu and Rena (2500/1200 + 1000/0) (2800/2600 + 1000/0). "And when the sons of Sparda are both on the field, they challenge each other to increase each other's attack by a thousand points and can't be destroyed by targeting effects…and I still haven't activated Vergil's effect…"

"There's more?" Rena asked with a gulp.

Taking one of his two remaining cards and slipping it into his graveyard, another card shot out of his deck and into his hand. As soon as he slipped that card into his duel disk, Vergil immediately drew his sword slowly from it's sheathe (3800/2600 + 500/0). "Oh yes…in fact, it's called Yamato Blade! And gives Vergil five hundred extra attack points…and don't even bother placing face down monsters any more. If he attacks them, they're automatically destroyed…"

That's when a dark light flowed from Dias's graveyard. "Oh yeah…there's one more thing I forgot to mention…the card I discarded was a card know as Contract of Greed…allowing all of us to draw two more cards."

In a quick reaction, all three duelists drew their cards, and with a nod, Dias immediately slipped one into his duel disk. "And now…after I place this face down card, Vergil! Strike down that Drunken Samurai!"

In the blink of an eye, Vergil appeared right in front of the Drunken Samurai and immediately sliced right through the warrior. However, it looked like the Samurai was alright until he fell in two. (GLP: 5450)

"Dante! Your move! Attack the Crescent Moon Samurai!"

Dante was a little less fancy, but just as fast the Legendary Demon Slayer cleaved the powerful sword right through the Crescent Moon Samurai's chest plate and through her body. With a loud, painful scream, the Samurai disappeared in a dark mist. (GLP: 3650)

"Jackpot…" Dias chuckled lifting his right up in a victory V sign.

"A little early don't you think?" Ganryu asked snapping his fingers towards his face down card to the right. The card immediately flipped upwards to show a samurai lifting a dagger over his chest. "Especially since I can activate my trap card, Sacrifice for Honor!"

As if on cue, Ganryu snapped his deck out of his duel disk and fished through his deck selecting five different cards from his deck and lifting them up for everyone to see. "Now, when two or more Samurai monsters on my side of the field are destroyed, I can automatically remove up to five other Samurai from my deck to increase my life points by four hundred points for each removed card!" (GLP: 5650)

"…" Dias was silent as he crossed his arms. However, his look wasn't of annoyance or anger…but rather, he was smiling like Leo normally would.

"Silent eh? Good!" Ganryu shouted pulling his next card from his deck. "Then this will be much easier! Especially when I activate the spell card, Weapon Trade-In! So I'll send my Tempest Sword, Inferno Blade, Aqua Rapier, Earthen Sword and Void Sword to the graveyard, allowing me to take any spell card from my deck into my hand!"

"Ganryu should you really be thinning your deck that much?" Rena asked.

"Shut up!" Ganryu shouted back lifting his selected card up. "But I won't play my spell right now…instead I'll activate my other face down trap card! Go Return from the Different Dimension! So for a cost of half of my life points…" (GLP: 2825)

A powerful vortex appeared over Ganryu, and five bight lights immediately shot down forming into the Samurai of the Flame (1500/1000), Samurai of the Earth (1200/1400), Samurai of the Water (1300/1100), Samurai of the Sky (1400/1400), and Samurai of the Void (1700/1400) all of them going into a samurai pose. "And the samurai of the Five Rings return! But they won't be staying for long! I activate the spell card, The Book of Five Rings!"

Just like with Seika, a powerful bright light engulfed the field, making everyone who was watching the duel turn away…

…Except for Dias who stared directly at the five samurai become five multi-colored lights and shoot into the air, crashing into each other to absorb the bright light. Then with a powerful flurry of light particles a new samurai was floating in the air above Ganryu…

Floating in mid air was a handsome samurai wearing a golden armor with many golden wings flowing from the back, making the warrior seem like an angel. In the warrior's right hand, he held onto a golden katana, gleaming in light of the crimson moon. On the back of the warrior, a banner with the kanji symbols for earth, water, fire, sky and void written on it was attached between the wings. As the samurai looked down towards Dias, everyone could see that he had a calm look on his face (3000/2200).

"Samurai of the Five Rings…a warrior who follows Bushido…down to its smallest detail without question," Ganryu introduced with a few tears streaming down his face at the sight of his monster. This monster…it definitely had a key effect on Ganryu… "If he ever did something against the code, he wouldn't hesitate to take his own life. Just like her…"

Everyone turned towards Ganryu who shook it off and held up his fist towards his monster. "However! When my samurai is brought out on the field, for each of his fallen comrades in the graveyard, he gains one Shi-ken counter!"

Seven lights emerged from Ganryu's graveyard, and immediately surrounded the holy Samurai creating a powerful barrier around the warrior. "What these things do will be answered later on…but for right now, I'll activate another spell card, the one I got from my Weapon Trade-In!"

With a flash, the spell card emerged onto the field showing an angelic samurai lifting his right hand up into the air, showing that he was lifting up five different swords into the air above his arm. "I activate the spell card, Five Ring Sword Technique! Now all other spell and trap cards on my side of the field are destroyed! However, I don't have any! So I can send my spell to the graveyard to enact the rest of its effect!"

Around the holy samurai, five bright lights, one red, blue, yellow, green and black circled around the Samurai of the Five Rings. Each of them immediately transforming into a different sword that immediately floated behind the warrior, making each of the banners glow their respective colors (3000/2200 + 1500/0). "So by its effect, I can equip my samurai with five equip cards from my graveyard! And what better than the mystic swords of the Five Rings?"

"T-that's amazing!" Tony gasped while taking a step back at the powerful monster on the field. '_T-T-This Ganryu…if he was able to execute this play this easily, he must be in a level far higher that the red dorms…I bet if he didn't defend Rena he could have been promoted to Obelisk blue after the first exams! Hell! He probably could've been the Kaiser in his second year of school!_'

"And now…Samurai of the Five Rings! Attack Dante! Five Ring Sweeping Swallow!" Ganryu shouted throwing his head back.

Closing his eyes, the holy samurai landed on the ground lifting it's sword up towards the confused demon slayer. The next second the Samurai disappeared making everyone look around to try to find him…

…but it was too late…

…With a powerful downward slice, the Samurai cleaved Dante in two from behind making the slayer die in a large spray of blood. (GLP: 5050)

Part of the barrier around the Samurai shattered into light (SkC: 6) and the Vergil became slightly weaker due to Dante no longer being there (3300/2600). Ganryu then raised his hand towards Vergil. "But I'm not done! My samurai can attack once more! So go! Destroy Vergil!"

In a quick slice, the powerful samurai managed to beat the Legendary Demon Swordsman in a sword draw, shattering the son of Sparda into pixels that flew back into Dias. (DLP: 3850) (SkC: 5)

"Now then…" Ganryu growled crossing his arms over his chest as his samurai returned in front of him. "You ready to give up you third rated hack?"

"Actually…" Dias chuckled as he relaxed his back and legs. "I'm just getting started! I discard one card from my hand to activate my trap card!"

A dark shadow slowly appeared in front of Dias immediately splitting off into different shadows that shot into the air that fell to the ground forming into a smirking Dante (1500/1200 + 2200/2200).

"What in the?" Ganryu questioned looking at the newly brought back Demon slayer. "How in the world did he get back and even stronger?"

"Quite simple really…my trap card was known as Devil's Duplication," Dias explained fanning out his deck once more. And selected a card to place in his duel disk, allowing Dante to draw his two famous guns (3700/3400 + 300/0). "When two or more monsters on my side of the field are destroyed in battle and I lose life points, I can discard a card from my had to special summon one of the destroyed monsters and increase his attack and defense by the amount of life points I lost…quite a potent trap card if I do say myself…"

"And since your spell card prevents you from summoning anything else and those equip cards prevent you from playing any spell or trap cards…" Dias chuckled reaching for his deck. "I think I'll take my…"

"HEY!" Rena shouted throwing her arms to the side. "I'm still here!"

Everyone sweatdropped remembering that Rena was in the duel still, and Dias immediately shook his head and scratched the side of his face with a blush creeping up on his face. "Whoops! I forgot you were here!"

"…That really hurts…" Rena sighed lifting her next card from her deck. '_Well, hello there Ruby Carbuncle!_'

'_Squeak!'_

Rena blinked a few times from the squeak but then shook it off taking the card and placed the card onto her duel disk, making it appear underneath her other card. "Um…I'll set another monster face down and end my turn…"

"Hmm…you might as well not even be here," Dias sighed lifting his next card up. "Here's how a real move works! I activate the spell card, Card of Demise!"

Five dark flames appeared around Dias's body as he drew till his hand was filled with five cards. "Now I draw till I hold five cards, but in five turns, I lose my hand. But I doubt that I'll have to worry about that…now then…Let the devastation continue! With the powerful spell, Devastating Tornado!"

The wind began to whip up a powerful storm that blew away all of the Samurai of the Five Rings' floating weapons shattered into pixels (3000/2200). "My spell card can only be activated when one of you has a full spell or trap field. All the cards there are instantly destroyed! And I know what your Shi-ken counters are capable of doing…they prevent your monster from being killed off! Well then…more fun for me!"

"Dante! Attack the Samurai!"

With a great leap into the air, the famous demon slayer spun over the Samurai of the Five Rings, and unleashed a powerful shower of hot lead that the barrier around the samurai blocked easily. However the attack struck Ganryu, making him growl in pain as the bullets slowly depleted his life points. (GLP: 1825) (SkC: 4)

"But I'm not done yet…Dante! Attack once more!"

Landing on the samurai's barrier, Dante took aim and immediately let loose quite a few more bullets that bounced off the barrier once more and into Ganryu's arm, making the duelist growl even louder. (GLP: 825) (SkC: 3)

"And now…I'll place two cards face down…" Dias chuckled with the cards appearing behind Dante. "And call it a turn…looks like your strategy caused your demise! I know what your Five Ring Sword Technique does. As long as your samurai is on the field, you can play any other monsters…"

"Damn," Ganryu cursed nearly ripping his next card off his deck. With a loud growl he waved his hand towards his Samurai, making it take a knee in defense mode. "End turn…"

"M-my turn," Rena gulped looking at her hand. Another card appeared behind her monsters. "That's all…"

"Hmm…that's a shame," Dias chuckled drawing as one of the fire balls went out. "Now then…I think I'll equip Dante with a devastating equip spell known as Fairy Meteor Crush! Now no defense will save you!"

"NO!" Tony shouted throwing his arm out towards Rena.

Leo just crossed his arms and lowered his head.

"Dante! End this for that little samurai!" Dias ordered before Dante ran towards the Samurai of Five Rings spinning both of his hand guns.

Instead of firing, Dante leapt into the air, landing his boots onto the head of the Samurai and then took aim at Ganryu. In a last ditch effort, Ganryu began to run off to the side, but was too late and received a large amount of lead in his back making him shout out in pain as the hot lead pierced through his body. (GLP: 0) (SkC: 2)

"GANRYU!" Rena, Tony and Leo shouted before Ganryu fell to the ground with his face landing into the concrete.

"Hmm…" Dias chuckled as a dark aura slowly flowed into his body. "He was impressive…but he shouldn't have tried to duel me alone…because now…all I have to do is defeat the weakest link here!"

"Ganryu…" Rena sobbed looking at Ganryu's motionless body. "Are…are you okay?"

"RENA! LOOK OUT!" Tony shouted making Rena turn to see Dante heading towards her face down monster.

Quickly wiping the small tears on her face, Rena threw her hand over right face down card. The card flipped up to show a face down spell card showing an elf walking through the halls of a large library. "I activate my spell card, The Wandering Scholar! All I have to do is pay a thousand points and I can look in your hand and activate a spell card as if it was mine!" (RLP: 6600)

Dias's remaining cards spun around showing everyone what he was holding. Pointing towards the right most card, the spell appeared in front of Rena showing a card bouncing on top of a deck. "I choose your Quick Save! Now Dante returns to the top of your deck!"

Before Dante could fire off a shot, he disappeared into his card form and slipped onto the top of Dias's deck. With a growl, Dias shot off a terrible glare towards Rena. "That was a cheap trick!"

"…I should've activated that spell when Dias attacked Ganryu," Rena muttered to herself looking towards Ganryu who was still not moving.

"Hmm…too bad…" Dias chuckled crossing his arms. One half of the duel was done…all he had to do now was finish it and his dream would finally come true. "There was only a small chance that there would be something that could've helped…oh well."

"But, Ganryu's alright…right?" Rena asked.

"No, he's gone," Dias stated snapping his fingers and the red seal began to surround his body. "Along with all the others that I managed to collect…All for my goals!"

"But why are you doing this?" Leo questioned rubbing his chin.

"…Fine…Close your eyes and you will see…" Dias growled closing his eyes.

///-/--//--//-//-//

_The sun shined over the large family estate of the Swartzvauld family, many people dressed in fancy clothes each of them with similar features to Dias. All of them enjoying the expensive food that was prepared and the classical music that softly floated through the cool summer breeze._

_The kids of the family were playing outside in the large yard with a younger Dias, wearing a black vest over a dark gray shirt with Dante on it, chasing a few of his cousins and siblings. "Come on guys! I've been it for a half an hour!"_

"_You'll have to catch us!"_

"_Stop complaining Dias!"_

"_Yeah! You've got to train more often!"_

_After a while more playing, Dias fell to the ground backwards tired and breathing heavily with his cousins and siblings standing over him. "D-d-dang you guys…"_

"_Man, you need to get more nutrition in your diet."_

"_Or an inhaler."_

"_Knock it off you guys," a calming voice stated making the group of kids turn around to see an almost carbon copy of Dias, only with white clothes and wearing a shirt with angel wings on the front. "Dias hasn't been feeling well, so lay off of him!"_

"_Yeah, yeah, yeah, we get it Kyo… no need to bit our heads off."_

_Kyo shook his head slightly and crossed his arms over his chest. "You guys get in the house, it's almost time for the main course in lunch and our parents want us in there."_

"_Thanks Kyo!"_

_Standing over his tired brother, Kyo couldn't help but chuckle at his twin brother. "So bro…how ya feeling?"_

"_Ugh…I feel like Uncle Theo's punching bag," Dias moaned clutching his chest._

"_Ouch…that's got to hurt," Kyo chuckled lifting his hand to Dias. "Now come on…everyone else is in the house, so hurry up to get up so we can get some food before there's nothing left."_

"_I know…I know…" Dias chuckled slowly standing up._

_All of a sudden, a powerful explosion rocked the ground, sending both Dias and Kyo to the ground. Turning their heads up, their eyes were met with the sight of the family estate was engulfed in a large flame._

_Later, after being recuperated in a nearby hospital from the shock, Dias and Kyo learned that the cause of the explosion was due to a group of terrorists that had targeted their family. Thanks to the actions of the actions of these terrorists, all the debt that the Swartzvauld family had secretly accumulated was paid from the money that was left to Dias and Kyo…leaving them enough money to survive in a house…_

_The vision then changed itself a few years in the future, to a teenaged Kyo standing in front of a sleeping teenaged Dias sleeping in a hospital bed. A grave looking doctored strolled into the room, reading from some various charts with a grim look on his face._

"…_So…what's wrong with him doc?" Kyo asked, biting the end of this thumb slightly._

"_I'm afraid Mr. Swartzvauld, that your brother…" the doctor stated looking at Dias sleeping. "Has a rare disease…causing him to cough blood from his lungs. I have to inform you…that there is a surgical procedure that could possibly save your brother…"_

"_Hell yeah! We're getting him that surgery!" Kyo shouted, surprisingly, he didn't wake Dias up._

"_Well okay, then here's the cost estimate," The doctor stated handing Kyo the paper that had the estimates on it._

_Looking at the paper, Kyo's eyes widened in a matter of seconds. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! What year do you think it is? We can't afford this?"_

"_Well…there are several medicines that could help him retain his life," The doctor stated writing down several prescriptions on the clipboard he had in front of him. "Of course, one day they won't be enough and his body will give out on him. At the most, he's got ten years…"_

"_We've got no choice," Kyo stated taking the prescriptions. "But tell me…will the surgery cure him?"_

"_It should…but in ten years it won't matter…" The doctor replied._

"_That's more than enough time!" Kyo shouted slamming his hand to his chest. After that Kyo devoted his time to becoming a pro league duelist. He was known as the youngest member in the pro leagues…and managed to be a top contender._

_Dias on the other hand…_

.//---/-/--//-//-/

"Shortly after I was diagnosed with the disease," Dias continued to explain making everyone's eyes open up. "I took an interest in the book my grandfather left me…it managed to survive the explosion. In it's text was an ancient ritual that could cure any illness."

"You trust something that's written in an ancient text?" Tony asked raising an eyebrow. "For all you know, it could've been an old home recipe."

"…Yeah, well, at first I was skeptical myself," Dias admitted crossing his arms and grasping on his biceps. "But then I did some more research on the subject and discovered that this cure was tied to the darkness games. Apparently, my grandfather was researching on these games and found that with the right amount of powerful souls won and seven duels (one being a two on one); the one who enacted the ritual will be cured of all diseases!

"So…now do you see my reasoning?"

"…That's your reason?" Rena asked with her hair covering her eyes.

"A mere shot for survival," Dias commented with a smug look on his face. "It's basically primitive nature actually. Everyone wants to survive when faced with death, willing to take any path to live on. This was the one way for me to thrive…and it's working so far!

"I haven't coughed blood all night, I haven't stuttered, and I managed to get my new health along with it! As you could see from my muscular physique."

"And what happens to the people who have lost?" Rena asked not looking up.

"Hmm…what does it matter?" Dias retorted wagging his finger towards Rena. "But if you must know…if the losers' bodies were absorbed, then they're in a limbo. However, like your friend Ganryu there, he's still technically alive but his mind is in limbo leaving his body nothing more than a vegetable."

"You're willing to make these people suffer…along with their families, just to survive?" Rena asked, her shoulders starting to shake.

"Of course…I told you earlier, humans are weak," Dias sighed in anger rubbing his temples. "We'll do anything to survive…it's in our hearts."

"That's enough!"

Everyone blinked in confusion as Rena stood up, her hair still covering her eyes. "What gives you…what gives you the right to do this!? Do you think you're better than everyone else, so much so that you could use them as sacrifices to save yourself?"

"Okay, now we're just going around in circles," Dias chuckled snapping his fingers over his other face down card. "So we'll just get back into the duel, so now I'll activate my trap card, True Gamble!"

The trap flipped up showing a young man sticking his hand into a box with his fingers crossed in his other hand. "You see…in order for this trap card to work, I have to declare a card name. Then I pick up the top card of my deck and see if it's the card I declared. If it is then I add the card to my hand and draw till I have seven cards…of course there's a flipside to that coin…"

"…But I think I know exactly what it is. Could it be…Legendary Demon Slayer Dante?"

With a cheerful beep, Dias lifted the card up into the air and immediately drew till he had over a full hand. "I was planning on saving that in case my Card of Demise backfired on me…oh well…"

Rena didn't say a thing as Dias took one of the cards from his hand. "Speechless? Can't blame you! I now summon Legendary Demon Slayer Dante (1500/1200) back to my side of the field!"

Jumping from the sky, Dante reappeared with a smug look on his face as he raised his arms up in a fighter's pose. "I'll choose this time to forgo his effect though…and to end my turn; I'll place this card face down and activate, Fairy of the Spring to take back Fairy Meteor Crush. Can you even hope to win girlie?"

"Dias…with all you've done, do you honestly think that you deserve a new chance at life?" Rena asked raising her head up, to show that her eyes were narrowed…

…but that wasn't what made Dias take a step back, it was the fact that her eyes were glowing slightly red. "You have no right! And I'll make sure that you won't get away with this scheme!"

"Words are c-cheap!" Dias stammered taking his ground back. "Action is where it's at!"

Rena immediately drew her next card and nodded to herself. "Very well…I summon, Elf Swordsman!"

Appearing with a goofy grin, the sword-less elf appeared on the field rubbing his nose. His long blonde hair was held up with a forest green headband and has a light forest green vest and brown cargo pants (1400/1600). Then raising his hand up into the air as the powerful Sol Saber appeared in his hands (1400/1600 + 1000/1000). "And thanks to his ability, I can special summon my Sol Saber from my hand and equip it to him. Now then…Elf Swordsman! Attack Dante!"

With a powerful jump, the now armed Elf Swordsman headed straight towards the demon slayer, who didn't even look worried…and with good reason too. A powerful barrier appeared around him, blocking the sword before it even had a chance to make contact. "Heh…nice try, but my Negate Attack was activated to prevent things like that from happening…"

"I'll end my turn then…" Rena sighed slightly as the Elf Swordsman looked down in disappointment. "Don't worry; we'll get him next turn."

"If he's around this time," Dias chuckled pulling his next card as another flame died out. "Especially since I'm about to equip Dante with the second most devastating card I have in my entire deck!"

Taking three cards from his hand, Dias immediately slipped two of the cards into his duel disk graveyard and slid the other one into his duel disk. "One so powerful that I must discard two equip cards from my hand to activate it! Go, Devil Cannon Nightmare Beta!"

A powerful dark aura began to surround Dante as his right arm began to absorb the aura. Then, lifting his arm up, Dante's right arm began to transform from the shoulder forming into a skull with glowing blood red eyes with the rest of his arm becoming a powerful black and gunmetal cannon with many demonic features (1500/1200 + 1500/0).

"It may not have been as strong as before…but that demon slayer just keeps coming back with more and more power," Tony growled biting the end of his thumb.

"And now, I'll equip Dante with Fairy Meteor Crush…" Dias chuckled as the aura appeared around the empowered demon slayer. "And you should know girlie…that not only does Dante get stronger and gains a trample effect, but with his cannon he can attack everything you've got out on the field!"

Rena didn't say a word, making Dias sweat drop on the back of his head. "…You could at least say something…fine…take the fun out of this why don't ya. Dante! Attack all the monsters on her side of the field! Devil Cannon Blast Fire!"

With a snap of his cannon like arm, Dante took aim, and unleashed a powerful blast of energy that immediately engulfed Rena's side of the field revealing the two face down monsters showing the Reflect Carbuncle (200/300) and young female elf wearing a large forest green cloak, on her forehead underneath her golden blonde hair is a golden crescent moon mark between her messy blonde hair (1400/900) that were engulfed in the burst. (RLP: 1200)

"Heh, I didn't expect you to have such weak monsters," Dias admitted crossing his arms. "Of course…I should've expected from you."

When the smoke disappeared, the Elf Swordsman stood in front of Rena, covered in ashes and coughed out a dark cloud of smoke (1400/1600). "I've still got my Swordsman, and you've triggered a few abilities! First, my Sol Saber allows me to draw two cards, and that face down card was known as Lunar Elf…and for every two stars on the monster that destroyed her in battle, I can draw a card. So I get four cards!"

"You can draw four thousand cards and it wouldn't make a difference," Dias chuckled fitting in of the few cards he had left in his hand into his duel disk. "So I'll conclude my turn to give you one last chance to struggle…"

"…I won't allow you to continue this!" Rena shouted pulling her next card. And with a nod, Rena took another card and lifted up. "And with the spell card, Hall of Ancients! Now I can special summon one monster from my graveyard with 'Elf' or 'Half-Elf' in it's name…and I choose Thoroughbred Elf (1800/1500) in attack mode!"

In a bright flash the fighter elf appeared raising his fists up, however, both of Rena's elves began to be absorbed into a bright light that flew into the air. "And next, I'll sacrifice both of my monsters for…"

The light shattered into many shards, forming into the small cute dragon with aqua purple skin with cute little wings along with a blue jewel on its chest. The cute dragon squeaked cutely making Dias and Dante sweat drop at the weird monster (3200/0). "Mana Dragon! And next…by discarding my Boomerang Elf, you can't chain spell or trap cards to this monster's attack!"

"Alright! If Rena gets this attack to go through, she'll be in the clear!" Tony shouted out throwing his arms up and down.

Leo, being quiet for some time, remained with his thoughts. '_Some how…I doubt that…_'

"Mana Dragon! Attack Dante now!" Rena shouted as the dragon immediately began to charge up it's attack.

Dias could only chuckle before the powerful blast engulfed his warrior, shattering the demon slayer completely. "Oh no…whatever shall I do now?" (DLP: 5850)

"Since I can't summon again, I'll set one card face down…" Rena stated as the card in her hand appeared behind her dragon. "And end my turn."

Dias drew, making another flame extinguish in front of him, only two more turns until the Card of Demise would take his hand. Shaking that thought out of his mind, Dias took the card he drew and placed it in front of his duel disk. "Turn end…"

"Alright…" Rena said taking another card from her deck. "I summon Obnoxious Celtic Guardian (1400/1200)!"

In a great flash, the green armored elf swordsman appeared drawing his finely crafted sword in the air. "Now then…Celtic Guardian! Direct attack!"

Dias's eyes widened when the famous elf appeared in front of him and slashing at a diagonal manner. Leaving a large cut on Dias's chest, the Bloody Devil Hunter took a step back grasping at the wound. '_D-Damn it…I need her to attack with that dragon…come on, I know you want to…_' (DLP: 4450)

"Mana Dragon…Attack directly as well!" Rena shouted throwing her arm at Dias.

Once more, the powerful dragon launched a powerful blast of blue fire that engulfed Dias completely. '_…Got'cha!_'

"Alright!" Rena cheered back to herself as the flames raged over the field. "With that attack, our scores should be…"

The flames resided showing Dias smirking with his duel disk up with the life point counter glowing. (DLP: 5700)

"…Miles upon miles apart," Rena gulped with a cold sweat dripping down her head.

"In case you were wondering, I activated the trap card that was in my graveyard," Dias explained lifting up a single trap card and slipped it into his pocket. "It was a trap card known as Devil's Final Roar, and I was able to double my life points before your attack went through."

"I…I end my turn," Rena gulped as Dias swiftly drew his next card.

"I have to admit…you've done a good job at entertaining me," Dias admitted with another flame disappeared leaving him with one left. Flipping the card around, Dias exposed the card as Pot of Greed, making him draw two more cards from his very thin deck. "But, I think it's time to end this…I activate my face down card, the Warrior Returning Alive!"

Taking a card from his graveyard, Dias immediately slapped the card onto his duel disk and the Legendary Demon Slayer Dante (1500/1200) appeared once more onto the field this time with an annoyed look on his face. "And now…I'll equip Dante with the equip spell from my deck, Blade of the Father: Force Edge!"

In front of Dante, a powerful demon sword with a long steel blade emerged from the ground as the demon slayer lifted the sword into the air (1500/1200 + 700/0). "And now…for the move that will end this! I'll play the spell card…Shrink!"

With it's squeak getting lighter and lighter, the Mana Dragon (1600/0) was half of its size looking extremely mad. "Dante! End this! I win!"

Jumping into the air, the legendary demon slayer spun the blade into the air and immediately brought the sword down towards the dragon…

…however at the base of blade, the tangible Reflect Carbuncle grabbed the sword with it's cartoon gloved hands stopping the slayer in his tracks. Then with a cute squeak, the Reflect Carbuncle exploded in a powerful light that immediately destroyed Dante, leaving Dias standing with his mouth wide open. "W-w-w-w-w…H-h-h…"

"That monster was my Reflect Carbuncle," Rena answered with the tangible Reflect Carbuncle appearing behind her. "And I just remove it from play and I can have an instant mirror force."

Dias was speechless…his plans…they…they were foiled. Next turn the Card of Demise card would take whatever card he would draw…and he didn't have anything to help him on the field or in his hand. "E-e-end turn…"

"Go Rena!" Tony shouted waving his arm in the air.

"Yes…go indeed Rena," Leo added in his calm demeanor.

"Alright!" Rena cheered pulling her next card. With a quick glance she immediately slapped the card onto her duel disk. "And now…I summon Revolutionary Leader (1500/0)!"

In a bright light, the blonde revolution monster that Rena got from Antonio appeared on the field with his wide grin. "And with my dragon's attack back to normal…"

"All three of my monsters! Let's give this story a happy ending!"

With the Mana Dragon's flame re-engulfing him, the Obnoxious Celtic Guardian's slash, and the fist from the Revolutionary Leader, Dias fell to the ground. '_N-no…t-this can't be happening!'_

'_I had everything planned, w-why god?'_ As soon as Dias landed on the ground, Dias looked up to see that the blood red moon was beginning to return to normal with Dias lifting his arm up towards the moon…

…from his point of view…it looked like he was grasping at it. "I…I was so…so close…"

As soon as the red moon had returned to normal, the rune disappeared as well and the cards surrounding it had turned blank and flew into the air.

Falling to the ground on her butt, Rena breathed a sigh of relief taking her duel disk off. "I-I did it? Did I actually do that?"

"Yeah! Ya sure did Rena!" Tony cheered jumping to Rena's side and hugging her.

"Bravo," Leo complimented clapping his hands.

From the shadows of the roof, no one noticed Big Boss smirking widely. '_Well now…in addition to that shorty, it looks like I've found another one. Dias may have failed, but I've still got plenty of pawns to play my game…_'

"…Rena…" Dias moaned getting the three duelists turn towards him, all to see that tears were starting to flow from his eyes. "…I…I lost my chance…"

"Dias…" Rena sobbed lowering her head.

Meanwhile, Leo was kneeling next to Ganryu only to receive a cold glare from the duelist. "Hmm…don't worry guys…Ganryu is back."

"Then dat means…" Tony pieced together…

/--//-/-/-/-/-//-

"VAN! Van!" Rukia sobbed hugging Van closely in her arms, not noticing that Van's eyes were beginning to open. "Please…please wake up…"

"Un… Rukia? Do you mind not hugging me so close?"

Rukia looked down and tears of joy began to flow from her eyes as she tightened her hug around Van's torso.

From behind the rocks, the Artist formally known as Morty smiled as he watched the two get close. '_Ah…a happy ending…'_

Meanwhile…

"Oh yeah…" Xander laughed placing Klein at the docks and began to dance for joy. "After five years, I finally got ya! I rule! Oh yeah! I do!"

He didn't notice that Klein was fully awake…and completely mad.

So very quietly, Klein took aim with his foot and kicked fast.

There was a sudden sharp pain, making Xander fall to the wooden docks with his legs closed off completely and his moans of pain very high pitched. "OOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

"You bastard!" Klein growled grabbing both of Xander's ankles pulling them away from each other and lifting his right foot up. "Prepare for the ultimate pain!"

"No…no…Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnoooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

/-/-/-/-//-//--//-/

"So…now what?" Rena asked.

"Now…you're all busted!"

Rena and Tony turned around to see Alan standing at the doorway with a bright grin on his face. "Aw crap! Leo! We've got to…"

Tony spun around to see that Leo had disappeared, along with Ganryu, leaving Rena, the currently indispensable Dias and himself. "…Aw double crap!"

"You two are in trouble for sneaking out during the curfew," Alan stated walking past the two duelists and stood over Dias. "Although, I've got to hand it to you…you've managed to bring Dias down so we'll talk about this tomorrow."

Helping Dias up to sling him over his arm. "And we're going to talk as well Dias…I hope you realize what's going to happen."

"Y…yes…" Dias sighed coughing some blood from his mouth.

//-/--//-/--/-/--/

On the high sea, a large beautiful cruise ship sailed through the sea with a single teenaged boy standing at the bow watching as the blood red moon returned to normal. His slightly paled skin gleamed in the moon light as he slightly touched the scar that raced slightly down his right eye. His dark hair with a few spikes forming from the back.

His fancy purple dress shirt over his white shirt had the kanji for darkness on the back and his baggy pants had multiple belts attached to them. "…Hmm…that looks interesting…I think I'll enjoy my time here."

"I may have failed at the Pacific…but, I'll succeed here…"

/--/-/-//-/--/-/-/-//-

**Card Stats**

**Legendary Demon Swordsman Vergil / Dark / LV. 8 / ATK: 2800 / DEF: 2600 / Warrior/Ritual/Effect:** Ritual summon this monster with the effect of 'Opening the Gate to the Demon World'. When this monster is summoned you may choose to either discard a card from your hand to equip this card with 'Yamato Blade' or sacrifice a card on your field to equip this card with 'Blade of the Father-Force Edge'. When there are no magic or trap cards on the field this monster loses 800 points. If a Legendary Demon Slayer Dante is in play, increase this monster's attack by 1000 and this monster cannot be destroyed by targeting effects.

**Description:** A cold man with combed back white hair with fancy dark clothes underneath a dark blue overcoat with a sheathed katana in his left hand

**Demon Slayer Dante / Dark / LV. 3 / ATK: 800 / DEF: 600 / Warrior/Effect: **When this monster attacks a 'Fiend' or 'Zombie' sub-type monster, increase its attack by 1000. When there is a 'Vergil' in play this monster gains 500 attack points. When this monster destroys a monster in battle, that monster is removed from the game.

**Description:** The white haired man, with his red overcoat strapped up and wearing larger black gloves with a large sword on his back.

**Yamato Blade / Equip Spell / Effect:** Increase the attack of the equipped monster by 500. When this monster battles a monster in face-down defense mode, destroy that monster without damage calculation. Flip effects are not activated.

**Image:** Vergil unsheathing his sword

**Opening the Gate to the Demon World / Ritual Spell / Effect:** Offer 8 level of stars of monsters. Special summon Legendary Demon Swordsman Vergil.

**Image:** A large demonic gate with Vergil slowly stepping through the gate.

**Blade of the Father: Force Edge / Equip Spell/ Effect:** Increase the equipped monster's attack by 700. When the equipped monster destroys a monster in battle, deal 100 damage to the opponent for every level of that monster.

**Image:** Dante and Vergil reaching for a demonic sword.

_The previous cards were provided by Seeker of the Soul. Thanks again!_

**Sword of Baltandars / Equip Spell / Effect:** This card can only be equipped to a warrior or spellcaster type monster. When the equip monster battles a face up monster, you may change the type of the target monster.

**Image:** A golden sword with a dragon like base, piercing a man however, there are two wings emerging from his back

**Devil's False Security / Trap / Effect:** During your first Main Phase, you may pay 1000 life points to return all spell and trap cards on the field (other than this card) to each player's hands.

**Image:** Dark Ruler Hades rubbing his chin at a familiar white haired warrior (who is reaching for his large sword)

**Devil's Duplication / Trap / Effect:** This card can only be activated when two or more monsters on your side of the field are destroyed in battle and you have taken battle damage. Discard one card from your hand to special summon one of the monsters that were destroyed and increase its attack and defense points by the same amount of life points you lost.

**Image:** A dark shadow resembling a dark warrior creating duplicates around it.

**Brothers In Blood / Trap / Effect:** This card can only be activated when a monster on your side of the field is destroyed as a result of battle. Special summon one level four or lower monster from your deck with the same attribute and type as the monster that was destroyed.

**Image:** Dante and Vergil standing back to back.

**Devil's Final Roar / Trap / Effect:** This card's effect can only be activated by removing it from your graveyard. When you're taking battle damage 2000 or more, double your life points before you take damage.

**Image:** A large sword piercing right through a demon's chest

**Fake Out / Trap / Effect:** This card can only be activated when your opponent has more than 5 cards in his or her hand. Your opponent must discard five cards from their hand.

**Image:** A store clerk staring at fake money while a bald thief is escaping.

**True Gamble / Trap / Effect:** When this card is activated, declare a card name. Then pick up the top card of your deck, if your picked up card is the card you declared, add the card to your hand and you may draw till you have 7 cards. If not, skip your next turn.

**Image:** A young man putting his hand into a box with his other hand having two fingers crossed for luck.

**Quick Save / Instant Spell / Effect:** Return one monster the field to the top of the owner's deck.

**Image:** A card bouncing on top of a deck.

**Samurai of the Five Rings / Light / LV. 10 / ATK: 3000 / DEF: 2200 / Warrior/Effect:** This card cannot be normal summoned or set. This card cannot be special summoned except by the effect of 'The Book of Five Rings'. When this card is brought to the field, for each monster in your graveyard with 'Samurai' in it's name, this card gains one 'Shi-ken' counter (a monster with a 'Shi-ken' counter cannot be destroyed in battle, after the monster is in battle, remove one 'Shi-ken' counter on it). This monster may attack all of your opponent's monsters (this card cannot attack your opponent's life points directly after doing so).

**Description:** A handsome samurai wearing a golden armor with many golden wings flowing backwards. In the warrior's right hand is a golden long katana, gleaming in light. On the back of the warrior is a banner with the kanji symbols for earth, water, fire, sky and void written on it.

**The Book of Five Rings / Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you have one face up 'Samurai of the Earth', 'Samurai of the Water', 'Samurai of the Fire', 'Samurai of the Sky', and 'Samurai of the Void' on your side of the field. Send all cards on your side of the field to your graveyard and special summon one 'Samurai of the Five Rings' from your hand, deck or graveyard.

**Image:** Five multicolored scrolls surging with power with a katana piercing right through them all.

**Five Ring Sword Technique / Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you have one monster on your side of the field and that monster has 'Samurai' in it's name. Then, destroy any spell or trap cards on your side of the field. After that, take five equip spell cards from your graveyard and equip them to your 'Samurai' monster. As long as that monster is on your side of the field, you cannot summon any other monsters.

**Image:** An angelic Samurai lifting up five powerful swords in his right hand alone into the air.

**Tempest Sword / Equip Spell / Effect:** This card can only be equipped to a warrior monster. Increase the attack of the equipped monster by 300 points. When the equipped monster attacks, your opponent cannot activate any spell or trap cards.

**Image:** A large sky blue sword with multiple feathers floating around the base of the blade.

**Inferno Blade / Equip Spell / Effect:** This card can only be equipped to a warrior type monster. Increase the attack of the equipped monster by 300 points. When the equipped monster destroys a monster as a result of battle inflict 400 points of damage to his/her life points.

**Image:** A large black sword with a fiery aura around it.

**Aqua Rapier / Equip Spell / Effect:** This card can only be equipped to a warrior type monster. Increase the attack of the equipped monster by 300 points. Negate any flip effects that the equipped monster battles with.

**Image:** A clear crystal blue sword with a torrent of water surrounding it.

**Earthen Sword / Equip Spell / Effect:** This card can only be equipped to a warrior type monster. Increase the attack of the equipped monster by 300 points. When the equipped monster is targeted by an opponent's spell card, discard the top card from your deck to negate the effect and destroy the card.

**Image:** A jagged sword with a green handle that has multiple stone columns around it.

**Void Sword / Equip Spell / Effect:** This card can only be equipped to a warrior type monster. Increase the attack of the equipped monster by 300 points. When the equipped monster is targeted by an opponent's trap card, discard the top card from your deck to negate the effect and destroy the card.

**Image:** An extremely long katana with a dark aura surrounding it.

**The Wandering Scholar / Instant Spell / Effect:** Pay 1000 life points. Look at your opponent's hand and activate one spell card as your own.

**Image:** An elf walking through the halls of a large library

**Contract of Greed / Spell / Effect:** When this card is discarded from your hand, all players may draw two cards from their deck.

**Image:** Many scrolls being put in the Pot of Greed

**Devastating Tornado / Instant Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when your opponent has five spell or trap cards on their side of field. Destroy all spell and trap cards on your opponent's side of the field.

**Image:** A powerful tornado devastating a large village.

/--//--//-//-/-/

**Rena:** Well…at least things are normal around here.

**Alan:** I think you seem to forget that you're in trouble. Along with Tony.

**Tony:** What?!?

**Alan:** So, while I think of a punishment, I'd like you to welcome a new student.

**Rena:** You mean it's not our punishment?

_**A familiar dark face appears on the scene…next time – **__**Chapter 23: Jinxed Chances**_

**Tony:** You look familiar…very familiar…

_**Author's note:**__ Whoa! That was the most I wrote for a fan fiction chapter…dang I'm tired…_


	23. Chapter 23: Jinxed Chances

_**Hmm…ya know, I only got to do a few of these things before…not really the most respectable things to do if you ask me…**_

…_**You see…here's the deal, I happen to be a former student of a different duel academy, and thanks to me getting stabbed in the back, I got a transfer to the Atlantic Duel Academy.**_

_**Of course, you see I've lost a lot in my time at the last academy. **_

_**I've lost my standing…**_

…_**my peers' respect…**_

…_**my many decks of dark cards, courtesy of that dumbass of a dealer…**_

…_**but most of all…I lost my pride…**_

_**Since I'm getting a fresh start at this new academy, not only will I have to start at the bottom…I'll claw my way to the top with the deck that I managed to steal from a former Kaiser of my academy before he had left the island with his four companions…**_

…_**Huh? Now you're asking me who I am. **_

_**Hnn…tell ya what…I'm a fair man…I'll give you one good chance and clue to guess who I am…**_

…_**my initials are V.V. **_

_**So if you can't get that…then I'm going to etch my name into your brain as I make my mark into my path to the top of the Academy!**_

_**//----/-/-/-//-//--//**_

_**Chapter 23**_

_**Jinxed Chances**_

_**//---/-/-/-/-/-//-/**_

Silence rolled through Alan's room, Rena and Tony standing before Alan who was drinking directly from his bottle of fruit juice as if it were fine wine.

With a few quick gulps, Alan slammed the bottle onto the desk making Rena and Tony jump into the air surprised by the instant anger that Alan displayed. "Hmm…quite the quandary…you both disobeyed my curfew law…but you managed to defeat the very guy who made me create the curfew…"

"But I've got time to worry about that later," Alan stated standing up and walking over to Rena and Tony. "You mind telling me why you out there in the first place?"

"Sir…if I may, why you were on the roof?" Rena asked trying to switch the subject.

"Hmm…well it's hard to not notice the blood red moon and the same colored aura coming from the roof," Alan explained wagging his finger towards Rena and a goofy grin plastered on his face. "Because many students reported it, we decided to send someone up there…and since I hate being cooped up in this here office…well, I think that can explain itself…"

"And since we're on that…walk with me and we'll continue with our discussion…"

Immediately opening the doors, Alan began to casually walk out of the office with Rena and Tony following them. "So…back where we were, why were you two out?"

"Well ya see sir, I heard dat a student who I happen ta be friends with," Tony explained turning left and right to see the many students walking past them. How he wished that he was among them right now, but the majority of him liked being around Rena. "Was out and about. Rena was out searching fer him so I decided to help aid in the search!"

"And who exactly was this student?" Alan asked walking backwards to watch the two students.

"It was Ganryu…" Rena answered.

"Mr. Dashiben? Oh yeah, the kid who lost badly to Luntina," Alan chuckled rubbing the back of his head. "But, why were you two up there on the roof?"

"Me and Leo saw Ganryu head up there," Tony answered immediately.

"Hmm, that's very interesting," Alan mumbled to himself spinning on his heel to walk forward. "Cause I didn't see Leo Childsman or Ganryu Dashiben on the roof with you two and Dias…"

"Uh, well, well I can't really explain that one," Tony chuckled rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Sir, what happened to Dias?" Rena asked.

"I'm glad you asked Miss Akira!" Alan announced nearly jumping onto one of the nearby walls next to the elevator, all the while making Rena and Tony sweatdrop at their principal's behavior and extraordinary energy. "You see…the Wrights and Swartzvaulds have been family friends since…well, since I can't remember let's just say a really, really, really long time. So using the power of bribery, I've managed to sweep this entire incident under the rug from the paparazzi."

"But as for Dias, well, let's just say that I've managed to lend him a helping hand. Thanks to the money that the Wright family managed to stash for a few years, I've managed to send Dias to the best doctor to treat his disease…"

"That must've set ya back," Tony commented before the elevator doors opened up in front of the three.

"Actually, we've still got more than enough," Alan replied entering the elevator with Rena and Tony entering behind him. "Of course, when he's fully recovered, he'll be working here to pay off the debt to my family slowly but surely."

"But enough about that…I think it's time I tell you two about your punishments…"

"Punishments? As in more dan one?" Tony asked raising an eyebrow as the elevator began to go down.

"Yep! But no worries," Alan answered rubbing the bridge of his nose. "You see, first of all…you both have a combined punishment, but I don't plan on telling you what that is yet…"

"But as for your minor punishments, I've managed to get two excellent students who are well behaved and have volunteered their time to help you with your punishments."

"So…what exactly are the punishments?" Rena asked.

"Well, Miss Akira, you and the chosen student get to show a new transfer student around the campus," Alan explained before the doors began to open slowly from the elevator. "And Mr. Havoc you get bathroom janitorial duty…"

"Now hold up a second!" Tony shouted lifting his hand up. "How come I get stuck with that?"

"Simple, you're a second year, you know better," Alan answered before he slowly exited the elevator heading towards the main hall. "Miss Akira is a first year and is impressionable…you should know better!"

"Wait…what?!" Tony questioned with a very confused look plastered all over his face.

"Anyway…I'd like you two to meet the two students who were kind enough to help you…" Alan stated walking towards two very familiar Obelisk Blue students…a tanned, dark silver haired guy along with a girl with braided brown hair.

"Huh…wait a second…" Rena gasped realizing who was standing before them.

/-/-/-///-/-///-//-

He hadn't gotten a single wink of sleep last night on the boat, not that he cared anyway, today was going to be a big day…and yet it would be quite the insult for him.

From being one of the elite, he had to start off at the bottom…oh well…

Looking from the bow of the cruise boat, the dark haired teen saw that waiting at the dock for him were two students, one in red and the other in blue…

…Two girl students as he had requested on the phone on the boat. One of them quite beautiful, while the other was quite cute…obviously making him smile brightly. '_Why choose when you can have both?_'

Rena stood on the dock looking up at the large cruise ship lower the stairwell to the docks, then she turned towards the Obelisk blue she was assigned to help show the new guy around. '_Why'd it have to be Cleo?_'

"Now then…Rena," Cleo whispered as a single person began to descend the stairs with a suitcase slung over his shoulder. "I want this to be a good experience for our new student…so please try not to embarrass everyone at this academy…"

"Look who's talking, you're the one with flashy entrances," Rena whispered back.

"At least I have style!" Cleo shot back a little louder this time.

"Oh is that what you call it?" Rena asked this time at normal volume. "I would've figured that it was a mental disorder."

"You dropout!" Cleo growled looking directly into Rena's eyes to create powerful sparks between the two girls.

"…Is this how students here act all the time?"

Blinking a few times, Rena and Cleo turned their heads to see the new student that had just arrived from the ship with his suitcase on the dock next to him.

The young man stood in front of the two girls with his arms crossed over his chest, by his height and facial features he looked to be in the late teens, his slightly paled skin gleamed in the light exposing the scar that raced slightly down his right eye. His dark hair had a few spikes forming from the back that raced up a few times. Covering his skinny body was, fancy purple dress shirt over his white shirt had the kanji for darkness on the front and his baggy pants had multiple belts attached to them (that also had a deck case on it).

Smiling brightly and pushing Rena aside, Cleo jumped forward and raised her hand up to the new student. "Oh, I must apologize for my companion there, students are more dignified at this school."

Quickly standing up from being pushed, Rena sighed loudly shaking her head. '_You're only here to get on Alan's good side…not that he has a bad side if you ask me…'_

"I see…" The fine dressed student replied shaking Cleo's hand. "Well then…I assume that you want to know my name then…"

"Why certainly!" Cleo exclaimed releasing the young man's hand and clasping her hands together. "After all, it's not everyday we get a transfer student from our sister school, the Pacific Duel Academy!"

Chuckling slightly, the young man combed his hair back and looked directly at Rena and Cleo, showing his dark eyes. "Well then…for now, you can call me V."

…

Rena sweatdropped slightly as Cleo froze up from the name that their new student had just given them. V just blinked a few times as a cold breeze swept over the dock…

…then noticing that Cleo froze up, Rena just pushed Cleo to the side and smiled. "Hi, I'm Rena Akira, nice to meet you V."

"Likewise," V replied with a small smile appearing on his face.

Then with a quick shove, Cleo was in front of V once more. "And I'm Cleo Sol! It's really nice meet a great person from the Pacific Duel Academy!"

Somehow, at the mention of the other Academy, V's eyes narrowed as he picked up his suitcase. "Thanks…anyway, let's get this tour over with…it's been a long trip…"

"Ah yes! Of course V," Cleo stated with Rena walking in front of V to show him around the school.

"Oh, and by the by, can you do me a favor?" V asked getting the attention of Rena and Cleo.

"Sure," Rena answered getting a glare from Cleo for stealing her line.

"Don't mention the Pacific Academy again…" V replied walking past the two girls getting stares from them. "…Or…I'll make sure you don't ever again."

With that cold request, Rena and Cleo both had blank looks on their faces. Meanwhile, V turned around and smiled brightly. "So tell me…are the girls as cute and beautiful as you two?"

"Ah, ha, ha! You tease!" Cleo chuckled getting back to her original self to follow V.

'_Who is this guy?_' Rena thought while following her two peers.

/-//--/-/-/--//-/-/

"Aw man…is this everyone who's left?"

Standing at the top of the Ra Yellow dorm was none other than Alex, the Artist Formally known as Morty, and Xander (who at the moment was sitting on the roof with an icepack in a more inconspicuous place).

"Well duh," Xander growled glaring daggers at Morty. "With Dias being shipped out to the mainland to get cured, Seika disappearing along with Antonio, and who knows where that Renji guy went to…of course we're all who's left!"

"Yeesh, what crawled up your ass?" Alex asked raising an eyebrow at Xander.

"My ass is fine! It's the front that's killing me!" Xander roared trying not to move his legs at all. "That damn short dumbass got me at a disadvantage…and fought dirty!"

"Blah, blah, blah…that's the oldest excuse in the book," Morty pointed out trying to hide his snickers.

"The only question now is what are we going to do now?" Alex stated ignoring the arguing Morty and Xander.

"…I believe I can answer that…"

With that cool voice, everyone on the roof immediately stopped whatever they were previously doing to turn towards the opened staircase.

Leaning on the doorway, was another Ra Yellow male duelist wearing a black bandana over his long, dirty blonde hair that drifted onto his white uniform overcoat (obviously another custom job) with yellow trim on it. Underneath his overcoat was a white dress shirt with a black vest on it with tight black pants.

Xander narrowed his eyes and snarled his teeth. "Who the hell are you?"

"Hmm…so my name is what you want? Fine," The bandana wearing duelist chuckled shrugging his shoulders. "According to my birth certificate I'm known as Robert Becker…but, I prefer to be called Beck…"

Xander's jaw dropped all the way to the center of the earth at this young man's introduction. "B-B-Beck!?! The Beck!?!"

"You know this guy Xander?" Alex asked turning towards his very surprised comrade.

"Yeah, I never heard of him," Morty added.

"Of course you two don't know him!" Xander shouted, yet surprisingly enough, managed to not move from his spot or the ice on him. "The only way you could know about this guy is if you have ties to the underground or work for him!"

"Then…who exactly is this Beck?" Morty questioned raising an eyebrow.

"Well, not much is really known about him, 'cept the fact that since he was twelve years old he managed to rise quickly in the underground and shadows," Xander explained crossing his arms while Beck was adjusting his bandana. "Ever since then, he's managed to make a name for himself as the youngest gang leader in history…he's got a keen mind for money management and fighting techniques. His main gang is said to have over a thousand members, each with their own skills…"

"But for the last few years, he kinda disappeared into the shadows but his gang, the Yokai still function very well…I mean, I've heard rumors that he recently got settled in the Underground Duelist League with many of his members staking out the competition ever since the league's best duelist cut out a half year ago…"

"Aw shucks, don't make me blush," Beck chuckled rubbing the back of his head with a small blush creeping up on his cheeks.

"…Anything saying that he was a freak?" Alex asked turning his eyes towards Xander.

"Well, there was a rumor saying that he was more…eccentric than most people would normally be," Xander sighed loudly with a blood vessel appearing on the back of his head.

"Hmm, I can still hear that," Beck laughed slightly to himself walking from the door. "But while it is true that I've been in the Underground League, I actually decided to enroll here at this academy to look for fresh blooded duelists…"

"…All for the reason to get to my real reason…you see, I've had my eye on something here for ages…"

"But why have you come here?" Morty asked raising an eyebrow.

"Nothing happens here that my Yokai members can't find out," Beck answered lifting his hand up while poking his forehead with his thumb. "I know everything about you three and your involvement with Dias…basically, I would really like you three to join me in my plans…"

"Y-you mean…become a part of your Yokai!" Xander gasped with starry eye and clasping his hands together.

"Hey wait…why would you want us? I mean, Dias's plan failed," Morty stated raising an eyebrow.

"Because, two of you happen to be skillful users of the darkness games," Beck answered wagging his finger up. "Not only that, but can win as well…"

"I guess that leaves me out…" Alex chuckled trying to walk past Beck only to have an arm slam right in front of his face. "…or not…"

"Nice try, but I happen to know that you have something that belongs to Dias," Beck chuckled pushing Alex back a few feet. "That book that Dias's grandfather gave to him…before Dias was shipped out, you appeared to him in your Black Tiger and he told you to take care of the book…"

"Dang…you are good," Alex commented with a cold sweat dripping down the side of his head. "H-How'd you know that?"

"One of my agents works as an assistant nurse here, and managed to overhear you two talking," Beck explained stepping forward. "I also have information that you seem to know how to translate the text inside it as well…"

"Well, yes," Alex gulped.

"So here's how this is going to go down," Beck stated slamming his foot into the ground. "You three can accept my generous offer…or I can make your lives living hells till you die…"

"…Your choice of course…"

All three of Dias's former duelists looked at each other with shifty eyes and gulped at the same time.

/--//-//-/--/-///-/

"And this is the Obelisk Blue arena," Cleo stated gesturing towards the exquisite duel arena with Rena and V following her. "This is where the best of the best duel each other…"

"Yawn…" V yawned loudly getting both girls' attention. "I'll admit it's flashy, but with no dueling, it might as well be another empty room…"

"I've got to agree with V, Cleo, your tour so far is boring," Rena joked around jabbing V in the right arm.

"Fine then…lets see you spice it up!" Cleo challenged.

"Hello there," Leo greeted appearing out of no where right behind the group.

"ARGH!" Rena, Cleo and V shouted at the same time jumping away from the smiling Leo.

"Who the hell is this guy?!?" V shouted clutching his chest tightly.

"He's Leo-kun!" Kimatori announced appearing behind the group once more.

This time being scared, V fell to the ground face first into the ground while making Rena and Cleo jump forward once more. "L-Leo and Kimatori?"

"Who's Kimatori?" Cleo asked catching her breath.

"She's actually staying with me while her father is gone," Leo explained crossing his arms as he knelt down next to V. "Oh my…it appears this guy's foaming from the mouth out of shock…wonder what caused it…"

"Not to be offensive Mr. Childsman…" Cleo stated helping V up slowly.

"Please, call me Leo," Leo suggested giving Cleo a hand with V.

"Alright…Leo, you and Kimatori were the reason why V landed face first into the ground," Cleo stated bluntly throwing V's arm over her shoulder. "Hey dropout, give me a hand will ya?"

"It's Rena okay," Rena sighed taking V's other arm and slinging it over her shoulder. "And as much as I hate to say it Leo…but you really should tone it down a little with new people…"

"Ah…so this is the transfer student I've heard much about…" Leo mumbled to himself as he rubbed his chin slightly. "And you say his name is V? How very odd…"

"Do you know something about this guy Leo?" Rena asked raising an eyebrow.

"Actually, you see I've seen this guy on the academia's school websites," Leo explained placing his hands behind his head. "But…I can't remember where though…"

"Uh…" V moaned looking up slightly to see that Rena and Cleo were holding him up. "…How long was I out and what happened exactly?"

"Oh, V, it's good to see that you're up," Rena gasped as she and Cleo let go of V who stood up immediately and dusted off his fancy purple dress shirt. "You just hit your head on the ground after Leo…"

"…Wait, you mean this jerk?" V asked gesturing towards Leo.

"HEY! Leo-kun is not a jerk!" Kimatori shouted throwing her arms down to her sides.

"Kimatori…you don't need to get mad," Leo said with a smile on his face as he rubbed the top of Kimatori's head.

"But…Leo-kun…" Kimatori pouted tears slightly appearing in her eyes.

"Now, now, now…Smiles, not tears," Leo laughed slightly before standing up to V. "As for you V…I must apologize. I did not realize that you were new here…otherwise you would've known that I constantly surprise the students."

"Now why do you do that?" V asked raising an eyebrow while crossing his arms over his chest.

"Oh, it's just my thing," Leo answered rubbing his hand through his hair.

Blinking a few times, V's mouth curled up into a large smile. "Heh…ladies…I think I may have found a way to make this tour a little bit more interesting…"

Then opening the deck case to lift the cards up in front of his face, Vic pointed the sides of the cards towards Leo. "How about a small initiation duel?"

//--/-/-/-//-/-/

"Heh, I can't believe…" Beck muttered to himself as he slowly waltzed through the hallways in a fancy manner snapping his fingers in perfect rhythm with his steps. "All I had to do was mention some of the perks…still, I can't believe that Alex wanted to get a new costume and all I had to do was mention he could go through my private collection…"

"Still muttering to yourself?"

"Hmm…what is you want?" Beck asked not turning his head as Big Boss step from the shadows with a serious look on his face.

"Beck, I've come to offer you one last chance with my services…" Big Boss started lifting his hand up in an explanatory manner.

"Forget it BB, I've said it once," Beck chuckled dancing slightly with his feet. "And I'll say it again. I never really wanted to be in your organization and I never will be."

"…This can only result in two ways you realize," Big Boss warned crossing his arms over his chest.

"I'll take my chances," Beck replied spinning on his heel only to walk away. "So why don't you just crawl back into that small pit you call a base and go count your money…"

"…That's ridiculous," Big Boss growled with a dark shadow creeping up around him. "My money counting day is on Tuesdays…"

As soon as the shadows engulfed Big Boss, Beck couldn't help but smile showing his own wolf fang like teeth. "Make no mistake BB…underestimating me will only lead to your downfall. As soon as my plans here succeed then I'll be able to take back what is originally mine…"

However, immediately Beck's attention was drawn over towards another hall that led to the Obelisk Blue Duel arena. His wolf fangs began to grow and become more distinguished with each step he took towards the arena. As soon as he was standing in the main doorway, Beck raised an eyebrow at the duel that was occurring on the platform.

One of the students that was dueling was one of the persons that his Yokai had a tag on, Leonardo Childsman, the duelist who had managed to defeat Dias's henchman, Renji. However…

…Beck's eyes widened at the sight of the new guy, V. '_It…it…it couldn't be. My Yokai told me that he was a cohort with Legendz in the take over…guess things went sour. Maybe I can use this…_'

Trailing away from V, Beck spied at the three girls who were watching the duel from the sidelines. And once more, Beck knew exactly who they were, the Red student was Rena Akira (one of the few that actually defeated Dias, Beck would have to keep an eye on her), the Blue student was Cleo Sol, a girl having a high standing in the academy, while the other girl…was Kimatori a girl currently staying with Leonardo…

"Duel!"

'_A duel? Sounds like the perfect chance to get some new info,_' Beck slipped a small notepad and pencil form his overcoat pocket.

Lifting his sixth card up, V immediately looked at his next card. "Now this is a more fitting way to get situated into a duel academy…nothing like domination in a duel!" (VLP: 8000)

"Hmm…domination, you say?" Leo snickered crossing his duel disk over his arm. "Not the first time I've heard people say that…" (LLP: 8000)

"Yeah, yeah," V muttered slapping his newly drawn card onto his duel disk, making it appear in front of him horizontally. "I'll set this on the defense and set a card for a little back up…"

"Oh man…I don't know who to root for," Cleo gasped clasping her hands together. "There's the majestic Leo…and then there's the mysterious V…I'm torn…"

"You're just guy crazy," Rena snickered shaking her head.

"Says the girl who could never get a date," Cleo shot back narrowing her eyes down at Rena.

"At least I'm not the head of some bleak Admirers club," Rena replied sending sparks between her and Cleo again.

"Flat chest wench!" Cleo hissed pumping her fist up.

"Ego inflated slut!" Rena growled back.

"Uh…could you two not argue?" Kimatori asked pointing towards Leo drawing his next card. "I'm trying to watch the duel."

"So…what brings you here to this academy?" Leo asked lifting his next card up.

"Hmph…don't act like a nice guy…it's not going to fool me," V scoffed to the side shifting his arm slightly to the side to wave his hand about. "But, I'm courteous, so I'll dignify that with an answer."

"I basically transferred because I couldn't stand the fact of being pulled down by the slackers that seem to have a grip on the school's establishment. Plus, the fact that there's trouble going on there what with that Kurro guy taking it over recently…"

"Aha…I knew I recognized you," Leo stated crossing his arms with his bright smile on his face. "So should I call you V as you have stated?"

"Perhaps maybe you'd go better known as…the Dark World Prince…"

"Of maybe your name, Vic Vanhemer…"

V's teeth barred themselves as he glared daggers at Leo. "…talk about poking your nose where it doesn't belong…"

"From that, I take that you are Vic Vanhemer…" Leo chuckled combing a hand through his hair.

"…Yes…" Vic growled through his teeth. Then with a deep breath, Vic calmed down while still retaining his dark cold look at Leo. "…And what of it?"

"Uh, Cleo…do you know who Vic Vanhemer is?" Rena asked pointing towards Vic with her finger.

"Duh, just as Leo said, he's the Dark World Prince of the Pacific Duel Academy," Cleo replied crossing her arms over his chest. "For the last two years, he was rated the third best duelist in that academy…what he's doing here though, I haven't got a clue…"

'_Dark World Prince, eh? Pretty solid idea what he plays…_' Beck couldn't help but smile at these new developments. '_If my info is correct about him…then I really may be able to use this…'_

"The fact of the matter is, I got a transfer here…and I aim to stay here," Vic replied scratching the side of his head. "And in case this pretty boy here is too scared to duel me since he knows of my track record…"

"…I summon Airknight Vanguard!"

Vic's eyes widened as many feathers began to float down onto the ground, allowing a handsome blonde haired angel wearing teal armor with golden crosses on his chest and shoulder to hover over the ground. With a Leo like smile, the young man lifted up long golden pike into the air with a feather like key chain at the end (1500/1350).

"What the?" Vic was slightly taken back at both of the facts that Leo was continuing the duel and the fact that he was using quite an angelic monster appearing on the field.

"Names and titles don't mean a thing," Leo stated lifting his hand up, still having his smile on his face. "Also, in case you didn't realize…I said it was past tense, so until you get your title back here, don't think that you can win out of intimidation…Airknight Vanguard! Attack Vic's face down monster!"

In a quick flash of light, the Airknight Vanguard flew hovering over Vic's face down card to immediately spear the pike into the face down card. The card shifted into what appeared to a phantom like man wearing a black mask to cover the top of it's face with blood red eyes. The phantom had an armor like black overcoat that had a dark chain with a blade at the end of it around it's body. (1700/850)

With a ghostly shriek, the phantom shattered into pixels that flew into Vic's body. "I take it your little angel's got trample ability…" (VLP: 7350)

"Good guess…" Leo replied slipping a card into his duel disk. "Of course…that one monster seems to branch away from your Dark World Prince title…"

"…Quite a tragedy really," Vic sighed shaking his head as he immediately drew his next card. "You see, when I left the academy, my decks were taken away from me…however, and I've managed to take a deck from an old ally for my newest conquest."

"…and with the strategy I've come up with these cards, nothing will beat me!" Lifting his next card into the air, Vic immediately slapped it onto his duel disk. "Now watch and learn as you feast your eyes on the power of the Phantom Empire! I summon Ghost Knight Swordsman!"

A dark mist enveloped the field, allowing another ghostly man wearing a similar outfit and mask like the monster that was destroyed only moments ago. The only difference to this monster was its skinny body and the large black demonic sword it clutched onto (1000/500 + 300/0). "And thanks to the Ghost Knight Blade Chain that you sent to the graveyard last turn, my ghastly spirit gains three hundred attack points!"

"Hmm…interesting strategy, but you have yet to show me this strategy of yours," Leo muttered to himself rubbing his chin.

"Did I say I was done? No! Now watch and learn!" Vic laughed slipping his next card into his duel disk. "I activate the spell card, Scroll of the Accursed!"

All of a sudden, a long, old, ripped scroll began to unfurl around the Airknight Vanguard, pulsating a powerful dark energy into its body, making the Angelic being turn ghostly. (1500/1350 – 300/0) "Now here's where things get complicated! First my scroll inflicts a ghost counter on your monster, making it into a Dark Attribute fiend type monster…but that's not all, for you see my Blade Chain also lowers the attack of all monsters with a Ghost Counter on them by three hundred points as well…"

"That's a difficult strategy…" Rena stated raising an eyebrow.

"Sure I could take down your angel…" Vic chuckled pointing his hand towards Leo. "But that's where my Ghost Knight Swordsman comes into play! If you have a monster on your side of the field with a Ghost Counter on it…it can attack you directly!"

Leo's eyes widened as the Ghost Knight Swordsman disappeared into a dark cloud of smoke that drifted all around the two duelists. "Let the fear take you in…you won't know where the attack is coming from until it hits…"

Moving his head left and right, Leo searched all about, trying to figure out where the Swordsman would strike…until it was too late!

With a frontal assault, the Ghost Knight Swordsman slashed his powerful broad sword down on Leo's chest, making him take a few steps back. "Uh…" (LLP: 6700)

"And I'm just getting warmed up," Vic chuckled shuffling his deck. "My Scroll has another ability…after its job is done, I get to shuffle it into my deck instead of sending it to my graveyard."

"But to end my turn…I'll activate the continuous spell card…" With Vic's newest spell card emerging onto the field, the card showed that on it was many ghost knights (similar to the swordsman) were raising their weapons into the air. "…Ancient Empire Tactics, and what it does will be all more than apparent soon enough…"

Swiftly drawing his next card, Leo managed to maintain his graceful smile on his face while looking at his hand.

"Man…how symbolic can you get," Cleo stated scratching her arm.

"What do you mean by that?" Rena asked looking at Cleo from the corner of her eye.

"Think about it," Cleo replied simply. "Leo, a man of principles and caring demeanor uses angels, guardians none the less. While Vic, who has been known to do all he's done in order to fuel his goals, is using dreaded spirits who refuse to pass on to the afterlife."

"Now I see that…" Rena awed returning to the duel. "I just wonder which one will be triumphant…"

"Allow me to answer that…" Leo announced slapping his next card onto his duel disk, creating more feathers to fall to the ground. This time the light above formed into the familiar Airknight Saber (1700/1000) who raised his sword up towards the Ghost Knight Swordsman. "Airknight Saber! Attack his swordsman!"

In a blinding flash of light, the powerful angelic saber slashed right through the ghostly swordsman, making the ghost wail in pain before shattering into smaller spirits…

…That immediately flew into Leo's body making him fall to his right knee to cough violently. (VLP: 6950) (LLP: 6200)

"What just happened?" Rena asked.

"Leo-kun!" Kimatori cried out.

"Quite simple…my spell card, Ancient Empire Tactics' effect kicked in," Vic chuckled gesturing towards his active spell card. "You see…by simply destroying or tributing my ghost monsters…I can inflict five hundred points of damage to your life points…quite interesting actually."

"I whole heartily agree…" Leo chuckled taking another card from his hand and slipping it into his duel disk. "But not as interesting as my effect though. So by discarding one light attribute fairy monster from my hand, I can increase my monster's attack (1700/1000 + 300/0)…and give him a second attack!"

Vic's eyes widened as the Airknight Saber quickly charged towards him. In a matter of seconds although, in front of the former Pacific Duel academy, many ghostly spirits appeared to take the slash for him as Vic immediately snapped his deck out of his duel disk. "Nice try there Leo…but I was one step ahead of you! With my trap card, Dark Soul Shield!"

Fanning the deck out, Vic didn't look all too carefully before selecting a card to place into his graveyard. "So by simply sending a monster card from my deck to the graveyard, I'm able to negate the damage. Oh and by the way, the monster I discarded was a second Ghost Knight Blade Chain…and with another in the graveyard your other angel loses some more points (1200/1350 – 300/0)."

"Still have enough to attack though…" Leo chuckled wagging his arm towards his vanguard who immediately charged towards Vic.

In a quick second, the vanguard sliced its pike through Vic's side, making him stagger to the side. "Hnn…you'll pay for that…" (VLP: 6050)

"Maybe so…but I'll end my turn right now," Leo replied crossing his arms over his chest.

"Will you at least try to make sense!" Vic roared nearly ripping his next card off the top of his deck. "Heh…I guess I'll have to knock some sense into you! I summon Ghost Knight Vanguard!"

Many spirits began to formulate in front of Vic, immediately forming into another masked phantom wearing a heavier armored overcoat like the others…only this one lifting up a large pike in his hands that was a contrast to Leo's monster (1000/500 + 600/0).

"Hmm…you copycat," Leo chuckled flicking some hair out of his eyes.

"Heh...I assure you, the only thing similar to our monsters is their jobs," Vic chuckled lifting his hand up to wave towards his monster. "And that mine has a much better attack score…Attack his Vanguard!"

Both vanguards charged forward towards each other, their pikes raised into the air. Then with a great clash, the two opposite vanguards brought the pikes together…only to have the Ghost Knight kick the angelic vanguard in the stomach, and stab his pike through the angel's chest.

Leo turned his head away as his Airknight Vanguard died silently. (LLP: 5500)

"And now…I'll just set a single card face down…" Vic chuckled slipping the card into his duel disk. "And end my turn…"

"Draw…" Leo replied lifting his next card up. "I believe it's time to…"

"Hold it!"

Everyone turned towards the top of the stairs in the arena, and standing there with a goofy, yet stern look on his face, was none other than Alan with his arms crossed over his chest. "As much as I like a good duel, who authorized this one? Technically, classes are in session and with the exception of Vic, Cleo and Rena, no one has permission to leave."

"My dearest apologies," Leo stated shutting off his duel disk and jumping off the platform. "I merely got caught up in the excitement…"

"We're not done here fancy boy," Vic growled throwing his arm to his side. "Get back up here and finish this duel!"

"Afraid we'll have to finish this little match up a little later," Leo replied as Kimatori ran up next to him and grabbed Leo's right arm. "I'll take an I.O.U.A.D. (I owe u a duel) from ya…"

"Childsman, Sol, Akira, Becker! All of you to your respective classes, now!" Alan shouted raising his fist up into the air. "The next time I call your names, you will all be in serious trouble. So hurry up…"

"Aw…but I wanted to see who would've won…" Cleo groaned combing some hair out from her face, then clasping her hands together with gleaming lights appearing around her.

"I still say you're boy crazy," Rena sighed before walking away with Leo and Kimatori in front of her.

"Well excuse me for taking an interest!" Cleo protested following her fellow students.

As soon as Vic and Alan were (supposedly) alone in the arena, Vic closed his eyes and smirked wildly. "You sure know how to kill a good time Mr. Wright…"

"Ah, there's no need for any pleasantries," Alan replied slowly taking steps down the stairs in front of him towards the main floor. "You can just call me Alan, or Al for short."

"Good to know," Vic stated jumping off the platform to meet Alan face to face. "After last year, I honestly can't stand your last name…no offense…"

"You must be referring to my younger brother," Alan sighed rubbing the back of his head. "He told me that he gave your school some problems last year…however, he never said anything about facing you in a duel, only seeing you lose to a girl named Natalie…"

"That's enough…I'm only tired of hearing Wright…" Vic explained pocketing his cards. "Because of the short whelp that wouldn't shut up about beating that stupid victory…"

"…I have an idea as to who you're talking about…" Alan replied rubbing his chin. "Anyway, I think we need to get you ready for your classes…get you fitted for your blazer…"

"Actually, I've got my Blue Uniform in my bag…" Vic retorted lifting his suitcase up.

"Well, you see, you need replace it for a Red Jacket," Alan chuckled placing his hand onto his chin. "Since you got a transfer here, you'd need to start from the bottom."

"What?!?!" Vic shouted making Alan cover his ears and jump back. "What about the connections and money that was transferred here from the Vanhemer family? I thought that I would be going straight to Obelisk Blue! Not being in the slacker dorm!"

"Sorry! But you'll have to try at the next promotion exam and if you do well, you can get into Ra Yellow," Alan explained turning towards the hallway. "And then after the next one…"

"I know how the system works!" Vic roared making the headmaster fall forwards. "What the hell! I've been in Obelisk Blue in all of my academy career!"

"Then this will be a valuable learning experience," Alan replied standing up to continue through the hall. "Come to my office later to pick up your dorm number and jacket."

With Vic's narrowed eyes, the former Dark World Prince glowered at Alan's back watching the family obsessed headmaster disappear into the hall's darkness. Running up to the nearby wall, Vic slammed his fist into it breathing hard.

…slowly blood began dripping from his knuckles as he pulled his fist back to reveal a small crack in the wall. "Damn it…does everyone like screwing me over?"

"I know how you feel, mate."

Vic turned around to see Beck standing behind him with a huge grin on his face. "Who the devil are you?"

"Cool, I get another introduction!" Beck squealed in joy with a blush on his face while having his hands near his face and moving in a 'fashionable' manner.

'_Uh, okay. I think this guy's a few DVDs short of a full collection," _Vic thought blinking a few times in confusion.

Holding out his hand to Vic, Beck smiled brightly sending a small sparkle from his teeth. "You've probably heard of me, I known as Beck, leader of the Yokai…"

"…you've got to be kidding me," Vic commented putting his hands into his pockets. "First of all, I'm not really sure about shaking your hand. And second, how in the world are you the leader of the infamous Yokai?"

"Because I founded them, silly," Beck chuckled adjusting his bandana while smiling still. "Anyway, if you want to get to Blue immediately…I think I can be of service…"

"No thanks…I'm tired of wheeling and dealing with people from your type of groups…" Vic sighed turning towards the side and began walking away from beck. "All I've gotten out of those experiences are headaches…and I think I'll get a migraine working with you."

"Turning down a good deal? Well…what if I were to tell you that you could get revenge on the fool who sent you here?" Beck offered…and surprisingly made Vic stop in his tracks.

"…now you've got my attention…" Vic replied turning his head back to Beck. "…what is it that you want?"

"Excellent…" Beck chuckled walking past Vic. "Maybe we should discuss matters further in a more secluded area…"

"…maybe I'll get you a specialized uniform!"

"…I'm not in the Yokai yet…" Vic pointed out.

"I know that," Beck chuckled with a toothy grin.

'…_this guy is giving me a weird vibe…'_ Vic thought with a cold sweat dripping down his head.

//-/--/-/-/-/-//-

**Card Stats**

**Airknight Vanguard / Light / LV. 4 / ATK: 1500 / DEF: 1350 / Fairy/Effect:** When this card attacks a monster with a lower defense than this card's attack, inflict the difference to your opponent's life points.

**Description:**

**Ghost Knight Swordsman / Dark / LV. 3 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 500 / Fiend/Effect:** If your opponent has one monster on his/her side of the field with a 'Ghost' Counter, this card may attack your opponent directly.

**Description:** A mysterious phantom like man wearing an armored black overcoat over his entire body. The skin that is showing his mouth, underneath his black demonic mask with a pair of glowing red eyes. In the monster's hands is a large black and silver demonic sword.

**Ghost Knight Blade Chain / Dark / LV. 4 / ATK: 1700 / DEF: 850 / Fiend/Effect:** As long as this card is in your graveyard, increase the attack of all monsters on the field with 'Ghost Knight' in the cards' names by 300 points. Also, as long as this card is in your graveyard, decrease the attack of all monsters on the field with at least one 'Ghost Counter' on them, decrease the attack of those monsters by 300 points per Ghost Counter.

**Description:** A mysterious phantom like man wearing an armored black overcoat over his entire body. The skin that is showing his mouth, underneath his black demonic mask with a pair of glowing red eyes. In the monster's hands is a long chain with a dagger blade at the end of it, the chain is wrapped all around 'his' body.

**Ghost Knight Vanguard / Dark / LV. 3 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 500 / Fiend/Effect:** When this card is destroyed as a result of battle or is tributed, you may special summon two 'Ghost Knight Vanguard' cards from your hand or deck.

**Description:** A mysterious phantom like man with pale skin wearing a heavily armored black overcoat covering his body. Over the top part of his face is a large demonic mask with red glowing eyes. In his hands is a large rusty pike.

**Scroll of the Cursed / Instant Spell / Effect:** When this card is played, you may place one Ghost Counter on one face up monster on the field. After that is done, instead of placing this card into your graveyard, you may shuffle this card into your deck.

**Image:** A black scroll surging with phantoms around it.

**Ancient Empire Tactics / Continuous Spell / Effect:** Whenever a monster with 'Ghost' is destroyed as a result of battle or tributed, inflict 500 points of damage to your opponent's life points.

**Image:** Many ghost knights charging forward.

**Dark Soul Shield / Trap / Effect:** This card can only be activated when your opponent inflicts damage to your life points. Select one monster card from your deck and send it to the graveyard, negating the damage. The deck is then shuffled.

**Image:** A demonic spirit taking the attack for a Marauding Captain.

**/--/-/-//--/-/-//-/**

**Klein:** So now that we've got things back up to speed…I think its time to get the scam train back on track!

**Rena:** You, Van, Koji, Leo, Rukia and Ganryu all went out as well, so why did only Tony and I get in trouble!?

**Koji:** I'm sorry Rena…but Van and Klein made me promise not to tell.

**Ganryu:** …

**Leo:** And as much as I'd like to admit what I was doing…if Kimatori found out, then she'd be devastated.

**Van:** And Rukia and I…well we're too embarrassed to admit anything.

**Klein:** Hey! This chapter is all about me! Not about the big footed girlie or the chess freak scrubbing the bathrooms!

_**Brawns versus the…uh, the weird, tri-colored freaks! Who is Beck? What is up with him? Why with the weird attitude! **_

_**Next time – **__**Chapter 24: Enter Beck's Bravo Strength!**_

Master Beck! I won't lose! It'll be a show worth a bravo!


	24. Chapter 24: Enter Beck’s Bravo Strength!

_**There are many things in this life that I am annoyed of.**_

_**One would have to be the fact that I don't know what the hell to make of Bobobo-Bo Bo-Bobo (I don't even know if that's enough Bo's or not). **_

_**Another would have to be that I don't really get why people teach people proper grammar now-a-days. Practically everyone's using slang or street talk, whatever floats your boat.**_

_**But right now…I'm just confused as to what the hell is going on around this academy. More specifically, the people I keep meeting here! There was that goddamn Black Tiger character who pretended not to be a pervert.**_

_**Then there was that one eyed freak who didn't know how to take a hint! So, when he wasn't looking I took him down…even going below the belt! I don't care if you think its dirty fighting by kicking a guy down there; if you were my height then you'd have to use every advantage you could get!**_

…_**What was I talking about now?**_

_**Oh yeah, I hear that the girlie and that psycho are getting punished for being caught after curfew…all I care about is the fact that I was able to put that eye-patched freak in his place while they were caught!**_

_**Of course, Koji's telling me to get a hold of myself and help the two out…unfortunately I don't plan on doing that…**_

…_**wait…what was I talking about?**_

_**Oh yeah, the newest idiot…although if you asked me, he's more of a tako. For those of you who don't take the time to understand another language, I'm not going to waste my breath.**_

_**This guy's doing too much of that, that's for sure…just like the Black Tiger!**_

**/---/-/-/-/-//-/-/-/**

**Chapter 24**

**Enter Beck's Bravo Strength!**

**/--/-//-/-//-/--/-/-//**

"I'm so glad you decided to join us Mr. Vanhemer…"

In the enlarged dark room at the Ra Yellow dorm, courteously paid for by none other than Beck for the remodeling, Beck, Vic the three remaining members of Dias's group, and three shadowed people were sitting at a fancy black and red poker table…custom made to be exact.

"Yeah, yeah…" Vic groaned looking at the five cards he had…three kings and two hearts, a full house. Taking some of the chips in his hand, he tossed them into the middle of the table. "I raise…"

"I'm out…" Morty sighed slapping his hand onto the table and sat back to watch the game with his arms behind his head.

"Same here," Xander growled slamming his fist into the table.

"…I'll raise as well," Alex stated tossing a few chips in as well.

All three of the shadowed forms were merely observing from the side as Beck pushed a few of his chips into the center. "I'm in…but now then, since we've got some new faces in the works, I think that maybe we should start with our plans…"

"With just the eight of us?" Alex asked looking around the table to look at all of the members of Beck's Yokai.

"Of course not, don't be silly, silly!" Beck stated placing one of the cards of his hand into the middle and immediately drew the top one from the deck of fancy silver backed cards. "I've got members stationed around the island at least two at each dorm and a least three in the faculty as well…each of them hand picked for this mission with dueling specialties in their field."

"But I digress…before we can fully grasp at what we need from here we need to take out the pains in the ass…"

"Who would that be?" Vic asked laying his hand onto the table and flipping the cards in a fancy manner showing his hand. "I call, and I've got a full house…"

"Damn…that beats my flush," Alex sighed throwing his cards onto the table.

Seeing as how Beck didn't make a move with his cards, Vic reached out and began to pull in the chips towards his body…until Beck raised his hand. "Well…first off all we need to take out the ones who had actually managed to stand up against Dias's group, and then there's the royalty…"

Beck slid his cards with his hand up to show that all five of his cards were in the heart suite…but were in a very famous order. "Royal Straight Flush…so I'll be taking those if you don't mind…"

"How…how the hell did you…" Vic stuttered realizing that he just lost a large amount of money to this weird Ra Yellow guy…and he was starting to get the feeling that Beck was playing for the other team…

"What can I say…" Beck chuckled tossing a few of the chips up and down in the air in his hand with a great smile brightening on his face. "I always get what I want…always…"

This time Beck winked an eye at everyone making everyone in the room (except one of the shadowed figures) to cower backwards. Xander shook his head in disappointment and regained his composure. "O-Okay…so how do you plan on doing that exactly?"

"Quite simple really…" Beck stated looking directly at Xander with a great big smile… "I plan on using the annoyances to my advantage…but this will be a delicate matter that will require cunning, skill and planning…and I've already got a few of the pieces going into this matter so don't worry about that…"

"Then what the hell are we doing here?" Vic spat out annoyed and having a blood vessel to appear on his forehead. "And if you tell me that it was just to swindle my money…I'll kick your ass!"

"Oh! I like it when people threaten me," Beck laughed loudly making everyone sweatdropped. "But now we've got enough of my Yokai on the island to fix this up…"

"Now then…would anyone like to play round thirty-seven?"

"NO!"

--/-/-/-/-//-//-/--

"Come one, come all!" Klein shouted adjusting his straw hat and wooden cane in his hands as he walked in front of what appeared to be a large wooden crate that had a latched on door on it. "Gaze and behold upon what scientists call the missing link for years and years in the past…"

This got quite a few Slifer Red students to stand in front of Klein, making his smile grow larger as well as his own ego. "Excellent! Now, I must warn you all…if you have weak constitutions, then you might want to walk away now…"

No one walked away from the tempting surprise that Klein was offering. "…Very well! Behold!"

The crate's door opened up and slowly a large leathery green snake head began to rise up from the crate. The students that were watching were very surprised that such a large snake could even be alive…

…Until Koji fell out of the crate with the large snake mask falling off his head and onto the ground. "OW!"

With a large sweatdrop beginning to form on the back of his head, Klein noticed that all of the watching Slifer Red Students were glaring down at Klein. "Uh…well…I…no refunds!"

Before Klein even had a chance to run away, three of the male Slifer Red students had a death grip him and were all screaming at him to return their money that hey had given him.

"HELP ME!"

Unfortunately, Klein's cries for help fell on deaf ears, especially with Rena sitting across from Van, Rukia and Ganryu in the Red Cafeteria. "So what I'm hearing is that none of you are going to help me and Tony out?"

"Sorry Rena," Van coughed trying to hide a small blush on his face. "But there are some things that happened that night that I need to keep secret…"

"Uh…yeah…" Rukia added with a slight blush on her face.

Ganryu couldn't even look Rena in the eyes, he was still upset with the fact that even though he lost to Dias in that two-on-one duel…Rena was able to defeat that sick guy. In fact…he was down right furious…

…but there was one thing that he could do…

_/-//-/--/-///---/---/-_

_Still flabbergasted, Ganryu didn't realize that the fog had completely taken over Seika and dissipated with Seika disappearing with it. _

"_Heh…didn't expect that…"_

_With a new voice, Ganryu jumped to his feet and turned around to see Big Boss sitting on a rock a few feet between the two. Big Boss obviously amused seeing this, began to clap his hands. "A kiss between two enemies…not to mention between strangers! You certainly know how to add a kick of spice to a night's festivities…"_

_Shuffling his deck, back into his pocket, Ganryu raised his fists up in a back stance fighting form, preparing for anything. _

"_Aw…it's nice to see that you're willing to fight," Big Boss chuckled jumping off the rock and taking a step towards Ganryu. "But, I've come not to fight…but rather to give you this…"_

_With a flick of his fingers, Big Boss produced a small white card and presented it to Ganryu. A little wary, Ganryu snapped the card from Big Boss's hand to see that it was a business card, with Big Boss written in gold with a small chibi version of Big Boss himself giving a thumbs up. Underneath the picture was a cell phone number._

"_I know you, you're probably seeking a chance to be a hero," Big Boss stated shrugging his shoulders. "Perhaps I may be able to help you with that…"_

"_Who are you?" Ganryu asked._

"_Read the card," Big Boss stated before he turned towards the main duel academy building. "But, I don't expect your answer now…don't you have to go somewhere?"_

"…" _Ganryu just glared at Big Boss as he slowly began to leave the hidden beach._

_//-/-/-//--/_

Snapping his head back to reality, Garu noticed that Van, Rukia and Rena were staring at him. "…Yeah…same here…"

"I can't believe this," Rena sighed standing up from her seat and walking away from the three. "I'll see you guys later…"

"Aw Rena!" Rukia and Van shouted out trying to get to Rena.

Unfortunately, Rena had stormed out of the cafeteria before the two could reach her. But that's when Rena bumped into someone else sending her and the other person to the ground.

"Harfe! Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah, don't worry Gitarre…what about her?"

Rena sat upwards looking at another pair of Slifer Reds…a guy helping a girl up. Both of them held up their hands to Rena and smiled down at her. "Sorry about that…our bad…"

The two students both had long brown hair (only the girl had even longer hair that went past her shoulders) and their bangs were dyed separate colors. The girl's bangs were a sky blue color while the boy's were dark red. Both of them had skinny bodies (if it wasn't for their hair and bangs, Rena would've sworn that she was seeing two) with creamy skin.

Both of the similar students were wearing fancier versions of the Slifer Red uniform that had beautiful white dress shirts underneath. Both of them had beautiful smiles on their faces as they held out their hands. "Are you okay?"

"Uh…yeah," Rena stuttered taking both of their hands and stood up. Apparently these two were twins from what Rena was able to gather. "Sorry, totally my fault, I wasn't looking…"

"Ah…do not worry yourself," The blue banged chuckled crossing his arms over his chest while still having his smile bright.

"Yeah! At least we can consider this a chance to meet a new face!" The red banged girl added wagging her finger up.

"Well…that's a unique way of putting it," Rena giggled remembering the times she met Klein, Koji and Ganryu in the exact same manner. Then holding out her hand, Rena smiled brightly back, forgetting her troubles slightly. "The name's Rena, Rena Akira!"

"Ah! What a lovely name!" The boy exclaimed taking Rena's hand, immediately shaking it. "But I must apologize profusely, I Gitarre Musik should have introduced myself first. It's the gentlemanly thing to do…"

"Don't be so harsh on yourself bruder," the girl teased grasping Rena and Gitarre's hands in her own. "I'm Harfe Musik, Gitarre's schwester. It's great to meet you Fraulein Akira!"

"…Huh?" Rena was just confused with what Gitarre and Harfe's weird choice of words. "I-I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't follow…"

"Oh!" Harfe and Gitarre gasped pulling their hands back from Rena.

"Many apologies!" Gitarre announced bowing down at a ninety degree at his waist. "We didn't mean to confuse you!"

"Don't be so formal bruder," Harfe sighed bonking Gitarre in the head, and then smiled back to Rena. "Whoops…well, here's how this works, we're German students here and we still speak well in our German tongues on occasion."

"Oh, I see," Rena chuckled rubbing the back of her head. '_Still don't know what the hell they said…'_

//---/--//-/-/-/-/

"Now then, which one? Which one?" Beck sung pointing his hand over several cards that had pictures that depicted the signs of the Zodiac. "Oh…I just can't choose!"

"What the hell is that?" Vic asked staring at the new cards that Beck had spread across the field.

"Quite simple…you see I have my Yokai all in divisions," Beck explained taking the twelve cards and began to shuffle them carefully in his hands. "The heads of those divisions get to decide what they what to name their divisions. And so the head of this division decided to go for a more ominous name…"

"….I don't think I have to say what this one is…"

"So…does that apply to us?" Alex asked looking through one of the closets that was in the room.

"Actually, no…for right now you four are merely new members," Beck answered waving his hand over the stacked twelve cards. "Any new members must go through a screening process…kind of like a fraternity if you will…"

"Then I'm out…" Vic sighed spinning on his heel and towards the door.

"…I was just making a comparison," Beck sighed rubbing his forehead. "The screening process is very different depending on what your talents are…for example, for this job I need duelists. You all have already proven that you're no slouches on the duel disk if you ask me, so there's no need of a screening process…however, you four will be paired with a few others of my Yokai, and I'm thinking at least maybe three or four more."

"Hold on a second…" Vic growled crossing his arms over his chest. "If you've got this many specially skilled duelists and others at your command, then why do you need us?"

"Heh…" Beck scoffed flipping the top card of the deck of twelve and throwing it into the middle of the table before he stood up. "Mr. Vanhemer…I am a man of high expectations…And in order to meet those expectations, I require the best of the best at my side…and right now, that would be you four…"

"…Yeah, I'm not buying it," Vic sighed getting a nod from Xander, Alex, and Morty.

"Well then…look at it this way then…" Beck started but then took a few seconds to think about the situation. "Um…yeah! Well…fine…unlike me, you guys have a history with the darkness games…some more than others…" Beck pointed towards Vic and Alex with his hand to the side. "So, I am nothing more than a pathetic man in desperate need of your knowledge to complete my task…so will you help me?"

"…What's the pay cut?" Vic asked making a blood vessel appear on the back of Beck's head.

"About eight dollars and thirty-seven cents an hour," Beck snarled slapping his face with his hand.

"Not bad…" Alex whispered to Morty.

"With money like that, I can buy a loft when I get back home," Morty whispered back gleefully.

"A lot better than my last job," Xander chuckled.

"Fine then Beck," Vic said bluntly crossing his arms over his chest. "We'll join ya…but I want nine dollars pay and to be made head of that new division…"

"You're lucky you're cute," Beck growled clasping his hands together. "But, fine…deal…"

"Now then!" Beck spun on his heel and picked up the card on the table and looked at the card. "You guys head back to your respective dorms and I'll contact you later…now, I have to have one of my previous members attack one of the targets I set up…"

"If you don't mind…" Alex started raising an eyebrow at Beck. "Could you tell us who the targets are?"

"Sure…" Beck replied simply turning away from the four. "The top five duelists of this school, plus the group that managed to face off against you and the Dias Crew…"

"…and we're starting off with the one that got you Xander…just to test him…"

"Cool! It better be someone strong!" Xander shouted pumping his fist into the air. "I want that little guy crushed to dust!"

"Then I have the perfect guy for the job…" Beck chuckled lifting the card that he had selected up in front of his face showing a rampaging bull tearing through a street of merchants, crushing whatever was in its way.

/-/--/-/-//--/-/

"German's quite easy to learn if you give it a decent shot," Gitarre stated walking behind his sister and their new friend Rena. "…you're not listening to me are ya?"

"You say something bruder?" Harfe asked making Gitarre fall face first into the ground.

"Is he okay?" Rena asked raising an eyebrow.

"He's over dramatic," Harfe answered with her and Rena walking away from the stressing Gitarre.

"Hey! Knock it off!"

A loud crash erupted from a few feet to the side of the three, showing what appeared to Koji hiding at one of the Red Dorm huts. "Koji? What's going on?"

"Oh! Rena!" Koji shouted running up to Rena with Gitarre and Harfe staring at each other. "H-Help!"

"Take a deep breath…" Rena suggested a little confused what got Koji so rustled. Even though he was out as well, Rena couldn't blame him; Koji was a decent guy but was more than likely bullied by his brother to stay quiet. "And tell me what's going on…"

"I-I-Its Klein!" Koji stuttered slightly taking a deep breath afterwards and looked up at Rena.

"That kind of figures," Rena sighed rolling her eyes to the side.

"Bruder, do you have any idea what's going on?" Harfe asked through a whisper to Gitarre.

"Your guess is as good as mine, schwester," Gitarre replied raising an eyebrow at Koji.

"Y-you don't understand Rena," Koji continued waving his arms in the air. "We were just trying to get some more money to pay off the ever continuing debt with have with Ganryu…a-a-and all of a sudden this testosterone driven guy came up and started trashing everything!"

Rena's eyes widened at Koji just told her and blinked a few times. "…and what makes you think I can stop that?"

"I-I-I don't know!" Koji replied pulling his sleeves up a little. "I'm desperate!"

"Hereinkommend!" Gitarre and Harfe shouted jumping to the side.

"…What'd they say?" Rena asked raising an eyebrow.

"…I don't speak German," Koji replied, neither Rena nor Koji notice the growing shadow appearing behind them.

"It means 'incoming'!" Gitarre shouted from his cover spot.

"Oh," Rena and Koji awed at the same time…this time the shadow becoming apparent to them. "Oh…jump!"

At the last second, Rena and Koji got out of the way of what appeared to be a large ruined crashed crate where they were standing at. "Are you okay Rena?!"

"Y-yeah…what was that about?" Rena asked slowly standing up with Harfe and Gitarre coming from their cover.

Standing a few feet away where the crate landed, Klein was staring down at the very man who had thrown the crate…not caring to notice the many knocked out students that were all around him.

He was more concerned with the over inflated brute that was standing in front of him. The extra enlarged Obelisk Blue uniform was even able to contain his massive muscles. It was hard to image that this black haired giant (who happened to have an 80's styled hair style) was only a first year who had like to wear blue jeans with a tight black shirt. "I commend you so far…Fighting Dog of the Streets for all of your hard work so far…"

"Shut your bloody hole, Bravo," Klein snarled moving his eyes left and right slightly. "I know we had a fierce rivalry in the past with our gangs and all…"

"You destroyed my base," Bravo started crossing his arms with a scowl on his face. "Made out with my sister, lit my cat on fire, and destroyed my customized D. Gray-Man DVDs that I was planning on selling, not to mention you made my gang disband…"

"Yeah…I'm pretty funny when I do stuff like that," Klein chuckled rubbing the back of his head. "Anyway…I heard it was all for the best for you. I heard you managed to get quite a bit of money for you…which would explain the blue uniform."

"…ya got me there…" Bravo muttered with an embarrassed look on his face. "But still…all the other things you did were unforgivable! Remember what I said when we last met a year ago?"

"No…" Klein bluntly replied.

"…crap…I forgot so I hoped you would've remembered," Bravo admitted scratching the side of his face.

"Well I didn't," Klein responded noticing that Klein, Rena, Harfe and Gitarre were running into the scene. "Well…look what the cat dragged in…"

"Oh! You got me a new cat?" Bravo asked clapping his hands in enjoyment.

"It's a figure of speech you meathead!" Klein shouted…

…but apparently, Bravo wasn't listening to Klein…he was too preoccupied looking at something…

…Something in a red uniform…with a petite frame with slightly long brown hair with red highlights… "Ooh…C-cute…"

Rena could feel the sweat on the back of her head fall slightly when she saw Bravo's eyes soften and drool started to ooze from his tongue. "Why's he looking at me like that?"

Elsewhere…

Snapping his head up from his sight from the toilet he was currently cleaning, Tony had a stern look on his face…it would have looked dramatic if he wasn't wearing a white bandana, a white apron and had a toilet brush in his hands. "I sense a disturbance!"

"Rena's in trouble!"

Then, standing up to run, Tony was met with a very annoyed Asche. "And where do you think you're going?"

"I, uh, well, I sense that…" Tony stuttered twirling the toilet brush in his hand.

"Get back to work," Asche commanded.

"Yeah, yeah…" Tony sighed lowering his head and turning back to the toilet.

Back from elsewhere…wait, huh?

A little dazed on the ground, Bravo now sported a large red handprint on his right cheek while Rena had a large blush on her face while pulling the back of her skirt down slightly. "P-Perv!"

Klein was laughing loudly stomping his foot in the back of Bravo's head. "That's what you get you tako!"

"So many different languages today…" Koji moaned lowering his head with Gitarre and Harfe staring down at him both with a raised eyebrow.

"Knock it off!" Bravo shouted standing up immediately making Klein fly up into the air slightly. Then rubbing the side of his face slightly Bravo walked over to Klein. "Damn…she's got a good slap…"

"Heh…shows how much of a wuss you are," Klein chuckled only to have Bravo pull him to the side.

"Hey, Klein…you mind giving me her digits?" Bravo whispered to Klein with a goofy grin on his face.

"You know you can just look it up in the student directory…" Klein whispered back.

"Not those digits! The more important ones…" Bravo snickered covering his mouth with his hand. "Ya know, the TWA!"

"…you sure are a tako…" Klein muttered to the side.

"Fine then," Bravo sighed standing tall lifting up his beaten up duel disk. "Then we'll duel, if I win then you tell me what I want to know…"

"What's in it for me?" Klein asked before Bravo lifted him up by the back of his collar.

"Then you get to keep all your teeth in your mouth," Bravo answered bluntly lifting his fist up to Klein's face.

"…good deal…" Klein gulped.

"Not so fast!"

Everyone turned to the right to see none other than Professors Rex and Weevil standing only a few feet away from Bravo and Klein. "What the hell is going on here?!?"

"Don't interrupt this!" Bravo shouted dropping Klein and lifting up the two mini-professors up into the air.

"What the!?!"

"Put us down you pompous head buffoon!"

"As you wish!" Bravo stated winding up his arms. "BRAVO SATALITE CATAPULT THROW!!!!!!!!"

In a very powerful throw, the two professors went soaring into the air over the academy screaming courtesy of Bravo who was merely clapping his hands free of dirt. "Now then…where were we?"

"That's insane," Gitarre admitted blinking a few times.

"True," Harfe added.

After a few minutes of grabbing duel disks, shuffling cards and some complaining about how this was stupid…Klein and Bravo stood across from each other at least twenty feet away from each other.

"Atten-shun! Duel, on!"

"That was just weak," Klein muttered lifting his five cards up from his duel disk. (KLP: 8000)

"Who you calling weak?" Bravo asked looking at his sixth card, only to spin it around showing the spell card, Graceful Charity. "So, I'll start by playing this familiar spell card to start out strong!" (BLP: 8000)

Spinning the top three cards off his deck, Bravo didn't even look at the two cards he discarded…one was a monster and a trap that didn't look familiar.

"So…what would a pervert play in a deck?" Rena asked still blushing a little.

"My guess would be a harem deck," Koji sighed.

"Now then…one of the cards I discarded was known as Spare Resources," Bravo stated with a trap card image appearing behind him showing a large warehouse being overflowed with boxes and junk. "And as long as it's in the graveyard, spells and trap cards don't take up space in our spell and trap card zone."

"Hmm…that's interesting…" Klein stated rubbing his chin.

"Next I'll set a monster on the defensive and end my turn," Bravo finished with the brown backed card appeared in front of him. "Your move little man."

"That's all?" Klein asked taking the next card off the top of his deck and into his hand. Then taking another card from his hand, a powerful large beastly wolf appeared with wild silver hair with dried blood on various parts, the wolf howled loudly into the air (1700/400). "I'll show you a real monster! And this one is known as Timber Wolf!"

"That's a new one," Rena said in awe staring at the wolf.

"Klein's going for an Ojama Beast deck," Koji answered. "This seems to be better towards the rough side of his personality."

"Timber Wolf! Attack his defense! Feral Claw!" Klein commanded as his wolf pounced into the air towards Bravo's face down card.

The card flipped up into what appeared to be a very skinny man wearing coke bottle glasses and baggy gangster clothes (600/800) that was panicking as the wolf pounced on him and began to sink it's teeth into the nerd.

…A very gruesome scene…

With his job done, the Timber Wolf (1700/400 + 400/400) just trotted proudly back to Klein's field wagging his tail in the air. "Whenever my Timber Wolf destroys a monster in battle, I can increase his attack and defense by four hundred points…"

"Yeah…but I've still got an effect too ya know," Bravo chuckled as his graveyard began to glow. "That monster you destroyed was known as Poser, and when flipped up, I can special summon a certain kind of monster from my graveyard…"

In a blinding flash of light, three figures appeared in front of Bravo and as the light died down; their features began to become apparent. All three of them large muscled men with the same long 80's styled hair cut while wearing a black leather jacket with blue jeans. Around their belt loops were long silver chains as all three of them cracked their necks (1500/0 x3). "My Fist Bruiser! And when he's special summoned from my graveyard, I can special summon two Bruiser Grunt Tokens on my side of the field!"

"So what if you got some dudes with bad hair cuts?" Klein chuckled taking a card from his hand and slipping it into his duel disk, making it appear behind his proud beast. "None of them can take out my beastie…"

"Not yet anyway," Bravo chuckled pulling his next card, bringing his hand size to a full six cards. "But just watch! I'll activate the spell card, Terraforming! So now I can take a field spell from my deck and add it to my hand!"

With a small beep, a single card popped out of Bravo's duel disk, but instead of adding it into his hand, Bravo opened up his field card zone to place the card into his disk. "And why wait to play it? I'll activate the field spell card, Bruiser's Battleground!"

The ground began to rumble extremely loud before breaking open to create a large alley way that managed to accommodate all six of the duel academy students. The whole area was covered with trash and resembled an alleyway that you might've found on the streets of New York.

"And what exactly will this do?" Klein asked raising an eyebrow at the now relaxing Bruiser monsters on Bravo's side of the field. "I notice that your monsters don't seem to be getting a power bonus…"

"You'll see what will happen…" Bravo chuckled lifting another card from his hand. "And to start off the assault, I'll summon Savage Bruiser!"

One of the brick walls shattered, allowing another bruiser to waltz onto the field. This one an extremely large muscled, bald man wearing a biker uniform with ripped pants and shirt. Taking a good look at Klein, the Bruiser slammed his fists together in intimidation (2200/400). "And now for the attack…of course, in order for my Savage Bruiser to attack, I need to send one monster card from my hand to the graveyard…I think my second Fist Bruiser should do…"

After slipping the card into his graveyard, Bravo's Savage Bruiser leapt into the air preparing to strike down the Timber Wolf with all of his strength.

"Hold up!" Klein laughed snapping his fingers towards his face down card that immediately flipped up showing the three Ojama Brother dancing around a confused Dark Magician with a tub about to drop on his head. "I activate Ojama Dance! This card can only be activated when you declare an attack and you have at least two or more monsters than I do!"

"And you've got four…"

A little confused, Bravo's confusion increased when all three of the Ojama Brothers appeared around his four monsters, spinning in a dancing fashion. "What the hell are they doing?"

"Simple really," Klein stated lifting a card up from his hand, showing it was Ojamagic. "By discarding a card that has 'Oja' in it, I can return all face up monsters on your side of the field, back to your hand…and since two of your monsters are tokens they bite the big one!"

Bravo could only growl as his four monsters retreated into the dark alley, making two of the cards on his duel disk pop into his hand. That's when the top card of his deck slid into his hand. "Oh, yeah, you get to draw one card afterwards…but so do I!"

Taking three cards from his deck, Klein exposed all three of them as the same Ojama Trio that was only seconds on the field. "Since Ojamagic was discarded, I can take the gruesome threesome from my deck to my hand!"

"Yeah…well, you shouldn't give your opponent cards to use," Bravo advised lifting the card he just drew into his duel disk…making it materialize into the Quick Summon spell card. "You never know if they're going to draw this! And with Quick Summon, I can automatically normal summon a second time! So I think I'll bring back Savage Bruiser!"

Jumping from the darkness, the bald bruiser appeared once more on the field with a dark grin plastered all over his face. "And by discarding my first Fist Bruiser…my Savage Bruiser can attack your little wolf! Fist of Fury!"

This time the bruiser didn't waste any time in attacking, he just charged straight forward and slammed his fist directly in between the eyes of the wild beast. (KLP: 7900)

"Eh…no biggie," Klein chuckled slipping the card into his duel disk.

"You say that now," Bravo commented lifting two cards up from his hand. "I'll set two cards face down…and call it a turn. Prepare to render those digits!"

"…Why's he looking at me again?" Rena asked covering herself with her arms.

"Pervertieren…" Gitarre and Harfe muttered to themselves.

"Draw time!" Klein announced pulling his next card up to his face. '_Okay…more than likely he's going to try to bring back one of those Fist Bruisers so he can bring back those tokens and run me back to the wall. I guess I'll have to prevent that!_'

"I activate the spell card Magical Mallet!" Klein continued taking four of the cards in his hand and began shuffling them into his deck. "And now, I can draw four more times! And for my next trick, I'll place two of those cards in back. And I'll set one more card face down. That's all for me!"

Not even talking, Bravo drew his next card without even blinking. "And now…I'll activate my trap card, Call of the…"

"Go Ojama Trio!" Klein shouted making one of his trap cards disappear only to reappear as the three Ojama brothers (0/1000 x3) on Bravo's side of the field. "So you can just kiss you little strategy goodbye!"

"Really?" Bravo asked innocently as three bright lights appeared in front of him…one next to the Ojama Trio while the others were behind the trio. "I think my Fist Bruiser is going to fit in just fine."

From the light three more Fist Bruisers (1500/0 x3) appeared where the lights were at before all of them with smirks on their faces.

"Hey! Hold up!" Koji shouted from the side. "You've got seven monsters on the field! You're breaking the rules!"

"Yeah!" Klein shouted throwing his arms in the air.

"No he's not," Gitarre stated getting everyone's (except Bravo's) attention. "His field spell allows him to have up to ten monsters on his field. And thanks to his Spare Resources, he can still use his spell and trap cards as long as he doesn't have a monster in the zone."

"True! Instead of breaking the rules, a man must find a way to find a loophole in them," Bravo replied lifting another card from his hand. "Like this! I'll play the spell card, Premature Burial! So for a mere cost of eight hundred life points, I can special summon the other Fist Bruiser!"

"…or should I say 'Fist Bruisers' (1500/0 x3)!" (BLP: 7200)

In three more lights, another trio of Fist Bruisers appeared on the field, all of them standing at different points in the alley, some sitting on the fire escapes of the buildings. The three Ojama tokens on Bravo's field were shaking in fear being surrounded by multiple gang members. "And now…by discarding the last Fist Bruiser from my hand, Savage Bruiser will lead the onslaught! Attack! Fist of Fury!"

With the bald bruiser leading the pack, all six of the other bruisers charged forward, each of them raising their fists up to pummel Klein. Slamming his fist into the back of the card, the Savage Bruiser didn't even care that the face down card flipped up showing a silver wolf that howled in pain (1200/800). "Now that we've got that Silver Fang out of the way…Fist Bruiser Gang! Attack and end this duel!"

All six of the bruisers jumped towards Klein as he lifted up his duel disk at the last moment to allow four multi-colored sheep (0/0 x4) appear on the field to block four of the six gangsters. "Scapegoats! Protect!"

The four bruisers that were just blocked, just slammed their fists into the sheep tokens, shattering them as if they were nothing. However, the other two slammed their fist directly into Klein's face, sending the short duelist flying backwards into the holographic street. (KLP: 4900)

"Heh…you saved yourself one turn," Bravo chuckled rubbing his chin while looking at his last few cards in his hand. "But next turn…" The muscular duelist couldn't help himself but smile as all seven of his Bruisers gathered around him. "…I'll definitely get those measurements!"

"…You'd think he was going to say something more diabolic," Rena sighed still having her arms over chest. "…but it sure sounded perverted…"

"…It is…" Harfe sighed loudly.

"Yeah, yeah, just keep talking and enjoy your voice," Klein chuckled adding another card from the top of his deck into his hand. "And I'll just take back this duel! I play the spell card, Double Summon! So this turn I can have two normal summons this turn! So I'll summon Ojama Yellow (0/1000) and Rescue Cat (300/100)!"

In a great flash, the familiar Ojama Yellow appeared, only this time accompanied with a small white cat with a yellow hard hat on. "Next, by tributing Rescue Cat, I can special summon the other two of the gruesome threesome!"

Meowing loudly, the Rescue Cat disappeared into its hat, then from underneath the hat was none other than Ojama Green and Black (0/1000 x2) who struck a pose with their yellow counterpart. "_Ojama Style Entrance!_"

"And next, I'll activate my face down spell card, Ojama Hero Squad Calling!" Klein shouted as all three of his Ojamas leapt into the air. "So by sending all three of them back into my deck, I can bring out the heroes!"

From the sky, the three Ojamas landed softly on the ground, only all three of them dressed in their weird hero suits (1000/1000), and struck an even more pathetic pose.

Bravo wasn't impressed. "Ha! Three wimps for three others! What are they going to do?"

"Simple! I activate my spell card…Ojama Delta Hurricane!" Klein shouted fitting his next card into his duel disk as all three of the Ojamas jumped into the air, and began to spin at an incredible rate around each other.

The three Ojama Heroes spun faster, and faster, and faster until they had created a full blown tornado that seemed to pull in the entire alley and the multiple bruisers and the three Ojama Tokens into the air. Only moments later, the entire scene was back to what it was originally…the Slifer Red Dorm huts with multiple knocked out students on the ground.

"…oh…crap…" Bravo was almost at a loss for words when all three of the Ojama Heroes appeared front of him. "Oh…triple crap…"

"Attack him directly!" Klein shouted.

With a quick nod, all three of the Ojamas jumped feet first into Bravo's face, sending him falling backwards into the ground with all three Ojamas on his chest with a dramatic (stupid) pose. (BLP: 3300)

"And to end my turn," Klein chuckled as all three Ojama Heroes jumped back onto his side of the field. "I'll just leave you with the scars of being attacked by the Ojamas!"

Clawing his way back to his feet, Bravo nearly ripped his next card off the top of his deck. "This is far from over! I play a second Terraforming spell card! Three guess what I'm pulling this time!"

Taking the card from his deck, Bravo's field card zone opened up once more just as he slapped his selected card into it. The ground rumbled once more, once again creating the large buildings of the Bruiser's Battleground. "Next, I'll set one card face down and set a monster on the defensive…turn end…"

"Great…this field spell is too much," Rena sighed looking left and right at her new surroundings.

"Draw!" Klein shouted, only not looking at his newly drawn card, instead he pointed towards one of his Ojama Heroes. "Ojama Hero Yellow! Attack that defense monster!"

"_You got it boss!_" Ojama yellow shouted jumping into the air and then immediately began to spin at a powerful rate that spun into Bravo's face down monster, that immediately flipped up into a second Poser (600/800).

"Aw crap…" Klein moaned slapping his forehead as the Fist Bruiser (and Bruiser Grunt Tokens) (1500/0 x3).

"It's about to get worse," Bravo laughed snapping his fingers on the face down card that flipped into a spell card. "I play Inferno Reckless Summon! So, by selecting your Ojama Hero Yellow (which I doubt you have any extra), I can special summon both it and my other two Fist Bruisers from my graveyard!"

Multiple lights flashed onto the field creating six more exact look alike Fist Bruisers (1500/0 x6) as well as two original Ojama Yellows (0/1000 x2) that were crouched down next to the three Ojama Heroes. That just made Bravo raise an eyebrow. "Now…what the? How'd those two wimps appear on the field?"

"Ojama Hero monsters are considered to be the exact same as their original counter parts, so I was able to special summon these two," Klein explained looking at the card he had in his hand…and he couldn't help but smile. "And now, in my second main phase, I activate the spell card Polymerization!"

All three of the Ojama Heroes leapt heroically into the air, forming into a large vortex that slowly began to meld the three silly heroes into one. Then, when the vortex shattered, a very familiar Ojama appeared on the field. It was the Ojama King, only muscular and had a sparkling red mask on his face. As the great beast laughed loudly, it exposed the large emblem on his chest that had the letters 'O' and 'K' on it's chest (1000/3000). "Ojama Hero King is what I get out of this in defense mode!"

"Heh…I'll pop that over inflated balloon…" Bravo chuckled cracking his knuckles along with all nine of his Fist Bruisers.

"Heh…you're more than welcome to try," Klein challenged fitting the last card in his hand into his duel disk, making it appear behind his King.

"Fine…" Bravo chuckled immediately snapping his next card off his deck. '_Excellent! I drew Boss Bruiser King! If I could summon him then I would be able to win this thing…but wait…maybe his king has a hidden ability…and then there's the face down monster…'_

'_Damn it, I hate thinking too hard. All I wanted was to keep training, become a professional athlete, make a few girlfriends, have a scam or two to get me in the spotlight in tabloids…and this would've gotten me on the top with my deal with Beck to be his strength.'_

"Uh…I think I'll just end my turn," Bravo announced making everyone look surprised.

"Well, I guess you would fall for bluff, meathead," Klein chuckled lifting up his next card from his deck.

"WHAUH!?!" Bravo questioned raising an eyebrow. "It was a bluff!?!"

"Yeah," Rena answered.

"I saw it," Koji added.

"Same here!" Harfe and Gitarre announced at the same time.

"…Damn…I must be really stupid…" Bravo muttered to himself as the wind slowly began to become stronger and stronger with each passing second.

"Heh! Not as stupid as you're going to be looking!" Klein stated gesturing towards the card he had just drawn…Mystical Space Typhoon. "I have to wonder…what would happen if I blew away your little field spell card?"

"What…NO!" Bravo roared as the winds began to become a powerful tornado that began to draw in the alleyway once more…only this time drawing in all nine of the Bruisers.

"What just happened here?" Koji asked as Bravo sulked over with tears starting to stream from his eyes.

"M-My field spell is what…" Bravo sniffed as the Ojama Hero King stood up flexing his arms. "When its destroyed or removed from the field…all cards on my side of the field are destroyed…"

"That's what I thought, it had a very powerful effect," Klein stated gesturing towards his Ojama Hero King. "Attack him directly Ojama Hero King!"

Jumping towards Bravo, the Ojama Hero King pulled back his large fist and launched it towards Bravo who lifted his hands up to block the fist barely. "In a contest of strength, I'll win hands down!" (BLP: 2300)

"Good thing I've got brains!" Klein replied pointing towards his face down card, which flipped up showing the spell card, De-Fusion. "With De-Fusion, I can spilt my Ojama Hero King back into the original Ojama Hero Trio!"

Bravo stumbled forward as the Ojama Hero King disappeared into three different lights that slipped underneath him and then he received three legs in his guy making him gasp and wheeze loudly. "OH! RIGHT IN THE!(#&(!" (BLP: 0)

With Bravo falling to the ground with his arms wrapped around his waist, moaning loudly and falling face first, the holograms disappeared with Klein raising his hand up into the air. "…SCRAM!"

Koji, Rena, Gitarre and Harfe looked confused as Klein ran past them, that when they noticed that Rex and Weevil (soaked to the bone) were running towards the area…

…but they weren't alone…they were being followed by multiple men from the security of the duel academy. Not wasting any time, the group of four red students followed Klein's lead and got the hell out of there.

No one noticed that a very familiar Ra Yellow was at the scene and had grabbed Bravo with a great deal of strength. "You disappoint me big boy!"

//-/-/-//--/

"You disappoint me Bravo…" Beck chuckled playing another game of poker, this time with Vic and Alex to the sides and Bravo sitting across from him.

In his hand, Bravo had the makings of a Royal Flush made of hearts, for once he'd actually be able to beat Beck in poker. "But, I've been trying to …"

"Relax…I'm not mad," Beck answered replacing two of the cards in his hand with a smile. "Raise. But, I'm just disappointed is all…you could've done better, you ruined your divisions reputation here…"

"I-I just need another chance sir!" Bravo pleaded pushing some more of his chips into the middle. "Trust me! I'll try even harder next time!"

"I'm out," Vic and Alex sighed at the same time.

"Call," Beck stated slapping his hand onto the table. "Fine then Bravo…if you feel you can do this, then you've still got plenty of use to me…lay it down…"

"As you wish sir…Royal Straight Flush," Bravo chuckled sliding the cards in front of him showing the heart suit cards while reaching for the chips. "Looks like I win…"

"Sorry," Beck replied sliding his cards onto the table showing a second Royal Straight Flush with the spades. "But as house rules dictate…if a tie, Spades beat Hearts…"

"Wha…" Bravo awed as Beck pulled in all of the chips.

"I told you once and I'll say it again…" Beck stated fingering one of the chips in his hand. "I always get what I want…always…so we've got another person to deal with…so I figure we can take out two birds with one stone…"

"And who is this other bird?" Vic asked sighing at how much he could lose playing poker against Beck.

"…He goes by the name…" Beck started while taking eleven other cards from his pocket in the same style as the one he had before with the bull on it. "…Taikoubou…Dashiben, relation to Ganryu Dashiben…and I think that this one will work…"

Beck threw the card onto the table, making Bravo, Vic and Alex look at the card to see the picture that was styled on it. The card depicted…

/--//--/-///--/-//

**Card Stats**

**Timber Wolf / Earth / LV 4 / ATK: 1700 / DEF: 400 / Beast/Effect:** Every time this monster successfully destroys a monster and sends it to the graveyard as a result of battle, increase the attack and defense of this monster by 400 points.  
**Description:** A silver battle-scarred wolf with blood on various parts of its fur.

_This card appeared in Duelist Open Destiny, used by Zeff and Rox._

**Fist Bruiser / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 1500 / DEF: 0 / Warrior/Effect:** When this card is special summoned from your graveyard, you may special summon two 'Bruiser Grunt Tokens' (Earth/ LV. 4 / ATK: 1500 / DEF: 0 / Warrior) on your side of the field.

**Description:** A large muscled man with a long 80's styled hair cut wearing a black leather jacket with blue jeans. Around his belt loop is a long silver chain.

**Savage Bruiser / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 2200 / DEF: 400 / Warrior/Effect:** This card cannot attack unless you discard one monster card from your hand to your graveyard.

**Description:** An extremely large muscled, bald man wearing a biker uniform with ripped pants and shirt.

**Poser / Earth / LV. 2 / ATK: 600 / DEF: 800 / Warrior/Effect:** [FLIP: You may special summon one level four or lower monster from your graveyard with 'Bruiser' in it's name with 1500 attack or less to your side of the field.

**Description:** A skinny nerd with coke bottle glasses wearing gang clothes.

**Bruiser's Battleground / Field Spell / Effect:** As long as this card is face up on the field, all players may play monsters in their respective spell and trap card zones (your opponent must attack all monsters in the original monster card zones before attacking the monsters in the back.) as if they were monster card zones. If this card is destroyed or removed from the field, destroy all cards on your side of the field.

**Image:** A large street alleyway that had many beaten up gang members with a large group of people standing at the end.

**Spare Resources / Trap / Effect:** As long as this card remains in your graveyard, all players' spell and trap cards are not considered to take up space in their spell and trap card zones.

**Image:** A large storage facility with overflowing packages and junk.

**Ojama Dance / Trap / Effect:** This card can only be activated when your opponent declares an attack and has at least two more monsters than you. Discard one card with 'Oja-' in its name to your graveyard. Return all face up monsters on your opponent's side of the field back to his/her hand. Your opponent draws one card.

**Image:** The three Ojama Brothers dancing around a Dark Magician, with a tub dropping over his head.

**Ojama Hero King / Light / LV. 6 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 3000 / Beast/Fusion/Effect:** [Ojama Hero Yellow + Ojama Hero Black + Ojama Hero Green As long as this monster remains face up on the field, this monster is considered to be 'Ojama King'. Also, select up to three monster zones and three spell/trap card zones on your opponent's side of the field. As long as this card remains face up the select zones cannot be used.

**Description:** The Ojama King wearing a red mask that sparkles in the light. On his chest is an emblem with a red O and K on it.

**/--/-/-//-/--/-/-/**

**Rena:** Wow! A fortuneteller! Maybe he can tell me when my bad luck will end.

**Ganryu:** …You actually believe in that mumbo jumbo?

**Van:** Hey if someone could get hurt in a duel and lose their soul, anything is possible now.

**Klein:** Who cares! This guy's letting me get the big bucks now!

**Ganryu:** …! You! I thought that you!?!

_**Enter a tale of fortunetelling and fabulous…hard to explain what that is actually…aw heck just read the next chapter! – **__**Chapter 25: Mystic Soul**_

**Gitarre and Harfe:** Go Rena, go! And look!

**Van: **Wow…and just when I thought that people had weird taste here before.

**Leo:** True…and looks like I didn't really get much of a chance to appear in this chapter?


	25. Chapter 25: Mystic Soul

**Vyser D:** Hey everyone! I want to say that when I wrote this chapter, it was still technically my birthday so expect a very special chapter!

And speaking of special, in this chapter a character will use a special set of cards set by a fellow author and friend of my on forums. If you belong to a certain forum board and read the RPGs then you know who I'm talking about. I won't ruin who allowed me to use them now…I'll save that when I credit the cards.

I just wanted to thank him for allowing me to use them in this story…

…and now…enjoy my early/on time/late birthday special!

/--/-/-/-/-/-/-//

_**Fate…**_

…_**it controls our lives, even if we don't want it to. Prior to what many people tell you; our destinies are predetermined in the stars…**_

…_**take for today for example…yes I knew I was going to be used to get money…**_

…_**Yes I knew that 'she' was coming…**_

…_**Correct I was when this new character appeared to interrupt our destined match…**_

_**However, there are some things that can't be determined, for there are those who can change and bend fate to their wills, even if they do not realize that.**_

_**From the fate that I have seen in the future, there are three young chosen ones who can do this very feat…**_

…_**I have already met one of the chosen ones face to face, and the other one, I have met indirectly. The third has yet to face his first challenge…even though it should be very soon…**_

_**The deck I am using is not my own personal one, but a mere copy of two that my master has been using before me…**_

…_**and with this borrowed strength, I hope that I will be able to succeed…**_

_**/-/-/--//--/-/--/**_

_**Chapter 25**_

_**Mystic Soul**_

_**-/--/-/-//--//-//-/**_

"You've got to be freaking kidding me," Vic growled narrowing his eyes down at the group that Beck had got him for his group.

"Nope, I hoped you'd like them," Beck replied gesturing towards the ten people standing before him and Vic. "After all, since the leader of the Zodiac Yokai is…how to put this…sleeping with the fishes. Damn, now I've got a hankering for some Red Lobster…"

Vic looked over the nine people standing before him…three of them were Alex (who was currently wearing a yellow fancy over coat with black trim with a royal hat with a black plume at the back along with tight black pants), Xander who was formatting his deck, and the artist formally known as Morty reading a magazine.

At the corner of the room was none other than Bravo (who if you asked Vic, wasn't even his real name…honestly, who names their kid Bravo?) pumping some iron with both arms at the same time. A few feet away from him were the two other red students who looked oddly familiar to each other playing rock, paper, and scissors with each of them winning each other every other time.

The guy on the ground was a real weird Ra Yellow guy; he was almost floating off the ground with the other Ra Yellow girl starring at him dreamily.

The last two were by far some of the few that Vic could actually carry a conversation with. One was an Obelisk Blue girl who was fingering a beautiful pink rose in her fingers while the last one…

…well, it was hard to see what he was doing, he had his broad, red overcoat covered back to Vic and Beck.

"Hmm…I wonder if I could get the lobster special in the cafeteria," Beck mumbled to himself forgetting why he was here momentarily… "Oh wait, oh yeah, guys! Vic is your new leader, with the exception of the few of you that I've given superior orders with your missions, you are to follow any orders that he has."

"Yeah, you mind telling me what the hell I'm supposed to do?" Vic asked bluntly getting a large sweat droplet appearing on the back of Beck's head.

Shaking the sweat of his head, Beck just smiled towards newly in command Yokai Captain. "Y-yeah, thanks for the reminder. What I've got planned; I'll be letting you know in a while. In the meantime, I'd like you to think of a name for your group and allow my agents who already have missions to continue them."

Heading towards the door that had allowed the small amount of light into room, Beck just waved his hand towards all of his Yokai. "Later cuties and beauties!"

Vic slowly turned his head back to the ten Yokai standing in front of him and raised an eyebrow. "Okay, who here has a mission already?"

The Obelisk blue girl, the two similar reds and Alex all raised their hands up high into the air making Vic nodding his head up and down. "Excellent…then get out of here and do what you need to do."

As with Beck, the four students exited the room through the same lit up doorway, Vic didn't even watch them as they left but still looked at the remaining six in the room. "Now then…you're orders for now are simple, I want you all to come up with a name and return here in three days."

"Yes sir!"

"Oh, and remind me to ask your names later…" Vic added heading towards another door that was closed off this time.

//-/-/--/-/--//-/-/

"So, how have your punishments been this week?" Alan asked with an oh so innocent smile on his face, scaring Kryancelo, Rena and Tony a little.

"Well…I've been cleaning toilets for the past week," Tony sighed noticing that everyone was at least three feet away from him.

"And you've been making me work around the academy, cleaning the classrooms was a blast," Rena added tilting her head to the side.

"…And you've been making me teach Rex and Weevil who to work here as professors," Kryancelo growled tapping his fingers on his biceps. "What I did wrong is beyond me."

"You made a deal with a first year student that contained an illegitimate expulsion in it," Alan answered with a smile still on his face. "That could've gotten you fired sir…but you're lucky that we're chums here."

"Yeah, yeah," Kryancelo muttered to himself turning his head to side to not look at Alan.

"Now then…I think its time to tell you two about your final punishment," Alan stated looking directly at Rena and Tony. "And it shall be… a simple duel involving the two of you. Suspension hanging over your heads…"

"You mean a tag team?" Tony asked a little confused on the matter. "If that was our big punishment, then why did you make us do all of those embarrassing punishments!?!"

"Well, you needed to have something to keep you occupied while I thought about your real punishment," Alan admitted rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. "So…my bad."

"You've got to be kidding me!" Rena shouted really confused.

"Sorry, but I'm as serious as ever," Alan replied with a very dark look appearing on his face as he weaved his fingers together in front of his face.

"When are you ever serious?" Kryancelo asked making Alan fall out of his seat.

"Ah, touché," Alan chuckled getting back into his seat and turning towards the Ra Yellow teacher. "In that case…you may choose their opponents, however, nothing too tough…"

"Whatever," Kryancelo grunted closing his eyes and lifting his chin up. "Why the hell do I get stuck with all this crap?"

"Cause you keep hitting on Professor Maria," Alan suggested making Kryancelo fall face first into the ground. "Anyway, your opponents will be selected by the end of the week, so if I were you two, I would prepare your decks so that they would work well with each other…"

"Well…thanks…" Rena and Tony sighed at the same time before turning around.

"Oh! Wait Miss Akira," Alan announced getting Rena and Alan's attention back to him. When the two turned around, Alan was lifting up a small black envelope towards the two. "You've got a letter I was told to deliver directly to you…not that I don't mind, but please don't let it happen again."

"A letter?" Rena questioned taking the envelope and began to rip it open to with Tony and Alan leaning in. Pulling out the paper, Rena began to read it out loud.

"_Dear Rena Akira,_

"_I have to say, I'm a little confused as to why I am writing a letter…let alone one to you, the very girl who had defeated me and ruined my plans…_

"_But, now that I've actually had a chance to really think about it, although you stated in a very cruel manner, you were correct. I was selfish, I didn't think about the consequences, and all it was, was a pure waste of time now that I look back. _

"_However, if you can, would you please forgive me? Even though it was for survival, a basic manner of human nature, the ends didn't justify the means…_

"_Thanks to Mr. Alan Wright, I now have a better chance to see my future…I hope in a few weeks after my surgery, I can meet up with you again._

"_And on a final note…thanks for remembering my name._

"_Sincerely from,_

_Dias Swartzvauld'_

"What the!?!" Rena shouted dropping the letter to the ground very surprised. "D-Dias sent me a letter?!?"

"I was surprised as well," Alan chuckled crossing his arms over his chest with a smile. "But, it would appear that he doesn't hold any ill will to you Miss Akira."

"Now then…would you two please leave? I need to be alone for a few minutes…"

/--//--//--/--//-/

"God damn it!" Klein shouted slamming his foot into the nearby wall. Because of that stupid Bravo, his latest scheme to get rich was down in the toilet and he was even further in debt with the people he borrowed money from to pay for that stupid snake hat and crate…

…not to mention that he Ganryu's debt to contend with as well.

"Klein! Please calm down!" Koji pleaded grabbing his brother's shoulders.

"No… no I won't calm down!" Klein shouted throwing Koji a few feet into the air. "We're getting in more and more debt! Even when we did get those jobs, we still weren't able to get out of it!"

"Because you keep spending your hard earned money for more cards," Koji pointed out sitting up on the ground adjusting his glasses.

"And you keep hiding yours before I get a chance to snatch it," Klein growled stepping up to Koji and lifting his younger brother by the collar. "I know you've got more than enough money to at least keep ourselves out of the bad life…"

"B-But we'll need money when we get out of the DA," Koji retorted a little scared of his older brother. Not for the fact that Klein had him by the collar, but rather his spending habits.

"Damn it! We need money!" Klein shouted releasing Koji's collar and messing his hair up with his hands.

"…Perhaps I could be of service then…"

That calm voice ranged throughout Klein and Koji's heads, making the two brothers turn their heads around to meet with someone's knees. Slowly craning their heads up, the two were met with the calm smile of the young yet surprisingly tall man with wild gray haired to float in front of his eyes, even though his hair was covered with a white bandana, the mysterious man smiled and leaned over, making his dark blue short sleeved jacket float slightly over his yellow shirt with a blue and gold Ying-Yang symbol on the chest. From what they saw, his black pants flowed like a flag over his long blue shoes.

In the man's hands was nothing more than some fancy red backed cards that he was shuffling in a fancy manner. "…If you can get advertising for me, then I'll give you fifty percent of the profits we make…"

"…What exactly are you planning on doing?" Klein asked not listening to Koji's complaints.

The man simply smiled and fanned the multiple cards in front of him in a fancy manner. "I'm a fortuneteller."

"…Sweet! You're on!" Klein shouted without a second thought and raised his hand up.

"BROTHER!!" Koji shouted as the fortuneteller took his hand and shook it slowly.

With a warm smile, the gray-hard fortuneteller released his grip and crossed his arms over his chest with his cards in his left hand. "Excellent! Then let's get this show on the road. And my name is Taikoubou…but call me Tai…"

"Yeah, yeah, let's get this show on the road!" Klein shouted lifting up what appeared to be wooden boards, hammers, and nails.

//-/--/---///--/

"I gotta say…I didn't expect to get a letter from Dias," Rena stated leaning next to Tony near the Obelisk blue dorm, still reading the letter a few more time for clarification.

"Yeah, pretty unexpected ta say da least," Tony replied lifting up a soda to Rena while holding his own. "Well…it's been a tough week…and all we got left is that duel."

"Tony, I want to say," Rena started with Tony looking at her with great expectations. "…sorry…"

"S-Sorry?" Tony questioned with a raised eyebrow. "Why are ya apologizing ma'am?"

"Well, if you didn't come out to help me that night," Rena explained looking down at the soda can in her hands. "Then you wouldn't have been in trouble…"

"Now, now, now!" Tony interrupted placing his hand underneath Rena's chin and turning her head gently towards him. "I got in trouble of my own accord! Dere's no need ta be dumping on yerself. Sides…I seem ta recall dat if I didn't show up, ya'll wouldn't have had da will ta continue dat duel with Antonio."

"So stop apologizing for things that! Ya don't need ta worry about stuff like that…"

Silence came next as Tony and Rena's faces slowly came closer and closer, both of them with their eyes closed…getting closer and closer every second until…

"Anyone over here?"

With mad blushes on their faces, Rena and Tony snapped their heads away from each other just in time to see a very old and familiar face.

"R-Riko?" Rena stuttered looking at the out of uniformed Obelisk Blue.

"Ah! Rena! What are you doing here?" Riko asked rubbing his chin and adjusting his sunglasses.

"She's with me Riko…" Tony growled pulling the back of his hair from under his hat. '_Damn it! If you weren't blind then I'd kick your ass for interrupting my kiss with such a cutie!_'

"Oh, my apologies Tony," Riko chuckled, taking a guess as to what he had just interrupted. "I was just on my way to the red dorm…"

"Why are you going there?" Rena asked raising an eyebrow at Riko's answer.

"Well…it would appear that a favorite has returned to the island," Riko answered walking forward slowly and past the two students. "It's the fortuneteller who appeared last year…he's back, and I aim to get my fortune read before he leaves…"

"You do know that the red dorm's the other way right?" Rena asked making Riko stop in his tracks to rub his head.

"Ah, yes…well, I was never good with directions…" Riko chuckled turning towards Rena and Tony. "Would you two, if you don't mind, help me get to the fortuneteller?"

"The fortuneteller sounds fun," Rena stated walking away from a shocked Tony and walking next to Riko. "So he was here last year?"

"Yep, but there were so many people that I couldn't see him," Riko answered with a chuckle in his voice.

Tony was still flabbergasted at the fact that he had just missed his kiss… "…Damn it Riko! Why is it there always something that likes to destroy my rose colored year at duel academy?"

//-//--/-///-/--//-/

"Come one, come all!" Klein shouted tapping a sign with a bamboo sword on the large sign behind him and tilting his straw hat towards the large crowd. "Here we are, and here we go…step on up, and step on in! The Fortuneteller can tell it all, from the early spring to the latest fall!"

"Yeah…come on in," Koji sighed lifting up his hat to the next student. "That'll be ten dollars…"

"This is great!" Klein shouted looking at the very long line of students in front of the cafeteria where Tai was stationed at. '_And because I'm charging double what the fool told me to charge, I'll be able to scrap more than double he makes!_'

"Next please!" Klein announced looking up to see none other than Riko and Rena standing before him and Koji. Behind the two was a tearing up Tony covering up his mouth. "Oh…you three…come to ruin our plans for money again?"

"Now what did I ever do to you do?" Riko asked with a puzzling look on his face.

"Sorry…but, we never met you before," Koji sighed.

"Now then, since all three of you want in…" Klein started holding out his hat to the three of them. "So that'll be thirty dollars, ten each please…"

"What the? I heard that last year it was only five dollars," Riko pointed out making Klein shake his head at him.

"Sorry, but in order to limit the amount of people to see him, we've increased the price," Klein explained pushing his hat into Riko's gut. "So put the money in the hat and go in whenever you want."

After some paying the little man his rather large fee, Rena, Riko and Tony entered into the almost empty cafeteria to see Tai sitting behind a table with a Ra Yellow student walking away from him with a smile plastered on his face.

"Ah! Next please!" Tai laughed waving his hand towards the three students. "And wouldn't you know it, its Tony."

"You know this guy Tony?" Rena asked with the three of them sitting in front of Tai.

"Actually, yeah, I had a fortune with him last year," Tony explained placing his arms on the table. "This is Tai, the great fortuneteller who can actually predict the future, and I'm living proof of that."

"So, now then…" Tai stated taking three decks of cards out in front of him. One with a red bordered back, the second with a blue back and the last with a green back. All three of them laid out in front of each of the duelists. "Does anyone have some doubt about my powers?"

"Ya know I don't have any doubt," Tony laughed reaching for one of the decks, only to have his hand slapped by Tai's hand. "Ow!"

"Don't touch those yet," Tai warned.

"Well, I'll definitely try to believe," Riko chuckled after what just happened.

Rena herself giggled slightly, but then looked straight at Tai. "After what I've experienced, I'll believe anything."

"Understandable," Tai sighed with a smile. "Especially when you were in a special shadow duel with that disease ridden demon slayer…"

Rena's eyes widened at the fact that Tai made a very well thought out guess… "And before that, you had to deal with that balding French duelist. Funny how he threw his wig in your face."

"How in the world?" Rena questioned taken back even more by Tai, and was starting to think that maybe Tai was stalking her.

"And I think it was quite lucky that Ganryu managed to help you in the academy," Tai added taking the green backed cards and began to shuffle them.

"…Who in the world are you?" Rena asked blinking a few times in confusion.

Meanwhile outside…

"Relax everyone, you all will get a turn to see the amazing Taikoubou," Klein laughed counting some of the money he had in his hand.

"Brother…the crowd seems to be getting a little restless," Koji stated tapping Klein on the shoulder.

"Not now…I'm enjoying my money," Klein chuckled rubbing his face in the handful of money that he had currently.

"Ooh!"

"AHAH!"

Multiple relaxing sounds erupted from the seemingly restless crowd until the people in eye view of Klein and Koji fell to the ground sleeping soundly. Both Klein and Koji blinked in confusion until the last of the crowd fell to the ground asleep to show what must've been the cause of the students falling asleep.

…At the very moment their eyes laid upon her, Klein and Koji's jaws dropped to the ground at the very sight of this beauty. Her bubblegum pink hair (which was definitely dyed) was tied in locks in the back, and somewhat clashed with the dark skin tone that she had. From her custom uniform that had a skirt that exposed her toned legs, slim midriff, and a decent amount of cleavage (where Klein and Koji had their eyes on currently) it was apparent that she was from the Blue dorms. On her slim arm was a fancy duel disk that had a deck of cards in it…

"…wow…" Klein and Koji sighed at the same time as the girl leaned over to look Klein directly in the eyes (of course he was looking elsewhere).

"Excuse me cutie…is this where the Fortuneteller at?" The tanned girl asked with a hint of seduction in her voice.

"Y-Y-Yeah," Klein gulped loudly as the girl stood up straight.

With a smile the girl held up her right hand and blew a kiss towards Klein that had a blue powder floating in it. As soon as the powder swept into Klein's face, the short duelist fell backwards asleep…shown by his loud snoring…

"K-Klein!" Koji shouted as the girl turned to him, and a chilling breeze swept through his spine. "…this hasn't been our week…"

"Nighty night little guy," The girl stated blowing another kiss to Koji, along with the blue powder that had the same effect as with his brother. Then turning towards the door, the tanned girl smiled to herself as she clapped her hands. "These people make this way too easy…"

Back in the Red Cafeteria, Tai immediately stood up making all three of the students blink in confusion. "Tony…if I were you, I'd move over at least a foot to the left…"

"Now why in the world would I," Tony started until a sharp sting got him in the back of his right shoulder, making him stiffen up and cease movement. "ARGH! Can't-move-arms-or-legs. Must-talk-like-this!"

"Tony!?!" Rena gasped jumping up making Riko do the same.

"What just happened?" Riko asked turning his head left and right in confusion.

"Come on in, enough hiding," Tai barked getting the door to open wider to show the same girl that was outside standing in the doorway with a small peashooter in her right hand. "I have a good idea why you're here."

"Pretty smart for a guy," The tanned girl chuckled pocketing the peashooter into her top's pocket. "You must be Taikoubou…and you must be Rena."

"And you have any guesses as to who I am?" Riko asked pointing towards him getting the girl's attention.

"…Nope!" The girl replied making Riko lower his head towards the ground.

Kneeling to the ground, Riko began to draw with his finger on the ground out of disappointment. "Doesn't anyone care I'm the second best duelist here?"

Everyone ignored Riko with Tai pointing his finger towards the girl. "Shut up! Just get to introducing yourself!"

"…Aw, you're no fun…" The girl sighed in disappointment. "But fine…my name is Lirin, beauty of the Yokai…"

'_Yokai?_' That single word caught Riko's attention and kicked him out of his depression.

"What did you do to Tony?" Rena asked gesturing her arm towards Tony who was sweating and moving his eyes about trying to look to see what was going on.

"Quite simple really," Lirin explained lifting up her duel disk. "Running through your boyfriend's blood stream is a very rare toxin found in an almost extinct plant. Don't worry though, it's not poisonous but it freezes up the muscles starting with the arms and legs. Within the hour his breathing will slow down and soon stop…I don't think I need to go on after that…"

"Is there a cure?" Rena asked glaring daggers at Lirin.

"Yes there is," Tai answered surprising everyone in the room.

"…Creepy fortuneteller guy got it," Lirin replied blinking a few times and then lifted up her duel disk. "And if you want the antidote…"

"You want to duel," Tai finished lifting up two duel disks from underneath the table.

"Is there even a reason for me to talk?" Lirin asked a little confused.

"How about a reason why you're doing this?" Riko suggested crossing his arms over his chest. "I know of a Lirin that got transferred into Obelisk Blue this year from Ra Yellow last year…could you be by chance the same one?"

"Maybe Mr. Shades," Lirin giggled lifting up her duel disk that was immediately activating. "And who I want to duel is…"

"Me and Rena," Tai answered tossing a duel disk to Rena. Then reaching into his blue jacket, Tai slowly pulled out a small deck of cards. "Since I'm not a student, then you'd propose a three way duel. If you win against both Rena and I, then I will have to accompany you. If Rena wins against both of us, then you'll give her the antidote that you have around your neck in that decorative necklace. And if I win…I'll get to ask any request of both of you…that you must fulfill."

"Damn…he's good…" Lirin gasped blinking a few times. "Then what's stopping you from knowing what happens in this duel?"

"…I'm not allowed to use this ability in games completely tied to that of ancient times and magic," Tai answered stepping to the side of room and onto one of the tables, the duel disk on his arm activated and having his dueling deck into the main slot. "So I cannot be sure who will win or lose." (TLP: 8000)

With a seductive smile, Lirin leapt onto one of the nearby tables activating her duel disk. "Well then…the duel is on!" (LLP: 8000)

"Don't worry Tony…" Rena reassured stepping onto another one of the empty tables behind Tony activating the duel disk that Tai had handed to her and shuffled her deck into her duel disk slot. "…I won't have anyone suffer because of me!" (RLP: 8000)

"Let's duel!"

"Hmm…" Riko stated sitting next to the paralyzed Tony and rubbing his chin. "I wonder if Lirin's deck strategy is the same as last year's."

"I-don't-know." Tony briefly stated moving his eyes left and right.

"Since it's ladies and a guy," Tai stated drawing his sixth card from the top of his deck. "I hope you don't mind if I go first…"

"Hmm…and here I thought that a gentleman would be in your heart," Lirin commented shrugging her shoulders.

"Haven't you heard?" Tai asked slipping three of the cards in his hand into his duel disk, making them appear before him via his duel disk. "Chivalry is dead…"

"Not true!" Rena announced getting Tai and Lirin's attention. "I've met quite a few gentlemen when I got here."

'_Must not be talking about my brother…_' Shaking that thought from his hand Tai crossed his arms over his chest. "Turn end…next up…"

"I'll go!" Lirin announced snapping her next card into her hand. "Hmm…choices, choices, so many choices…"

"I guess I'll summon Rose Maiden Blanca!"

A mysterious breeze swept through the cafeteria, blowing in a large amount of white rose petals spun into the air in front of Lirin until she was completely blocked by the petals. When the breeze died, all the petals fell to the ground revealing a beautiful woman with pure white skin wearing a tea gown that blended with her body. And instead of hair, the woman had white rose blossom growing from her scalp (1900/900).

Then the Rose Maiden began to chant, making a card shoot out of Lirin's deck and into her hand. "And when she's summoned, I can take a certain card from my deck and add it to my hand. But I'll save it for now…"

Another card appeared behind Blanca, giving the beautiful Rose Maiden nothing to fear. "But I'll give you this for now…that's all for me…"

"Draw!" Rena announced doing as such. Looking at her card, Rena eyed the Rose Maiden Blanca and then shook her head. "I'll set a monster on the defensive and a card for the back row…"

As soon as the brown backed cards appeared in front of her, Rena turned her head to Tony…Riko was trying to turn him around to see the duel. "Uh…I'll end my turn."

"And during your end phase, I'll chain with my trap card!" Tai announced snapping his fingers over the middle card on his field, the trap card flipping up showing a woman dancing in the rain. "Solemn Wishes gives me five hundred life points every time I draw a card."

"Don't tell me you're running a defensive deck," Lirin sighed loudly slightly annoyed with Tai as he drew his next card, showering him in light. (TLP: 8500)

"Nope," Tai answered snapping his fingers over his other card on his field. "But it goes great with my other trap card. Say hello to Ebony's Greed!"

The trap card flipped up showing an ebony treasure chest with multiple golden coins and jewels in it. Then taking two cards, Tai lifted them up showing two similar monsters, only one black and the other white. "And with it's effect, by discarding any number of Ebony or Ivory monsters from my hand, I can draw the same amount of cards from my deck…"

Sliding the two cards into his graveyard, Tai slowly flipped up his other two cards from the top of his deck, making the light shower over his body again. "And since I drew again, I can increase my life points by five hundred." (TLP: 9000)

"Hmm…Ebony and Ivory?" Rena questioned tilting her head to the side.

"And for my next trick," Tai announced selecting another card from his hand and slipping it into his duel disk showing one pitch black warrior with his back to a bright light warrior. "Will be Senseless Chaos!"

With two cards popping out of his duel disk, Tai lifted up two more pure white and pitch black cards and slipped them into his duel disk graveyard. "And now, by sending a light and dark attribute monster to my graveyard, all three of us can draw one card from our decks!"

"I really don't see the meaning behind this…" Lirin sighed in disappoint as all three duelists drew another card. (TLP: 9500)

"You will now," Tai commented taking the card he just drew and slid it into his duel disk. "I activate the spell card, Strategy Meeting!"

Tai's next card appeared in front of him, depicting a spell card that had the Marauding Captain and Freed the Brave Wanderer discussing a battle strategy. While the card was still on the field, Tai lifted two of the three remaining cards into the air. "Due to this card's effect, I can take up to three monster cards from my hand and shuffle them into my deck…"

Taking his deck out of its holster, Tai calmly shuffled his selected two cards from his hand and into his deck. Then after he snapped the deck back into his duel disk, Tai snapped the top two cards from his deck and lifted them up as he had light rain down on him once more. "Then, here's how my spell continues. I can then draw the same amount of cards that were shuffled in, and any level four or lower monsters get special summoned in face up defense mode…" (TLP: 10000)

Slapping both cards onto his duel disk, two orbs of light, one bright white and the other pitch black fell to the ground with two cards appearing underneath him. The two orbs then transformed into what appeared to be completely identical armored knights, each raising a banner…only one was wearing ebony colored armored while the other had ivory armor in both of their hands were the opposite colored flags as they both crouched down (300/700 x2). "And as you can see…both of them were monsters, and were known as Ebony Scout and Ivory Scout. And with that, I'll end my turn…"

"About time if you ask me," Lirin giggled drawing her next card in a slow manner. "And now…I think we should get out of this dreary mess hall…"

Lirin's field card zone opened up as she slapped the card into her duel disk, creating another powerful breeze that swept through the cafeteria. Then in a beautiful rush, the cafeteria floor and tables were replaced with a beautiful field of multi-colored roses. And above the duelists, the roof was replaced with a clouded sky. "…and into the Rose Garden…"

"…Ah, the same deck as before," Riko commented having his hand go through the holographic flowers, wishing that he could feel them in his fingers.

"And for my next beautiful move…" Lirin continued placing her next card onto her duel disk creating another flurry of petals, these ones pure red. "I summon Rose Maiden Rouge!"

The rose petals clumped together once more until fall into the Rose Garden to reveal a beautiful woman with light red skin wearing a ball gown that blended with her body. As with Blanca, this rose maiden had a red rose blossom growing from her scalp instead of hair (1600/1200). "Now then…which one should I attack first?"

"_Hmm…that face down card with Rena might be a bad choice…but then again, Tai did take a lot of effort to get those two scouts out…not that it matters. Not with what I've got on the field…_'

"Blanca! Rouge! Attack the Ebony and Ivory Scouts!"

Both of the Rose Maidens turned towards the unflinching Scouts, raising their hands up into the air, both of the Rose Maidens' fingers turned into thorn covered vines that wrapped around both of the scouts. Even being crushed the scouts didn't flinch until they shattered into data bits scattering past Tai's head.

"And to wrap up my turn…" Lirin announced slipping another card into her duel disk, creating the spell card depicting cloudy skies raining down rose petals. "I'll activate Rose Storm…and that'll be all…"

"Then I must thank you," Tai stated with his duel disk glowing brightly, flashing white and black light every few seconds. "For you see, when my two Scouts are destroyed as a result of battle I can special summon two monsters from either my hand or graveyard. And thanks to my Senseless Chaos, they're both in my graveyard…"

The aura around Tai's duel disk flowed onto the field, splitting into two flames, one of pure light and the other pure darkness. From the dark flame stepped forward a dull young man with ebony skin with bushy black hair in front of his eyes and having black royal clothing over his skinny body. In his right hand was a fancy black rapier that the warrior aimed it towards one of the Rose Maidens (1650/1600).

While from the white flame stepped another warrior, only this one was a dull young man with ivory skin with bushy white hair in front of his eyes and having white royal clothing over his skinny body. In his left hand was a fancy white rapier that the warrior spun towards Rena (1650/1600). "Meet my Ebony and Ivory Squires…only the beginning of what I've got in stored for you two…"

"Geez, you sound like the bad guy around here," Rena commented spinning her next card off the top of her duel disk.

"Not to speed up an excellent duel so far…" Riko pointed out raising his hand up towards the duelists. "But shouldn't you hurry up for Tony's sake?"

"Right," Rena chuckled looking at her next card. "Well then, I'll summon Thoroughbred Elf!"

Leaping from the roses behind her, Rena's fighter elf (1800/1500) landed in the garden with his hands up in a back stance. "And now…Attack Tai's Ebony Squire!"

Leaping towards the dark skinned squire, the Thoroughbred Elf spun around preparing his right leg to slam it directly into the Squire's head…

…Only to be blocked by a powerful vortex, forcing him back to Rena's side of the field. "Although you have to beat the two of us Rena, you can't expect me to lose easily so I activated Negate Attack…"

"Maybe I should've attack Lirin…" Rena muttered to herself lifting a card into her duel disk to make it appear behind her Thoroughbred Elf. "…there's no time to second guess…"

"Correct you are Rena," Tai commented drawing and having a large amount of light rain down on him. "So I will have to continue this duel easily with Pot of Greed!" (TLP: 10500)

With a loud laugh, the big green and blue grinning pot appeared before Tai, allowing him to draw easily and to be showered with light once more. "And I'll activate the spell card…True Nightz and Dayz!" (TLP: 11000)

As Tai's spell card emerged on the field, it immediately shattered along with the Ebony and Ivory Squires into two powerful pillars of light and dark energy. "My spell card requires me to tribute my two Squires and pay 1000 life points. Then I can special summon two of the best monsters from my graveyard…and they were in there when I first played my Ebony's Greed…" (TLP: 10000)

'_Interesting how he managed to figure this out…_' Riko thought when the pillars of light shattered into two large warriors that managed to make the roses that they stood on flew into the air.

From where the black pillar stood once was a skinny, ebony skinned man with broad shoulders wearing a black, flowing over coat. From his head, the black hair he had spiked backwards into the air. At his side was a thin black broad sword that he drew into the air (2750/2400). "Ebony Nightz Swordsman!"

And standing in place of the pillar of light was a muscular, ivory skinned man with short spiked back white hair. His tight white overcoat covered his body, but isn't shy showing the two white thin swords at his back that he spun a few times in his hands (2750/2400). "And Ivory Dayz Swordsman!"

"…Whoa…" Rena and Lirin sighed in amazement at the sight of the two monsters.

"Next, thanks to Ebony's Greed, by discarding my two Ebony Wolf cards," Tai continued slipping the last two cards from his hand into his duel disk graveyard, then snapping the top two cards from his deck Tai was showered with a blinding light. "I can draw two more cards…one of which will go face down…" (TLP: 10500)

"Yawn…" Lirin mocked taking her next card as many rose petals began to fly up from the ground around the two Rose Maidens floating around the two. "During my standby phase all plant type monsters gain a Rose Counter, one from my field spell and one from my continuous spell card."

"That can't be good," Riko chuckled to himself tapping Tony slightly. "You've been quiet…you okay?"

"…Thirsty…" Tony moaned loudly.

"Oh…looks like we'll have to hurry this up," Lirin took note lifting up her next card up. "So I think I'll summon Rose Maiden Cerise!"

As with the previous two Rose Maidens, many pink petals flew into the air, forming into a large clump that immediately fell to the ground, allowing another maiden to be in it's place. This maiden had pink skin and a cocktail dress of the same color. A pink rose blossom grew from her scalp instead of hair as she curtsey to the two Swordsmen (1300/1100). "Now then…Blanca attack the Thoroughbred Elf!"

Raising her hands up, Blanca had her fingers turn into the multiple thorn covered vines that flew into the Thoroughbred Elf (1800/1500 – 600/600), immediately ripping him to shreds. "What in the world?!?" (RLP: 7300)

"I guess you could thank my Rose Maiden Cerise," Lirin explained pointing towards the pink Rose Maiden. "You see, whenever one of my Rose Maidens now battles, the opposing monster loses three hundred attack and defense points for each Rose Counter on my monsters. Allow me to demonstrate once more this time with Tai's swordsman…after I play the quick play spell card, Rose Chorus!"

Lirin's next spell emerged on the field, this one showing Rose Maiden Blanca kneeling in rose petals, singing. Behind her, the other Rose Maidens accompany her. All the while the many petals around Blanca flew around Rouge. "This spell, allows me to give any number of Rose Counters from one Rose Maiden and give them to another that I wish…so Rouge, now that you've got four Rose Counters attack the Ebony Nightz Swordsman!"

Raising her hand, Rouge's right hand immediately became a large vine shooting directly towards the Ebony Nightz Swordsman's chest (2750/2400 – 1200/1200)…

…However just as the vine was about to strike the Swordsman, the Ivory Dayz Swordsman slammed the vine away with his two swords back into the Rose Maiden Rouge. (TLP: 10450)

"Confused?" Tai asked crossing his arms as his two swordsmen clasped their hands together in a brotherly fashion. "Well allow me to explain. My Swordsmen are brothers, and as long as they exist on my field, they cannot be destroyed in battle."

"Damage still applies though," Rena noted.

"Heh…well then…whatever," Lirin replied taking another card from her hand and slipping it into her duel disk. "I think that'll be enough…and now its your turn Rena. And you better hurry up with your move…your boyfriend doesn't look like he'll last too long…"

"H-he's not my boyfriend," Rena gulped drawing her next card with a large blush on her face.

"Yeah, the blush proves otherwise," Lirin mocked with a smile on her face.

'_I wonder if I found the real chosen one?_' Tai thought to himself watching Rena contemplate her next move. '_This doesn't seem right to me…but, still, I thought the same thing about the shorty. But at that time, I didn't have a life hanging in the balance. I should focus on Lirin and less on Rena. But I'll need to keep an additional eye on her…_

'_Father…is this really the one I have to for tell their real destiny?'_

Unknown to the many duelists, from underneath the Rose Garden hologram a familiar Ra Yellow was walking through the holographic roses with a large smile on his face as he held a small vile in his hands. '_As much as I trust in Lirin, I can't let him down yet…_

'_I need to use him for my goals…'_

/-//--/-//--/--//-/-/

**Card Stats**

**Rose Maiden Blanca / ****Earth / LV. 4/ ATK: 1900/ DEF: 900/ Plant/Effect: **When this card is Normal Summoned, Flip Summoned, or Special Summoned, you can add 1 [Rose Garden from your deck or your Graveyard to your hand. This card cannot attack on the turn that it is summoned. 

**Description:** A woman with pure white skin and a tea gown that blends with her body. A white rose blossom grows from her scalp instead of hair.

**Rose Maiden Rouge / ****Earth / LV. 4/ ATK: 1600/ DEF: 1200 / Plant/Effect:** Remove 1 [Rose Counter from this card to negate the effect of a monster, Spell, or Trap Card that targets 1 Plant-Type monster you control and destroy it. 

**Description:** A woman with light red skin and a Ball gown that blends with her body. A red rose blossom grows from her scalp instead of hair.

**Rose Maiden Cerise / ****Earth / LV. 4/ ATK: 1300/ DEF: 1100 / Plant/Effect: **If you have [Rose Garden on the field, during your Standby Phase, place 2 [Rose Counters on all Plant-Type monsters instead of 1. When 1 of your Plant-Type monsters with [Rose Counter(s) battles with 1 of your opponent's monsters, the ATK and DEF of your opponent's monster is decreased by 300 points for each [Rose Counter on your monster. (During the Damage Step only.) 

**Description:** A woman with pink skin and a cocktail dress of the same color. A pink rose blossom grows from her scalp instead of hair.

**Rose Garden / Field Spell / Effect: **During the controller's Standby Phase, place 1 [Rose Counter on all Plant-Type monsters on the field. 

**Description:** A vast meadow of roses, each of a different color—red, white, pink, yellow. The sky overhead is blue with white clouds breezing by.

**Rose Storm / Continuous Spell / Effect: **During your Standby Phase, add 1 [Rose Counter to each Plant-Type monster on your field.

**Description:** Storm clouds in the sky, but with rose petals raining from the sky instead of precipitation.

Rose Chorus / Quick-play Spell / Effect: You can take any number of [Rose Counters on 1 of your monsters and move them to another Plant-Type monster on your field. 

**Description:** [Rose Maiden Blanca kneeling in rose petals, singing. The other [Rose Maidens accompany her.

_**The preceding six cards were created by Kaitou Kouji/Seeker. All creative credit belongs to him and I need to thank him once more.**_

**Ebony Nightz Swordsman / Dark / LV. 8 / ATK: 2750 / DEF: 2400 / Warrior/Effect:** As long as there is a face up 'Ivory Dayz Swordsman' on the field, this card cannot be destroyed as a result of battle. When this card destroys a monster as a result of battle, you may take one spell card from your deck and add it to your hand (the selected spell card cannot be activated the turn it was acquired).

**Description:** A skinny, ebony skinned man with broad shoulders wearing a black, flowing over coat. From his head, the black hair he had spikes backwards into the air. At his side is a thin black broad sword.

**Ivory Dayz Swordsman / Light / LV. 8 / ATK: 2750 / DEF: 2400 / Warrior/Effect:** As long as there is a face up 'Ebony Nightz Swordsman' on the field, this card cannot be destroyed as a result of battle. When this card destroys a monster as a result of battle, you may take one spell card from your deck and add it to your hand (the selected spell card cannot be activated the turn it was acquired).

**Description:** A muscular, ivory skinned man with short spiked back white hair. His tight white overcoat covers his body, but isn't shy showing the two white thin swords at his back.

**Ivory Squire / Light / LV. 4 / ATK: 1650 / DEF: 1600 / Warrior/Effect:** When you have one face up 'Ebony Squire' on your side of the field, you may tribute this face up card to special summon one 'Ivory Dayz Swordsman' from your hand or graveyard.

**Description:** A dull young man with ivory skin with bushy white hair in front of his eyes and having white royal clothing over his skinny body. In his left hand is a fancy white rapier.

**Ebony Squire / Dark / LV. 4 / ATK: 1650 / DEF: 1600 / Warrior/Effect:** When you have one face up 'Ivory Squire' on your side of the field, you may tribute this face up card to special summon one 'Ebony Nightz Swordsman' from your hand or graveyard.

**Description:** A dull young man with ebony skin with bushy black hair in front of his eyes and having black royal clothing over his skinny body. In his right hand is a fancy black rapier.

**Ebony Scout / Dark / LV. 2 / ATK: 300 / DEF: 700 / Warrior/Effect:** When this card is destroyed as a result of battle, you may special summon one 'Ivory Squire' from your hand or graveyard to your side of the field during the end phase.

**Description:** A black armored knight with a large, ivory colored banner in his hands.

**Ivory Scout / Light / LV. 2 / ATK: 300 / DEF: 700 / Warrior/Effect:** When this card is destroyed as a result of battle, you may special summon one 'Ebony Squire' from your hand or graveyard to your side of the field during the end phase.

**Description: **A white armored knight with a large, ebony colored banner in his hands.

**True Nightz and Dayz / Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated by sending one face up 'Ivory Squire' and one face up 'Ebony Squire' on your side of the field. Pay 1000 life points. Special summon one 'Ebony Nightz Swordsman' and 'Ivory Dayz Swordsman' from your hand or graveyard. The special summoned monsters cannot attack the turn this card is activated.

**Image:** An old city, one half in a white setting, the other in a black setting

**Senseless Chaos / Spell / Effect:** Send one 'Light' Attribute and 'Dark' Attribute monster from your deck to the graveyard. All players may then draw one card from either the top or bottom of their decks.

**Image:** The Ivory and Ebony Squire standing back to back with dark and white lightning surging from each other.

**Strategy Meeting / Spell / Effect:** Return up to 3 monsters from your hand to the deck and shuffle. Then draw the same amount that was placed back in the deck. If any of the cards are monsters of Level 4 or lower, special summon them in face-up defense position.

**Image:** A Marauding Captain and Freed the Brave Wanderer sitting at a table.

**Ebony's Greed / Continuous Trap / Effect: **Once during your turn, you may discard as many monsters from your hand with 'Ebony' or 'Ivory' as you like to draw the same number of cards from your deck.

**Image: **An ebony treasure chest with multiple golden coins and jewels in it.

/--//-/-/-/-/-/-

**Tai:** The duel continues!

**Rena:** I have to win! For Tony's sake! After I promised that nothing bad would happen again.

**Lirin:** Too bad! My lovely Rose Maidens aren't going to wilt that easy!

_**The clock's ticking for Tony…cliffhangers are deadly! – **__**Chapter 26: Ebony and Ivory Roses**_

**Riko:** Well, well, well…I had a feeling you had a hand in this…


	26. Chapter 26Ebony and Ivory Roses

_**How did this happen?**_

_**I have always been taught that people were deep down good to their cores…**_

…_**But lately, I haven't seen too much of that. First there was Cleo who seemed to give me a hard time for getting into the school thanks to Ganryu. But something tells me that there was something more to that…**_

_**Then there was Antonio, his foolish pride kept him to try to retain his revenge against me for tarnishing his record…**_

_**Next was Dias, and even though he did send me that letter saying that he was sorry, he still intended on using all of those students to help only himself. I kind of hate myself for that as well…in a sense I told him to die…**_

…_**I felt a little piece of me die then…**_

_**And now, this Lirin girl has put the life of someone who honestly has feelings for me (yes, I've noticed that in case you people think I'm not that bright…) just to get to Tai…I don't even know what this have to do with me…**_

_**But…I-I refuse to have my friends and close ones suffer because of me! I promise…I won't let anyone get hurt because of me again!**_

_**///-/---/--/-/-/-/**_

_**Chapter 26**_

_**Ebony and Ivory Roses**_

_**/-/--//-/--/-/-/-/-**_

_From where the black pillar stood once was a skinny, ebony skinned man with broad shoulders wearing a black, flowing over coat. From his head, the black hair he had spiked backwards into the air. At his side was a thin black broad sword that he drew into the air (2750/2400). "Ebony Nightz Swordsman!"_

_And standing in place of the pillar of light was a muscular, ivory skinned man with short spiked back white hair. His tight white overcoat covered his body, but isn't shy showing the two white thin swords at his back that he spun a few times in his hands (2750/2400). "And Ivory Dayz Swordsman!"_

"…_Whoa…" Rena and Lirin sighed in amazement at the sight of the two monsters._

"_Next, thanks to Ebony's Greed, by discarding my two Ebony Wolf cards," Tai continued slipping the last two cards from his hand into his duel disk graveyard, then snapping the top two cards from his deck Tai was showered with a blinding light. "I can draw two more cards…one of which will go face down…" (TLP: 10500)_

"_Yawn…" Lirin mocked taking her next card as many rose petals began to fly up from the ground around the two Rose Maidens floating around the two. "During my standby phase all plant type monsters gain a Rose Counter, one from my field spell and one from my continuous spell card."_

"_That can't be good," Riko chuckled to himself tapping Tony slightly. "You've been quiet…you okay?"_

"…_Thirsty…" Tony moaned loudly._

"_Oh…looks like we'll have to hurry this up," Lirin took note lifting up her next card up. "So I think I'll summon Rose Maiden Cerise!"_

_As with the previous two Rose Maidens, many pink petals flew into the air, forming into a large clump that immediately fell to the ground, allowing another maiden to be in it's place. This maiden had pink skin and a cocktail dress of the same color. A pink rose blossom grew from her scalp instead of hair as she curtseys to the two Swordsmen (1300/1100). "Now then…Blanca attack the Thoroughbred Elf!"_

_Raising her hands up, Blanca had her fingers turn into the multiple thorn covered vines that flew into the Thoroughbred Elf (1800/1500 – 600/600), immediately ripping him to shreds. "What in the world?!?" (RLP: 7300)_

"_I guess you could thank my Rose Maiden Cerise," Lirin explained pointing towards the pink Rose Maiden. "You see, whenever one of my Rose Maidens now battles, the opposing monster loses three hundred attack and defense points for each Rose Counter on my monsters. Allow me to demonstrate once more this time with Tai's swordsman…after I play the quick play spell card, Rose Chorus!"_

_Lirin's next spell emerged on the field, this one showing Rose Maiden Blanca kneeling in rose petals, singing. Behind her, the other Rose Maidens accompany her. All the while the many petals around Blanca flew around Rouge. "This spell, allows me to give any number of Rose Counters from one Rose Maiden and give them to another that I wish…so Rouge, now that you've got four Rose counters attack the Ebony Nightz Swordsman!"_

_Raising her hand, Rouge's right hand immediately became a large vine shooting directly towards the Ebony Nightz Swordsman's chest (2750/2400 – 1200/1200)…_

…_However just as the vine was about to strike the Swordsman, the Ivory Dayz Swordsman slammed the vine away with his two swords back into the Rose Maiden Rouge. (TLP: 10450)_

"_Confused?" Tai asked crossing his arms as his two swordsmen clasped their hands together in a brotherly fashion. "Well allow me to explain. My Swordsmen are brothers, and as long as they exist on my field, they cannot be destroyed in battle."_

"_Damage still applies though," Rena noted._

"_Heh…well then…whatever," Lirin replied taking another card from her hand and slipping it into her duel disk. "I think that'll be enough…and now its your turn Rena. And you better hurry up with your move…your boyfriend doesn't look like he'll last too long…"_

"_H-he's not my boyfriend," Rena gulped drawing her next card with a large blush on her face._

"_Yeah, the blush proves otherwise," Lirin mocked with a smile on her face._

'_I wonder if I found the real chosen one?' Tai thought to himself watching Rena contemplate her next move. 'This doesn't seem right to me…but, still, I thought the same thing about the shorty. But at that time, I didn't have a life hanging in the balance. I should focus on Lirin and less on Rena. But I'll need to keep an additional eye on her…_

'_Father…is this really the one I have to for tell their real destiny?'_

_Unknown to the many duelists, from underneath the Rose Garden hologram a familiar Ra Yellow was walking through the holographic roses with a large smile on his face as he held a small vile in his hands. 'As much as I trust in Lirin, I can't let him down yet…_

'_I need to use him for my goals…'_

Rena eyed the field as she looked up from her hand, it wasn't good. She had the lowest life points thus far even though they were just under eight thousand. On her field she had one face down monster and one face down card.

Lirin's field, had Rose Maiden Blanca (1900/900), Rose Maiden Rouge (1600/1200) with four Rose Counters and Rose Maiden Cerise (1300/1100) on the battlefield with was covered by the large Rose Garden. Followed up was the Rose Storm continuous spell card and that face down card. (LLP: 8000)

However, it was obvious that Tai was in the lead, both with life points and on the field, what with his Ebony Nightz and Ivory Dayz Swordsmen (2750/2400 x2), Ebony's Greed and Solemn Wishes. And there was that mysterious face down card that Tai had set… (TLP: 10450)

Of course, Rena's attention was drawn to Tony and Riko, Tony was still paralyzed and couldn't even see the duel…and for some reason Riko was facing in the wrong direction.

But, shaking the situation away from her thoughts, Rena looked at her next card. "…I think its time…"

"What's that?" Lirin asked placing a hand next to her ear. "I couldn't hear you…"

"I said, I think it's time we clip those weeds from the garden!" Rena shouted raising her next card up from her hand and from her duel disk, making the face down monster disappear into light. "So I'll sacrifice my face down Mystical Elf…for Magical Swords Elf!"

From the face down card, another elf leapt into the air, this one an elf warrior with dark silver hair spiked backwards. His brown vest covered his black armored shirt and forest green pants. On his back is a large sword with a black cloth wrapped on the hilt that the mythical warrior spun from its setting (2450/1400).

"Hmm…interesting…" Tai muttered to himself, his eyes looking down at his deck. Already he had used a number of cards to draw…

"Magical Swords Elf! Attack Rose Maiden Rouge!" Rena announced as her elfin warrior charged towards the rose maidens with his sword drawn to the side.

'_I could activate my trap card…_' Lirin thought looking at her set card and then smiled at the charging elf. '_…but then again, I could just let Cerise's effect take place and inflict some damage…'_

Before Lirin could continue her train of thought, she was met with a blood curdling scream as Rouge was sliced in half by the Magical Swords Elf. But instead of a blood spray, many rose petals erupted from the wound as the rose maiden fell defeated. "W-What…my…my beautiful maiden…but your elf…" (LLP: 7150)

"Well, I just figured that since the monsters' attacks would decrease because of your Cerise's effect," Rena explained as her elf slowly returned back to her side of the field and spun forward to cross his arms at the two opponents before him. "So, I figured, why not use a monster that's unaffected by monster effects?"

'_Interesting…maybe I thought too soon,_' Tai thought to himself watching as a face down card appeared next to the other one on Rena's field. '_But…to read all the card effects is only logical and common thinking. Let's see if she can hold her own when it comes to my turn…_'

"That's it for my turn!"

Slowly drawing, Tai's body was immediately drawn in by the light from his Solemn Wishes trap card (TLP: 10950). Then looking at the total two cards in his hand, Tai immediately slid them into his duel disk's graveyard. "I activate Ebony's Greed's effect…so by sending my Ebony and Ivory Brawlers, I can draw two more cards…"

The light rained down upon Tai's body once more as he slowly drew his next two cards and then shook his head at his draws (TLP: 11450). '_Now then…I have both of my swordsmen out…if I take out Rena's elf and attack her directly, I'd have a much easier time defeating her…_

'…_however, with those two face down cards, she could spring a trap the moment I enter my battle phase…luckily I have my face down Trap Jammer…still, I have to end this duel immediately. If I defeat both of them soon, then I can request that antidote…then I won't have Tony's suffering death on my head…'_

"Hey! You going to make a move or are you just going to be a statue in the Rose Garden?" Lirin shouted making Tai narrow his eyes at her.

'…_target sighted…_'

Throwing his hand up towards Lirin, both of Tai's swordsmen raised their individual weapons up into the air. "Fine! Ebony Nightz Swordsman! Slay the Rose Maiden Blanca!"

Closing his dark eyes, the Ebony Swordsman leapt into the air with his single sword ready to slay the beautiful Blanca. And just as the swordsman was about bring his sword down onto the Rose Maiden, an eruption of rose petals flew into the air blocking the dark warrior's attack.

Then, with a cruel yet cute smile, Lirin raised her hand up in a victory sign. "Ha! Got ya! I activated the continuous trap, simply known as Rose Wall. Now whenever you declare an attack against a plant monster, I can negate the attack and place one Rose Counter on the attack target…so Blanca gains a counter…"

"It won't matter," Tai muttered kicking himself for not activating his trap card…but at least it wasn't a monster destroyer card. "Ivory Dayz Swordsman, attack…Magical Swords Elf!"

With the ivory swordsman leaping into the air, Rena motioned towards one of her face down cards. "I activate the spell card, Enemy Controller!"

'_WHAT!?! That's not a trap card!?!'_ Tai mentally kicked himself as a dark blue and white game controller appeared in front of Rena as she began pressing the buttons on it.

"Now using its effect, I can switch your swordsman to defense mode!" Rena announced as the Ivory Dayz Swordsman fell into the rose covered battle field.

Growling rather loudly, Tai took one of the remaining two cards in his hand and slid it into his duel disk making it appear behind his crouching Ivory warrior. '_I need to hurry!'_

"I guess this party's back to me…" Lirin chuckled as two large rose petals floated around her two rose maidens along with the one that was around Blanca. "And what better way by activating the spell card, Pot of Greed! So I can draw two more cards!"

Immediately snapping the cards off the top of her deck, Lirin smiled brightly taking another card from her hand and spinning it onto her duel disk. "Now then, I summon Rose Maiden Verde!"

Like with the previous Rose Maidens, a flurry of rose petals erupted from the Rose Garden, only these ones were green and clumped together. Then when the petals flew off in different directions, a cute woman with green skin and a Kitty Foyle dress of the same color appeared on the roses. A green rose blossom grew from her scalp instead of hair (300/0). "Now then…I'll discard my spell card, known as Rose Portrait!"

As soon as the card was slipped into Lirin's graveyard, a small portrait slowly floated from the sky with a fancy frame with a picture of the Rose Maiden Rouge walking over a bridge (500/500). "When discarded I can special summon one Portrait Token on the field…"

"Okay…but you already summoned this turn…" Rena commented rubbing her chin. "You can't tribute the token for a stronger monster…"

"Who says I'm going to summon?" Lirin asked lifting another card from her hand and placing it into her duel disk, creating a spell card showing a white rose on a table being covered by spilled black ink. "I activate the spell card, Tainted Rose!"

At the sound of the card's name, Riko's eyebrows raised upwards as a cold sweatdrop ran down his face. "Look out Rena!"

"Huh?" Rena asked a little confused as the Portrait Token shattered into a flurry of crimson rose petals that flew into the sky.

"You'd be wise to listen to shade over there," Lirin giggled wagging her finger towards Rena and Tai. "My spell card allows me to destroy one plant monster on my side of the field and destroy every card on your side of the field!"

"That's way too broken!" Rena shouted as the rose petals began to float around her and Tai's fields.

"Actually, due to the spell card, she can't summon again this turn and can't attack," Tai explained crossing his arms as all five of his cards shattered into rose petals along with Rena's two cards. "So she's played a legit move…"

"Oh…that's not cool…" Rena stated looking at her cleared field.

"Since I've used that spell…I've got nothing more to do this turn," Lirin stated crossing her arms over her chest.

"Then I guess it's my turn…" Rena stated shakily drawing her next card. Then slipping the card onto her duel disk, the green armored Obnoxious Celtic Guard (1400/1200) appeared onto the field drawing his sword into the air. "And sorry about this Tai, but we need to get this duel done quickly! Attack him directly!"

Tai's eyes widened as the warrior slashed right through his body, making him stagger backwards watching his life point counter lower slightly. "Even though it was a cheap shot…it was the smartest move…" (TLP: 10050)

"True that…" Lirin commented as a face down card appeared in behind Rena's elf.

"That's all for me," Rena stated as Tai immediately drew his next and then closed his eyes as many pixels began to build up in front of him.

"Excellent," Tai stated as his duel disk began to glow as the Ebony Nightz Swordsman and Ivory Dayz Swordsman (2750/2400 x2), Ebony's Greed and Solemn Wishes reappeared on his field.

"What the!?!" Rena and Lirin shouted out at the same time as Tai lifted a trap card that had a cute girl with her blue hair tied in two long tails blowing a kiss and holding onto a staff.

"Allow me to introduce my trap, Foresight of the Time Goddess," Tai explained lifting his glowing white and black duel disk (TLP: 5025). "When it's destroyed, I can pay half of my life points and return all face up cards on my side of the field with the exception of my trap. And now then…its time to speed up this duel!"

"Ebony Nightz Swordsman! Attack Rose Maiden Verde! Ebony Slash!"

Disappearing into darkness, the Ebony Nightz Swordsman appeared before the surprised green Rose Maiden and slammed the broadside of his weapon into the maiden's abdomen sending her skidding back into Lirin. (LLP: 4700)

"S-Sorry, but thanks to her special ability, as long as I have Rose Garden on the field," Lirin coughed up as Verde walked back onto the field breathing hard.

"Fine then…I guess that means I can still go on with my Ivory Dayz Swordsman's attack!" Tai shouted as the Ivory Dayz Swordsman appeared in front Verde to slam his two swords into her stomach sending her back again into Lirin. (LLP: 2250)

"Y-you'll pay for that…" Lirin spat out standing up, all the while glaring daggers at Tai who was just smiling at his next cards.

"Actually…your time's up," Tai stated lifting his next card up showing a spell card that had the same girl that was on his trap card only winking. "I activate the spell card, Mischief of the Goddess of Time! This will skip yours and Rena's turns, as well as my draw, standby and main phase to get to my next battle phase!"

"What!" Lirin shouted taken back from this new development with many clocks flying around all three of the duelists until they returned to the Rose Garden with both of Tai's swordsmen raising their swords into the air once more.

"Ivory Dayz Swordsman! Attack Rose Maiden Verde!" Tai shouted as his Ivory Swordsman charged towards the Verde and slammed the powerful blades into her stomach. The Rose Maiden slid into Lirin again making her fall backwards underneath the rose garden as it disappeared… (LLP: 0)

…Apparently she just fell of the table and onto her back. As her holograms disappeared, a small vile landed on the table where she once stood. Rena smiled greatly starring at the vile. "That must be the antidote!"

"…unfortunately…you still need to beat me," Tai stated turning towards Rena narrowing his eyes down at her elf. "And I still have Ebony Nightz Swordsman! Attack Obnoxious Celtic Guard!"

As the Dark Swordsman and Celtic Guard clashed their swords against each other, Lirin stood up on her two feet and watched the two duelists continue their duel. '_Damn it…they just tossed my beautiful self to the side as if I was nothing…I won't take this crap from losers like them…_'

Slowly reaching for the vile, Lirin's smile seemed to grow slightly more demonic as her hand wrapped around it…

However, that's when a slightly muscular hand grabbed onto her wrist to stop her from touching the vile. Turning her head to the side, Lirin was met with the grinning face of none other than…

"…Master Beck…"

Wagging his finger towards Lirin, Beck opened his eyes in a calm manner and pulled Lirin up a lot to stare at her in the eyes. "Never taint your beauty with such a vile act, if you cut back on your deal then only dire consequences will come your way…"

"…But, but I was…" Lirin started only to have Beck place his finger on her lips.

"…Now, now, now, don't soil that pretty face that I envy," Beck warned pulling his hand back and gesturing towards the door. "Now then, I'll take over from here…you head back to Vic and report to him about this defeat, but say that I told you to head back on my higher command…"

Nodding to Beck, Lirin slowly headed through the door as Beck lifted up the small vile and twirled in his fingers as he slowly headed towards the side of the room. Trying not to be found out by those who were dueling, he lowered his legs and slowly walked being covered up by the tables. '_…might as well not interrupt an excellent duel…_'

"Thanks to my Guard's ability, he can't be destroyed in a result of battle," Rena stated looking at her life point counter as her elf stumbled back and as Beck slowly walked behind her calmly. "But I still take damage…" (RLP: 5950)

"Yes…and I'll end my turn by fitting the last card in my hand into my duel disk," Tai stated lifting his hands up to show that he was now empty handed.

Now interested, Beck sat on the ground next to Tony (who was still paralyzed and didn't see him) and Riko who didn't hear him coming as Rena pulled her next card from her deck. Then with a smile, Rena slipped it into her duel disk. "I activate the spell card, Brain Control! So for eight hundred life points, I can take one of your monsters!" (RLP: 5150)

Two dark claws shot out from the ground in front of Rena, immediately grasping the Ebony Nightz Swordsman who struggled to get free, only to be pulled back to Rena's field with a dark glare in his eyes…

"I hate to tell ya," Tai stated crossing his arms over his chest. "But it doesn't matter if both of my swordsmen are on my side of the field; as long as they exist they cannot be defeated…"

"I realize that," Rena pointed out making Tai's eyes widen slightly.

"Y-you do?" Tai asked honestly raising an eyebrow at this new development. Maybe he had disregarded Rena too soon. But still, he still had a while to go before he was fully sure…

"Yep! So now, I activate the spell card, Gift of the Martyr!" Rena announced as the Ebony Nightz Swordsman's body was engulfed in a light aura that soon surrounded the Obnoxious Guard. Shouting in pain, the Ebony Swordsman shattered into his dark armor that reappeared over the Obnoxious Celtic Guard's body (1400/1200 + 2750/0), making the warrior seem more reckless and lifting up the Ebony Swordsman's sword up. "Now then…still care to say that your swordsman is still invincible?"

Tai still had his eyes narrowed down at the Celtic Guard, it was almost an insult to his monsters that his father had given him…oh well…if things turned out the way that Tai had foretold, it wouldn't matter soon anyway…

"Silent eh? Fine!" Rena shouted with a small amount of joy in her voice as she raised her hand towards the Ivory Dayz Swordsman. "Obnoxious Celtic Guard! Attack his Swordsman! Ebony Blade!"

Tai closed his eyes just before the elfin warrior had charged into the Ivory Dayz Swordsman…shattering the warrior easily into pixels that shattered into his duel disk. (TLP: 3625)

"I activate my trap card…Retrieve from the Grave!"

Snapping the top two cards from his deck, Tai's graveyard began to glow a dark and white light. "Here's how my trap card works, by sending the top two cards from my deck to the graveyard, I can then activate one spell or trap card from my graveyard…and I'll use a card that was just discarded! I activate the spell card True Balance!"

Then from two cards from his duel disk, Tai lifted up the Ebony and Ivory Fang cards that were in his graveyard. "By letting you draw one card from your deck, I can add one Ebony card and one Ivory card from my graveyard to my hand…"

"Thanks I guess," Rena stated lifting her next card up only to slide it back into her duel disk as the dark armor around the Obnoxious Celtic Guard (1400/1200) shattered. "That's all…"

"I think its time we speed this duel up unless your friend…" Tai stated reaching his next card, unfortunately when he turned over to Tony and Riko, he and Rena were met with a waving Beck with a great grin on his face. "…who in the world?"

"Oh, don't mind me," Beck chuckled rubbing the back of his bandana covered head, finally getting Riko's attention. "I'm just here to watch the excellent duel…"

"…How long has he been there?" Rena asked blinking a few times at Beck.

"As you stated before, you need to hurry for your friend's stake," Beck answered, hiding the vial that had the antidote behind his body.

'…_that voice…it couldn't be…Beck?_' Riko thought raising an eyebrow.

"Here's a question," Rena announced raising her hand up. "Why exactly are we still dueling? I mean, Lirin left the antidote on the table…"

"In order for me to test you, it's the best to have something riding on this duel and you need to think on your feet in a small amount of time…" Tai explained as the light showered over his body as he slipped the card into his duel disk. "But do not worry! I activate the spell card that will end this. Go! Yin Yang Fusion!" (TLP: 4125)

From behind Tai, the air behind him began to warp into a large symbol of Yin and Yang as Tai threw the two cards left in his hand up into the air. "This spell card is a very powerful and special. If I have two cards in my fusion deck with the exact same fusion material monsters listed on them, I can fusion summon both of them immediately!"

"Hmm…that might be useful for a few cards," Beck admitted rubbing his chin.

The large Yin Yang symbol shattered like glass, releasing two large intimidating forms on the field. Both of them were two large three headed wolves, each of them with a different coloring scheme of Ebony and Ivory with their fur and armor. Both monsters roared at the same time, shaking the entire cafeteria by its foundations (2000/1800 x2). "And as a good example would have to be Ebony and Ivory Cerberuses! And due to their effects, for each face up opposite monster on the field, they gain an additional attack! That's a total of four attacks!"

"Oh boy…" Beck cowered slightly from the two powerful beasts standing in front of him. Of course…it was all an act for him.

"Ivory Cerberus! Ebony Cerberus! Attack her Obnoxious Celtic Guard!"

All of the combined heads of both of the Cerberuses opened up to prepare their respective colored energies that immediately shot forward into the elfin warrior, sending it streaming back into Rena…almost knocking her off her table…

…It was at that moment that Beck opened the vile of the antidote and slipped it into Tony's mouth…how Tony didn't notice that is a mystery… (RLP: 5950)

A little confused, Tai noticed the trap card that Rena had flipped up to show three monks standing up with blue robes on them being protected by a barrier. "Its old, but I've got my Hallowed Life Barrier, and I activated just before you started you battle phase."

"I see," Tai sighed crossing his arms over his chest. "I don't have any other cards in my hand…"

That's when Tai raised his hand up and slowly placed it upon his deck…signifying his surrender. "So…that'll be all…" (TLP: Surrender)

"HUH!?!" Rena, Beck, and Riko shouted at the same time, none of them noticing that Tony was slowly moving his arms up and down again and smirking slightly.

"I give up," Tai answered as the holograms disappeared as he jumped off the table and walked over towards the table that had his fortuneteller cards on them.

"We get that part, but why did you do that?" Rena asked jumping off her table raising an eyebrow.

"…lift the top card from your deck," Tai stated snapping his cards from his duel disk off and shuffling them into the main deck. "The next card you'll draw is known as Life Empowerment. If you had activated it you would've paid all but fifty life points and attacked with your elf to defeat either one of my Cerberuses."

"If you knew what I was going to draw," Rena asked a little puzzled, not noticing that Tony had lowered his arms and cracking his neck. "Then why did you bother summoning those monsters?"

"…Even I do not understand destiny fully," Tai simply stated crossing his arms as he held his deck of Ebony and Ivory. "But…it would appear that we have bigger things to deal with other than your questions…"

"Tony!" Rena shouted not noticing that Tony was standing behind her.

"You rang?" Tony asked making Rena jump a few feet away.

"TONY! Don't do that!" Rena shouted slapping Tony upside the head.

"Oof!" Tony groaned rubbing his cheek. "Is this how you show that you're worried?"

"Well, I uh," Rena blushed and pointed her fingers together.

That's when Tony wrapped his arm around Rena's shoulders and laughed loudly. "Aw, I was just having a little fun with ya!"

"…How'd you get better?" Riko asked raising an eyebrow then turned directly in the direction of Beck with a serious look on his face. "Did you have a hand in this?"

"…maybe…" Beck playfully answered twirling some of his extra hair in the back. '_More than you'll know Riko…_'

"Who are you exactly anyway?" Rena asked as Beck looked at her expectantly.

"Oh! I get to introduce myself again! Yay!" Beck literally jumped for joy before assuming a serious pose with him fingering his chin as a spotlight covered him. "My name is, according to my birth certificate I'm known as Robert Becker…but, I prefer to be called Beck…"

'_Still full of himself as always…_' Riko thought to himself sitting back down at the table.

"Beck?" Tony questioned raising an eyebrow.

"…well, he's just as unique as the other people we've met," Rena admitted with a sweatdrop as she slowly removed Tony's arm from her shoulder.

"Oh, that is just so fabulous!" Beck chuckled with the spotlight disappearing into the regular light. "Better get used to it, we've got a lot of interesting customers at the academy…and I'm hardly the weirdest around here though…"

Jumping over to the side, Beck just simply waved his hand at the confused group and began to head over to the door with a smile on his face. "Now if you excuse me, I've procrastinated my homework for a while now and need to get it done. Later cuties and beauties!"

Everyone just sweatdropped at the fact of Beck exit with a spin in his step and blew a kiss towards the group. Not the manliest exit known to mankind.

"Well that was weird…" Rena admitted rubbing her head a little bit.

"Uh, yeah…anyway, we have some things to discuss," Tai stated lifting up the green deck of cards from the table and held it up to Rena. "…But before that…shuffle please…"

After some shuffling, the three students sat down across from Tai who began to take the cards off of the top of the deck, set them in a clock formation with a thirteenth card in the middle of them. Although this was new to Rena and the others, it seemed surprising to Tai as well. "Well now…it would seem that destiny has spilt off from a key point…"

Flipping the middle thirteenth card, Tai revealed that the card was blank. Before anyone could ask, Tai slapped his hand on top of the card…then as he lifted his hand up, a picture showing a beautiful young brown hair woman being surrounded by dark and white feathers was flowing down around her. "A young maiden, her soul trapped in confusion with a loved one gone…"

Rena looked at the card that Tai had just revealed, a little confused with how the maiden looked oddly familiar to someone…

Then flipping the one o'clock position, was also blank until he slapped his hand on and off of the card. This one depicted a group of shadowed figures, however their smiles and frowns were clearly shown. "With your coming, you have met a majority of allies that will help you in the future, all of them completely different from each other."

As with the past two cards, Tai had flipped a blank card, only to show it to have another picture, this one having a dark warrior with a flowing cloak and with a beautiful katana in his hands. "…however, there seems to be the cause of the disruption of destiny…a young man with a unrelenting thirst for battle…"

'_He couldn't be referring to him…could he?_' Rena wondered as Tai flipped the next card up to show another blank card…

…but it didn't stay that way for long…

The card depicted a large dark shadow with blood splattering all over his shadow, at the middle of the shadow was a beautiful demonic sword that had blood all over its blade. "Apparently, when you faced a young man, known as the Bloody Devil Hunter, the disturber of destiny had intervened, thus the change in destiny…"

'_The duel me and Ganryu faced against Dias!'_

Revealing the next card in the four o'clock position, a young man was standing in a dark symbol with the same beautiful girl that had appeared in the first card, was in his arms. Tony smiled brightly at the card. "…however, through these trials, you have gotten closer to you allies in the short time you have known them…one in particular…"

'_Oh yeah!'_

The sixth card was flipped up showing a blonde haired man standing with his back to the picture while standing on a large black and white lion. Multiple shadows seemed to surround the man and lion. "…Beware though…you will face against a man searching for the very strength of the gods…"

Then pulling the remaining seven cards, Tai slipped them into the original deck. "Unfortunately…all the other cards will remain blank until you have passed the next trial…"

"So…you mind telling me if there are going to be other trials or something I should be aware of?" Rena asked as Tai immediately snapped a single card from the middle of the deck, lifting up the card to show a dark shadow standing on a mountain looking away from a bloody battle field.

"Yes…an ally you've come to know will betray you…however, the destiny will keep that secret from your eyes…" Tai answered pocketing the card, and then lifted up his red and blue decks of cards. "But now…please, for my final prediction, select one card from each of these decks…"

Slowly, Rena did so and held the cards up to Tai, who after pocketing the two decks of cards held the cards facing towards him as he began chanting something. Then spinning them around, Tai revealed that the red card showed a small white haired teen lifting his right arm (which looked to be made of steel) towards a bleeding heart like jewel. While the blue one had displayed a young blue haired man wearing a dark cloak with multiple weapons you'd see from a ninja movie standing back to back with a red haired teen with the exact same features only darker. "When you meet a tortured soul, and a destiny defying dope...all will be clear…"

"Huh?!? That doesn't even make any sense," Tony muttered to himself rubbing the back of his head.

'_If this was a fortunetelling, then I want my money back,'_ Riko thought as Tai pocketed the remaining cards into his blue jacket and then lifted a deck of duel monster cards that he promptly lifted up to Rena.

"Here…I was told to give this to the one here," Tai stated pushing the cards towards Rena. "If you combine this deck with some of the cards from your other deck, then you'll have an easier time with your next challenge…"

Taking the deck, Rena leafed through the cards to see the white and black cards that she now held. "Are you sure…"

"Yes," Tai answered raising his hand up and began heading towards the door with his hands pocketed. "Besides, that wasn't my real deck…mine has a more ominous feel to it…"

"Now what will you do Tai?" Tony asked making Tai stop in his tracks.

"…It'll take me some time to reach the next one," Tai answered with his eyes closed. "Which will be good for me, his challenge won't be only until a few days I arrive at the next island…but for now, I'm going to go grab the money that little midget has of mine. He's been charging double so I'm going to take a page from my brother's book and take what he owes me…"

"Your brother?" Rena asked a little confused. "…who's your brother?"

Tai chuckled as he slowly opened the door and turned around to show the small smile that was on his face. "Why…you should know him above all else Rena…after all, he did help you get here…"

"…Wait, you're…" Rena started but was interrupted as Tai had exited the cafeteria with the door closing behind him.

//--/-///--/-/-/-/

_**End of Season 1**_

_**Preview of Season 2**_

_**After the card stats!**_

_**/-/--/-/-//--//-//**_

_**Card Stats**_

**Mischief of the Time Goddess / Spell / Effect:** Skip your opponent's turn, your next draw phase, standby phase, and main phase to enter your next battle phase.

**Image:** A cute young blue haired girl with her hair in long tails, winking and holding a small jeweled staff.

_This card was first used by Siegfried von Schroder in the original series. All credit and originality belong to the writers._

**Rose Maiden Verde / ****EARTH / LV. 1 / ATK: 300 / DEF: 0 / Plant/Effect: **If you have [Rose Garden on the field, this face-up card cannot be destroyed as a result of battle. Pay 500 Life Points to remove this card from play and place 1 counter on [Rose Garden. If [Rose Garden is destroyed, the counter is removed instead of this card being destroyed. 

**Description:** A woman with green skin and a Kitty Foyle of the same color. A green rose blossom grows from her scalp instead of hair.

**Rose Wall / Continuous Trap / Effect: **When your opponent attacks 1 of your Plant-Type monster, negate the attack and place 1 [Rose Counter on the attack target. This effect can only be used once per turn. 

**Description:** [Rose Maiden Violet has her arms half-raised, with a twister of purple rose petals surrounding her.

Rose Portrait / Spell / Effect:You can discard this card to the Graveyard during either player's turn. When you do this, Special Summon 1 [Portrait Token (EARTH/Plant/Star 1/ATK 500/DEF 500) on your field. Your opponent cannot attack any other monster on your field except the [Portrait Token. 

**Description:** A watercolor painting of [Rose Maiden Rouge crossing a bridge over a winding river.

**Tainted Rose / Spell / Effect:** Select 1 Plant-Type monster on your field. Destroy the selected monster and every card on your opponent's side of the field. You cannot Normal Summon, Flip Summon, or Special Summon any monsters this turn. Your monsters cannot attack this turn.

**Description:** A white rose lying on a table, with black ink spilling into its petals.

_**The preceding four cards were created by Kaitou Kaijoh/Seeker. All creative credit belongs to him and I need to thank him once more.**_

**Foresight of the Time Goddess / Trap / Effect:** This card can only be activated during your standby phase after this card was destroyed as a card effect. Pay half of your life points. If you had any face up cards on your side of the field last turn, and are not on your field when this card's effect activates, you may place them on your field regarding their pay conditions.

**Image:** The Time Goddess blowing a kiss.

**Yin Yang Fusion / Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you have two fusion monsters in your fusion deck with the same listed fusion material monsters on them. Send the Fusion Material Monsters listed on both Fusion Monster Cards from your hand or field and Fusion summon the Fusion Monsters from your Fusion Deck. The Fusion summoned monsters cannot the turn this card was used.

**Image:** A vortex of the Yin Yang symbol.

**True Balance / Spell / Effect:** When this card is activated, your opponent draws one card. You may add one monster card with 'Ebony' and one card with 'Ivory' from your graveyard to your hand.

**Image: **The Ebony Nobleman and Ivory Nobleman standing on different parts of a fancy ebony and ivory scale.

**Ebony Flame Cerberus / Dark / LV. 7 / ATK: 2000 / DEF: 1800 / Beast/Fusion/Effect:** [Ebony Fang + Ivory Fang This card cannot be special summoned except by fusion summon. For each level six or higher monster on your side of the field with 'Ivory' on your side of the field, this card may attack an additional time.

**Description:** A large ebony furred three headed wolf with three ivory colored manes with ivory armor covering his back and tails

**Ivory Flame Cerberus / Light / LV. 7 / ATK: 2000 / DEF: 1800 / Beast/Fusion/Effect:** [Ebony Fang + Ivory Fang This card cannot be special summoned except by fusion summon. For each level six or higher monster on your side of the field with 'Ebony' on your side of the field, this card may attack an additional time.

**Description:** A large ivory furred three headed wolf with three ebony colored manes with ebony armor covering his back and tails

**Retrieve from the Grave / Trap / Effect:** Discard two cards from the top of your deck. When this card is activated, you may activate one spell or trap card from your graveyard. After this card's resolve, your opponent may draw one card.

**Image:** A blood red chain piercing through quite a few cards.

/-//-//--//-/-/-/-/

In front of a large darkened screen, a small chibi man walked out in front of the screen with a spotlight shining over him. His flashy gray spiked hair on his head shook up and down as his large white overcoat over his black shirt and velvet jeans. As he bowed down, the young man showed the purple guitar that was on his back. "Hello everyone! Allow me to introduce myself, I'm Ed Wright!"

Pointing his fingers together, Ed's face had a slight blush to his face as he turned his head to the side. "I've been out of work for a while and I'm willing to take any job. So Vyser, the nice guy, hired me to perform the music for this preview for the next season…"

"Although, the song choice is a little weird…" Ed muttered to himself before taking a small piece of paper from his pocket. "Anyway, Vyser also had a message for me to deliver as well. He would like me to say that after this next season, there will be a Q and A section so you can ask any question of the characters of this story. There's also something that Vyser would like to know…"

"Which characters do you like the most here? Which character you think is the weirdest? And which character you'd least expect to see here?"

Ed sulked down as he lowered his head as he pointed his fingers. "Y-yeah, I just added that last one in. Please! I'm begging for work here!"

"HEY ED! GET TO WORK! WE'RE NOT PAYING YA TO BEG TO THE VIEWERS!"

"Y-Yes sir!" Ed shouted pulling his guitar from his back and began to strum a few notes as the TV screen began to turn on. "You rock and you duel!"

(_We're seeking our endless dreams in a world with no guidance…_) As the sun on the TV screen began to rise over the ocean, Rena is currently sitting on the docks kicking her feet over the waves crashing on the dock's side. A smile appears on her face as she looks at two decks in each of her hands. (_With tangled emotions and a heart-piercing beat,)_

(_Our ballad continues, quietly and without faltering._) Turning her head around, Rena sees that standing behind her are none other than Van and Rukia raising their thumbs up to Rena, while Leo and Kimatori smile brightly at her. (_From the other side of the far-off sky, our shadows blur together,_)

(_Our memories are chronicled somewhere between whim and inevitability._) The scene then switches to Ganryu standing in the middle of the forest with multiple duelists surrounded him. Snatching five cards from his duel disk and onto his duel disk, the samurai of the five scrolls appear to take on the many strange monsters that surrounded the samurai duelist. (_Even if everything decays in the whirlpool of tie we spent passing each other by, I'll believe in your voice…_)

(_We're seeking our endless dreams in a future with no guidance,_) Running through the Red Dorms dragging Koji by his hand, Klein furiously runs away from a sadistic Bravo with multiple bruiser monsters following him. Then with a great throw, Klein then sent his brother directly into Bravo's stomach, causing a large amount of dust to fly up. With his job done, Klein snapped his fingers in success. (_Even if I lose this light someday…_)

Standing on top of the roof, Leo just smiled brightly as several cloaked men floated down from the dark clouded sky. When all of them charged towards the smiling duelist, multiple feathers flew up stopping in their tracks. Then with many slams of his feet, Leo slowly takes them down one by one…with the smile on his face. (_There will still be the shining blaze you lit in my heart._)

At the main cafeteria, Vic stands before Cleo and Asche, all three of them readying their duel disks as multiple machine, ghost and shadowed monsters appeared in front of them battling as Alan watches from the sidelines with a goofy smile on his face. (_We'll turn these fragments of hope into wings._)

(_An unceasing rain and a gently-soaked moon, I don't care if I get hurt;_) Standing before two shadowed figures, Van and Rukia narrow their eyes at the multiple machine monsters jumping towards them. (_I just want to move on, blown about by the wind._)

(_A look from your clear, innocent eyes cuts through the darkness…_) Beck smiles as the camera zooms away from his face to show him standing on top of a jagged hill with many cloaked persons standing beneath him with Rena starring directly at him. (_We'll pass through despair and loneliness and leave our mark behind._)

_(During the time I spent distorting myself to avoid creating ties…_) Next, Tony is running up behind Rena to hug her, only to find that he was hugging an annoyed Luntina who immediately flipped Tony over her shoulders with ease. From the side, Riko and Sen shake their heads and laugh slightly. (_I felt you there…)_

_(We're following a fleeting path in a world with no answers)_ Walking from a boat on the dock, two very similar men slowly head towards the duel academy, one wearing a dark overcoat and the other wearing a white overcoat. (_When you're suddenly lost and unable to move forward._)

_(My heart will shine and show the way to a hopeful tomorrow,_) Standing in front of the red dorms, Rena turns around to smile at the large group of Ganryu, Van, Rukia, Klein, Koji, Cleo, Asche, Leo, Kimatori, Tony, Riko, Sen, and Luntina. (_We're seeking our fleeting dreams in a world with no answers…_)

_(The shining blaze in my heart will covey my wish_,) Standing in an underground cavern with multiple jewels surrounding him, Beck reaches for a glowing deck of cards surrounded by jewels with a demonic look in his eyes.

(_We're seeking our endless dreams in a world with no guidance,_) Running in front of the group, Rena raises up her duel disk with a shadow of Beck with a raised hand over the group before the screen begins to darken. (_Even if I lose this light someday…there will still be the shining blaze you lit in my heart!_)

"_We'll turn these fragments of hope into wings!_" Ed sang adding the last note to the song with the echo through out the room. "…And there you go! I hope you enjoyed the preview!"

"Oh, and an added brownie point if anyone can guess the name or where that song came from! And don't forget to ask the questions in your reviews or in the forums everyone! As well as telling us who you think is the weirdest character on this as well as the coolest."


	27. Chapter 27: Man of Word

_**I know that I haven't been the best friend to a few people…Recently, I haven' been truthful all my self. **_

_**But behind my smile, I'm usually in pain, plagued with questions about the future.**_

_**What will happen when I leave the academy?**_

_**When will I achieve my parents' approval?**_

_**And the one that scares me the most…will I still exist in the minds of others?**_

_**You wouldn't think it when you meet me that I'd be the kind of guy who'd care about things like that. We all have our facades, even if a lot of people interpret them in a way that you wouldn't expect.**_

_**With the challenges I need to face now…I would bet that people will see me in a different light…**_

…_**But everyone already as a different version of me. A long time a go, a wise man once told me that there are as many versions of you as people you know. I hold that very true right now, even if that man…well…let's just say that if you knew who I was talking about, you'd call me crazy…**_

_**But now…I need to face the challenge to redeem myself…**_

…_**please, forgive my misguided actions…**_

…_**even though I don't deserve such sweet apologies…**_

_**/---/--//-/--//--/-/**_

_**Chapter 27**_

_**Man of Word**_

_**/---///--/-///--/-/**_

It had only been a few hours since Tai had left, of course, studying for his next advanced test; Leo had no knowledge of this information. Currently, Kimatori was spending the day with Rukia, mainly because Leo (although he didn't mind her) just needed some time to himself…

"Riko! Riko!"

Looking up from his book of chemistry, Leo was met with the sight of his fellow classmate, Sen (although, he couldn't tell if he was a student or not. He never went to class, was never in uniform, and went to the same classes the Riko went to) running frantically to any of the students. "Have you seen Riko?"

"Don't you know where he is?"

"Aw come on! Give me a hand!"

That's when Leo saw that Sen was running towards him at top speed, although not worried, Leo had his patented smile on his face Sen skidded to a stop in front of him. "Hey there fresh meat! Have you seen Riko?"

"…Fresh meat?" Leo asked raising an eyebrow at the comment and then lifted his smile up for Sen to see. "Let me guess…I'm a prime cut then!"

"What?" Sen asked, a little confused that someone actually took that as a compliment.

"Hmm…I must apologize, but I do not know where Riko-sempai is," Leo chuckled snapping his book up. "But…must you worry so much about him?"

"Of course I must!" Sen replied snapping his arm to the side. "I was charged by our parents to watch him! You must know of his condition…"

"Yes I know of it," Leo answered standing up from his seat to look Sen in the eyes. Even though Sen was older than him, Leo had a few good inches over the older classmate. "And if you ask me, you worry too much…"

"Yeah, whatever," Sen sighed combing his hair back in his hand. "A lot of talk from the guy who ditched his friends…"

Now that comment made Leo raise his eyebrow up in interest as he crossed his right arm over his chest, clutching the book he had in his hand tightly. "…Now, what was that?"

"…I heard from Tony, when all that crap with Dias went down…" Sen explained narrowing his eyes down at Leo, who was slightly taken back from this development. He didn't think that Sen of all people would know about that, but as Sen had just stated, Tony was probably blathering about it to the higher ups in the dorms. "You were there…and yet you ran away like a coward to escape punishment…"

"Well, it is human nature to try to avoid something that would cause discomfort," Leo explained trying to take a page of Dias's book for reasoning…although he knew that he wouldn't have much luck with that.

"…Like a coward, you try to cover up your crime," Sen scoffed to the side turning around snapping his arm up. "I wonder what's worse…a traitor or someone who tries to avoid responsibility?"

And with that note firmly planted in Leo's head, Sen began to walk away to find his brother and scold him in a harsher manner for getting out of his room without permission. A little stunned by Sen's harsh words, Leo just tilted his head slightly to the left, still donning his smile.

…Although, in his head, his smile had just been ripped off his face by a jagged claw…

/-/-/-//-/-/-/-/

"…"

Vic narrowed his eyes down at the group that was in front of him, more along the lines of Bravo, Lirin, Alex, Morty and Xander. All the other members were busy with the exception of the broad shouldered man leaning on the wall behind Vic.

"Alright dirt bags," Vic started getting a few blank stares from his group, even from the shadowed man.

"Hey, why are you calling us that?" Morty asked tilting his head to the right. "What exactly did we do wrong?"

"Well, let's see…two of you failed recently," Vic answered narrowing his eyes down at Lirin and Bravo who sulked their heads down in shame. "And three of you haven't been that useful…what did you expect me to say? Congratulations everyone, our mission was a success!

"It turns out that Xander, the lazy bum, is the big hero. We'll have an ice cream social in your honor…"

"That actually sounds nice," Xander stated out loud with everyone agreeing.

"No you dirt bag!" Vic shouted slamming his foot into Xander's chest, sending the overlord duelist to the ground. "Anyone want to guess why I gathered you all here today?"

"Didn't you just say that a few minutes ago?" Alex asked making Vic narrow his eyes down at him.

"Goddamnit! Shut your mouth or I'll have Xander slit your throat in your sleep!" Vic growled as Xander stood up with a demonic smile on his face.

"Ooh, I'd do it too in a heartbeat," Xander snickered.

Alex gulped deeply and covered his mouth for fear of his life of the dark Xander. Vic, didn't really care that Xander was scaring Alex, and so he lifted up a small piece of paper. "Anyway, now that we've got some real orders from that confusing Beck…"

"And what do they say sir?" Morty asked blinking a few times.

"If you give me a chance to say it," Vic growled crumpling the paper in his hand, not realizing it was in his hand. "…then I'll get to it!"

That's when Vic noticed the crumpled paper in his hand and glared daggers at the former artist. "Damn it! Look what you made me do!"

"Oh, sorry sir," Morty apologized bowing slightly.

"Whatever, dumbass," Vic growled un-crumpling the paper and began reading it again. After a few seconds, Vic shouted in anger ripping up the paper.

"What's going on?" Lirin asked a little wary with what answer she might receive.

"That stupid dipstick just wrote thanks for the current job, do a better job than you currently are doing and defeat the selected targets…" Vic growled realizing that he probably shouldn't have ripped up that paper without reading it fully. "…crap!"

"That was pretty stupid," Xander commented with a dumb smirk on his face.

"Shut the hell up Xander!" Vic roared slamming his foot into Xander's face sending him flying back slightly.

While everyone else was watching Vic beating the stuffing out of Xander, the broad shouldered man pushed up his glasses and lifted up one of the largest scraps of paper. Reading the name on the paper to himself, the young man tossed the paper over his shoulders and headed for the door…

…which he promptly opened into the setting sun filled sky as the shredded piece of paper floated to the ground to show the name written in thick black ink…

Turning away from his rage driven assault on the group, Vic just raised his eyebrow as the man stood in the doorway. "And where do you think you're going…uh, what was your name again?"

The young man turned around to show his sandy blonde hair combed to the right with his black glasses gleaming in the light. On his right cheek was a small bandage that clung to his boney face. Wearing a sleeveless and collarless white shirt under a long yellow lab coat and black pants, the young man leaned up against the door with his arms crossed. "…I'm going to kill two birds with one stone. I'll take down that one guy who's been selected on the paper down there…"

Pointing towards the larger scrap that he had just tossed over his shoulder, the glasses wearing young man pushed them up and slowly turned around to walk through the doorway. "…and I'll don the title of my personage among the ranks of the elites."

The glasses wearing teen disappeared into the sunlight, leaving quite the impression on Vic who just raised an eyebrow at the attitude in response. "…What's his deal?"

"Oh, that's Russell Kazin," Lirin explained getting Vic's attention drawn to her. "He's a transfer student that we've had in the Yokai for a while. In fact, he was second in command of this regiment, before, well, Beck doesn't want us talking about what he did to the head honcho."

"Kazin huh…I take it that he must be a little sore for me taking over his regiment then," Vic pieced together rubbing his chin with a snide look plastered all over his face.

"Actually boss," Bravo interrupted looking up from the bruised Xander. "He's always like that. Heck, half the time he speaks, I can barely understand the large words he uses…"

"For the last time Bravo," Lirin sighed in annoyance rubbing her head. "Science isn't that hard of a word to understand. It's the basic make up of the theories that are difficult…anyway; Kazin is head of the scientific department. He's even got a few projects that you should ask him about…"

"I hope it's better than his auto shower," Bravo muttered rubbing his hair.

"What happened there?" Morty asked.

"I'd rather not talk about it…" Bravo answered with a blush on his face.

"All of you shut up," Vic growled narrowing his eyes at the five subordinates lifting the large scrap of paper that Kazin had tossed over his shoulders. With the silence, Vic slowly read the name in his mind. '…_so…he's after 'that guy'. I wish I could finish what we started, although that might be harder said than done…_

/-/--/-///-/-/-//

Appearing in front of the red dorms, Leo looked up from the ground to see that all the dorms had their lights on. Understandable, since the sun was beginning to set behind him with each step he took towards the hut he was hoping to reach.

It wasn't a long walk for him, he had been to the hut a few times and was standing in front of the hut questioning himself, whether he should or shouldn't knock on the door…

…until he gathered his courage and was about to knock on the door. Only being stopped by the voices inside. "Rena…I'm really sorry." Leo closed his eyes as he identified the voice as the young Rukia. "I-it's just well, me and Van, well…its just very embarrassing to explain…"

"…Rukia…I'm really mad at you guys for that…" Leo guessed that was Rena now talking. "…I'm more mad at Leo and Ganryu…well, not so much Ganryu."

Lowering his head, Leo shook his head disapprovingly as he lowered his arm as well. Rena continued to talk without knowing that Leo was standing behind the door. "I can understand Klein and Koji. But I really don't understand where Leo showed up from…"

"Isn't that his style though?"

"Well, yeah, but he just disappeared with Ganryu knocked out when Alan appeared."

At that moment, Leo just turned around, digging his hands into his pockets as he slowly walked away from the hut, the darkness of the night covering his body. He didn't hear Kimatori's voice, then again, she always liked getting an early jump on sleep.

'_Well then…it looks like I may have to make things right…_' And with that thought, Leo sped up his pace back to the Obelisk Blue dorm, unaware of the dark shadow appearing behind him from a distance away.

The next morning quickly came as Alan slowly entered his office at least a good hour away from the first class. Snapping his suitcase on his desk, Alan immediately sat back in his seat with a great sigh of relief. "Ah, another day, another over paid check for my services…"

"My, my, my, you must have it easy…"

"Yeah, pretty much…" Alan answered turning his head to the side to see Leo looking down at him with a clear smile. "…oh…"

That's when the realization kicked into Alan's head, sending him out of his seat and on his head. Peering over the seat, Leo blinked a few times at Alan's slow reaction time. "Oh, that looked like that one hurt…"

"Childsman?" Alan questioned crawling back into his seat, rubbing the newest bruise on his head. "What are you doing here? More importantly…how'd you get in here?"

"…I have the power to create portals in time and space and just walked in here," Leo joked around getting a smile and laugh from Alan, brightening the smile on the angelic duelist's face.

"That's a good one," Alan laughed holding his ribs slightly before calming down and taking in a deep breath. "Now then…what can I do you for Mr. Childsman?"

"…I have a confession to make," Leo replied with the smile on his face starting to disappear into his sadness…

//-/--/---/-/-/

Noon stuck the clock too fast for everyone's tastes, however lunch was always a good relief from the dullness of classes. Sitting at a table in the main cafeteria was none other than Rena, Rukia and Van (who between the two of them, couldn't really see eye to eye for some reason…)

"So Rena…are we cool?" Van asked a little wary of the answer.

"Don't worry, I couldn't be that mad at you guys…" Rena answered getting a smile from her fellow red students. "You guys were like the first friends here at the academy…"

"Well, at least we're better than a few people," Rukia admitted lifting up her drink.

"Speaking of which," Rena started getting Van's attention. "How's Ganryu doing?"

"Grr! That cold stiff!" Van gritted through his teeth pulling his hair slightly. "He's been taking a turn to getting to more of being a bastard! And he keeps challenging me to duels! I'm starting to think I'm his personal guinea pig!"

"It could be worse right?" Rena asked not noticing the shadow appearing next to her.

"Really all depends," Leo commented appearing next to Rena, scarring the three red students from their seats as he waved his hands up a few times. "Oh my, it seems that you guys still haven't got used to seeing me…"

"Leo?!? What in the world are doing here?" Rena asked catching her breath.

"Enjoying the lunch, the day's weather," Leo answered spinning the apple on his finger in a fancy manner. "Quite excellent for a duel if you ask me…"

"Well, yeah, that's true," Rena muttered remembering the previous duel she had yesterday. Before she had her little conversation with Rukia, she had taken Tai's advice and took the best cards from both of her decks and combined them into one awesome deck (in her opinion) and kept it to her basic elf deck.

"Anyway…how are you doing today everyone?" Leo asked with his smile appearing on his face, almost melting away the fear that he had just instilled in the three red students.

"All in all…I was having a decent day until you gave me the heart attack just now," Van moaned reaching for his drink.

"Yeah, same here," Rukia muttered with a sweatdrop rolling down her head.

"Honestly, with everything that has been going on," Rena sighted lowering her head towards the table as Leo mysteriously finished his apple and placed the core on the table before him. "This day's been better than the rest…"

"Hmm…I see," Leo stated standing up, getting everyone's attention. "Rena…could I ask a few minutes of your time?"

"Uh, yeah, sure," Rena answered a little confused as she looked over to Rukia and Van who just shrugged their shoulders in response.

In a matter of mere minutes, both Rena and Leo were walking on the campus's sidewalk; both of them were silent as each of them walked next to each other, passing students on either side of them. A little confused with Leo's current attitude (mainly because he didn't have his usual smile on his face) Rena turned her head towards Leo who just seemed to keep facing forward. "Uh…Leo, you had something you want to talk about…"

"Rena…how well do know we know each other?" Leo asked not taking his eyes off of the sidewalk in front of him.

"Well…that's a good question…" Rena replied placing a hand on the side of her face. "I know that you can be a bit of a shock with you disappearing and appearing…in fact, this is the first time I've actually seen you walk in front of me."

"True…and I know that you're a kind girl, who often puts too much pressure on yourself," Leo answered back stopping in front of Rena. "That and what resides in our decks, we honestly don't know that much about each other…"

A little confused as to where this was going, Rena looked directly into Leo's eyes, and instead of the calm, happy look that usually resided within them…

…Rena was met with the sadness that now occupied them, even though he had the smile on his face. "Are you okay Leo?"

"I must apologize," Leo stated turning his head up into the clear blue sky, the smile on his face still. "I came by your dorm hut and overheard your conversation with Rukia-chan last night…"

Taken back from what Leo was saying, Rena stepped back covering her mouth with her hands. "L-Leo! I, I didn't know that…if I knew you were standing out there…"

Lifting his hand up, Leo just shook his head with the smile still on his face. "No, you need not worry. You had every right to say those things."

"I know that there is no excuse for my actions, but, on that night with Dias final plan took place, I myself had faced off against Rukia's older brother, Renji. He had the same magic that Dias was using, and one of us fell into its grasp…"

"And when the duel between you and Dias finalized, Ganryu had just returned. His breathing was slow and he had received multiple wounds on his body. And…I believe that you met his brother the other day correct?"

Rena nodded in agreement as Leo turned his gaze back to her. "I see…before we trailed up the stairs, and before Tai was knocked out by his brother, I promised him that I would keep his brother out of trouble."

"I…I see…" Rena muttered now seeing the reason behind Leo's actions.

"However…I'd rather not take any chances with my friendship with you," Leo responded crossing his arms. "So, I took it upon myself and confessed to Alan this morning about my violation with his curfew rule…"

"What!?!" Rena asked now extremely confused. "Why did you do that?"

"Simple, as a real friend like Tony," Leo answered with a bright smile on his face. "I am willing to go through the same trials as you will…I just thought that I would let you know, and would appreciate it if you would come to said punishment match…"

"Why exactly did you do something stupid?" Rena asked getting a very confused look form on his face.

"Huh?" Leo questioned blinking in confusion.

"You didn't need to do something like that," Rena stated crossing her arms over her chest while sending him a dirty look. "I would've forgiven you even if you didn't do that…"

"…well, it's a little late for that now…" Leo chuckled a little embarrassed for his rash actions. "Now then…will you still come and watch a fool get himself out of the mess he had created for himself?"

"Only if you do your very best," Rena stated back smiling a Leo's smile back at his owner.

"Hey, that's my smile," Leo complained with a slight chuckle in his voice.

"I guessed it just rubbed off on me," Rena answered back.

/-/-/--//---/-//-/

In the main duel arena, Alan stood in the middle of the dueling platform, looking at the silver pocket watch he had in his hands that also doubled as a locket that had a picture of his many siblings. '_Oh Ed…Cyn-Cyn…Bradley…I wish I knew where you guys were now…I could've helped you all if you had just come to me. Pride is a dangerous tool to man…it can ruin a person…_'

That's when out of the corner of his eye, Alan spied that someone was walking onto the duelist platform. His yellow lab coat fluttering behind him with each step he took onto the stage. "Well, early as usual Mr. Kazin…"

Kazin was quiet as he pushed up his glasses with his middle finger, then, when he opened his stiff, dark eyes, Kazin spoke with a cold, harsh voice. "…Its been three years since I entered the academy Alan…There's no need to address me by Mr. I'm eighteen years old already…"

"And yet you haven't graduated yet, even though you have more than enough credits…" Alan answered only to receive a glare from one of the oldest students currently at the academy.

"…I have a reason Alan," Kazin replied flipping through his deck of cards before he shuffled through them fully. "…and you've just given me how to finish that reason…"

"Hmm?" Leo questioned blinking in confusion turning to the side to see Leo and Rena enter the arena and head towards the dueling platform.

"…" Kazin muttered to himself as he fanned out his deck in front of his face.

Blinking a few times, Alan could've sworn that Kazin just muttered 'Speak of the devil…' just as Leo walked up the steps to the dueling platform while Rena walked over to the side to watch the duel. "Looks like the party just got started…"

Leo and Kazin glared at each other, sending sparks in between the two of them…at least from Kazin's side. Leo just smiled back at him. "So…you must be my opponent."

"…yes…and wouldn't you know it, I'm going to enjoy this," Kazin growled walking towards Leo lifting his deck up, while Leo did the same.

Alan turned around and jumped off the stage, walking over to Rena with a smile on his face. "Hey there, Miss Akira! I hope you're ready for your punishment match…"

"What exactly happens if someone loses these duels?" Rena asked with a confused look on her face.

"Well, that's a good question," Alan started rubbing his chin watching as Leo and Kazin walked away from each other snapping their decks in place. "Here's how this works. It's like a downgrade for the dorms. The student selected to face the in trouble student has the chance to be promoted to the next dorm. If they should lose, nothing happens to them.

"But if the in trouble student wins, then nothing bad happens to them. If they lose then they'll get demoted to a lower dorm. But if the student is in red, then they'll be sent off the island…"

"Doesn't that seem to be a little harsh?" Rena questioned making a sweatdrop appear on the back of Alan's head.

"…take it up with the supervisor…" Alan replied shaking his head and reaching into his pocket. "But yours will have a super, special, awesome, chocolate covered surprise!"

"What?" Rena questioned with a large question mark appearing over her head.

"Its time to for us to commence the duel!" Kazin shouted snapping his top six cards from his deck.

"Excuse me," Leo stated making Kazin stop in his tracks. "But, that seems to be the worse opening for a duel…" (LLP: 8000)

"Well, no one inquired your opinion," Kazin scoffed looking over his hand and then narrowed his eyes taking a card and slapping it onto his duel disk, creating the holographic card back appear in front of him. "A card will be set onto the battleground, thus implicating a barrier from your pitiful attempts…" (KLP: 8000)

"…could you please talk normally?" Leo asked as another card appeared behind Kazin's set monster.

"For you…preferably, I decline to that selection of ideal situations," Kazin answered gruffly crossing his arms. "My turn has diminished."

"Hmm…I wonder, will you continue to talk like this?" Leo asked looking at his next card. "Not that it's any skin off my nose…I summon Airknight Vanguard!"

In a flurry of feathers, the angelic vanguard dove onto the field, floating slightly above the ground raising his pike in the air (1500/1350). "Attack that face down monster! Pike of Justice!"

Flying at an incredible speed, the Angelic warrior slammed the blade of the pike directly into the back of the card, flipping it up to show a large bulky dinosaur that was covered in coal black armor and had an underbelly made entirely of flames (1200/800). Roaring in pain, the dinosaur shattered into flames that flew back into Kazin's body. (KLP: 7300)

"I do believe that I don't have to explain what my angel can do," Leo chuckled as a card shot out of Kazin's deck and slipped it into his hand. "Although…it might do some good if you tell me what that was…"

"My monster title of personage is Nitrogeddon," Kazin answered flipping the card around to show an older card. "And, the necessary, impressible talents of it are to include the Oxygeddon from the storage cards into the ranks of the more recent supplies…"

"…What did he say?" Rena asked making Kazin lower his head and growl loudly.

"…Fine…for the simpletons, I will, temporarily negate my higher dictionary level of intelligence," Kazin shouted loudly getting Rena and Alan to take a step back. "Duh, when my Nitrogeddon is destroyed, I can take one Oxygedon from my deck and add it to my hand…there happy now!?!?!"

"No need to be rude about it…" Rena sighed as another card appeared behind his Vanguard.

"My, my, my Kazin…where are your manners?" Leo asked with an innocent smile appearing back on his face. "You should never talk that way to a girl…"

Nearly ripping his next card off the top of his deck, Kazin glared daggers at Leo and looked at his card. "Oh…and you think you're the expert on being kind to ladies? Don't make me laugh!"

Blinking in confusion, Leo had a few question marks buzzing around his head and pointing to himself. "Uh…did I do something wrong to you?"

A little taken back, Kazin gritted his teeth slapping his next card onto his duel disk. "You forgot? Then fine! I'll slam the reason back into your head! I summon Oxygedon!"

The air in front of Kazin clumped together into a green surging gas that immediately transformed into a large shape of a pterodactyl that screeched loudly into the air (1800/800). "Next, I activate my trap card…go Gravitational Fluctuation! This trap card will switch your angel to defense mode!"

The trap card flipped up showing a young warrior and reptile being lifted up into the air and then being dropped down, immediately forcing the angel to take a knee, allowing Kazin to lift up another card from his hand. "And due to my trap card, I can special summon one level four or lower monster from my hand…and I choose Hydrogeddon!"

In a spurt of dark brown water, another dinosaur appeared on the field, its skin flowing backwards like a liquid as it raised its head up for a powerful roar (1600/1000).

"…this doesn't look good," Rena muttered biting her fingernail. "It looks like that guy's planning on summoning Water Dragon…"

"I can see how you can get that impression from Kazin's deck," Alan stated not taking his eyes off the match. "However…that's not all he's got. He's got a Chemical deck…"

"Chemical?" Rena asked, not knowing what that could mean.

"Hydrogedon! Attack his Airknight Vanguard!" Kazin shouted as his Hydrogeddon roared into the air before sending a powerful surge of water crashing into the angel, drowning it into the liquid. "And since it destroyed a monster as a result of battle, I can special summon a second Hydrogeddon from my deck!"

In another powerful spurt of water, a second dinosaur made of water surged onto the field, appearing on the other side of the Oxygeddon. "And now that you're wide open…"

"My trap card activates!" Leo interrupted snapping his hand over his face down card to flip up to depict a picture showing a young angelic girl kissing a young man's forehead. "Grace of the Holy activates when a monster with Airknight is destroyed. For the rest of the turn, all damage done to me is cut in half…"

"You'll need it…Oxygeddon! Hydrogeddon! Direct attack!" Kazin roared as his two other dinosaurs charged forward, the Oxygeddon sending a powerful surge of air into Leo's torso, while the Hydrogeddon launched a large stream of water that drowned Leo. "How does it feel? I hope the pain sets with you for a while…" (LLP: 6300)

Standing up, Leo dusted off his coat and smiled at Kazin, only to get a glare back. "I don't know what your deal is…but you'll have to take your frustration on someone else…"

'_Is he kidding? Could this just be an act?_' Kazin shook that thought out of his head as he lifted his next two cards up from his hand, and slipped them into his duel disk. "I'll place two cards face down, and end my turn…"

Leo slowly drew his next card and nodded at his hand. "I'll set a monster card face down, as well as a face down card. That's all…"

'_I see…it isn't an act…_' Snapping his fingers over his face down card, making it flip up to show an old scientist having a cloud of smoke explode in his face. "I activate my trap card, Experimentation!"

"And what pray tell does that do?" Leo asked raising an eyebrow, and crossing his arms to signify that he was done with his turn.

Instead of drawing, Kazin pulled out his deck and fanned the cards out in front of him as he slowly examined each and every one of them. Then, plucking one from the near end, Kazin shuffled the deck and immediately popped back into his duel disk. "Simple, by insight and a forfeit of a draw, a card with a certain word in its title can be perforated from my deck into my current supplies…"

"…Do you even know what perforated means?" Leo asked raising an eyebrow.

"It matters not," Kazin growled spinning the selected card in his fingers, showing a familiar spell card. "I activate the spell card, Bonding – H2O! Since I have two Hydrogeddon cards and an Oxygeddon out on the field, I can tribute them all to special summon Water Dragon!"

All three of Kazin's monsters were immediately swept up into a torrential sport, creating a large stream of water with a head of a dragon at the end that roared loudly as the water flowed back from its seemingly endless body (2800/2600). "Hmm…most interesting…but wouldn't it have been better to wait to play that spell?"

"Why take risks?" Kazin responded to Leo's question taking another card from his hand and setting it onto his duel disk. "I set a monster on the defensive, and go on the offensive with Water Dragon! Drown out that face down monster!"

With a loud roar, the powerful Water Dragon surged forward to crash into the face down monster, flipping it up to reveal a young angelic man wearing a toga with his many wings covering his body (1400/900) drowning in the surging torrents. "Heh…I know what that monster was. Shining Angel right? Go ahead and summon your monster…"

"Well…if you insist," Leo answered looking at his next card. "I choose to special summon Airknight Librarian."

In a flurry of feathers, another angel appeared on the field. Though, unlike the ones that Rena had seen before, this angel was a young girl with violent hair combed over her eyes. The angelic girl clutched a bible close to her white and purple robes as she cowered (550/1700) in front of the powerful Water Dragon. Looking back to Leo, the duelist just smiled brightly, calming the angel's fears slightly. "Don't worry…nothing bad will happen to you. I promise…"

'_It's not an act…_' Narrowing his eyes Kazin crossed his arms over his chest. "Turn end."

Merely drawing his next card, Leo looked the card up and down a few times before spinning it around in his fingers. "I activate the spell card, Kindness of the Seraph!"

With multiple feathers floating down from the sky, the Airknight Librarian looked up and smiled cutely at the feathers floating behind her. The feathers slowly created a faint shadow of a calm angel that had his arms around the Airknight Librarian making her blush. Kazin on the other hand was flushed with anger on his face. "What the hell is this card going to do?"

"Quite the charming card to be sure," Leo joked around combing his hair back with his hands. "This spell card forces us both to select one face up monster on our respective fields…I of course select my Airknight Librarian."

"Fine, if I have to go along with this charade, then I choose Water Dragon," Kazin growled as his dragon roared loudly into the air as many glowing white feathers floated around it.

"Excellent…now then…during this turn, the two selected monsters switch attack points," Leo continued as the feathers flew into both monsters' bodies, making the Water Dragon (550/2600) lower its head in pain while the Airknight Librarian held the bible closer to her heart (2800/1700). "Of course, all battle damage done by the monsters is cut in half…but it's of little consequence to me…"

"Oh, this situation doesn't bode well…" Kazin growled taking a step back as the young angelic librarian unfolded her small wings, allowing many feathers to fly into the air towards the struggling Water Dragon.

Lifting her book open, the many pages in the bible began to flip at a fast speed as the feathers flew into the Water Dragon's bodies, making the dragon roar in pain until it shattered into water. (KLP: 6875)

That's when two spouts of water shout out the ground and a green gas surrounded Kazin's field and formed up into the original dinosaurs that created the Water Dragon. "But you seem to forget that my monster can create the original components to it."

"True…" Leo stated slapping a card onto his duel disk and another card set behind his two monster cards. "But I'll end my turn with this so, feel free to try again."

"Oh, I'll do better than that…" Kazin chuckled flipping through his deck to take another card immediately. "Due to my Experimentation trap card's effect, I can add another Bonding card from my deck to my hand by skipping my draw phase…"

"I don't get it…is he going to try for another Water Dragon?" Rena asked a little confused with Kazin's moves.

"Just watch…" Alan advised wagging his finger.

"Next…I'll activate the spell card, Pot of Greed! Allowing me to draw two more cards," Kazin announced narrowing his eyes down at the card and lifted the top two cards. "Now then…I'll summon Magnegeddon in face up attack mode!"

In a powerful blaze of flames, a large brachiosaurus rampaged onto the field with flames for its body (400/2100) roaring loudly. "And I'm not done; I flip up my Carbonnedon (300/600)!"

The face down monster flipped up a new dinosaur, this one resembling a steel like salamander with spikes backing from his back. "And now…I'll activate the spell card, Bonding HCOMg!"

One of the Hydrogedon cards, the Oxygedon, Carbonnedon and Magnegedon flew into the air, exploding into a powerful flame. Soon the flame fused into a large serpent dragon that resembled the Water Dragon, only made of flames (2700/2500) with two orbs in his hands that resembled rubies. "Meet the Fire Dragon! Now then…since I still have my Hydrogedon on the field…I'll activate my trap card, Chemical Debris! Now I can destroy my Hydrogedon!"

The face down card shattered along with the remaining Hydrogedon, this time creating four orbs of black liquid oozed onto the field (500/1000 x4) all of them standing next to the large dragon of flames. "Meet my Chemical Slime Tokens…Chemical Slime Tokens! Attack the Airknight Librarian! Chemical Geyser!"

"What?! What in the world is Kazin thinking?" Rena asked raising an eyebrow as all four of the orbs of dark chemical liquid leapt towards the surprised angel.

"Counter attack, Book of the Wise," Leo calmly said as the Airknight Librarian slammed her bible into the slime tokens sending them flying into the air back into Kazin. "Now why would you attack a monster that was stronger?" (KLP: 6675)

"Simple," Kazin responded flapping up four cards from his deck and added them into his hand. "Whenever a Chemical Slime Token is destroyed, I can draw one card from my deck. And now…its time to get rid of your cute little angel…"

"So you do find her cute," Leo snickered noting the blush appearing on Kazin's face.

"S-shut your mouth," Kazin stuttered as the Fire Dragon leapt forward onto the scared angel, shattering her in the flames. That's when the flames surrounded Leo, singeing him slightly. "And now, since my monster destroyed a monster, you take five hundred extra points of damage!" (LLP: 3550)

"…Chemical dragons…a rare and unique type of monster family," Leo gasped pulling two cards from the top of his deck. "Of course, I'm nothing without a few tricks up my sleeve…I can use my angel's effect, so now we both can draw two cards from our decks…"

Adding even more cards into his hand, Kazin just laughed loudly as two of them immediately slipped into his duel disk. "Thanks for all of the supplies, two of them will go face down, and call it a turn…"

"My draw…" Leo stated looking at his large options. "So…tell me…why exactly do you have such a grudge against me?"

"…you honestly can't remember," Kazin growled adjusting his glasses up to show his narrowed eyes. Then reaching into his shirt, Kazin lifted up a small, silver pendant that had a red cross on it with a scar racing at its diagonal. "…let's see you forget after seeing this…"

At the very sight of the pendant, Leo's eyes widened almost dropping his cards from his hand. "…t…that pendant…"

"The memories must be flowing back into your head," Kazin muttered slipping the pedant back under his shirt. "Yes…I would've thought that you would've remembered when I gave you my name of Kazin…"

"…I see…no, I only thought of it as a coincidence, but that coincidence grew into a consistency when I saw this dragon," Leo answered looking directly into the emerald green eyes of the Fire Dragon. "Now I know…"

"You should," Kazin snarled crossing his arms. "And this shall only be the beginning of the judgment that you have dodged for years…the faults of your family will fall onto you…"

"This is not the time, nor the place for revenge," Leo stated hovering his right hand over his duel disk. "I flip up my face down monster, Airknight Priestess!"

The face down card flipped up in a flurry of feathers that flew into the air, revealing young pink haired angel with multiple cloths around her arms, dark pink robes and small wings (0/0). Blowing a kiss towards Kazin, making him blush and narrow his eyes. "…And what pray tell will that do?"

"When flipped summon, I can special summon one level four or lower monster 'Airknight' from my deck with fifteen hundred attack or less," Leo explained fanning deck in front of his face and then selected a single card to slap on the field. "And I choose, Airknight Shield (1000/1500)!"

Another flurry of feathers erupted from the field as the large shield wielding angel appeared in front of Leo. "Summon all the weaklings that you want…you cannot escape your destined fate…"

"Well, how about I summon a higher agent of the heavens?" Leo asked as his two Airknights began to disappear into two orbs of glowing light that floated into the air, colliding them into one huge flurry of feathers, allowing a new Airknight to fall to the ground.

The newest Airknight stood up to reveal a short, young, fiery red haired man wearing red and silver armor. With a goofy smile plastered all over his face, the young man raised a large broad sword that had a golden cross in the blade of the weapon (2700/2100). "Grand Airknight – Second Class, grace the field and allow us the chance to redeem the field…"

"Enough of your talk of angels and repentance!" Kazin roared out loud getting a surprised look from both Leo and his angel. "Such things like that don't exist in this world of ours…"

Raising his hand up, Leo immediately clenched his fist and donned his rare serious look on his face. "Then allow me to show you the reason behind my beliefs. When this Airknight is successfully tributed summoned, then all spell and trap cards on the field are destroyed!"

Jumping into the air, the Grand Airknight stabbed his large sword into the ground, creating a powerful white aura that shattered all of the back row cards into feathers that flew around the angelic warrior (2700/2100 + 500/0), strengthening his weapon. "And for each one destroyed, I can increase his attack points by one hundred points per card."

"I know what your monster is capable of…and due to the rules he can't attack this turn," Kazin replied crossing his arms.

"Quite true…but I think I'll just set one card face down to end my turn," Leo replied fitting the card into his duel disk. "You say that you don't believe in repentance…well, I do, and I realize that sometimes it is just out of reach…"

"Because it doesn't exist!" Kazin shouted drawing his next card, now that his Experimentation trap card was gone, he was no longer able to select the cards. However, that wasn't much of a problem… "If there is no reasoning, then why believe in something so frivolous?"

"…for the sake of believing…" Leo answered simply stated as his defense.

"Then believe this, I activate the equip spell card, Compound's Limit!" Kazin shouted fitting his next card into his duel disk; the spell card depicted a rock being smashed by a large mallet. The spell floated directly into the flame dragon, making the monster's flames burn even bright as it roared in pain (2700/2500 + 1000/0). "Here's how this spell card works. When it's equipped to the following attribute monsters, its effect changes. For Earth, the monster gains three hundred attack points and a piercing effect. Water cannot be destroyed in battle. Wind doubles all battle damage, and fire increases the attack of the equipped monster by one thousand points.

"The real kicker is if I destroy a monster with the equipped monster, then both the equip and monster get eradicated. But that's of little consequence to me…"

"I'm betting that your Fire Dragon has the exact same ability as Water Dragon, correct?" Leo guessed pointing a finger towards the raging Fire Dragon. "After your equip spell destroys you monster, then you'll special summon all four of those monsters for a final assault on my life points."

"I guess your act of dumb was just temporary," Kazin chuckled pointing towards the angelic warrior. "But this sure won't! Fire Dragon! Eliminate that pathetic angel!"

Roaring loudly, the powerful dragon leapt forward to engulf the angel as it did with the previous one. When the dragon had its large mouth over the angelic warrior, a smile appeared on Kazin's face.

That smile diminished quickly though, as multiple feathers shot out of the in pain dragon of flames, shattering it to reveal the Grand Airknight – Second Class, was floating in the air with a smile on his face. "W-what just happened?" (KLP: 6125)

Leo motioned towards the side to show that his face down card just flipped up to show a spell card a depicting young priest throwing his arms up with many feathers flowing from his back. "My faith has rewarded me with the spell card, Feathers of an Angel. Which increases my angel's attack by half of his defense for one turn…"

"Faith, huh?" Kazin questioned as a geyser of water, burst of flames, pillar of rock and a powerful stream of air erupted in front of him, forming the four dinosaurs that made up his Fire Dragon, all of them crouching down in a defensive manner. "I put my faith in science and technology, and now look at me…at best; you can only destroy, at best, two my monsters next turn…"

Drawing his next card, Leo lowered his eyes at his next card. Then closing them Leo just smiled brightly getting a glare from Kazin. "…true…unless I activate the spell card, Lightning Vortex…so by tossing Airknight Saber to my graveyard, all face up monsters on your side of the field are destroyed…"

After doing so, a powerful storm of white lightning, struck down from the sky, eradicating all four of Kazin's dinosaurs. Leaving him with a barren field, but he still had that cocky look on his face. "Heh…nice job…but you only be able to cut me in half…I'll still be able to make a comeback…"

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Leo sighed lifting up another card from his hand. "I activate the spell card, Angelic Choir! All I need to do is remove Airknight Librarian, Airknight Shield, Airknight Saber and Airknight Priestess from my graveyard. And I can special summon four Airknight Archer Tokens to my side of the field!"

As the spell card shattered into a storm of feathers, the four archers floated from the sky and aimed their bows (1000/1000 x4) towards Kazin, who just stepped back in fear of the monsters. "N-no!"

"Y-yes!" Leo commented lifting his hand up into the air and then bringing it done to point towards Kazin. "Archers! Lead the attack! Angelic Arrows!"

Pulling back on their bows, the four smaller angels formed arrows of pure light that flew into Kazin's chest, making him skid back in time to raise his head up to see the Grand Airknight right in front of him. "Grand Airknight! Attack directly! Finish this!"

With a mighty sweep of his broadsword, the Grand Airknight forced Kazin off of the duelist platform as the remainder of his life points drizzled down to a mere zero. '_…this isn't over you angel loving freak!_'

"…I hope that was adequate," Leo stated jumping off the platform after Kazin landed on his back and the holograms disappeared.

"Impressive Mr. Childsman," Alan congratulated shaking Leo's hand with a smile that matched Leo's in creepiness.

"Yeah that was great!" Rena announced as Alan continued to shake Leo's hand.

"Ah, all it was to prove that I could go through the same hardships," Leo answered looking down to see Alan was still shaking his hand. "…sir, you can let go now…"

"Oh, I know that…" Alan answered making Rena and Leo sweatdrop (a first for Leo).

None of the three noticed that Kazin was sulking off to the side, his eyes narrowing over his shoulder at Leo. "…I swear…I will avenge for what your family did. I swear it…Childsman."

///--//--//--//--/

"So, I hope that I have proved myself to be worthy of your friendship Rena," Leo stated as he and Rena walked away from the dueling arena looking at the early afternoon sky.

"You didn't need to do that, you know?" Rena asked getting an innocent smile from Leo in return.

"Oh, I know," Leo answered continuing to walk with Rena. "Think of it as a full friendship bonding…"

"Huh?" Rena questioned getting a little confused.

"Anyway, I have a pass for the rest of the afternoon off from classes, care to join me?" Leo offered raising his hand up.

That's when it snapped into Rena's head. "AAH! CLASSES! I FORGOT ABOUT THEM!"

With Rena running at top speed, Leo just chuckled shaking his head. "She's almost as fast as me…just needs some training…"

/--//-/-/-/-/--/-/

"So, the mighty Kazin fails," Bravo gloated as Kazin just looked ahead into his work with the wrenches, screwdrivers, etc. "And what's worse, you lost to a pretty boy."

'_I'm so putting in a codeword to kick his ass in these things…_' Kazin thought keeping his eyes on his work and carefully preparing them for Beck's approval.

"Relax Kazin," Vic stated getting the genius to look up from his work to stare directly at the former Dark World Prince. "You'll get another shot, I'll see to it…"

"How come you're not that nice to us like you are to Kazin?" Bravo asked pointing towards himself.

"Because he's the only one who can hold up a decent conversation with me," Vic growled crossing his arms at Bravo.

"Yeah, yeah, I don't care what Beck says," Bravo snarled clamping his fists together, narrowing his eyes at Vic. "I'm not taking any disrespect from a former dark prince…heh, I'll bet that you were nothing more than a push over from what I heard."

"…and what exactly was that?" Vic asked tapping his finger up against his chin as Kazin returned to his work muttering under his breath about idiots or something like that.

Stepping up to Vic, Bravo poked Vic in the chest a few times. "I hear talk on the chat rooms that you lost to a small red duelist who used throw away ninjas…and that's why you're in red as well, so why should I take orders from a wimp?"

"Oh, just please stop creating bedlams!"

Vic and Bravo turned to the side to see Kazin turning back to his work. "If you two will just shut up, then get to dueling each other and let me get these machines done with!"

"…What's a bedlam?" Bravo asked with a few question marks appearing around his head.

//--/-/-//-/--//-/-/

**Card Stats**

**Carbonnedon / Earth / LV. 3 / ATK: 300 / DEF: 600 / Dinosaur/Effect:** When this card is in the graveyard and has ten or more cards on it, you may remove this card from your graveyard to special summon one 'Hyozonryu' from your hand or deck.

**Description:** A dinosaur, this one resembling a steel like salamander with spikes backing from his back

_This card was used by Bastion/Misawa._

**Airknight Librarian / Light / LV. 3 / ATK: 550 / DEF: 1700 / Fairy/Effect:** Once pre turn if a Spell or Trap Card of your opponent's is activated, you can pay 500 Life Points to negate the activation and effect of the card and destroy it. When this card is destroyed and sent from the field to the Graveyard, you and your opponent draw two cards from your Decks.

**Description:** A cute, young, short haired angel wearing white and purple robes with a bible in her arms. Covering her eyes, her purple hair gives her a shy look.

**Airknight Priestess / Light / LV. 2 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 0 / Fairy/Effect:** Flip: Special Summon 1 "Airknight" monster from your Deck with an ATK of 1500 or less. Then shuffle your Deck.

**Description:** A young pink haired angel with multiple clothes around her arms and small wings.

**Grand Airknight – Second Class / Light / LV. 8 / ATK: 2700 / DEF: 2100 / Fairy/Effect:** When this card is Tribute Summoned, you can destroy all Magic and Trap Cards on the field. Increase the attack of this card by 100 points x the number of Magic and Trap Cards destroyed this way. As long as this card remains on the field, no Magic and Trap Cards can be activated during either player's Battle Phase. This card cannot attack during the turn it is Normal Summoned, Flip Summoned, or Special Summoned.

**Description:** A short red haired angelic man wearing red and silver armor. At his right side is a large broad sword with a cross in the blade.

**Feathers of the Angels / Quick-play Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you have a monster on your side of the field with 'Airknight' on your side of the field. Increase the attack of the selected monster by half of the selected monster's defense.**  
Image:** A young priest throwing his arms up with many feathers flowing from his back.

**Kindness of the Seraph / Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated by removing one Light Attribute monster from your graveyard. Both players select one face up monster on their respective sides of the field. Switch the attack of the selected monsters until the end of your turn.

**Image:** A handsome, dark haired man hugging a young girl in his arms

**Grace of the Holy / Trap / Effect:** This card can only be activated when a monster with 'Airknight' in its name is destroyed. Any damage you take this turn is cut in half.

**Image:** An angelic girl kissing a young man's forehead.

**Compound's Limit / Equip Spell / Effect:** When a monster equipped with this card destroys a monster as a result of battle and sends it to the graveyard, destroy the equipped monster. Depending on the equipped monster's attribute, this card gains the following effect.

Earth: Increase the attack of the equipped monster by 300 points. When the equipped monster attacks a monster with a lower defense than the attack of the equipped monster, inflict the difference to your opponent's life points.

Water: The equipped monster cannot be destroyed as a result of battle and cannot attack.

Wind: Any battle damage involving the equipped monster is doubled.

Fire: Increase the equipped monster's attack by 1000 points.

**Image:** A hammer striking against a large rock

**Magnegeddon / Fire / LV. 4 / ATK: 400 / DEF: 2100 / Dinosaur/Effect:** When this monster is destroyed as a result of battle deal 800 points of damage to your opponents life points.  
**Description:** A small bulky red brachiosaurus made up of flames

**Fire Dragon / Fire / LV. 8 / ATK: 2700 / DEF: 2500 / Reptile/Effect: **This card cannot be normal summoned or set. This card can only be special summon by the effect of Bonding HCOMg. When this monster destroys a monster as a result of battle, inflict 500 points of damage to your opponent's life points. When this card is destroyed and sent to the graveyard, special summon one 'Hydrogeddon', one 'Carbonneddon', one 'Oxygeddon' and one 'Magnegeddon' from your graveyard.  
**Description:** A large serpentine dragon made out of pure fire with two small thin arms holding ruby orbs

**Forgotten Lovers / Quick-Play Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when a monster on your side of the field was destroyed. Special summon one monster from your deck with the same level and attribute as the destroyed monster.

**Image:** A cute young girl wearing a beautiful dress with her hands clasped together with a young angelic man with his back to hers.

**Nitrogeddon / Fire / LV. 4 / ATK: 1200 / DEF: 800 / Dinosaur/Effect:** When this card is destroyed as a result of battle, search your deck for 1 [Oxygeddon and add it to your hand.  
**Description:** A small, armored dinosaur made of fire.

**Bonding – HCOMg / Spell / Effect:** Tribute one 'Hydrogedon', one 'Carbonnedon', one 'Oxygedon' and one 'Magnegedon'. Special summon one 'Fire Dragon' from your hand, deck or graveyard.  
**Image:** A powerful exploding flame erupting from a test tube

**Gravitational Fluctuation / Trap / Effect:** Change the battle position of 1 monster on the field. Activate 1 of the following effects based on the position the selected monster is changed to:  
Attack Position to Defense Position: Special summon 1 level 4 or lower monster from your hand.  
Defense Position to Attack Position: Both players draw 2 cards from their decks.

**Image:** A reptile and warrior being lifted into the air.

**Experimentation / Continuous Trap / Effect:** During your draw phase, you may skip your draw to add one card from your deck with 'Bonding' in its name to your hand.

**Image:** An old scientist having a large amount of smoke blow up in his face.

**Chemical Debris / Trap / Effect:** This card can only be activated by destroying one monster on your side of the field. Place 1 "Chemical Slime Token" (Dark/ Aqua/ LV. 3/ ATK: 500/ DEF: 1000) in defense position in all empty slots in your monster card zone. The tokens cannot be used for a tribute summon. If a "Chemical Slime Token" is destroyed, draw 1 card from your deck

**Image:** A chemical table being flipped over

/-//--/-//--//-/-/-/

**Rena:** With the dark scientist defeated by the angelic warrior with a dark past, a pair of new foes appear before our heroes!"

**Tony:**…? Rena? What are you doing?

**Rena:** (blush) W-well…I just thought that maybe we could put a little more spice in the chapter previews…

**Tony:** …you're a Disgaea fan aren't ya?

**Klein:** Sure seems like the lassie sure is!

_**Behold! The power of unity…or division on the battle field. Next time – **__**Chapter 28: Dual Trouble **_

**Cleo:** Let's here it for the cheer! One, two, three, four…

**Klein, Asche, Loire, and Jacques:** Who will be kicked out Academy's door?

**Ganryu:** …you better not lose…flat chest…


	28. Chapter 28: Dual Trouble

**Vyser D: ** Yeah, hi there everyone! I just got a little excited with this weekend with no homework to worry about. This week has been tough, and I've been thinking…I've been thinking about re-writing DOD in a better format. That means I'll have to take down the story and format it and the chapters for a while. So I'm letting you guys, the viewers choose.

But now, on with the chapter.

/-/-/--//--//--/-/-/-//

_**Here I stand…next to a cute girl…both of us defending our rights as students.**_

_**Who knows what might await us in this duel? I don't know, our trust will be tested of each other. **_

_**If we are successful, I might end up closer to Rena. But, if we lose…not only will I be demoted, but rather I'll be far away from the cute girl who I have gotten a real attachment to.**_

…_**But something doesn't seem right…**_

…_**this duel, it seems to be a precursor for something bigger. What that may be…I have no clue at all. Alan seems to be plotting something, something big…**_

…_**And that Beck character…I don't know about him. I can't get a vibe on him at all. What's his deal? What's his hand in all this?**_

_**Riko and Luntina seem to have answers, Luntina has the answers about Alan, and Riko to Beck's plans, however, neither of them having plans to divulge those plans to me…**_

…_**A shadow over the academy has appeared, the grasp slowly closing around us with each passing minute…**_

_**And it starts with this duel…**_

_**/--//--/-//--/-/**_

_**Chapter 28**_

_**Dual Trouble**_

_**-/-/--////-/-/-/-//**_

A cold breeze swept over the morning sun covered island, moving the dyed dark purple overcoat that Vic had over his dark clothes (he refused to wear the red jacket, so he struck a deal to get this customized uniform) lifting up and down. Looking down from his perch on top of the base that Beck had given him, Vic saw Bravo, Lirin, Kazin, Xander, Morty and Alex performing their various activities…

Bravo performing pushups with Lirin (who was applying make up to her face) on his back.

Reading his book, Alex had his hat covering his face from Vic's view while Morty was drawing the sun rise.

At the middle of Vic's view, Xander and Kazin were working on the projects that were still secretive.

"Nice uniform Vic…"

Rolling his eyes, Vic turned his eyes to see Bravo with the overcoat tails in his hand. "Is this one hundred percent cotton?"

Growling loudly, Vic yanked the material from Beck's hands with a large dark look on his face. "What do you want?"

"Oh, is that any way to say hello to your boss?" Beck asked slapping his hand on Vic's shoulder to pull the former Dark World Prince to face him.

"In case you couldn't tell…" Vic growled pulling his shoulder away. His eyes now filled with venom that he had aimed towards Beck. "I hate your guts…"

"Aw, that's too bad," Beck giggled earning a sweat drop from Vic. "Because I just adore you…"

"You sick little…" Vic growled narrowing his eyes down at Beck…

…only to receive a hand to the face, courtesy of Beck himself. "Talk to the hand if you're going to be that way big boy."

"…if you're at least going to stop me from talking," Vic sighed slapping away Beck's hand. "Try to use more recent catchphrases…"

"What can I say?" Beck asked shrugging his shoulders before sitting down near Vic's feet. "I admire the classics."

"Could you get to the damn point of this conversation in the next century?" Vic growled looking down at Beck, only to see Beck raising his hand up and closed. Just when Vic was about to ask about it, Beck opened his hand to show a small red crystal in his hands. "Huh? What the hell is this?"

Just as Vic took the crystal in his hand, he discovered it was just a fancy pin. "One of my henchmen in the faculty managed to grab that…it's a key part to our master plan here…"

"How's a pin going to help with that?" Vic questioned noticing the large smile on Beck's face.

"All in dear time my comrade…just keep that pin with you…" Beck chuckled kicking his legs a few times while they were hanging off the building. "But now then, onto other matters that present a challenge to our main goal…"

"Are you going to get to the damn points?" Vic growled pocketing the pin into his overcoat's pocket. "God, if I knew you were coming, I would've gotten my iPod out a few minutes ago…'

"This one I can be a little clearer on," Beck sighed with a great smile on his face pointing his fingers into his cheeks. "Seems like a familiar face is coming back to this academy, now this isn't anyone you know, but it's someone that three of our agents might remember…"

"…Once again, I have no idea what in the world you're talking about," Vic stated looking down on the projects that Kazin and Alex were working on.

"Fine…be a party pooper," Beck groaned adjusting his bandana. "But anyway, I've got two of your agents testing a few people I find interesting, and another two to set up quite a challenge for others…"

"Why are you talking to me?" Vic asked glaring daggers at Beck.

"…here…" Beck sighed holding up a small set of keys. "This is for you…"

"I don't what the damn keys to your dorm room," Vic spat out with flames in his eyes. "I thought I made that clear the last seven times…"

"This isn't for my dorm room…" Beck chuckled this time with a dark look on his face. "Think of it as a small reward for your loyalty thus far…"

///--/-/-/-//--/-/

"WHAT!?!"

"Guy! Please! Please calm down!" Rena pleaded into the phone. She had made the mistake to phone home just in case she was going to lose today at the tag team duel, according to Alan, if she and Tony lost, she would be sent home while Tony would be demoted to Ra Yellow…

…She was hoping to get a hold of her father, but…Guy was only there this day. "I can't believe you waited until just now to tell me this! How did this happen?"

"Well…I was following Ganryu with Tony and Leo…" Rena started…not realizing the mistake that was about to strike her.

"WHAT!!? Those are guys' names!" Guy shouted from the phone making Rena pull the phone back and getting several weird looks. "What the hell are you doing over there? I'll be there in less than a month and I'll set everyone straight there!"

"Guy! You're making a scene from the phone!" Rena hissed into the phone with a large blush on her face. "I'll call you after the duel…"

"By then, I'll be on a boat over there," Guy stated from the phone with a small evil cackle afterwards. "…Anyway…you get that package I sent ya?"

"…yeah, thanks for the sending the, uh," Rena chuckled nervously scratching the side of her cheek with a large blush on her face.

"Ah, you don't have to say it," Guy laughed from the phone. "Any who, I'll tell dad that you called here."

"Thanks," Rena sighed hanging up the phone.

"Rough call from home?"

Rena just raised an eyebrow turning to the right to see Kimatori waving at her with a bright smile on her face. "Hey there Kimatori, aren't you usually with Leo? Where is he?"

"How about behind you?" Leo asked appearing behind Rena.

"ACK!!" Rena shouted jumping a few feet as Kimatori giggled at Rena's surprise.

"Nice teamwork Kimatori," Leo thanked with a thumbs up towards Kimatori. "Good morning Rena, are you ready for this duel today?"

"Well…I'm certainly awake for the duel," Rena panted trying to catch her breath.

"One day I'll be able to do the same thing!" Kimatori giggled not noticing the weird look that Rena as sending at her.

"Now then Rena…as a friend, I have to ask," Leo stated getting Rena to look directly at him. "Do you and Tony have a strategy?"

"Uh…well…" Rena replied scratching the side of her head with a large sweatdrop appearing on the back of her head.

"…I'll go out on a limb and guess that you don't," Leo chuckled with a smile appearing on his face.

"I-I'm sure that Tony is preparing a plan as we speak," Rena answered with a little false hope filled smile appearing on her face.

/-//-/-/---/-/-/-/

Speaking of Tony…

"N-N-Now calm down Luntina…" Tony chuckled waving his hands in front of his face with his hat in his hands. "It's not a big deal…"

Cracking her neck and knuckles, Luntina had a demonic look in her eyes that had a dark shadow covering the top of her face, the Alchemic Kaisaris slowly got closer and closer to Tony. Meanwhile in the corner of Luntina's room was none other than Riko and Sen who were enjoying the show with a bowl of popcorn.

"Not a big deal?" Luntina growled showing some fanged teeth standing directly in front Tony. "Oh…you getting in trouble again after doing something that I told you not to do it…yeah, that's not a big deal…"

"Oh, I'm glad you understand," Tony sighed with relief slowly putting his hat over his orange hair.

That's when a powerful kick to the side of his face, sending the chess duelist flying through the air and into the nearby wall creating a large amount of cracks. "That's an extreme deal you idiot!"

"Oh, brother, what's happening now?" Riko asked taking some popcorn and stuffing it into his mouth.

"You see, Tony was just kicked into the wall," Sen answered pulling the popcorn away from Riko. "And don't Bo guard that popcorn!"

Pealing himself from the wall, Tony rubbed the extremely red spot on his face with a scared look plastered over his face. "Luntina! P-Please stop!"

"What is with you men and your hormones?" Luntina growled lowering her leg and slowly walking towards the crawling Tony, a murderous aura appearing around her body. "Can't you control yourselves?"

"Are you projecting your emotions about 'him' onto me?" Tony gulped, knowing full well that he maybe crossing into enemy territory with that question.

But it seemed to work, Luntina seemed to stop dead in her tracks a stare into space. Then just as Tony breathed a sigh of relief, he was lifted off the ground by his collar and fear was instilled back into his body. "That's none of your business!"

"What's happening? What's happening?" Riko asked trying to pull the bowl of popcorn from his brother's clutches.

"Oh, well, you see, Luntina threw Tony over her shoulder and slammed him into the ground," Sen explained as another crash shook the very room. "Oh, and now Tony's is being put into a scorpion hold…that's got to hurt."

"Dear god! Why won't you guys help me!?!" Tony screamed before being freed from his scorpion hold only to be put into another lock. "HELP!"

"We would," Riko chuckled finally pulling the popcorn away from Sen. "But taking on a blind guy is just sad."

"And I'm a pacifist," Sen added with a smile on his face.

"…don't lie now brother," Riko sighed as Tony landed at his feet with large bruise on his forehead.

"Call…the police…please!" Tony pleaded before Luntina sat down on the bed behind him, wiping some sweat from her forehead. "Scratch that…"

"It's nice to get some exercise," Luntina sighed shaking her hair to have a little sweat fly off. "Great to get the rage out of the body…and inflicting pain into another just empowers the rest of the day."

"Maybe for you," Tony sighed slamming his head into the ground.

"Now then…I believe we have something to discuss," Riko stated standing up, not realizing that he just stepped on Tony's arm.

"P-please get off of that," Tony moaned trying to take his arm out from underneath Riko's foot.

"Oops, sorry about that Tony," Riko chuckled earning a glare from Tony as he pulled his foot away.

After applying some bandages and getting a drink, the three duelists (plus Sen) stood in the room, each of them standing a good deal away from each other. The eerie calm slowly took over from the large amount of action that was in the room only moments ago…

"Now then," Tony started shattering the silence. "What is it that you two had to discuss?"

"Alan," Luntina answered bluntly.

"Beck," Riko stated at the same time.

"…Riko, do you mean that Ra that was in the dining hall with the Lirin incident?" Tony asked getting a demonic look from Luntina in the process. "It's not what you think!"

Ignoring the fact that Luntina was cracking her knuckles at Tony, Riko just shook his head. "Indeed I do Tony, I know him very well. And what his ideals are…"

Luntina, Tony and Sen leaned in, hoping to get into earshot what Riko was going to say next. "…still unknown to me…"

That comment just sent everyone falling face first into the floor and Riko smiling quite brightly at his fellow duelists and brother. "Sorry, but I'm not entirely clear on that subject yet."

"Its okay Riko," Luntina sighed dusting off her uniform. "If you find out more, just let us know."

"Right…" Riko sighed loudly lowering his head in disappointment.

"Anyway, as for my news…well," Luntina giggled crossing her arms over her chest. "I guess I'll have to wait on that as well…"

"So, the only highlight of this meeting was to beat the snot out of me?" Tony asked a little confused and angry at the same time. "That just makes no sense!"

"You say that now," Riko chuckled rubbing his chin.

"Please! Start making sense!" Tony pleaded grabbing his hat and began to pull the hat by its ends.

"Nah, we'll just continue to be confusing," Sen chuckled.

"Anyway, what are you going to do about your duel?" Luntina asked crossing her arms.

"Well…I was thinking about using something different today," Tony snickered with a sly look on his face.

//-/-//-/-/-/-/

"Oh, I don't know what to do…"

A large amount of students were gathered in the main duelist arena, more specifically, a familiar Obelisk Blue girl was fretting sitting near the main duelist platform. "Uh, Miss Cleo? What's wrong?"

"Asche! You should know this better than anyone!" Cleo shouted making Asche step away from her. "I'm caught between rooting for Tony to stay in blue…and that wench getting out of here!"

"…Well, I knew something like this would happen, ya know," Asche chuckled snapping his fingers loudly as quite a few familiar faces ran behind him. "So, I decided to hire a cheer squad for ya, ya know."

"Cheer squad? I didn't know this place had cheerleaders," Cleo replied rubbing her chin in confusion.

"We're not really cheerleaders!"

"Atlantic Cheer Squad! Role call!"

"Squad Leader, Jacques!" Now dressed in a black male Japanese cheer uniform, Jacques adjusted the hat that was on his head.

"Second head cheerleader, Lorie!" Lorie that announced now dressed in a yellow and black American cheerleader's outfit with pompoms in her hands.

"…"

"Klein! Get out here!" Jacques shouted pulling Klein out from behind the seats…revealing that he was wearing a smaller version of the same uniform that…Lorie was wearing?

"Let go of me!" Klein shouted throwing the two pompoms into Jacques's head. "Why can't I at least have a guy's uniform?"

"We don't have any in your size," Lorie answered getting a glare from the short guy.

Then, ripping off the uniform, Klein revealed that he was wearing a small black male's uniform that was handmade (and it showed as well). "Good thing I made my own!"

"Hey! I have that style trademarked!" Jacques shouted lifting up the little duelist off his feet.

"Who says!?!" Klein roared with electrical sparks surging around them.

"You've got to be kidding me…" Cleo sighed with a large sweatdrop appearing on the back of her head. "There are more guys on the squad than girls?"

"Actually, we've got five other girls on this squad," Lorie explained wagging her finger getting Asche and Cleo's attention. "But, they all caught the flu. And as for the little guy, he had a small debt he had with Jacques and this was the best way that Jacques thought that this would work for both parties."

"But…why was he in the girl's cheer uniform if he had his own, ya know?" Asche asked raising an eyebrow as Klein and Jacques began to exchange fists.

"You'd have to ask him," Lorie answered shaking her head.

"Ah, these are nice seats," Leo sighed sitting down behind Cleo and Asche. Sitting next to him was none other than Kimatori, and behind him was Riko, Sen, Luntina, Van, Rukia, Koji and sitting a distance from them was Ganryu. "Oh, hello Asche and Cleo…how are you doing today?"

"Mr. Childsman!" Cleo gasped sitting next to Leo with hearts in her eyes. "I'm doing great…"

"Oh brother," Koji sighed watching Klein fighting with Jacques.

"I know what you're talking about little man," Sen said with tears in his eyes. Just then, a small friendship sprouted from the two.

"Sen…be sure to tell me everything I want to know," Riko stated immediately breaking the bonding. "Move to move…"

"Uh, yeah," Sen chuckled, breaking out of his trance.

Ganryu just had his eyes on the near empty duelist field (Alan and Kryancelo were standing on the field). Not noticing that Luntina was starring directly at him. "So…how have your matches been so far Red?"

Narrowing his eyes, Ganryu shot a dark glare towards Luntina, making the Kaisaris lean back away from the samurai duelist. "From your glare, you've been up and down with your matches…"

"…don't rub salt in the wound," Ganryu muttered as the lights began to dim down.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and gals of all ages…" Alan announced into the microphone getting all of the students to pay attention to him. "Thank you all for coming out today! Our punishment match was brought to you by the Atlantic Academy's main cafeteria. Yum!"

Then with a large fist to the back of his head, Alan staggered off the stage and fell into the ground. Taking the microphone, Kryancelo had a more dignified look to him than Alan. "Sorry about that students…but now we've got more important things to get to rather than jokes…our punishment match! Allow me to introduce the trouble makers. From Slifer Red, Rena Akira and the Chess King from Obelisk Blue, Tony Havoc!"

Two spotlights activated over the dueling field, showing a nervous Rena and a smiling Tony (full of confidence), both of them shuffling their decks. "And their opponents…one of the best of the Slifer Reds, Kirk Thomas and the brains of the Yellow Dorm, Keith Daley!"

Two more spotlights activated, these ones showing the lazy Slifer Red student sitting on the ground with his head lowered with a slight snoring sound echoing from him. That just made everyone else in the room sweatdrop.

The other form in the spotlight was the exact opposite; he had a completely serious look on his face with his glasses and semi-long black hair. Unlike Kirk's messed up uniform, Keith had his yellow uniform jacket closed with clean black pants and shoes.

"This match will be a tag team duel!" Kryancelo announced with the lights in the entire room activating. "Tony and Rena V.S. Kirk and Keith, should Tony and Rena win, their punishment will be erased…but the flipside to that is, Tony will be lowered to Ra Yellow and Rena will be sent outta here! So if Kirk and Keith win, they will both advance in the dorms!"

"Now for the basic rules of the tag match, both duelists on each team will share the same eight thousand life points. If both duelists' life points drop, they lose! No player can attack until each player has finished his/her first turn. There is to be no sharing of strategy or what is in either player's hand, unless by card effect. You may cards on your teammate's field if you want, but you need consent from your teammate."

"Next, for the turn order, Miss Akira will go first, with Mr. Daley, then Havoc, and finally, Mr. Thomas will go last. And now…Alan would make a joke to get these duelists going…but apparently he's currently knocked out so…on with the duel!"

As soon as Kryancelo jumped off the stage (which he landed feet first into Alan's back), all four duelists lifted their duel disks up, activating each of them. Pulling her sixth card, Rena looked at all of her options. '_Dang…of all days for me to have a bad hand…_' (RTLP: 8000)

"I summon Archer Elf in attack mode!"

In a great breeze, the bow and arrow wielding elf (1300/450) emerged onto the field, taking an arrow from the case and aimed the arrow towards Kirk. "And with one face down card…that's all I've got…"

Before he drew, Keith slowly pushed up his glasses, allowing the reflection of light to block his eyes. No one noticed that from the corner of his eyes, Kirk blinked once. "Now then…no hard feelings you two, but I think I'd like advanced to the next dorm immediately." (KKLP: 8000)

Fitting two cards into his duel disk, the cards appeared in front of Keith as he looked at the four card hand he now held. "And next…I'll summon Cure Mermaid!"

A flurry of bubbles erupted from the ground, creating a blond mermaid wearing what would be described by Tony as a nurse's uniform with a red scaled tail (1500/800). With a blowing kiss, the mermaid giggled slightly. "I'll end my turn on that note."

"Okay…" Tony questioned drawing his next card. Looking at the card, Tony immediately spun the card in his hand. "I activate the spell card, Magical Mallet! So I'll shuffle all five cards in my hand…"

"I know what the card is capable of, thank you," Keith interrupted snapping his fingers over his face down cards. "But I doubt you'll know what my cards are capable of! I chain with my continuous trap cards, Role Change and Solemn Wishes!"

Both of Keith's face down cards flipped up, one of them forming into the infamous healing trap card, while the other one had a picture of a beautiful princess rescuing a knight from a castle. "I think you know what my Solemn Wishes can do, but just as a reference, since this is a team duel whenever both of us draw then we both gain life points…but for my Role Change…we'll just keep that under wraps for now…"

"Had me worried there for a second," Tony chuckled shuffling his deck and immediately drew his five cards. "But I'll give you something to worry about! I activate the continuous spell card, Chessboard!"

The entire ground beneath the four duelists began to shift, this forming into the black and white chessboard that seemed to glow every few seconds. "Now then…I'll use its effect to special summon, Pawn's Soldier!"

From one of the black squares, the small black and white pawn chess piece (800/800) appeared on the field next to the Archer Elf. "And to end my turn…I'll set one card face down to end my turn…"

With a loud sigh, Kirk drew his sixth card and looked boringly over his cards. He didn't seem to care that the Solemn Wishes trap card activated immediately (KKLP: 8500). "How troublesome…I'll set two cards face down. And summon Marauding Captain to the field."

Leaping from behind his master, the armored messy haired man appeared in front of Kirk (1200/400) spinning both of his swords up in a threatening manner. "…oh right…my monster allows me to special summon another monster from my hand…I guess I'll choose Hero Kid.

In a spinning flash of light, a small kid in a mask wearing a red space suit (300/600) landed on the field, crossing his arms over his chest as two more Hero Kids (300/600 x2) landed next to the original. "And when he's special summoned, I can bring out two more from my deck…I guess I'm done."

"And it's back to me…" Rena gulped pulling her next card.

"I activate the effect of my trap card, Role Change!" Keith interrupted as a bright green aura surrounded both of the trap cards on his side of the field. "And here's how this card works. For a mere cost of one thousand points each, I can change continuous traps into continuous spell cards and vice versa. So I'll pay two thousand to turn both of our trap cards into spells." (KKLP: 6500)

"Okay…I don't get that…" Rena questioned raising an eyebrow at the weird move. "Anyway, I activate Archer Elf's special ability! Once per turn, I can lower the attack of any monster on the field, so I'll lower your Cure Mermaid's attack!"

Firing an arrow, the Archer Elf sent a powerful aura that seemed to weaken the Mermaid's strength (1500/800 – 400/0). "And now, for the attack!"

Just before the Archer Elf could reach for another arrow, a small shield slammed directly into his face, sending the elf staggering backwards. With a loud yawn, Kirk gathered everyone's attention. "My fault…that was my Draining Shield trap card. Not only negates the attack, but I can increase our life points by your monster's attack points." (KKLP: 7800)

"Well…then I guess I'll set a card face down and end my turn," Rena stated just before Keith drew his next card, engulfing both him and Kirk in light. (KKLP: 8300)

"Now then, since my turn has just entered," Keith stated as the Cure Mermaid blew a kiss towards him and Kirk (who just swatted it to the side). "My Mermaid increases out life points by eight hundred points." (KKLP: 9100)

"Scared to attack?" Tony asked crossing his arms over his chest.

"Oh just you wait," Keith replied lifting another card from his hand, activating his field card zone. "Or not, I activate the field spell card, A Legendary Ocean!"

The holographic waves crashed underneath the large chessboard, making it appear to be floating over the water allowing the Cure Mermaid (1500/800 + 200/200) to jump into the water. "Now, my spell lowers all water monsters' levels by one and increases her attack and defense by two hundred points."

"Okay…pretty easy to see what his strategy is now," Rena stated looking at all the water around her.

"Then you'll see this coming…I'll summon Terrorking Salmon!" Keith announced slapping the card onto his duel disk, allowing a large jagged salmon to leap over the field (2400/1000 + 200/200). "And I'll send him right into the attack! Attack the Archer Elf!"

Leaping from the water, the large salmon dived towards the surprised elf as all of a sudden a powerful mirror like barrier appeared around the elf. "I activate my trap card, Mirror Force! You won't get through…"

"'Yawn' Yes we will," Kirk yawned loudly as his trap card flipped up showing a large castle. "I activate the trap card, Royal Decree. We'll be getting through quite easily…"

The large barrier shattered like glass falling into the water, Rena's eyes widened as the salmon dived directly through the surprised elf. (RTLP: 6700)

"…oh, I get it…" Tony gasped with enlarged eyes. "A defense and slash style…a sound team strategy…"

"I applaud your ability to determine that," Keith clapped with a smile on his face. "And thanks to my Role Change, any normal or continuous spell cards you play will automatically be changed into trap cards…"

"So their effects will be canceled…" Rena guessed raising her hands up.

"Correct," Kirk smiled brightly. "But for right now…I'll set one more card face down and end my turn."

"Just a set back Rena," Tony stated pulling his next card up. "Nothing to worry about! I activate my face down quick play spell card, Pawn Frontline!"

Tony's set card flipped up to show a large amount of Pawn's Soldiers being lined up in front of other chess pieces. "For this quick play spell card to activate, I need to send one face up Pawn's Soldier to the graveyard. Then on all open monster card zones, I can special summon Pawn Tokens!"

Immediately the Pawn's Soldier shattered into many pixels, creating nine new pawns appearing on both Tony's and Rena's fields (0/0 x9). "Heh…looks like it applies to both players' fields too…cool…Now then, my tokens can't be used for a sacrifice…but thanks to my next spell, Swap Out, that's a new story!"

Another spell card flashed onto field, showing a pawn being swapped out for a knight, shattering one of the tokens. "My spell card allows me to destroy one monster to special summon one level five monster from my deck with a specific name…so now, meet my Knight's Hero!"

From the ceiling, a large six foot tall white and black marble knight chess piece appeared on the field (2300/1500), rocking the chessboard on the waves a little.

"Alright Tony! Do it!" Rena cheered as Tony spun his next card into his duel disk.

"You got it! Now then, Knight's Hero! Attack Marauding Captain!" Tony shouted as his large Knight's Hero leapt into the air above the surprised warrior, crushing the Captain under its weight. (KKLP: 8000)

However, much to Rena and Tony's disappointment, Kirk just yawned loudly stretching his arms. "Oh sure…take on the guy who's not paying attention…"

"Then let me share it with your partner!" Tony chuckled snapping his arm towards the floating Cure Mermaid. "As much as I hate to attack a cute monster…it has to be done! Attack the Cure Mermaid my Knight's Hero!"

Launching into the air once more, the Cure Mermaid gasped as the knight slammed into her, shattering her. (KKLP: 7400)

"The round belongs to you," Keith stated pushing up his glasses looking down at his life point counter. "But its Kirk's turn and the round could be changed in a heartbeat."

"Huh?" Kirk questioned raising an eyebrow at Keith's statement.

"Just in case though, I'll just set a card face down," Tony replied fitting his next card into his duel disk. "Let's see this comeback!"

"…what a chore," Kirk sighed snapping his next card up. Looking left and right, Kirk sighed once more and began snapping all three of the Hero Kid cards on his duel disk. "…it's annoying that I need to sacrifice three monsters for this guy…" (KKLP: 7900)

All three Hero Kids jumped into the air, shattering into a powerful storm of electricity, making Rena and Tony widen their eyes before the lightning struck into the ground. When the smoke from the lightning cleared up, the powerful armored warrior stood before Kirk roaring loudly as he drew his sword (2800/1400) into the air, crackling in electricity. "Gilford the Lightning…cool effect though. All ten of your guys' monsters bite the dust."

The sword sliced horizontally, sending the electricity surging through all of the monsters and tokens that were shattered immediately. "Now then…it's a drag to attack a girl…so Gilford, go nuts on Tony…"

"Oh come on!" Tony shouted hating the fact that he was being picked on again by a more powerful being. Although his complaining fell of deaf and bored ears, Gilford leapt in front of him bringing down his electrified sword on Tony's head. "Fine! I activate my spell card! Shrink! So your mighty warrior get's cut in half!"

Kirk didn't seemed phased as his mighty Gilford (1400/1400) shrunk to half of his size, but he did seem to find it annoying that his warrior just slapped Tony with the blunt end of his sword. "How annoying. Why can't you just take the full attack like a man?" (RTLP: 5300)

"This coming from a guy who's not even standing," Tony remarked as a face down card appeared behind the growing Gilford the Lightning (2800/1400).

"…just look at the scores…" Kirk yawned as Rena drew her next card. "…you tell me that I can't relax, because unlike you, I don't have anything riding on this game…"

"He's got a point there…" Rena stated looking at her next card. '_Damn bad luck…stop affecting my draws!_' All I can do is set a monster on the defensive…"

"That's basically all you can do now isn't it?" Keith asked drawing his next card, allowing him and Kirk to be basked in light. (KKLP: 8400) "And it's about to get worse! I summon Giga Gagagigo!"

The water near the chessboard splashed upwards, allowing a large green reptilian monster with silver armor covering its body (2450/1500 + 200/200), the monster roaring loudly into the air as it crawled onto the chessboard. The monster's very weight made the chessboard shake violently. "Now then…Terrorking Salmon! Attack the face down monster!"

The face down monster flipped up to show a young blonde haired elf wearing a green armored cloak with a bow and arrow set around her back (450/600), only to be pulled into the water by the large demonic salmon, making the elf scream in pain before being pulled under the water. "And now…for the coup de grace, Giga Gagagigo! Direct attack…"

"Hold on!" Rena announced pulling out her dueling deck and began shifting through it. "That monster you destroyed was my Elf Scout! And when she's destroyed, I can special summon another from my deck!"

In a bright flash of light, another Elf Scout appeared, sweating a little at the fact of her previous scout was destroyed. "Very well…Giga Gagagigo, it's your turn! Attack that elf!"

The reptile monster just leapt into the female elf, drowning her into the water, only to have another Elf Scout (450/600) appear crouching down before Rena.

"Hmm…well, that was an applicable defense," Keith chuckled looking over his hand before taking another card and slipping it into his duel disk. "But so will this…and I believe that this turn now goes over to you Tony Havoc."

"Ya know, it's kind of strange when people say my full name…" Tony admitted drawing his next card. "Now then…thanks to my Chessboard, I can special summon one Pawn's Soldier (800/800) from my graveyard…now, I can't use him for a tribute summon. But I've got a spell card that'll change that…I activate, Crossing the Great Divide!"

The small pawn shattered into a large stream of light that had immediately slammed into the chessboard, rocking it entirely. When the light died down, everyone looked to see a large black and white king chess piece standing before Tony (2900/2450). "King's Lord! I summon you!"

"That…that might be a problem…" Keith muttered noticing that Tony just crossed his arms over his chest.

"For you yes…" Tony replied as a light appeared next to his king, forming into a smaller version of the Pawn's Soldier (0/0). "However, thanks to my spell, I can't attack this turn, but since during the end phase I get a Pawn Token it more than makes up for it."

"…this is just annoying…" Kirk drawing his next card as he and Keith were wrapped in light. '_…so is the fact that I haven't drawn any equip cards yet…but I know something I can do instead._' I'll set one card under the table, as well as a monster and shift Gilford to defense mode…turn end…" (KKLP: 8900)

Rena blinked a few times at Kirk's simple move…Looking at her next card, Rena looked down at the Chessboard. "…Sorry about this Tony…"

"Huh?" Tony questioned as a powerful storm began to sweep around the entire area pulling the water, the three set cards, the spell cards on Keith's field and the Chessboard into the air. "ACK!"

"I activate Heavy Storm!" Rena announced before Kirk's face down card flipped up.

"…Chain, Emergency Provisions!" Kirk announced, breaking slightly out of character as all five spell cards on his and Keith's field disappeared. "…now all of the spell and trap cards are sent to the graveyard, allowing us to gain one thousand points for each one. So, since I'm getting rid of all five, that's another five thousand life points for me and Kirk." (KKLP: 13900)

"…that was a small waste," Rena sighed taking another card from her hand and placing it onto her duel disk. "So all I can do is defend and set a card…turn end."

Drawing his next card, Keith just looked around respectively…until he scratched the back of his head. "Sorry, I just realized that I don't have Solemn Wishes out anymore. But I still have Terrorking Salmon (2400/1000) and Giga Gagagigo (2450/1500)…but as it stands, we all could go for a refresher. So I activate, Card of Sanctity! Now, all four of us draw till we hold six cards in each of our hands!"

A blinding light appeared over the four duelists, allowing all of them to draw till they all did hold onto six cards. Still being Keith's turn, he immediately lifted another card up. "And with a new hand, comes new possibilities…I activate the spell card Graceful Charity!"

The shower of light shrunk only to fall over Keith's body, allowing him to pull three cards from his deck. And then just as fast, Keith slid two of them into his graveyard. "And next…I think I'll activate another spell card. This one a little more potent, known as Different Dimension Capsule!"

As Keith searched through his deck, a large dark blue futuristic sarcophagus emerged from the ground. Selecting a card, Keith tossed the card into the open sarcophagus making it melt into the ground. "Now then…my spell will allow me to take any card I want and remove it from play. And in two turns…it's added to my hand!"

"Kind of risky don't you think?" Rena asked blinking a few times.

"Ah, but where's the fun without risk?" Keith retorted wagging his finger a few times. "Anyway…Giga Gagagigo, please crush that Elf Scout!"

With a nod, the large reptile slammed its armored palm onto the screaming Elf Scout, but Keith's onslaught wasn't done by a long shot. "I'm not going to let you sacrifice for something like that king! Terrorking Salmon! Attack that face down monster!"

After a great leap into the air, the large salmon dived towards the face down monster, slamming directly into the back of the card…

…however…

The card's back flipped up to push the salmon back, show the Obnoxious Celtic Guard (1400/1200) kneeling on the ground with an annoyed look on his face. "Sorry about that, but my Obnoxious Celtic Guard can't be destroyed as a result of battle with monster with nineteen hundred or more attack points."

"How trivial…" Kirk sighed shaking his head.

"Fine…then, I'll just set one card face down," Keith stated fitting the card into his duel disk, making it appear behind his two monsters. "And I guess I've got that set for this turn."

Silently, Tony slowly drew his next card and then looked over the seven cards he had in his hands. "Now then…Since you got rid of it last turn Rena…why not play another? I activate, Chessboard!"

The duelist platform immediately was replaced again with the black and white chessboard with each duelists standing atop it. "And now due to my board's effect, I can special summon Rook's Shield in defense mode!"

From the black square, a large rook appeared on the field, made of complete marble (800/2200). "And here's how this will go down…for every card on the field, you guys take two hundred points of damage!

"What?" Keith and Kirk questioned as the rook leapt into the air and then slammed into the ground, shaking the very foundations of the board. The force knocked Keith and Kirk to the ground. (KKLP: 11500)

"Well, it's a start," Tony chuckled snapping his fingers a few times getting his Pawn Token to shatter. "And its about to get better! By sending my Pawn token to the graveyard, my King can attack you directly by cutting the damage in half."

Still on the ground, Kirk and Keith looked up to see the large king slam into the ground immediately, the shockwave keeping them to the ground. (KKLP: 10100)

"And to end my turn…I'll set two cards face down and due to my King's effect, I can special summon another Pawn Token (0/0)," Tony wrapped up with the two cards and the pawn appearing on his field.

"…about time I can go…" Kirk yawned looking at his seventh card. '_This could work…but…this is so troublesome._'

"I activate the spell card, Weapon Trade In," Kirk dully announced slipping five cards through his deck and placed them into his graveyard. "By taking five equip spell cards from my deck and placing them into the graveyard; I can take any spell card I want. So I'll choose to play that spell card, Cost Down. So by discarding one card from my hand, all monster cards in my hand lower by two.

"So I'll sacrifice my face down Warrior Lady of the Wasteland, to summon, Gilford the Legend!"

From the shattered face down, the black armored warrior appeared next to his lightning counterpart crossing his arms (2600/2000). Then from Kirk's graveyard, five cards slipped into his hand. "And when he's brought out onto the field, I can take five equip cards from my graveyard and equip them to my monsters…so all five of the cards I just sent to the graveyard get added to my Gilford the Lightning who's shifted to attack mode!"

The lightning sword wielding warrior lifted his huge blade into the air, merging with a large amount of light into the blade. "So I'll equip Gilford with Lightning Blade (2800/1400 + 800/0), Fusion Sword Masamune (3600/1400 + 800/0), Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade (4400/1400 + 300/0), Volt Masamune (4700/1400 + 500/0), and Legendary Sword (5200/1400 + 300/0)…that was a hassle."

"F-fifty-five hundred points?" Rena gulped at the powerful warrior.

"And all of them aimed for that king," Kirk sighed slowly raising his hand towards the King's Lord. "Attack…"

Raising the blade, the mighty warrior slashed down, sending a powerful electrical surge towards the king…until two large cylinders appeared in front of the king, one of them absorbing the attack.

"Nice try! But I activate Magic Cylinders! Now your attack gets reflected back at ya!" Rena announced as the electrical energy surged out of the other cylinder and wrapped both Kirk and Keith in the power. "How do you like that?" (KKLP: 4600)

"Nice one Rena!" Tony laughed raising his thumb up.

"It'll take more than that," Kirk sighed crossing his arms. "Unfortunately, I've summoned this turn, my spell and trap card zones are filled up, and I've got nothing left."

"…" Rena just looked over her hand once more. She really didn't have the best of luck today. "I'll set a monster in defense mode and set another…and that's all I got…"

"Hmm…I see…" Keith chuckled looking at his next card. "Well then…I've got a decent move. I activate the spell card, Lightning Vortex! So by discarding my Deepsea Warrior, I can destroy all face up monsters on your side of the field!"

"Or you would! If I didn't activate my trap card, Magic Jammer!" Tony countered slipping the card into his duel disk's graveyard slot negating the powerful lightning storm that seemed to fizzle out. "So by discarding a card, I negate the effect of that spell card…"

"True…but I was just hoping you'd do that," Keith replied lifting another card up and slipped it into his duel disk. "I activate the spell card, Gift of the Martyr! So by sacrificing my Terrorking Salmon, my Giga Gagagigo can gain twenty-four hundred attack points!"

"I see…you had that as a back up…" Tony sighed as the Giga Gagagigo ate the large Terrorking Salmon (2450/1500 + 2400/0).

"Yep…now then since you've got your king out in attack mode…" Keith stated lifting his hand up toward Tony's King's Lord. "You'll take a large amount of damage…now attack!"

The enlarged lizard charged forward, its clawed hand curled up into a fist, aiming for the King's Lord…however, the Rook's Shield moved in front of the king, shattering from the monster's fist. Keith, Rena, and even Kirk, looked confused at the turn of events. "Huh?!? I didn't attack that shield, what happened?"

"Yeah…what's that about?" Rena asked blinking a few times with a few question marks appearing over her head.

"As the name suggests, my Rook has another effect, you'll have to attack it before you attack a few different monsters," Tony explained wagging his finger towards Keith and Kirk. "So sorry about that! You won't be getting this monster for a while."

"If that's the case," Keith chuckled pushing up his glasses a few times, allowing the light to reflect a few times, and getting a nod from Kirk. Then looking over his head, Keith shook his head before slipping another card into his duel disk. "Then I'll just set a card face down and call it a turn…"

"And so…I get to draw again," Tony chuckled not noticing that Keith's newest face down card flipped up.

"I activate my trap card! Ring of Destruction!" Keith shouted as a ring of bombs appeared around Gilford the Lightning's neck. "There's only one way out of this duel…and so, by destroying Gilford, all of us take fifty-five thousand points damage!"

"Huh!?!" Rena and Tony questioned before a large explosion rocked the entire field sending all four duelists to the ground (although, Kirk was already on the ground to begin with). (KKLP + RTLP: 0)

The entire room went silent as the holographic smoke began to die down, everyone including Alan and Kryancelo were at a loss of words as three of the duelists stood up on the platform (Kirk was just sitting up). Rena and Tony were completely confused as to what had just happened.

Then with a courtesy slap to the back of his head from Kryancelo, Alan slowly crawled onto the dueling platform and announced into the microphone. "Okay…since this is a tie, neither parties gets the negative effects of this duel…of course, since they didn't lose, Rena gets to stay and Tony stays in blue. Still, I'll have to mark this on your record, but congrats for dodging that bullet!

Everyone in the arena sweatdropped as to how childish Alan was acting, but he didn't seem to care about that. "But enough about that! I have an announcement for every student! In one week…and for a long time we will be going through a tradition that was on this island for every ten years!

Lifting his right hand, Alan lifted up four small jewel-like pins, two red, one yellow and one blue. "According to your dorm rank…all of you will receive one of these pins. Why you may be wondering? Quite simple…you'll need these in the Rush for the Treasure! A small island tournament that was started decades ago! Every ten years, we hold this tournament for excellent duelist…or in this case to test your skills!

"Here's how it'll go down. In Rush for the Treasure, all duelists will wager all the pins they have. Anyone can duel anyone else, despite the dorm. At the end of the next month, the top eight duelists who have the most pins will be allowed to compete in the final part of the tournament!"

"Now…why would you want to participate? Simple really…under this island is a large vault containing cards, jewels, and many valuables! With me standing outside the vault, the winner will not only be able to get an automatic jump to an A + and standing in the duelist ranks, they will be allowed to take anything one item from the vault!"

Whispers and mutters floated around the room, all of them excited with this new turn of events. Alan on the other hand, walked over to the four duelists who were now standing around a sitting Kirk, and handed them all their respective colored pins. "Rules will be edited into your PDA, be sure to check them out and prepare yourselves…in one week, the Rush for the Treasure will begin! Oh, and in case any of you are wondering…yes, classes are still in effect…"

That's when the whispers and mutters transformed into boos and curse words shot towards Alan, who was just smiling as Rena, Tony, Kirk and Keith jumped off the platform. All four of them headed for the halls that lead out of the Arena. "So…that was a good match Kirk and Keith…"

"Yeah…sure wish we could've finished it…" Kirk sighed lowering his head.

"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Tony asked raising an eyebrow.

"Simple…it was just a fluke that I drew Ring of Destruction," Keith answered lifting up a few cards. "If we were to continue the duel, we would've won. I held onto A Legendary Ocean, Double Attack and Ocean Dragon Lord – Neo-Daedalus. And the card I would've received next turn from DDC, would've been Levia-Dragon – Daedalus."

"Then…why did you set Ring of Destruction?" Rena asked confused.

"It'd be a drag to get people kicked out of here," Kirk sighed turning his head to the side. "Besides…I like the red dorm…"

"And I would like to earn Obelisk Blue through my grades," Keith added putting his cards back into his deck. "Though…this Run for the Treasures thing might just be what I needed…"

"It'll be interesting to say the least…" Tony answered remembering what Luntina was getting at earlier and thinking about what she had in her hand. '_This must be what she was trying to get at…_'

/--/--//--//-//--/-/-/

Card Stats

**King's Lord / Light / LV. 8 / ATK: 2900/ DEF: 2450 /Warrior/Effect**: During your End Phases, Special Summon 1 "Pawn Token" (Rock-Type/EARTH/1/0 ATK/0 DEF) to your side of the Field. Once per turn, you can Sacrifice 1 "Pawn Token". If you do so, this card can attack your opponent's Life Points directly, any Battle Damage it inflicts halved during the Damage Step.

**Description:** A six foot tall King Chess piece made of marble with a swirl of black and white

**Crossing the Great Divide / Spell / Effect:** During your Main Phase, Sacrifice a face-up [Pawn's Soldier card to Special Summon 1 Monster that is named [Rook's Shield[Bishop's Mage[Knight's Hero[Queen's Guard, or [King's Lord from your Graveyard to the Field. The Special Summoned Monster cannot attack this turn

_These cards belong to Rex the Emerald Dragon, thanks goes to him._

**Role Change / Continuous Trap / Effect:** As long as this card is face up, by paying 1000 life points, you may change one continuous spell card into a continuous trap card OR change one continuous trap card into a continuous spell card.

**Image:** A princess saving a young knight from a tower with a dragon in the background.

**Pawn Frontline / Quick-Play Spell / Effect:** Tribute one 'Pawn's Soldier' on your side of the field. Special summon one 'Pawn Token' (Rock-Type/EARTH/1/0 ATK/0 DEF) on all available spaces on your field. Whenever a 'Pawn Token' is destroyed as a result of battle, increase your opponent's life points by 100.

**Image:** Multiple pawns being placed onto a chessboard.

**Swap Out / Spell / Effect:** Destroy one face up monster on the field with 'pawn' in title. Special summon one monster from your hand or deck with 'knight', 'rook', or 'bishop' to your side of the field.

**Image:** A chess Pawn getting switched with a chess knight

/-/-/-/-/--//--/-///-/

**Van:** 'Run for the Treasure' huh? Sounds like Klein's kind of game…

**Rukia:** True…but, I noticed that you seemed to be interested in it just as much…

**Ganryu: **…

**Van:** What in the world are you doing here you stiff?

**Ganryu:** …I like to watch total domination…

**Van:** Huh?

_**Tag Duels galore! Next time, see the majestic duo against the confusing couple – **__**Chapter 29: Rhythm'n Blues**_

**??-??-??-??x2:** We'd do the Team Rocket motto…but that's been done to death.__


	29. Chapter 29: Rhythm’n Blues

**Vyser D:** Sorry about this chapter…it's a little well…I can't really get to it. I've been really busy and creatively drained…but as a make up, you can expect a very special surprise next chapter. So…sorry…

_**Well, well, well…the reader's a foot. Fancy seeing you here…**_

_**I find this rather entertaining really…**_

_**Bruder! Stop hogging the spotlight!  
**_

_**Schwester? I thought we both decided that I'd be the one doing the opening…**_

_**We didn't decide Bruder; we didn't finish our Rock Paper Scissor match for this!**_

_**Whatever Schwester, I guess we could both do this…but wouldn't the readers get confused?**_

_**Aw, don't be such a drama queen Bruder. Besides, what are we supposed to do here anyway? I don't think we've ever done something like this before…**_

_**True…neither have I, but I think we're suppose to tell what's happening to us in a dramatic manner…**_

_**That seems like a waste…**_

_**  
Huh?**_

_**Just seems like a distraction from the real story…**_

_**Schwester! How can you say that?!? If you keep this up…**_

…_**Or what Bruder? Its not like we'll get punished or anything.**_

_**But, but Schwester…huh…Wait do you mean we're done?**_

_**Good…about time…**_

_**SCHWESTER! I had a story lined up and everything! Now that's all wasted!**_

…_**Drama Queen…**_

_**/---//--//--/-/-/-/**_

_**Chapter 29**_

_**Rhythm'n Blues**_

_**/-/-//--//-/-//--/**_

"…Rush for the Treasure, eh?"

Only a day had passed since Rena and Tony's duel against Kirk and Keith, and since Alan's speech about the mini tournament, students everywhere on the island were preparing themselves and were imaging what could be in the vault.

Some speculated jewels…

…other speculated a top secret government files (more along the lines of the unknown…and by that, Secret Alien Invasions that occur periodically)…

…others speculated Alan's stash…

However…this was all conjecture, there was one person who seemed to know exactly what was in the vault. With the exception of Alan…the one person who knew what was in the vault was…

"Beck…are you sure?" Vic asked with a confused look on his face.

"Yep!" Beck announced jumping from his seat, and fingering his yellow jewel pin. "You better prepare yourself…my plan requires me to get into that vault…"

"What exactly is in there?" Vic asked raising an eyebrow pocketing his own red jewel pin.

"Hmm…not really," Beck answered crossing his arms over his chest…making Vic fall face first into the ground. "Sorry…but I'd like to keep everything under wraps…"

"Still the same as ever Beck," a fancy voice chuckled getting both Beck and Vic to look over to the side.

Standing to the side, with the midday sun shining over him, was the owner of the fancy voice. With a semi tan over his skinny body, the voice's owner certainly fit the profile for a rich guy. Although, he looked to be about the same age as Vic, he had a few inches above him. His sandy brown hair was slightly long, but was combed back in a fancy manner that went past his broad shoulders. He was wearing a fancy crimson blazer with black satin pants.

Standing behind him were three figures, two of them were muscular (even though there was a slight difference in muscle mass) and the other was as tall as the bigger one, but definitely thinner. All three of them had hooded overcoats that shadowed their faces.

The fancy boy smiled as he dusted his hands (That had fancy white gloves on them) on his chest. "I'm glad to see that you haven't made any changes with your style…"

"Ah…great timing!" Beck announced with a great smile on his face, that's when he noticed the cold glare that was on Vic's face. "Oh…right, I suppose I should introduce you two…"

"Vic Vanhemer," the fancy boy stated making Beck opening his eyes in shock.

"Sven Maderas," Vic growled making his glare even colder.

"Huh? You know each other?" Beck asked a little confused staring at Vic and Maderas who had sparks flying in between each other.

"Our families are rivals in the same business," Vic answered immediately, not taking his eyes off of Maderas.

"It's in our blood…although, Vic was adopted, so it's a pheromone thing," Maderas chuckled shaking his head a few times. "However…I thought you were at the Pacific Duel academy not the Atlantic, you orphan."

"Yeah, well, unlike your plans, I like to expand my territory," Vic countered with a small chuckle.

"Boys, enough, you don't need to fight now," Beck stated stepping in between the two rich boys. "Now then, Maderas, I assume those are the three that you got with you are…"

"Yep, two are for the psychological card," Maderas replied with his eyes closed, he couldn't stand looking at Vic any more. "And the other…well, I got him from the Underground like you asked for."

"Nice to meet you sir," Beck stated turning towards the largest of the three cloaked people. "And I'm glad to see that the spell I offered was good…"

"It was a little shaky, but it worked…" Maderas chuckled combing his hand through his hair.

"Oh come on boy, you're a little shaky to your relationship…" Vic commented this time getting a response from Maderas.

"Suffering!" Maderas shouted with a large glowing word 'SUFFERING' appearing at his feet.

"Huh?" Vic questioned raising an eyebrow, just as the word disappeared. "What the heck was that?"

"Oh, when Maderas joined up with the Yokai," Beck started to explain wagging his finger a few times. "I wanted to set up an experiment with him. Of course, it kind of exploded in our faces…he didn't get exactly the results that I wanted him to get. But, instead, whenever he experiences a pure emotion or what he thinks is one, thanks to the shadow magic that I embedded into him he can materialize the word anywhere he wants."

"Hmm…well what do you know?" Vic chuckled looking at a calmed down Maderas. "The useless brat gets a useless power…"

"Anger!" Maderas growled making a glowing aura appear around him.

Wondering where the word was going to fall, Vic noticed that there was a glowing aura above him. That's when a glowing word 'ANGER' fell on top Vic, forcing him to the ground. "URGH!"

"I forgot to mention," Beck added looming over Vic's in pain body. "Those words are extremely heavy…and get heavier depending on the number of letters…"

"Happy…" Maderas chuckled as a glowing 'HAPPY' landed on Vic's body, making him groan in pain even more. "Happier!"

BOOM!

"HAPPINESS!"

BOOM!

"HAPPINESSINEST!"

BOOM!

"Oh, come on! That's not even a word!" Vic groaned with the many words disappearing from on top of him.

"Screw the dictionary! I've got money!" Maderas laughed out loud rubbing his chin. "Now then…what word should I use next?"

"Now, now, now Maderas…" Beck giggled, placing a hand on Maderas' shoulder. "That's enough for now; I need the Dark World Prince for a few things…"

"Yeah, yeah," Maderas sighed shaking his head in disappointment. "Anyway…anything else you want before I go get some of those pins you told me to get?"

"Actually, yes…I've got two of my duelists searching today…" Beck answered removing his hand and lifting up his hand to look at the finger nails. "I'd like you look after them from the shadows…their targets are going to be interesting to you…"

"Hmm…I see…who are the duelists?" Maderas asked, not noticing that Vic was slowly standing up behind him (he had crawled using all of the remaining strength to get to Maderas.

"…I think you'll know who…the best tag team we've got…" Beck replied with his ego growing slightly.

"Got'cha…" Maderas nodded…

…Before Vic put Maderas in a lock. "Here's a word for ya! REVENGE!"

"NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOO! This outfit is new!" Maderas pleaded before Vic began to bend backwards to perform a suplex. "My hair!"

"Boys! Boys! We can settle this with the spinning bottle game!" Beck shouted turning towards the three cloaked people. "Can't you do something?"

The largest cloaked person just cocked his head to the side, starring at Beck. "…did you just suggest doing spin the bottle with just guys?"

"No…" Beck answered immediately. "You're going crazy muscle man."

The cloaked person just crossed his arms, before pulling Vic and Maderas away from each other. Both of them were squabbling like five year olds, before the muscular man threw them both in different directions as if they were trash. "…my name…is Nathaniel…"

"I see…Well Nathaniel, if you can do well, then I'll deliver the information that you seek," Beck stated shrugging his shoulders a few times and shaking his head. "And as I recall…you wanted info on the Emperor of the Underworld…correct?"

"Yeah…you got it, right…"

/-///--//--//-/-/

"So…what'd you think about that match guys?" Tony asked leaning in at Luntina.

"Personal Space!" Luntina shouted before slamming her fist into Tony's jaw, making the Chess duelist fly far into the room. "And we were there! We saw the whole thing!"

"Ahem…" Riko coughed getting Luntina to sweatdrop.

"Sorry about that…" Luntina chuckled getting rid of the sweatdrop. "Say…where'd Sen get to?"

"Oh…well, about that, I felt that it was a good idea to prepare something," Riko answered with a slight chuckle in his voice. "What with Tony still in blue and Rena still here…Sen and I both thought that it'd a good idea to set up a small celebration."

"…what kind of celebration?" Tony and Luntina asked at the same time with question marks appearing over their heads.

"Well, I thought that a beach party would be adequate," Riko answered lifting his hand up. "So, I sent Sen to get some barbecue, a grill, decorations, as well as have him send out some invitations to both ours and Rena's friends…"

"…huh?" Luntina and Tony gaped at the same time, both really confused as to how Riko thought ahead with all this.

"Yep, oh, and you two should really get your swimsuits ready," Riko chuckled again, this time standing up and heading for the door.

"Now hold on! I expected Tony to pull something like this…" Luntina shouted with her hands up. "…but you Riko?!? Did you know what would happen before hand?!?"

"…I had a clue…" Riko answered raising his fingers up in a victory sign. "Besides…I asked a few of the custodians to help, and with a little green…well, it should be ready in an hour…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Luntina shouted waving her arms in the air. "What makes you think people are going to show up?"

"Simple…I just sent Sen…" Riko replied rubbing his chin. "Remember, whenever Halloween comes around he goes… 'Trick or Treat. Guess what the trick is. Give me candy, or I'll punch you.'"

"Yeah…he's no Luntina but he's strong," Tony admitted nodding with his eyes closed. '_Hmm…beach party…plus Rena and Luntina equals…oh yeah!'_

No one noticed the drool that was slowly dripping down from Tony's mouth. "Anyway Riko…isn't a celebration usually reserved for someone's victory?"

"Aw come on…today's perfect, the sun is shinning, and this might be the last day we can enjoy the warm weather," Riko retorted shrugging his shoulders.

"Look, all the girls wear mini skirts and sleeveless shirts, we enjoy the warm weather everyday," Luntina sighed shaking her head a few times.

That's when Tony threw his arm around Luntina's shoulder. "Ah come on Luntina…the real reason you don't want to go to the party…is because you're worried that you don't look good in your swimsuit anymore…"

"What?" Luntina was taken back a little, with a small blush on her face. "What's that supposed to mean!?!"

"Perhaps the old lady doesn't want anyone to see her…" Tony started before getting slammed into the ground. "UGH!"

"I'll show you that I look damn good in my swimsuit!" Luntina huffed storming out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

"…Nice idea Tony," Riko chuckled shaking his head. "…but I have to ask…was it worth it?"

"Dude, once you can see again, you'll know what I mean," Tony moaned with a goofy (yet pain filled) smile on his face.

"…so…she's that…" Riko gulped with a grow blush appearing underneath his sun glasses.

"Yep…pretty much…" Tony chuckled.

//-/-/--//-//--/-/-/

An hour later at the main beach a few miles from the Obelisk Blue dorm…

"Damn! Much better than what I expected!" Tony announced standing on the sand wearing a white muscle shirt with dark blue swim trunks with white triangles on them.

Before him was what could be best described as a beach party you'd see in some of the more famous beaches around the world. With a large grill in the center of the fancy red, yellow and blue decoration lights, Sen was slowly cooking they large amount of barbecued themed foods.

Near what was what appeared to be a buffet table was a small platform with a karaoke machine at it with a few microphones at the top.

"Now then…is this to your liking?" Riko asked standing next to Tony. Riko was wearing a long silver swimtrunks…and he still had his sweater on…how he wasn't sweating to death was beyond Tony's mind.

"I still can't believe that you managed to get this before our match was done," Tony stated in disbelief.

"Well, well, well, Tony, I hope we're not late," Leo greeted appearing behind Tony with Kimatori standing next to him.

"ACK! Leo!" Tony shouted jumping a few feet into the air. After catching his breath, Tony turned towards Riko who seemed unfazed by Leo's appearance. "How come you're not shocked…"

"Simple, I heard him and her coming," Riko answered bluntly, making Tony lower his head in embarrassment.

That's when Tony got a good look at Leo and Kimatori…and raised an eyebrow at them. "Uh, guys…why are you wearing those kinds of things here?"

It certainly was weird to wear a large black cloak with matching hat and a small school uniform on the beach. Leo who adjusted his hat just shot an innocent smile back to Tony along with his answer. "Well…Kimatori told me that it was a costume party…"

"…at the beach?" Tony finished up for Leo.

"…touché, Kimatori, I think you've got some explaining to do," Leo scolded slightly while keeping an innocent smile on his face.

"I just wanted to wear these costumes," Kimatori answered lowering her head.

"Oh, well, that's okay…" Leo stated turning his attention back to Tony. "Now then, Tony, if you would be so kind would you look at that chair over there?"

Turning his head towards the chair Leo was pointing to, Tony saw that the chair was a very fancy hand crafted chair that stood near the buffet table. "Yeah…what about it?"

After getting no response, Tony turned his head to the side to see that he was talking to no one. Leo and Kimatori had pulled one of their usual disappearing acts. "…Great…do you know where they went Riko?"

"Try behind you," Riko answered shaking his head.

"Huh?" Tony questioned raising an eyebrow.

"Hey Tony!" Kimatori announced making Tony jump up immediately.

With a spinning jump, Tony was met with Leo and Kimatori, both who were wearing swimsuits. Leo was wearing light blue trunks with a white shirt while Kimatori was wearing a pink one piece swimsuit. "GAH!!! How'd you do that!?!"

"People seem to underestimate my powers," Leo chuckled pointing towards the fancy chair again. "Behold…watch the chair…"

"…no way, I'm not falling for that," Tony answered shaking his head. "I'm not going to get scared by you again today."

"You say that now…" Leo sighed shaking his head slightly while rubbing the back of his head.

After a few minutes, two more familiar forms were running onto the beach (one of them was being dragged by the other). "Heh! Where's the free food!"

"Sen…you invited Klein and Koji?" Riko asked as the two short brothers ran towards the buffet table.

"You said invite all of Rena's friends," Sen defended not taking his eyes off the grilling food he had before him. "They qualify."

"Yeah!" Klein shouted lifting up a soda can, he and Koji were wearing matching dark red swimsuits (probably got them from the red dorm's storage). "Anyway…fancy digs you got here!"

"I'll say…"

Everyone turned to the side, and every guy on the beach (with the exception of Riko) had to do a double take. Standing there in a blue two piece and her hair tied up…was Luntina with a blue towel around her shoulders. A bright blush appeared on all the guys' faces who were currently there (even Leo had succumbed slightly to the blush on his cheeks) just by looking at the Kaisaris.

"…I really hate you all," Riko muttered under his breath…he really hated his condition.

"You know it's impolite to stare," Luntina sighed shaking her head as she took her towel from shoulder and wrapped it over her shoulders. "Rude…"

"S-sorry," Tony chuckled as Luntina walked past him.

…a few minutes later, quite a few more people had arrived allowing the party to really begin. Rena had arrived wearing a red one piece suit (although slightly disappointed, Tony did have to admit that she was quite cute in it). Van and Rukia arrived at the same time, although Van wasn't dressed for the occasion, he was wearing his uniform and had a backpack on. Rukia was wearing a black one piece swim suit however…

…Ganryu was no where to be found…but instead Cleo and Asche were their (Cleo was there to see the guy's in swimsuits). Cleo was wearing a blue with gold trim two piece swimsuit while Asche on the other hand was wearing a black wife beater shirt with a black swimsuit.

What Tony didn't get…were the two other red students that were there. Sen had told Tony when they arrived at the party were Rena's friends, known as the Musik Twins, Harfe and Gitarre. He had to admit that Harfe looked cute in the Red Uniform. Why they had duel disks on…Tony could only assume that they were preparing in case the party got boring for them…

"So…Riko set this up?" Rena asked breaking Tony out of his trance.

"Huh? Oh yeah," Tony replied rubbing the back of his head.

Meanwhile…a mile or half away three familiar faces were watching the party…one envious, the other two serious.

"Aw man! Take the towel off Luntina!" Bravo pleaded as he looked through the binoculars with drool on his face.

"I find this to be quite insane," Maderas sighed turning to the side to see Alex looking a few masks. "I get the muscle pervert and the mask loving freak…"

"You're not so normal yourself fancy boy," Alex replied lifting a silver mask up. "I think this mask will do…"

"Anyway…" Maderas sighed shaking his head while he looked over to Bravo. "…I was told that I had to observe two of our duelists dueling against two targets…don't tell me that you two are the duelists…"

"Nope! We've got our guys already in there," Alex answered placing the mask over his face. Immediately his eyes turned white, allowing a new person to be in Alex's place…Meet Masque! "…we just need to get a reason ready…"

"Okay…whatever mask man," Maderas replied turning to Bravo. "So…who're the targets?"

"Eh, a kid named Van and his girlfriend Rukia," Bravo answered not turning away from the binoculars.

"…Rukia? Rukia Nagata?" Maderas asked raising an eyebrow at Bravo who still looking through the binoculars.

"Good eye sir," Bravo replied not noticing that Maderas was stomping up towards him.

Taking the binoculars, Maderas didn't notice the strap that was still around Bravo's neck, so Bravo was currently being choked. "WHY WASN'T I TOLD THIS EARLIER!?! WE HAVE TO CALL OFF THE PLAN!!"

"C-Can't…b-b-breathe!" Bravo choked before releasing the strap, allowing him to breathe and catch his breath. "AIR!"

"Answer the damn question!" Maderas snarled turning away from the binoculars.

"W-well…ya see sir…" Bravo stated starting to crawl backwards away from the demonic Maderas. "I-I wasn't in charge of this idea! It was Beck! If you got a problem take it up to him!"

"How were going to get this plan going anyway?" Maderas asked throwing the binoculars into the sand.

"W-Well…we were going to send our masked friend in there once Beck caught wind of this party," Bravo explained turning his eyes to the side. "Then, he was going to make an accident that would make all four of them duel each other in a tag match…"

"We've got to stop him!" Maderas shouted turning his head to find that Alex was no where to be seen. "SHOCK!"

That's when a glowing word 'SHOCK' fell on top of Bravo, crushing him into the sand. "WHERE'D THAT MASKED FREAK GET OFF TO!?!?"

As the glowing 'SHOCK' disappeared from Bravo's body, the bruiser duelist turned his head to the side and lifted his hand up. "…he's there sir…"

Maderas snapped his head to the side to see Alex or Masque, whatever he was calling himself, was speeding on the sand, almost a yellow blur that resembled the sand. In a matter of seconds, Alex/Masque had reached the buffet table and slid underneath it before anyone could notice him. "…dang, he's fast…"

"After Beck met him, he was trying some new fangled shadow magic," Bravo explained standing up. "Somewhat you had sir…only this one had a different effect."

"Yes…I can guess remember those experiments," Maderas sighed shaking his head. "Tell me…has Beck done what he did to us to a certain someone…"

"Not yet…and I doubt he'll be able to," Bravo replied raising his arms up and began flexing them a few times. "Although…I like what I got…"

"Of course, since I met you before the experimentations…" Maderas sighed crossing his arms. "I could picture you as a muscle man Bravo…"

"And you're explosive personality really gave away your results," Bravo chuckled crossing his broad arms over his chest. "Still…with our new comers, you need to think about what powers they got…Alex…Black Tiger…Masque…whatever he calls himself, seems to have gotten something that a thief would kill for…"

"I'm surprised you're able to say that much, and not sound like a moron," Maderas muttered looking up into the sky.

He could remember it perfectly…three years ago when he first entered the Yokai, and managed to claw his way up to the top using his family's resources. It was then that Maderas…hell anyone who had decent skills at anything Beck found interesting, could meet with Beck…

…despite his outer exterior (physically and personality wise), Beck was a brilliant, yet slightly demented (no surprise there). From his many years as a crime boss when he was younger, Beck had learned about some topics…

…that branched from a certain duelist…one that made Beck very interested when he was a child as he watched a very famous match…

However, that was of little consequence at the time…what was more important was what Beck was doing. His experiments…although unusual, seemed to have their ups rather than downs…

…for now…

CRASH!

"Great…I can see mask boy used the old spilled food technique," Bravo chuckled brushing his hair a few times. "A classic to build up tension…"

"…Are you usually pretending stupid?" Maderas asked bluntly getting a weird look from Bravo. "I'm just saying that because you've actually been able to hold up a decent conversation."

"…I've got my moments," Bravo answered watching over as a large argument began to erupt where the party was…

"Schwester! A-Are you okay!?!" Gitarre shouted with tears in his eyes as he starred at his sister Harfe who was lying on the ground with a large amount of food on top of her.

"Bruder…its just food," Harfe sighed shaking her head. "It's just annoying."

That's when Gitarre turned his eyes towards another person who was on the ground, his eyes now free of tears, mainly because they were burning with intensity. "M-my Schwester! How could you!?!"

"Hey! It wasn't my fault!" Van shouted jumping to his feet. "Something tripped me!"

"Likely story!" Gitarre shouted pointing his finger towards Van, in an accusing manner.

"Why isn't anyone stepping in?" Rena asked turning towards Klein…not the best person to ask.

"Its too good of a show," Klein answered lifting a burger up to take a bite out of it.

"Make amends!" Gitarre ordered pointing a finger accusingly at Van.

"Fine! I'm sorry…whoever you are…" Van stuttered trying to rack his brain as to who these red students were.

"We're the Musik Twins! Gitarre and Harfe!" Gitarre shouted running directly in front of Van, presumably to defend his name. "And an apology isn't going to work now!"

"Then what will?" Van asked raising an eyebrow.

"What else?" Harfe intervened lifting up a duel disk. "How do we solve problems here? With dueling of course…and since I know my brother can't duel for his life I'll join in on this."

"I'm standing right here Schwester!" Gitarre shouted throwing his arms to the side.

"Like I said…me and my brother will duel against you," Harfe continued on, not caring that Gitarre was now in tears.

"Two on one's not really fair…" Van growled.

"Then why not include your girlfriend in this?" Gitarre suggested, causing a large blush creep on Van's face. "I mean…you both came together…"

"A duel sounds fun!" Rukia announced, making Van's bush increase on his face.

"W-wait a second…" Van protested raising his arms slightly.

"Then prepare yourselves!" Gitarre and Harfe shouted out at the same time raising their duel disks up into the air.

No one seemed to notice a yellow blur streaming out from underneath the table, and back to the other end of the beach…while still staying in a decent distance to see the duel that would begin in a few minutes. "Hmm…maybe if I should go in the black market deal…I might just be able to use it to my advantage with this new ability…"

"STUPIDITY!"

That's when a large glowing 'STUPIDITY' fell on top of Alex, crushing him into the sand and making his mask float off his face. "D-Dang! That smarts!"

Looming over him as the word disappeared, Alex was met with a chuckling Bravo and a pissed off Maderas… "Uh…hi?"

"Why didn't you tell me what the targets were?" Maderas growled lifting Alex by his collar off the sand. "ANSWER ME DAMN IT!"

"Y-you didn't give me a chance!" Alex gulped before being shaken up by Maderas.

"I don't care! Get talking!" Maderas snarled narrowing his eyes down at Alex, sending a dark chill down Alex's spine.

"A-Ask Beck!" Alex shouted out in his defense…only to be thrown to the side. "OOF!"

"I'll make sure to do so," Maderas sighed turning his head to watch as Van, Rukia, Gitarre and Harfe stand across from each other. '_Hmm…what I really want to know is this…why wasn't I told of a boyfriend!?!? This is most disturbing news of all!'_

"DUEL!"

"Hmm…I hope this duel will be more exciting," Klein sighed shaking his head a few times as all four duelists snapped their decks into the duel disks.

"What makes you say that?" Rena asked looking down at Klein.

"No offense…but yours and Tony's match wasn't that climatic," Asche answered lifting a sandwich up to his mouth before popping it into his mouth.

"I'll admit that the tie was a surprise," Riko muttered before sipping on his soda.

"…anything else you wanted tell us?" Tony asked a little insulted.

"Yeah…you need a better fashion sense," Klein answered with a mouth full of food.

"Yeah! At least sallow before you talk!" Luntina scolded shaking her head, she still had the towel wrapped around her body.

"Now then…here we go…" Harfe announced drawing her sixth card, looking over the cards. Then with a nod, Harfe lifted two cards up. "I'll set two cards face down, and end my turn." (HGLP: 8000)

"T-that's it?" Rukia questioned lifting up her next card. "Oh well…I summon Masked Dragon (1400/1100) in attack mode!" (RVLP: 8000)

From the sky, a red and white armored dragon fell to the ground with a loud roar, making the sand fly up near Rukia. "And to end my turn…I'll just set one card face down…"

"…I find this somewhat insulting," Gitarre sighed snapping his sixth card into hand. Nodding his head, Gitarre lifted up a card from his hand and slid it into his duel disk. "I discard King of the Swamp from my hand to take Polymerization from my deck and add it to my hand!"

'…_could they be running a combined fusion deck?_' Van thought as Gitarre shuffled through the cards. '_But…for one of those to work, they'd need to get Fusion Gate out instead of Polymerization…hell…there's hardly a need for Polymerization…_'

"Next…I'll activate Graceful Charity…drawing three cards…" Gitarre announced picking up the three cards from the top of his deck.

Then after a few second, Gitarre slipped two of them into his duel disk. "Finally, I'll set one monster on the defensive and end my turn," Gitarre wrapped up with the face down card appeared before him.

"And I guess I'll take my turn!" Van shouted looking at his six card hand. '_Hmm…this might be interesting…_'

"Since you added Polymerization…why don't I play it?" Van suggested as a large vortex appeared over Van's head, allowing the hero duelist to throw two cards from his hand into it. "I fuse E-Hero Bubbleman with…E-Hero Bubbleman! This allows me to special summon E-Hero Tidal Surge!"

From the vortex, a large shower of rain slammed onto the ground, quickly dispersing into a more muscular Bubbleman with a large finned cape, resembled Neo Bubbleman only with shark fins on his shoulders (1900/2200). As the warrior struck a pose, four cards began to flow over Van's deck and into his hand. "And guess what! When I don't have anything on my field, I can draw four cards…and discard one card from my hand afterwards!"

"More supped up Graceful Charity…monster style," Cleo stated rubbing her chin. She wasn't a fan of the reds, but seeing new cards often perked her interest.

"Now then…I activate the spell card, Fusion Recycle!" Van shouted slipping one of the newly drawn cards into his duel disk, this one forming into a standing spell card. The card's picture depicted the dragon and warrior like monsters leaping from the polymerization card. "What this card does…will be made apparent in my next turn…"

"Hmm…will it last that long?" Harfe questioned poking her chin a few times. "I wonder…"

"Time will tell…" Van chuckled fitting another card into his duel disk. "And I'll set this card down as well…"

"And like time…we return to me," Harfe giggled lifting her next card…that's when an innocent smile appeared on her face. "And it looks like Lady Luck has smiled on me…I summon Humanoid – F!"

A bright bang of light flashed onto the field, blinding everyone temporarily…when the light died down, everyone was met with the new monster that appeared on the field. The monster…was actually a cute young brown haired girl with a petite body wearing a short blue jacket with baggy white shorts (1000/1000). Stretching her arms a few times, the monster yawned looking around.

Everyone just sweatdropped at the sight of the monster and was speechless. Finally, Van broke the beach's silence and pointed towards the new monster. "And uh…what exactly are we looking at?"

"Why…my favorite monster of course!" Harfe giggled raising her arms up and squirmed slightly. That's when a single card popped out of Harfe's deck and into her hand. "And what she lacks in strength…she makes up in her delivering abilities!"

"Huh?" Van asked raising an eyebrow.

"I think her monster allows her to add a card from her deck to her hand," Rena stated as Van rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

"T-thanks…" Van sighed.

"When summoned, my monster allows me to add a specific type of monster from my deck to my hand," Harfe explained turning the card around, this one showing a small blue machine with a red jewel on the front (0/1000). "A monster known as…Bio-Metal…"

"That can't be good…" Rukia admitted shaking her head. "But, I doubt it'll be a problem…"

"Correct, I don't possess the cards right now," Harfe chuckled snapping her finger over her face down card. "But…thanks to your boyfriend, I can get those easily!"

"I-I'm not…" Van stuttered with a large blush on his face. "Oh…what's the point? No one listens…"

"I activate, Fusion Thief!" Harfe announced as her face down card flipped up, showing a Japanese Thief wearing a green mask with over twenty fusion cards in his hands. "If you have a Polymerization card in your graveyard…I can take it from your graveyard and activate it immediately!"

"…I think I know exactly what deck they're facing," Riko sighed shaking his head a few times. "…but…I don't think I'll spoil it…"

"You're no fun," Rena sighed.

"So why wait?" Harfe asked as a powerful vortex appeared underneath her Humanoid, sucking her and the card that Harfe just had added to her hand. "I'll fuse my Humanoid and my Bio-Metal X!"

The vortex shattered, allowing a new monster to appear on the field in the Humanoid's place. Standing now was a blue and white armored version of the Humanoid – F sporting a small blue blaster on her left hand (1600/1400), who immediately raised the blaster up. "And here's my Buster Maverick – F!"

"…not much of a threat…" Van muttered rubbing his chin. "But…still…"

"And with that…I'll end my turn," Harfe stated making Van's eyes widen slightly.

"Huh?" Van questioned raising an eyebrow. "…I would've at least expected an attack…"

That's when a blue aura appeared around the Buster Maverick – F, giving her a more determined look on her face (1600/1400 + 400/0). "I could've…but then I wouldn't receive the power bonus that my monster could receive."

"Oh..." Van sighed shaking his head as Rukia drew her next card.

"Don't worry Van…" Rukia stated looking over her hand and lifting a card up. "We've still got an edge!"

"We do?" Van asked raising an eyebrow. "What is it?"

"Uh…I'll have to get back to you on that…" Rukia chuckled making everyone fall backwards into the sand.

"Y-You could've at least given a decent answer!" Van shouted shaking his head.

"Well…it doesn't matter now," Rukia chuckled lifting her next card. "Anyway, I summon Spear Dragon!"

Floating down from the sky, a large blue dragon with a pointed nose landed on the sand with a loud screech (1900/0). "And now… Spear Dragon! Attack Buster Maverick – F!"

"What!?!" Gitarre, Van and basically everyone else shouted as the dragon began to fly into the air.

"Fine! Your dragon's funeral!" Harfe shouted raising her right hand up like she was holding a gun. "Counter attack!"

"Chain!" Rukia shouted snapping a card into her duel disk. "I activate, Rush Recklessly! So my dragon gain's seven hundred attack points!"

"Sorry…but my monster's not the target…" Harfe chuckled snapping her hand over her other face down card, this one showing a very old card. "I activate, Shift! So now your attack will hit my Bruder's face down monster!"

"Huh!?!" Gitarre questioned as the dragon dived into his face down monster, skewering the monster before it could fully be revealed. "SCHWESTER!" (HGLP: 6700)

"I don't get it…why would she want his monster dead?" Van questioned scratching his chin. "If anything…she would've been damaged less…"

That's when Gitarre's deck began to fan out and spit out a cad into Gitarre's hand. "…Or…maybe it was our plan from the beginning…that face down monster was known as Viral Maverick…and when destroyed, I can special summon a certain monster…I summon Humanoid – M!"

"Huh? HUH?" Van questioned as another flash of light erupted onto the field.

This flash died down, and standing in front of Gitarre was a young brown haired man with piercing green eyes wearing a blue jacket and baggy white pants (1000/1000) who just narrowed his eyes down at Van. "Meet the male version! And just like his female counterpart, I can take a Bio-Metal from my deck and add it to my hand!"

"Yeah…its too bad you won't be able to use it," Rukia stated motioning to her Masked Dragon. "I've got this guy! And he'll attack your monster right now!"

The large masked dragon began to fly towards the surprised Humanoid – M, who just crossed his arms. Just as the dragon was about to make contact however, Gitarre just slipped a card of his into his graveyard, creating a large blue barrier around the Humanoid – M, forcing the dragon back. "What!?! What just happened?"

"You don't know this, but Bio-Metals have a unique ability while in our hand," Gitarre replied crossing his arms. "Bio-Metal X allows me to negate one attack by discarding it…"

"Darn…I end my turn," Rukia sighed shaking her head.

"Then…I can draw!" Gitarre announced snapping his next card off his duel disk. Then with a smile, Gitarre spun a familiar card. "And, I activate Polymerization! Allowing me to fuse my Humanoid…with another Bio – Metal!"

Tossing another card from his hand into the air, the Humanoid – M leapt into the air, forming into a large vortex. This time however, the vortex shattered allowing another monster on the field, showing Humanoid – M wearing red and yellow armor with two large red gauntlet like guns on his forearms (1800/1800) that he aimed towards the monsters. "Allow me to introduce Flare Maverick – M!"

"Oh, that's unique…" Van questioned raising an eyebrow.

"Next…I'll activate the spell card, Data Scrambler!" Gitarre announced spinning another card into his duel disk…immediately creating a large amount of green '1's and '0's to float around Van and Rukia's field. "Now then, for a cost of two cards from my hand, during this turn, no set card can activate…"

"Brace yourself Rukia," Van growled under his breath as Gitarre lifted his hand up into the air.

"And now…Flare Maverick! Attack Spear Dragon!" Gitarre shouted throwing his hand towards the crouching dragon.

"Wait…why's he doing that?" Rena asked tilting her head to the side. "Its in defense mode…"

"Yeah…and that's why it's the perfect target," Leo remarked opening a soda for Kimatori.

With the two bracer guns opening up, the Flare Maverick unleashed a powerful barrage of fiery ammo that exploded on contact with the Spear Dragon. When the dragon fell from the fiery blaze, the monster shattered backwards into both Van and Rukia. (RVLP: 6200)

"My monster contains a trample ability, much like your deceased dragon," Gitarre answered with a fiery aura appearing around the Flare Maverick (1800/1800 + 400/0). "And here's another ability, whatever monster my Maverick destroys, it gives him a power bonus of one hundred points times the level of the destroyed monster."

"Great…" Van sighed looking at his hero. '_I hope I can pull this off…_'

"And…I'll set another card face down…" Gitarre announced fitting his other card into his duel disk. "Turn end…"

"Okay…I choose to forgo my draw," Van stated reaching into his graveyard lifting two cards up, Polymerization and Bubbleman. "This allows me to take one fusion material monster and Polymerization from my graveyard…all thanks to my Fusion Recycle!"

"Hmm…what do you think you're going to do?" Harfe asked raising an eyebrow.

"Allow me to show you! I activate Polymerization once more! This time…" Van stated with a weakened voice then he boomed out as he threw his two cards into his duel disk's graveyard. "I fuse Sparkman with Sparkman! So say hello to E-Hero Static Enforcer (2200/1800)!"

In a powerful surge of electricity, the supped up Sparkman leapt onto the field, appearing next to his fellow hero, raising his hands up with a large amount of electricity surging between them. "And now…I'll outfit him with the spell card Spark Blaster!"

Raising his hand up, a powerful spark forming into a high-tech gun that wrapped around his right arm, allowing the Static Enforcer to take aim a few times. "Now that I've got three shots…I think I'll use one of them to switch your Flare Maverick to defense mode!"

With a sparking shot, the Static Enforcer made the Flare Maverick crouch down, against his will no doubt. "And now…Static Enforcer! Attack Flare Maverick!"

Leaping into the air, the Static Enforcer began to pulsate a powerful surge in his arms and took aim…

"TRAP CARD! GO!" Gitarre shouted throwing his arm over his face down card, this one showing crystal blue C with a barrier around it. "Go, C – Crystallized Sleep! This switches the battle mode of all monsters on your side of the field!"

Both of Van's heroes fell to the ground and Rukia's dragon crouched down into the sand. Knowing that his battle phase was useless, Van snapped his fingers. "Fine, then after my battle phase, I can use Spark Blaster to switch my Static Enforcer to attack mode…and I'll end my turn…"

"Well then…back to me!" Harfe giggled lifting her next card…allowing a large smile to appear on her face. "Now the…I activate the spell card, Skill Swap! Now…I can take one monster on my side of the field and switch effects with one monster on the field until the end of my turn…"

"Then which monster will you choose?" Van asked with a question mark over his head. None of the effects that his monsters had would do much damage…

"I switch effects with my Bruder's monster!" Harfe announced as the two monsters began to glow different auras, the Buster Maverick glowing blue while the Flare Maverick had a red aura around him. That's when both auras switched. "Now then…attack Masked Dragon!"

As the attack went flying towards the crouching dragon…a familiar dark haired nobleman was stressing over something…

"W-WHY ARE THEY ONLY GETTING RUKIA!" Maderas cried out throwing his arms to the side and getting annoyed. "I-I-I can't stand watching this any more!"

"Too bad you can't change it…" Bravo chuckled crossing his arms as he slowly lied down on his back.

"…he can't," Alex stated pointing upwards with his hand. Bravo and Maderas looked upwards to see that the clouds were starting to cloud up and were starting to spark and darken around. "…but the weather can…should we wait for the twins?"

"Nah…let them get caught in the rain…" Maderas chuckled turning his back, just as the rain began to drizzle. "Let's go…"

//-/-/-/-/--///-/

"…Rush for the Treasure…" Beck muttered researching on his fancy laptop with different stickers on the back of it. "…you're my only chance…now I can finally…"

"…Finally what?" Vic asked appearing behind Beck, scaring the Yokai leader.

"ACK!" Beck shouted jumping from his chair. After catching his breath, Beck began to chuckle a little bit. "Heh, heh, heh, nice job…good joke…"

"You mind telling me what you're planning now Beck?" Vic asked crossing his arms over his chest.

"Hmm…I would…but we've only got a little time left till the tournament," Beck answered lifting his laptop up. "Especially with these new rules that Principal Wright found up with…looking over some biographies of three familiar duelists. So…I need to think of the perfect selection…"

"Why don't you tell me now?" Vic questioned narrowing his eyes. "It'll only take you ten seconds…maybe not even that…"

Snapping his fingers, Beck smiled leaving Vic a little confused…

…Until Vic's arms were grasped tightly from behind, making the former Dark World Prince's eyes widen. "WHAT THE!?!"

Then from the shadows, Kazin slowly stepped from the darkness lifting up a syringe that had a dark liquid in it. "Mr. Beck…I have what you asked for…"

"Excellent Kazin…" Beck chuckled lifting up the syringe and aiming it towards Vic.

"W-What the hell!?!" Vic spat out narrowing his eyes down at Beck. "What the heck is that crap?"

"Think of it as an initiation ritual…" Beck stated coming closer and closer to Vic, who was struggling to get free from the grasps that held onto him. "I inject this into you…and if you survive…well…I'll surprise you…"

"Don't you dare put that in me," Vic snarled thrashing about until more hands latched onto him, halting his movements.

"…AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

**/---//-/-/-//-/**

**Card Stats**

**E-Hero Tidal Surge / Water / LV. 6 / ATK: 1900 / DEF: 2200 / Warrior/Fusion/Effect:** [E-Hero Bubbleman + E-Hero Bubbleman This card can only be special summoned via fusion summon. As long as this card is face up on the field, this card's name is treated as 'Elemental Hero Bubbleman'. If this card was special summoned when there are no other cards on your side of the field, you may draw four cards from your deck then discard one.

**Description:** A more muscular Bubbleman with a large finned cape, resembles Neo Bubbleman only with shark fins on his shoulders.

**Fusion Recycle / Continuous Spell / Effect:** This card's effect can only be activated during the turn after you performed a fusion summon. Skip your next draw phase and add one 'Polymerization' and one fusion component monster from your graveyard to your hand.

**Image:** The dragon and warrior like monsters leaping from the polymerization card.

**Viral Maverick / Dark / LV. 4 / ATK: 1500 / DEF: 1300 / Machine/Effect:** When this card is destroyed as a result of battle, you may special summon one level 4 or lower monster with 'Humanoid' in it's name from your deck.

**Description:** A purple robotic human with a small pulse gun in his hands.

**Humanoid - M / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 1000 / Warrior/Effect:** When this card is summoned to the field, you may take one monster with 'Bio-Metal' in it's name from your deck and add it to your hand.

**Description:** A young brown haired man with piercing green eyes wearing a blue jacket and baggy white pants.

**Humanoid – F / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 1000 / Warrior/Effect:** When this card is summoned to the field, you may take one monster with 'Bio-Metal' in it's name from your deck and add it to your hand.

**Description:** A cute young brown haired girl with a petite body wearing a short blue jacket with baggy white shorts.

**Bio-Metal X / Light / LV. 1 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 1000 / Machine/Effect:** When your opponent declares an attack against a face up monster on your side of the field, you may send this card from your hand to negate the attack.

**Description:** A small blue machine with a red jewel on the front.

**C – Crystallized Sleep / Trap / Effect: **This card can only be activated when your opponent declares an attack. Switch the battle modes of all of your opponent's monsters.

**Image:** A crystal blue C with a barrier around it.

**Buster Maverick – F / Earth / LV. 5 / ATK: 1600 / DEF: 1400 / Machine/Fusion/Effect:** [Humanoid – F + Bio-Metal X This card can only be fusion summoned. During each player's end phase of a turn this card didn't attack, increase the attack of this card by 400 points.

**Description: **A blue and white armored version of the Humanoid – F with a small blue blaster on her left hand.

**Flare Maverick – M / Fire / LV. 7 / ATK: 1800 / DEF: 1800 / Machine/Fusion/Effect:** [Humanoid – M + Bio-Metal F This card can only be fusion summoned. When this monster attacks a monster with a lower defense than this monster's attack, inflict the difference to your opponent's life points. When this monster destroys a monster as a result of battle, increase this monster's attack by 100 points times the level of the destroyed monster.

**Description:** The Humanoid – M wearing red and yellow armor with two large red gauntlet like guns on his forearms.

**Fusion Thief / Trap / Effect:** Discard one card from your hand to activate this card. If there is a spell or trap card in your opponent's graveyard that has 'Fusion Summon' in its text or is named 'Polymerization' you may activate that card immediately.

**Image:** A Japanese thief lifting up ten fusion monster cards

**Skill Swap / Instant Spell / Effect:** Select two face up monsters on the field. Switch the selected monsters' effects until the end of the turn this card was activated.

**Image:** Two different warriors standing across from each other, each with a different flowing aura.

**/-/--/-//--/-/-/**

**Rena:** The Rush for the Treasure begins!

**Ganryu:** …I won't lose this time…

**Klein:** There'll be treasure! It says so in the name! I'm looking forward to this!

**Koji:** Please calm down brother…

**Klein:** I can't help it…I want to duel first in the tournament!

**??-??-??:** You'll have to wait little kid…I'm more interested in the girl…

**Rena:** …Do I know you?

_**The Rush begins! Who will take home the greatest treasure? What is the darkness within? What is the mysterious new rule that Alan is coming up with? Why am I asking you?**_

_**Find out next time in – **__**Chapter 30: Masked Truth**_

**Rena:** W-what did I do to you? And what's with the mask?

**??-??-??:** …Every person wears a mask…whether over their faces or their hearts…yours exists over your heart!

**Rena:** …Who is this guy?


	30. Chapter 30: Masked Truth

_**I was defeated…many times…**_

_**Thinking of trying to escape…I adorned a mask and was reborn as the Black Tiger…**_

_**Still…the defeat as Alex Tudor haunted me until now…**_

_**I stand before you all…a broken downed man, a duelist who can barely stand the sight of his opponent…who can barely stand himself as a person.**_

_**My past is not important; I have sentenced that part of me to the dark abyss. The new me that was born…I am no longer a coward…I am no longer afraid of defeat…**_

…_**I am, no longer Alex Tudor, Ra Yellow student, first year…Ojama Duelist…**_

_**Casting those titles away…I have given myself a new name…**_

…_**but, the past lingers on in my mind and soul…and until I eliminate those ties, then I can finally be born anew…**_

_**In order to do that…I will face off against the two that led me to this day and destroy them in the ways they humiliated me…**_

_**Rena Akira…**_

_**Klein Drei…**_

…_**watch yourselves…I will find you…**_

_**I have learned something very important…every person in this world, whether they realize it or not, wears a mask over their faces or hearts. Before the day is through…I swear…the masks that cover their hearts will be torn off by my own hands!**_

…_**I just hope I can get an understanding of this new system that this tournament has in it. It adds an edge…**_

_**/--//---/--/-/-/**_

_**Chapter 30**_

_**Masked Truth**_

_**//-/--//-/-/-/-/**_

The morning fog over the academy was thick in the early morning, however, that didn't stop a vaguely familiar Obelisk blue stand out in the front of the academy, looking around.

Today was the beginning of the tournament, Rush for the Treasure, and this blue was standing out since six a.m. Classes for the tournament were going to be posted on the net so students wouldn't fall behind in the semester.

"Damn it…after that fiasco with that damn demon hunter…" The blue muttered to himself as he began to pace back and forth in front of the school. "…I, the Dark Rose, Miles Murphy, shall use this tournament to my advantage and reclaim my superiority!"

Miles however then slumped his head down and shook it a while. "…Although…I should've come a little later when more duelists are here…"

"…Perhaps I could satisfy your need to duel…"

That voice struck Miles like a ton of bricks, making the Dark Rose duelist stand up in fright. Before him stood a Ra Yellow student…or, at least that's what Miles got. The student was wearing a really weird version of the uniform…

…His uniform was a fine yellow overcoat with thin sleeves that had some fancy silver shoulder pads over it. Underneath, he was wearing a black tight shirt, white pants with black leather boots. His black hat looked like it belonged to a cavalier with a yellow plum in it.

But what really got Miles, was the fact that this student was wearing a silver mask over his face with white eyes, although he had his mouth showing. "…Nice fashion sense…who the hell are you supposed to be?"

"I'll be the first duelist dueling in the tournament…" The masked Ra Yellow student answered lifting his right arm up, showing a yellow bordered duel disk. "…as well as your opponent…"

"Heh…I should warn you, yellow…" Miles chuckled snapping his duel disk to activate the blue bordered machine. "I am the Dark Rose, Miles Murphy! The next Kaiser of this academy!"

"Frankly, I've never heard of you," the Masked Yellow answered fanning through his deck. "And I don't really care…"

"Then I'll make you care!" Miles laughed fanning out his deck as well.

//-/-/--/-/-//-

A couple of hours later…

"Sir…" Kazin stated pushing up his glasses trying to get Beck's attention.

"Ah…Kazin…" Beck chuckled turning away from the academy's homepage on his laptop. "How's our newest experiment doing?"

In response, Kazin slowly lifted up a white clipboard and pushed his glasses up a little bit more. "Well, sir…the injection we gave him is steadily working. His pulse and heart-rate are normal so far. But his mind is another story…it seems to be going under a lot of stress…"

"Eh? That's all?" Beck questioned with a slight chuckle in hi voice. "That's nothing new…everyone experiences some technical difficulties in their heads after they get the injection…"

"Yes…but his are more…how you say…" Kazin grumbled to himself rubbing his chin. "Ah yes! In a more violent fashion…I even had to get Bravo to restrain him while I shackled him to the bed."

"Oh…I guess that explains Bravo's bruised face," Beck muttered scratching the side of his head. "And the fact that he lost a lot of blood this morning…"

"Who knew that the former Dark World Prince had a good left hook and roundhouse kick," Kazin stated a little amazed with his subject. "However…he's still trying to get free of his bindings…I estimate that he'll be like this for a good week or two…"

"Any clue what he's getting out of this?" Beck asked sitting back down in his chair to look at his website.

"Frankly sir, at this point in time," Kazin sighed lifting the clipboard once more up to his face, this time covering it. "You're guess is as good as mine…but from what I'm seeing…I think you might like what we're getting from him."

"And what would that be exactly?" Beck asked bluntly raising an eyebrow.

"Didn't you just hear me?" Kazin questioned sending Beck a confused look. "I just said that we're not sure yet. Be patient, Boss."

"But you just said…" Beck started but then shook his head. "Never mind…just tell me…are you and the others prepared to duel in this little tournament?"

"Heh…are you kidding?" Kazin asked raising an eyebrow with a dark smile on his face. "Alex…Black Tiger…whatever he calls himself, he was the first to duel and, well, if you look it up yourself you'll be able to see how he's been doing thus far."

"Well, alright then," Beck sighed turning back to his computer screen and looking up the original name Alex Tudor (after all, the guy was enrolled originally under that name). The computer flashed slightly before creating a new page…

…At the sight of the new page, Beck's eyes widened. Scrolling down the large page, a small number of students appeared, ranging from all of three dorms…all of them defeated by one person in the first few hours of the tournament.

"A-Amazing…" Beck stuttered falling from his seat. "H-h-he's done all that in only a few hours!?! I-I-I can't believe that level of improvement he's shown…look, he's defeated over seven blues."

"Even I have to admit that the fresh meat is impressive," Kazin chuckled crossing his arms with the clipboard clinging near his chest. "But…let's not forget that he lost to a certain Red girl, a chess blue duelist, and a shorty red. One of which lost to another one of our newest members…"

"Yes…however, he had those Overlords," Beck answered back sitting back down into his seat. "But, all Alex took, were some old common cards…he said that he was going to fall back on some cards his father got for him before…well, that's not the case here…but, with the new system of rules, he's able to take them to his full advantage…"

"There's only a few other students who are even coming close to what he's accomplished in the early hours," Kazin pointed out on the computer screen. "One happens to be a red student…a samurai guy. And the other, well, I can't really say what his strategy or his dorm…it's confidential."

"Interesting," Beck muttered to himself with a large crescent moon grin. "We'll have to keep an eye on that one…and for the samurai…perhaps maybe Luke can test his abilities…but now then, back to Alex…"

"Makes you wonder…what he's planning on doing," Kazin thought out loud scratching the side of his head with his palm. Although he hated to state it, it would seem that the freshman was at a much higher level than him with his duelist strategy…

"…Apparently, right now…he's enjoying the entertainment that Alan had set up," Beck answered bluntly making Kazin lower his head immediately in embarrassment. "Wow…he's really scoring high in DDR."

"…ladies and gentlemen…met our newest Yokai," Kazin sighed slightly.

//--//-//--/-//-/

The academy duelists weren't only left to just duel, Alan thought ahead and leave the duelists with some other activities other than dueling. Since there were several duelists who lost or didn't want to participate in the Rush for the Treasure, Alan had set up several booths and stands around the academy.

Food, video games, contests…anything you could find at a carnival was set up around the entire island.

The Red dorms, they had more games and fried food stands than the other dorms and buildings on the island. And since a majority of the red dorm students were dueling each other trying to get some easy pins, the students who weren't dueling pretty much had everything all to themselves.

Speaking of students who weren't dueling…

"This is quite nice," Rena stated with a smile on her face as she adjusted the mask that was on the side of her head.

Turning away from her drink, Rukia nodded in reply. "Yeah…reminds of the old festivals when my Brother was sensible…"

"I don't think Kimatori would find it entertaining to talk about her father like that," Rena giggled turning her head to the side. "But, anyway, from yesterday's weather…this is perfect for the tournament."

"Speaking of which, how many pins did you get?" Rukia asked…making Rena move the mask directly in front of her face. "…I'll take a guess that you only got the one you've first received…"

"Y-yeah…" Rena stuttered pushing the mask over her hair. "B-but at least I can still find an opponent at my level.

"Ah you're just being too hard on yourself Rena," Rukia stated shrugging her shoulders. "You'll be able to get on a roll once you get used to the new rules…"

"What are the new rules exactly?" Rena asked blinking a few times; she never did get a chance to look over the new rules in her PDA.

"Ah, but where's the fun in that?" Rukia replied crossing her arms and looking ahead.

That's where she stayed looking, making Rena curious to look at a large group of fellow red students were gathered around a flashing area. As any normal person would, both Rena and Rukia headed towards the group to see what had gathered them.

At the middle of the large group appeared to be a very fancy Dance Dance Revolution arcade machine, playing one of the faster songs and showing the steps on the machine.

To the left dance pad, was a random Ra Yellow student who was struggling to keep up with her opponent…

…her strangely dressed opponent…

Despite his fancy, yellow clothes and cavalier's hat, the young man with bright red hair that protruded from underneath the hat was able to keep his cool and keep up to the machine without any problems.

When the other yellow student tripped over her feet, the machine's music stopped and the fancy Ra Yellow lifted his hat up into the air as his victory pose. "Ole!"

Everyone in the group cheered for the fancy Ra Yellow as he spun around and bowed down immediately to the crowd. "Oh, you are all too kind! Thank you! Thank you all!"

"…is this guy some kind of matador?" Rena asked as the Ra Yellow stood up straight to reveal the silver mask with pure white eyes. "…okay, a masked matador…gee, we really have a lot of weird people here…"

"You can say that again," Rukia sighed shaking her head.

"…You realize that I can hear you two correct?"

Rena and Rukia turned away from each other to see the masked matador standing before them both, his arms crossed over his chest, showing off the golden duel disk on his left arm. "If you must mock, at least call me by my spectacular name…De Masque!"

"…De Masque?" Rena questioned raising an eyebrow at De Masque. "…Well, it's more creative than the Black Tiger…"

De Masque could feel the blood vessel on the back of his head grow at the mere mention of the name Black Tiger. "B-Black Tiger? I-It sounds like a fabulous name to me…"

"Well, the guy under that mask was a real pervert," Rukia pointed out crossing her arms over her chest. "He peeked in on the girls' bathhouse."

"W-well, you shouldn't judge people too much," De Masque defended raising his hands up. "Who knows? Maybe it was an accident…"

"Accident's don't get nose bleeds," Rena pointed out scratching the back of her head.

The blood vessel on the back of De Masque's head began to grow even larger as he closed his eyes in anger (although you really couldn't tell with the mask on and all). '_Hard not to get a nose bleed when you get smacked in the face with a small tub after you get plummeted through a roof.'_

"Forget about that interesting Black Tiger," De Masque stated shaking his head a little bit. "And focus on the tournament at hand…does anyone fancy a duel? Anyone? Anyone at all?"

"I would…but I don't have any pins left."

"It's a personal reason not to duel someone in a mask."

"…you just freak me out dude."

"Typical," De Masque chuckled jumping off the dance pad and began to walk from the crowd. "I try to find a decent opponent…and no one's even interested in a friendly match…"

"Hey Rena," Rukia whispered turning around and making Rena turn around. "You should face him…"

"What!?!?!?" Rena stated with widened eyes. "A-are you kidding?"

"Aw come on…you be little yourself too much," Rukia stated as she stepped behind Rena and began to push the elf duelist forward. "Come on…I bet you can take this guy on…"

"B-B-But…" Rena stuttered trying to stop being pushed.

"Hey! Maskey guy!" Rukia shouted getting De Masque to stop in his tracks.

"It's De Masque!" The Fancy Ra shouted turning around to see the two Slifer Girls skidding to a stop. "…and what can I do for you lovely ladies anyway…"

"My friend Rena…wants to duel you!" Rukia announced gesturing towards Rena with a diabolic smile on her face.

"R-Rukia!" Rena stuttered slightly.

"Hmm…" De Masque hummed to himself rubbing his chin. Although he giving off the aura that a gentleman would, De Masque was actually itching to get back at Rena for the embarrassment that she had give him a while back when he was still Alex Tudor.

This was jut his golden opportunity…what other choice did De Masque have? "…I'll accept."

"W-what!?! Wait a second!" Rena pleaded waving her arms in the air a few times trying to get attention drawn to herself. "Don't I get a say in this?"

"There you go, you just got a say in this," Rukia stated pushing Rena forward slightly. "Now, get ready to duel this guy!"

Lowering her head when she got her footing, Rena reached for her deck and snapped it into her duel disk with the red border on it. '_Great…well…I guess I have to start somewhere. At least I'm used facing weirdoes…'_

"Okay…De Masque," Rena stated lifting her duel disk up into the air. "Let's get this duel rolling!"

"Now, now, now," De Masque snickered wagging his finger a few times. "You can't just start a duel in our little tournament…"

"…I can't?" Rena asked blinking a few times confused as De Masque took out his deck.

"Correct!" De Masque announced lifting one of the cards from his deck up. "Before we can begin, we must each select one monster from our decks…and for the rest of the duel, that monster will act as our Deck Master."

"Deck Master?" Rena questioned with a large question mark appearing over her head. "Okay, you've officially lost me…"

"Just select a monster," De Masque stated as a slot on the back of his duel disk opened up. "And place it into the extra slot. The monster will appear next to you and you'll have yourself a Deck Master."

"…I should've really read the rules this morning," Rena sighed shaking her head before pulling her deck out of her duel disk and began to look at all the monster cards that she had. '_How do I know which monster do I choose anyway? Hmm…well, I guess I'll choose…_'

"I choose Reflect Carbuncle!"

In a flash of sparkling red lights, the small cute green furred creature landed on Rena's shoulder with a squeak. Rena just blushed as her monster rubbed up against her cheek. "Aw…how cute…"

"An interesting choice," De Masque chuckled spinning his selected card. "I on the other hand…shall choose this one!"

A burst of black smoke erupted next to De Masque, but was quickly blown away by the wind. In the smoke's place was an experienced man wearing a large blue top hat along with a large dark blue cloak that floated over his entire body. The man laughed slightly as he bowed down and removed his hat. "Miss Rena, Miss Rukia…allow me to introduce my Great Phantom Thief, my deck master."

"Yeah…what's the point of the deck master anyway?" Rena asked as she and Reflect Carbuncle tilted their heads over to the side. "Not that I don't mind, but seems kind of pointless."

"Actually, the Deck Master system adds an element to the game," De Masque interjected crossing his hands as he began to shuffle his cards once more. "Each deck master has an appropriate effect, and can dramatically change the battle field. If you had thought to look up about your monsters in your deck, you could've find out about your monster's Deck Master Ability. I've known about mine since my first match…"

"Wait…this isn't your first match?" Rena asked lifting up her only pin.

Throwing his fancy coat back, De Masque revealed that there were at least twenty pins on the inside of his coat, a majority of them blue. "Actually, you're my twenty-first match today…"

"Rukia!" Rena shouted taking a step back along with Ruby Carbuncle. "D-Did you know about this!?!"

Now it was Rukia's turn to be surprised, exposed by the large blank look on her face. "N-No! I didn't! De Masky! I'll be the one facing you!"

Closing his coat, De Masque began to chuckle. "Unfortunately, once a Deck Master is chosen, a duelist cannot back out or change the Deck Master. So, since I'm currently facing a Reflect Carbuncle which belongs to a Rena Akira…she's my opponent…"

"F-Fine…at least I don't have to worry about anything serious here," Rena chuckled shuffling her deck once more.

'…_hmm…that's when you're wrong…_' De Masque chuckled as that thought rang through his head as he snapped his fingers. No one seemed to notice that a small wispy black circle appeared around him and Rena. "Now then…to the wagers. First of all, since you've only got one pin, I need only need to wager one as well…"

"Uh huh," Rena nodded gulping loudly.

"But, why not add even more suspense to the game?" De Masque offered raising his hand up towards Rena. "I propose that whenever one of us takes damage, we must answer any question (not including the cards in our hand or deck) that either of us ask each other."

"Why the hell would you suggest that?" Rena asked with a slight blush on her face as she imagined what questions De Masque could ask her.

"…What can I say? I'm a curious guy," De Masque chuckled raising his hand to his mouth to cover his large smirk. '_Giving your soul to the shadows would be too easy…death by embarrassment, that is truly a fate befitting you Rena Akira._'

"Well, forget it," Rena huffed raising her duel disk up. "So unless you've got something else to tell me, then can we get on with this duel?"

"Of course," De Masque replied snapping his first five cards off his duel disk. '_Fool…little do you realize that the area around us is imbued with dark magic designed to make anyone tell the truth while standing in the circle…there won't be any mask here besides my own._'

"Duel!"

Drawing his sixth card immediately, De Masque spun the card immediately only to slap it onto his duel disk. "Since you're the one who challenged me…its only fair that I can go first." (DMLP: 8000)

"Go ahead," Rena replied looking over her hand. (RLP: 8000)

"Then…I think I'll start off easy, I'll set one card face down," De Masque announced with the set card appearing before him. "And summon this!"

In a small dark spurt, a small orange furred creature appeared on the field, screeching as its three piercing eyes narrowed down at Rena (1000/600). "And with Sangan appearing on the field…my turn is over."

"Eh?" Rena questioned slowly pulling her sixth card. '_A weak monster and a set card…seems like an obvious trap. But, I have to remember what the mask guy said, the Deck Master has a secret ability…and who knows what his could be. I don't even know what Reflect Carbuncle can do._'

'_I guess I should at least get this started with._'

"Are you going to make your move?" De Masque asked adjusted his hat. "Cause this is getting boring slightly…"

"Fine, I'll counter your move by summoning Mallet Elf!" Rena announced slapping her card onto her duel disk.

"Mallet Elf?" De Masque and Rukia questioned at the same time as a powerful flame erupted from the ground in front of Rena.

When the flame shattered, a dark figure landed on the ground crouching down. As the figure stood up straight up, his features became apparent. It appeared that the figure was a young male elf with fiery red hair, held up by a black headband. Around his neck was a long red scarf over his black baggy suit with a silver cross on his back. In his hands was a large black and silver mallet that doesn't seem to be heavy to him, seeing as how the elf spun the mallet in his hand (1200/900).

"Well…that's a new one," De Masque muttered raising an eyebrow behind his mask.

"Just wait to see what he can do," Rena giggled lifting her hand up towards the Sangan. "But why don't you say hello to his hammer! Attack Sangan!"

Spinning the hammer even faster, the Mallet Elf's hammer seemed to grow in size and length before slamming the hammer into the Sangan's body, crushing the critter by its weight. The force of the hammer made De Masque cover his mask covered face with his arm. "Not bad…" (DMLP: 7800)

That's when a card from De Masque's deck shot out from his deck into his hand. "However, thanks to Sangan's effect I can take one monster from my deck with fifteen hundred attack points or less. But…now then, ask me any question…"

"Question?" Rukia asked crossing her arms. "What are you talking about?"

"Remember? We're both supposed to ask each other a question whenever a player loses life points through damage," De Masque answered wagging his finger. "Even if she doesn't want to answer my questions, I'm still willing after all…it's all just for fun."

"Well, okay," Rena stated crossing her arms. "Then, who's under that mask?"

Lifting his hand up, De Masque removed his hat and mask, showing his freckled face and drooping red hair. "I am De Masque, but otherwise known as Alex Tudor."

"…who?" Rena asked making the unmasked De Masque fall to the ground with a loud 'thud'.

'_S-She doesn't remember me!?!' _De Masque thought as he placed his mask and hat back on as he stood up. "W-well then, anything else you want to throw at me?"

"I'll just set one card face down," Rena replied with the card appearing behind her Mallet Elf. "And that's all up to you."

"Don't mind if I do," De Masque announced snapping his next card, giving him full card hand. "Now then…I'll summon my next monster! I summon White Magical Hat!"

From a white mist, a fancy rugged man wearing a white top hat and cloak appeared from the mist. Underneath his cloak was a fancy blue suit and on the man's mustached face was a foggy monocle (1000/700). Like the Great Phantom Thief, this nobleman bowed down and took his hat off at the sight of the two girls. "Impressive, wouldn't you say?"

"…Well…do you want my honest opinion?" Rena asked tilting her head to the side as Reflect Carbuncle did the same with a squeak.

"Never mind," De Masque fitted his next card into his duel disk. "Yes, I realize that my monster isn't the best power house, but when played with what I can do…well, he can be quite the threat…"

"You've still got my Mallet Elf out to deal with," Rena pointed out as her hammer wielding elf grinned widely.

"True…but why go at him," De Masque proposed as a golden aura appeared around his White Magical Hat. "…when I can go around him? I activate Secret Pass to the Treasures! This spell gives my White Magical Hat the ability to attack you directly this turn!"

As the golden aura disappeared, a small flame appeared around the Mallet Elf (1200/900 + 200/0). "Since a spell was played, my Elf gains one Spell Counter, and for each counter on my monster, he gains two hundred attack points."

"Yes…however, that doesn't matter right now!" De Masque countered throwing his arm to the side as his White Magical Hat leapt into the air. "For my White Magical Hat can attack you directly right now! Thief's Card Trick!"

Spinning around, many cards were shot from the White Magical Hat's body that flew directly into Rena's body; the cards were sharp and cut into Rena's body. "OW!" (RLP: 7000)

As the White Magical Hat landed on the ground in front of De Masque, the fancy duelist's set card flipped up, creating a large ring of thorns appearing at Rena's feet. "And now, I chain my monster's attack with my continuous trap, Magical Thorn!"

"Uh…do you use more recent cards?" Rena asked scratching the side of her cheek.

"Sometimes the traditional are better than the new," De Masque retorted wagging a finger at Rena. "Now then, due to my thief's effect, you have to discard a card from your hand and thus chaining my Magical Thorn. So you'll lose an additional five hundred points."

A little cautious, Rena selected one of the cards in her hand at random and slipped it into her graveyard, immediately have the many thorns at her feet spring up and scratch her arms. "That's annoying…" (RLP: 6500)

"And now…I can ask you two questions," De Masque stated with his arms crossed. "If you can, you don't have to answer. But my questions are…What was your most embarrassing moment? And why do you use elf cards?"

Blinking a few times, Rena was about to say that she wasn't going to answer…another sentence came out of her mouth. "M-My most embarrassing moment was when I was pants by a mean girl in my school…eep!"

Slapping her mouth with her hands, Rena's face had become a deep shade of red and Rukia's eyes widened at the new fact about her friend. '_W-Where did that come from!?!_'

"Hmm…interesting, I didn't know that girls pants each other," De Masque chuckled rubbing his masked chin. "But now then…you mind answering my other question? Why do you use elf cards?"

Rena fought to answer…but it was a meaningless battle… "I-I use elf cards because… because my mother…"

"Zvarri!" Leo announced appearing right in the middle of the duel field.

"ACK!" De Masque shouted jumping up slightly.

"L-LEO!" Rena and Rukia shouted, neither of them noticing that Kimatori was walking next to Rukia.

"W-Who the hell is this guy?" De Masque asked clutching his chest while breathing heavily.

"This is Leo Childsman," Rena answered immediately as Leo walked up to Rukia and Kimatori. "And since that was a question…I just answered that."

"Damn it," De Masque cursed lifting his hand up again.

"So…did we miss something Rukia?" Kimatori asked pulling on Rukia's hand.

"Well, it's basically just Rena's first duel in the tournament," Rukia explained pointing towards De Masque. "And apparently, this character, De Masque managed to get over twenty pins for the tournament. I didn't know he managed to pull that off, so I got Rena involved in this duel."

"Hmm…I see," Leo hummed to himself rubbing his chin. "Well…I wouldn't underestimate Rena, I'm sure she can hold her own in this."

"What in the world are you doing here anyway Leo?" Rukia asked turning towards the weird Obelisk Blue.

"Interesting story really," Leo replied keeping his eyes on Rena as she drew her next card. "I was actually going to check out some of the booths that the red dorm had set up here. Maybe buy a few of the souvenirs."

"Okay…but what's with 'Zvarri'?" Rukia asked a little more intently than with the previous question.

"…oh, well, I just wanted to try something different other than hello or hi," Leo answered scratching the back of his head while he kept his innocent smile on his face. "So, it was just random."

"I…I see…" Rukia muttered to herself.

"Okay…I think I'll set two cards face down and end my turn," De Masque announced crossing his arms over his chest. "Let's see what you've got Rena…"

"Alright," Rena stuttered lifting up her next card. Then with a smile, Rena spun the card into her duel disk. "I activate the spell card, Graceful Charity! So not only do I get a few cards but my Mallet Elf gains another spell counter!"

Leo rubbed his chin at Rena's move and Mallet Elf (1400/900 + 200/0). "Hmm…did Rena develop a new strategy with Spell Counters?"

"Sure looks that way," Rukia replied.

"Now then, I'll discard Edge Elf and Archer Elf due to my Graceful Charity," Rena announced as she raised her hand over her face down card. "But my Edge Elf will return! I activate Call of the Haunted! So my Edge Elf returns!"

The ground before Rena opened up, allowing a large white coffin to rise upwards above the ground. In two quick slashes, the coffin shattered into shards of wood allowing the dark elf to stand on the field. The light revealed a dark haired elf with his hair tied in the back into a long pony tail. Over his semi-muscular body was a black jumpsuit with silver crosses on his shoulders and baggy khaki pants. In his hands are a pair of glowing rapiers connected by a long glowing chain that he raised up in a strong manner (1700/1300). "I declare Spellcaster for his effect. And now…Mallet Elf! Attack his White Magical Hat!"

"Trap card go! Magical Hats!" De Masque announced as three large black hats with question marks on them appeared over the White Magical Hat and spun around a few times. "Now then, thanks to my little trick you've got to find for my monster…"

"…however, the real question is…what else is under these hats?"

"Man…do you have any more updated strategies?" Rena asked looking at all three of the hats and pointed left and right.

"Hey, if it isn't broke," De Masque responded with a smile.

"W-Well…Mallet Elf! Attack the hat on the right!" Rena shouted with the Mallet Elf raising his giant hammer into the air. Then in a quick slam, the hammed crushed the hat into the ground with no trouble.

"Eh!" De Masque buzzed with his thumb pointed downwards. "Wrong choice! Now you get whatever was underneath! Go Black Pendant!"

From the remains from the Magical Hat, a dark aura wrapped itself around Rena's body, making the Elf Duelist cough as her life point counter slowly clicked down. "…Even his tactics are old…" (RLP: 6000)

"And since you took damage…its quiz time!" De Masque chuckled rubbing his chin. "Hmm…I don't know what to ask ya…oh wait, how about…who do you have a crush on in this school?"

"I wonder why he's asking such weird questions," Rukia stated moving her eyes slightly.

"Probably a fan boy," Kimatori suggested trying to stifle a giggle.

"…it's more than that," Leo stated as Rena tried to shake the smoke away from her body. '_I think our little masked man has something more devious planned.'_

"I…I…I like…Ganryu…" Rena muttered lowering her head.

"Ganryu!?!" Rukia and Kimatori exclaimed taken back from Rena's answer.

"Ganryu…I can see that," Leo stated with his smile still intact. "But why do girls always go for the dark emo guys? Honestly why?"

"Ganryu!" De Masque gasped, but then sweatdropped. "Wait a minute…I have no clue who that is…"

Meanwhile at the Obelisk Blue dorm, a familiar Chess Duelist was shot in the heart by an invisible gun. "ARGH!"

Back to the duel…

"Well…I've still got one more shot, Edge Elf! Attack the middle hat!" Rena announced as the sword wielding elf charge forward in a dark blur, slicing the hat clean in two.

"EEEH! Wrong again!" De Masque chuckled raising his hand up into the air as the dark mist appeared around Rena again making her cough violently. "That was a second Black Pendant, so you lose an additional five hundred points…and I can ask another question…" (RLP: 5500)

Rena's face was still red from the last secret, and was starting to get worse.

"Ah, ah, ah," De Masque chuckled wagging his finger. "We can't have you going silent on us…how about…what is your greatest fear?"

"I…I'm scared of ghosts…" Rena stuttered with her hair covering her eyes.

"Hmm, if that's true, then weren't you afraid of Vic's monsters when I dueled him?" Leo asked rubbing his chin.

"They weren't the kind of ghosts I'm afraid of…" Rena answered with a loud sigh.

"Do you have anything else you want to try?" De Masque asked tilting his head to the side.

"I'll just set a card face down…" Rena answered as the back card appeared behind her two elves. "A-And end my turn…"

"Well then…I think its time to end this, don't you?" De Masque questioned slowly drawing his next card. "With this next move, I'll be able to get your biggest secret…"

"Hmm…have either of them used their Deck Master?" Leo asked scratching his chin.

"Actually…no…" Rukia replied realizing what was coming. "Uh oh…"

"First, I'll flip up my White Magical Hat," De Masque replied as his fancy thief reappeared from the hat. "And now…I use Great Phantom Thief's Deck Master Ability! Honor Among Thieves!"

Snapping a card from his hand and slipping it into his duel disk graveyard, De Masque's duel disk began to glow. "Here's how my Deck Master's Ability works. I need to discard one card and pay one thousand life points…but it well worth it." (DMLP: 6800)

That's when two more clouds of white mist appeared in front of De Masque, forming into two more White Magical Hats (1000/700 x2). All three of them bowed down and removed their hats in a fancy manner. "Uh…should I find this confusing or bad?"

"A little from both columns," De Masque answered looking at the rest of his hand. "Here's a little tidbit…my Honor Among Thieves ability allows me to special summon any copy of a monster I have on the field with fifteen hundred attack points or less. And my White Magical Hat falls under that category."

Then taking another card from his hand, De Masque fitted his card into his duel disk, creating a powerful glowing triangle around of all three of the White Magical Hats. "I activate the spell card, Delta Attack! This spell card only works when I have three of the same monster on my side of the field. During this turn…all three of them can attack your life points directly!"

"Yeah, but don't forget that I get another spell counter on my Mallet Elf," Rena sighed knowing it was slightly pointless that her Mallet Elf (1600/900 + 200/0) became stronger.

"True…however, it won't matter…" De Masque chuckled fanning his hand towards Rena as all three of his noble thieves leapt into the air. "White Magical Hats! Attack her directly!"

With great agility, all three of the White Magical Hats appeared around Rena, all three of them lifting up decks of playing cards. Then throwing them at all three of the decks, the White Magical Hats' cards flew into Rena's body, making her tense up in pain as her life points decreased rapidly. (RLP: 2500)

"And don't forget…thanks to my White Magical Hats' abilities you can say goodbye to the rest of your hand and thanks to Magical Thorn you'll lose five hundred for each card," De Masque added snapping his fingers upwards towards Rena.

Looking down, Rena was met with the many thorns flying upwards around her body, and then coiling around her, the thorns snapped into Rena's body, making the elf duelist groan slightly. "Ugh…" (RLP: 1000)

"Now then…I'll count that all single damage," De Masque stated crossing his arms. "And since that was a decent amount, I think I'll ask you a question equal to that damage. What…is…your darkest secret?"

Tears began to appear in Rena's eyes; as much as she tried…she couldn't win against answering that question. Because of that case, Rena didn't know if the tears were for the fact that she was going to tell her secret…

…or that it would get a large amount of stress off her shoulders…

"…m-mom…" Rena muttered wiping some of the tears from her eyes.

"…Your darkest secret is your mom?" De Masque questioned raising an eyebrow behind his mask. "…I was expecting something…more ominous…but oh, well."

Rena just lowered her head, and placed her hand on her forehead. '_…I'll always remember you…_'

"Now then…I think I'll just set one card face down," De Masque chuckled with the card appearing behind all three of his fancy thieves. "Now then…I'm going to break the clichéd villains' code and actually say that you try to hit me with your best shot. Cause as soon as I get to my next turn, I can get my last question answered."

"And let me tell ya, it's going to be a big one…"

"…Now I remember!" Rena stated clapping her hands together.

"Huh?" De Masque questioned with a cold sweat appearing on the back of his head.

"Alex Tudor! You were my first opponent in duel class!" Rena announced as De Masque fell backwards.

"…it took you this long to remember?" De Masque asked sitting back up dusting of his fancy yellow uniform.

"I, uh, well," Rena stuttered with a blush on her face. "That doesn't matter! Why did you have to get us in this duel? And what's going on in this duel?"

"If you can inflict life point damage, then you can ask as many questions equal to the damage," De Masque replied shaking his hand. '_But, even if she does attack, I can use my Negate Attack to block any attack…and with my second Secret Pass to the Treasures in my hand…I can take out the remainder of her life points.'_

"Draw…" Rena sighed taking her next card…then, looking at the card, Rena smiled. "I summon Breaker, the Magical Warrior!"

In a bright red flash of light, the red armored sorcerer (1600/1100 + 300/0) appeared raising his sword up…that just made De Masque take a step backwards. "Oh…crap…"

"Now, Breaker! Shatter that face down card!" Rena announced as Breaker leapt into the air, his sword (1600/1100) glowing a powerful red as he slashed downwards onto the face down card…shattering it into pixels.

"…crud…" De Masque growled with his face down card's remains disappearing into the air.

"Now then…Breaker! Mallet Elf! Edge Elf! Attack all three of the White Magical Hats!" Rena announced as all three of her monsters ran forward.

The Mallet Elf was the first to arrive in front of the three similar thieves, his hammer up and ready to slam. When the Mallet Elf slammed his hammer into the first White Magical Hat, the monster went flying into the air. "Homerun!" (DMLP: 6000)

While the other two White Magical Hats were watching their comrade shattering into pixels, the Edge Elf and Breaker appeared in front of them both and stabbed their swords into both of the other White Magical Hats. (DMLP: 4700)

"Yeah! I got ya back!" Rena announced lifting her hand up in a victory sign. "And your questions will be…Why are you after me? What's with this duel? And what's with the get up?"

'_Damn it…she's using my own rules against me…but, unlike her, I can bend the rules…_' De Masque thought crossing his arms over his chest. "Why I'm after you…well, I just wanted a rematch. The duel? Well…maybe we're just being truthful today. And what's wrong with my outfit? It's a nobility thing, so I guess I should've seen this coming…"

"I'm from a noble family," Leo stated rubbing his chin. "But I've never seen anyone in this day and age wear something like that…"

"Oh just get off my back!" De Masque growled pulling his next card off his duel disk and looking at the card. '_I hate to use this…but I may have to in order to use my real strategy…'_

"I think its time to answer a question that was asked earlier," De Masque commented spinning the card he just drew into his duel disk. "Why do I use only old cards? Answer: I don't. I have other cards, newer cards, and you're about to see them! I activate the spell card, Card of Sanctity! Now we both draw till we have six cards!"

"You realize that'll help me a lot more than you correct?" Rena asked as many coins began to rain down from the sky as both duelists drew.

"In order to help yourself," De Masque retorted fanning his new cards in front of him. "You must help your opposition…besides; a gentleman must help a lady in any need. Like for now…I activate the spell card, Calling Card!"

From the sky, multiple cards began to float down all of them with a white and black mask on a black background. Rena raised her hand up to observe the card in her hand. "What's this?"

"Do you know the rules of the noble thief?" De Masque asked puling out his deck. "Now-a-days, thieves have no honor. When was the last time you heard of someone stealing a painting or jewels from a museum? Noble Thieves are nearly a dying breed…the Dark Scorpions are a good example…"

Slapping the selected card onto his duel disk, De Masque's duel disk glowed dark creating a large black cloud of smoke on the field. The smoke died down, allowing a silver masked thief, wearing a black cavalier's hat with a large plume feather in it. On his fancy gold trimmed red shirt is a long black cape like overcoat that exposed his thin body. Like the previous monsters that De Masque played before, this masked man bowed down and removed his hat to show his long flowing red hair (1500/1500). "…allow me to introduce a real thief…a noble thief…Mask Cu Raid!"

"…Well…it's certainly interesting…" Rena stated with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of her face while the Mallet Elf (1800/900 + 200/0). "Hey, wait a minute…that's a level five monster. How can you summon it without a tribute?"

"Simple…my Calling Card spell had another effect," De Masque pointed out lifting another card from his hand. "If I posses no monsters on my side of the field, then I can summon my Mask Cu Raid without tribute this turn. But that's of little consequence now…what matters is that now I have him out. My favorite monster and one of my deadliest to boot as well."

"Not to sound rude, but for a level five monster," Rukia sighed pointing at Mask Cu Raid. "It's rather weak…"

"True…but to make up for that, my monster was given many special abilities…" De Masque replied fitting a spell card into his duel disk, making appear behind Mask Cu Raid. The spell depicted three Mask Cu Raids standing behind a sapphire 'I', all of them holding their hats over their hearts. "And special spells! Like this one, I activate I – Image of Mirage! By lowering Mask Cu Raid's attack and defense by one thousand…"

With the spell shattering, Mask Cu Raid (1500/1500 – 1000/1000) threw a small black orb onto the ground, creating a large explosion of smoke in the air. A moment later, the smoke cleared showing three identical Mask Cu Raids (500/500 x3) standing where the original was…all of them bowing down and removing their hats. "I can special summon two Mask Cu Raid Tokens! And their share the same name and effect as the original!"

"What's his effect anyway?" Rena asked as Mallet Elf gained another counter (2000/900 + 200/0)…that's when all eyes turned towards a relaxed Leo.

"…actually, I don't really know…" Leo answered with a shrug and his real smile. "De Masque actually stumped me on this one."

"Can you people please get my name right?" De Masque asked shaking his head. "It's De Masque! De Masque!"

"That's what I said," Leo replied making a sweatdrop appear on the back of De Masque.

"Oh…thanks I guess," De Masque stuttered lifting up his duel disk once again. "But now then…I'll activate the spell card Delta Attack! Now all three of my Mask Cue Raids can attack you directly! This will be the end of the duel! Mask Cu Raids! Attack Rena directly! Noble Thief Skills!"

Disappearing in three clouds of smoke, all three Mask Cu Raids disappeared in the smoke. That's when all three of the noble thieves appeared above Rena, all three of them lifting up their calling cards…taking aim…and then threw them towards the Elf Duelist.

"Squeak!"

Just as all three cards were about to fly into Rena, a powerful red barrier appeared around her, catching the cards. Then, five cards popped out of Rena's graveyard, making the barrier shatter like glass, and fly into all three of the Mask Cu Raids, making them shatter like glass as well.

De Masque's eyes widened through his mask as he fell to the ground. "N-no…M-Mask Cu Raid…n-not again…"

"What just happened?" Kimatori asked pulling on Leo's pants.

"Rena's deck master happened," Leo answered as Reflect Carbuncle squeaked and danced for joy in the air. "I took a quick gander at the PDA rule book when I saw Rena's Deck Master. Reflect Carbuncle's effect is called Mirror Glass. By removing five cards from her graveyard, Rena can destroy all monsters on her opponent's side of the field when they attack. The downside is that if she uses it, Reflect Carbuncle is forced onto the field…but it looks like it won't be a problem this time around…"

"…just end it…" De Masque snarled lowering his head…allowing Rena to draw her next card.

"…I will…" Rena replied lifting her hand up. "Mallet Elf! Edge Elf! And Breaker! Attack De Masque directly!"

Closing his eyes, De Masque took the large hammer, and the three sharp swords into his body without a problem… and as the holograms disappeared, De Masque removed his mask to show Alex Tudor…crying slightly. "…Mask Cu Raid…I'm sorry…" (DMLP: 0)

"I-I won?" Rena asked pointing to herself while she blinked a few times. "I won…I won!"

Reflect Carbuncle giggled before disappearing in a flurry of red and green sparkles, Leo smiled approvingly while Rukia and Kimatori shot Rena a thumbs up. No one noticed that the dark mist circle disappeared in the breeze.

Standing up, De Masque put his mask back on and smiled at Rena. "Yes…it was a good duel…and you have earned my pin easily…as well as earning an answer to any question you may have."

"Alright…" Rena replied rubbing her chin a few times. "Um…why did you feel so strongly about Mask Cu Raid?"

De Masque's eyes widened once more, but then chuckled a few times. "Very well…if you really want to know then I guess I can tell you. Mask Cu Raid was originally a real thief…a noble thief who deserved to be known through out the world. However, the media never thought that a man like this deserved to be known…"

"…He was a great man; I respected him and admired him. Before any time he would pull off a job, he would send his calling card to his targets. He wasn't cocky, but he loved a challenge and would give people a chance to fight back…and still he was able to accomplish his job with ease."

"And if you think he was selfish and kept the money, then think again. After his last attempt of a heist, it was a fact that he was sending a large amount of the money he received from his heists to many different charities that were in desperate need of money…"

"He sounded like a modern day Robin Hood," Rena stated thinking about De Masque's tale.

"He was…" De Masque sighed dreamily. "…in his last heist, he was actually hired to steal art from a certain artist…maybe the name Maximillion Pegasus rings a bell…"

"You're kidding; he tried to steal art from the maker of duel monsters?" Leo asked raising an eyebrow. "And let me guess, he sent a calling card to him as well…"

"Correct…however, Mask Cu Raid met his match," De Masque sighed in disappointment as he lowered his head. "He actually ran into Pegasus, and he didn't know how, but he was paralyzed by Pegasus. After he was incarcerated for his actions, Pegasus read up on the files of Mask Cu Raid. Thus creating the cards based on Mask Cu Raid's style and noble actions…"

Throwing his fancy over jacket over his shoulder, De Masque adjusted his hat while he threw Rena a yellow jewel pin. "But now that the story is over…I owe you that pin. And you owe me an I.O.U. on another duel…you may not know it…but there's something that ties us Miss Akira…"

"There is? Is it something other than the fact I've beaten you twice?" Rena asked making De Masque cough a few times.

"Yes! One day I wonder if you'll realize it soon," De Masque responded before spinning on his heel and walking it away. "Our battle is not over…not by a long shot!"

Rena just blinked a few times in confusion as De Masque walked away into the distance…until Rukia wrapped her arm around Rena's neck. "Well done Rena! You did it!"

"Thanks Rukia…" Rena sighed looking at the pin then narrowing her eyes at Rukia. "But if you do something like that again…I'll get you back…"

"Right…I'll make a note on that…" Rukia chuckled with a cold sweat appearing on her head.

"Oh yes…there was something I was supposed to tell you guys," Leo stated rubbing the back of his head while he still had that smile. "Oh yes…I saw Ganryu earlier dueling near the Ra Dorm…I think he was still dueling…"

"And you waited till now to tell us!?!" Rena and Rukia shouted at the same time.

"Well…I didn't want to interrupt a good duel," Leo answered with his smile back on his face. "I bet we can still make the duel if we leave right now…after all, we did learn that Rena has a small crush on Ganryu…"

"Y-Yeah…you guys mind keeping that a secret?" Rena requested with a large blush on her face.

"Yeah, we'll make sure not to tell anyone," Kimatori giggled as she jumped on Leo's back.

"Especially Tony," Rukia added with a snicker.

"…Why him specifically?" Rena asked with a question mark appearing over her head.

"…you can't be serious that you haven't noticed," Leo stated with a large raised eyebrow.

"Noticed what?" Rena questioned with an innocent look on her face.

"…never mind then…" Leo chuckled before turning around. "Off to Ganryu's duel then!"

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

**Card Stats**

**Edge Elf / Light / LV. 4 / ATK: 1700 / DEF: 1300 / Spellcaster/Effect:** When this card is normal or special summoned, select one monster on the field. As long as this card is on the field, whenever a monster with the same type as the selected monster battles this card, destroy the opposing monster without inflicting battle damage to this card's owner.

**Description:** A dark haired elf with his hair tied in the back into a long pony tail. Over his semi-muscular body is a black jumpsuit with silver crosses on his shoulders and baggy khaki pants. In his hands are a pair of glowing rapiers connected by a long glowing chain.

**Mallet Elf / Fire / LV. 4 / ATK: 1200 / DEF: 900 / Spellcaster/Effect:** Whenever a spell card is activated, place one Spell Counter on this card. For each Spell Counter on this card, increase this monster's attack by 200 points. By removing three Spell Counters from this card, this card may attack your opponent directly.

**Description:** A young male elf with fiery red hair, held up by a black headband. Around his neck is a long red scarf over his black baggy suit with a silver cross on his back. In his hands is a large black and silver mallet that doesn't seem to be heavy to him.

**Mask Cu Raid / Dark / LV. 5 / ATK: 1500 / DEF: 1500 / Spellcaster/Effect:** ??-???-??

**Description:** A silver masked thief, wearing a black cavalier's hat with a large plume feather in it. On his fancy gold trimmed red shirt is a long black cape like overcoat that exposes his thin body.

**I – Image of Mirage / Instant Spell / Effect:** Select one face up 'Mask Cu Raid' on your side of the field. Lower the attack and defense of the selected monster by 1000 points. Special summon two 'Mask Cu Raid Tokens' with the same attack, defense, level, attribute, type, and effect as the selected monster on your side of the field. These Tokens are considered to be named 'Mask Cu Raid'

**Image:** Three Mask Cu Raids standing behind a sapphire 'I'

**Calling Card / Spell / Effect:** Add one 'Mask Cu Raid' from your deck to your hand. If you have no monsters on your side of the field when this card is activated, you may normal summon the 'Mask Cu Raid' that was just added to your hand to your side of the field without tribute.

**Image:** A black calling card with a black and white mask on the card.

**Deck Master Abilities**

**Great Phantom Thief:** Honor Among Thieves – Select one monster on your side of the field with 1500 attack or less on the field. Then discard one card from your hand and pay 1000 life points. Special summon all copies of the selected card on your side of the field.

**Reflect Carbuncle:** Mirror Glass – This Deck Master's effect can only be activated when your opponent declares a direct attack against you. Remove five cards from your graveyard to negate the attack and destroy all face up attack mode monsters on your opponent's side of the field. After that, move this Deck Master to your side of the field.

//---/-//--//-/-/-//-/

**Ganryu:** …

**Klein:** Heh…silent again are ya? Well ya should be! I just won my first duel and got a pin to show it!

**Ganryu:** …Shut up you stupid leprechaun…

**Klein:** What did you say?!? What did you just call me?

**Ganryu:** 'Kicks Klein into the air' Don't annoy me when I'm concentrating…I've got a duel to win.

_**The silent break the serenity of the island…can the dishonorable defeat the strength of the silent wolf? Next time – **__**Chapter 31: The Silent Duelists Roar**_

**??-??-??:** …I think I like this guy…too bad I have to put him out of his misery.

**Ganryu:** …Can I trust that dark man? Should I put my trust in him?


	31. Chapter 31: The Silent Duelists Roar!

…_**Silence…truly is a strong word…with it, many people become intimidated by those who use it as a weapon…**_

_**Many reasons exist why people choose to be silent…it may be that the person has nothing to say to those around him or her…**_

…_**that person may be silent just to be strong for the sake of others…**_

_**Perhaps…however, a person may be silent for a wound that has been made on the person's soul or heart. That is the deepest silence one can have for ones self…**_

_**Tragic it can be…this silence in our world of ours…never ending and never giving pity to its victims…**_

_**Truly, silence can be assuming, as well as devastating to everyone who makes light of our world here…**_

_**I too…am touched by the wrath of the world…and the person who stands before me has also been struck by our world.**_

_**And like me…he has idiots who won't leave him alone!**_

_**/-//--//--//-/-/-/**_

_**Chapter 31**_

_**The Silent Duelists Roar!**_

_**/-//--/-/-/-/-/**_

"…you should've tried harder…"

"I told you…you weren't hero material brother…"

'_Why?'_

"Destiny cannot be changed…you should know this already…"

'_Why is it…_'

"Everyone in our world has a part to play…you have yet to achieve the knowledge as to where you stand in this vast world…"

'_Why is it…why is it that there is always someone telling me to act like something I'm not? Why?_'

/-/--/-/--//-/-//-/

"Hey! Wake up!"

Ganryu's eyes shot open by the loud voice that woke him up so abruptly, making him sit up in his bed to glare at a smirking Van, Klein and a depressed Koji. "…what the hell?"

"Hurry up you slowpoke!" Klein laughed placing his hand near his mouth and fanning his breath slightly.

Turning his head slightly, Ganryu peered out the window to see that the morning mist was pouring in through the open window. Then adjusting his head to see his alarm clock, the time read five-thirty in the morning…

The flames of anger began to rage in Ganryu's eyes, he usually slept an hour extra, and if someone woke him up before hand…

"ARGH!!"

"ACK!"

"HAVE MERCY!"

BOOM!

A few minutes later, Ganryu was slipping on his regular uniform while turning back to see a knocked out trio of idiots on the ground of his dorm room floor. Then, snapping his duel disk up, Ganryu opened the door to head out into the early morning.

Who knows? Maybe there were people out dueling at this hour… '_Highly doubtful…but still, I've seen some weird folk at dark times…'_

Ten minutes later, Ganryu was walking on the sidewalk towards the main building of the school, the mist still around him with each step he took. '_I suppose it was a pipes dream to expect a challenge this early in the morning…I'll kick those dumbasses into the Ocean for waking me up…_'

"ARGH!"

That cry ranged out through the mist, making Ganryu raise an eyebrow as he slowly stepped up his stride a little bit and just in time to see the scene before him.

A dark haired Obelisk Blue student was falling to his knees as many holograms began to disappear into the mist, leaving a weird masked Ra Yellow duelist, wearing a large yellow overcoat version of the uniform to stand before the Samurai Duelist.

"Heh…so easy these elites fall…" The Masked Ra chuckled tossing a small blue pin in his hand. That's when he noticed Ganryu standing behind his knocked out opponent. "Hmm…what's this now?"

Ganryu just kicked the knocked out Obelisk Blue on the ground, making the young man spin on the ground in front of the Masked Duelist. "...I see you've managed to beat a blue…you must be strong for yellow…"

"That I am, Slifer Scum," The Masked Duelist answered pocketing his new blue jewel pendant. "Would you care to try your hand at me?"

"Maybe I do…" Ganryu chuckled lifting his duel disk up and shuffling his deck into it. "So bring it on Mask Boy…"

"Wrong! It De Masque!" The Masked Ra Yellow shouted throwing his arm to the side activating his duel disk. "And let us…"

"MASTER MILES!"

"WHERE ARE YOU SIR!?!"

"DARK ROSE BRIGADE IS A COMING!"

"Drat…" De Masque sighed lifting his right hand up, shooting a long silver hook from his sleeve, pulling him up into the mist air. "We'll have to have our match another time…Slifer Scum! Wa ha ha ha ha!"

"…freak…" Ganryu growled turning around to meet the sight of four other Obelisk Blues, all four of them different and all four of them glaring at Ganryu. "…what are you looking at?"

The largest of the four Blue, he was fat (yet had a muscular chest and arms) with a large brown hair that was tied up with, stomped forward raising his fist up. "Master Miles! You sonvabitch!"

"Eric! Calm down you fat ass!" The other Obelisk Blue snarled standing in front of the fat Obelisk named Eric. This one was a small teen for his age with bright red hair that was seen slightly under his green cap. "Violence won't solve this!"

"Oh shut up you freaking idiot!" Eric shouted raising his fists up.

"Eric, Kael is right," The third Obelisk Blue sighed shaking his head, his fine brown hair curling down to his shoulders. "Did you remember what happens when you got caught last year?"

"Looks like me and Stanford have you out numbered Eric," Kael chuckled crossing his arms. "What do you have to say Ken?"

"Hmm…" The final Obelisk had a large red bandana tied around his mouth, while his blonde hair was flying wildly over his head. It was hard to understand him with the bandana over his mouth.

"Ha! You're completely out numbered fat ass!" Stanford laughed pointed at an enraged Eric.

"Damn it!" Eric snarled waving his arms in the air. "Screw you guys! I'm kicking this Red's ass for what he did to Master Miles!"

Shaking his head, Ganryu chuckled slightly at the fact that these four must've thought that he had defeated this 'Master Miles' that De Masque had defeated. "…in case you were wondering…I didn't defeat this loser. I just kicked him when he was down."

"Ha! Like we'd really believe that!" Stanford laughed lifting his duel disk up, activating the device. "I'm taking you out! And then, I'll become Master Miles's apprentice!"

"No way butt licker!" Eric chuckled stepping forward activating his duel disk as well. "I'm kicking this red's ass!"

That's when Ken began speaking muffled English, although since his actions were the same as his fellow Blues, Ganryu was able to guess what he was saying. That's when Kael chuckled to get everyone's attention. "Yeah right Ken; I think we all know who's dueling against this weirdo…"

"Listen…I'm in a bad mood," Ganryu snarled cracking his neck a few times. "Thanks to a bunch of jackasses much like yourselves who don't seem to know the word silence, I stand before you…if you all want a piece of me…then how about all four of you face me? You all can even use four thousand life points each…"

"You win…you can punish me as you see fit…but the flipside is, I get all of your jewel pendants with no question…"

"Heh…sweet," Eric muttered shaking his head as his fellow blues. "How about we all use our team decks against this dumbass?"

"Well…I don't see why not…" Kael sighed lifting a dueling deck while the other three did as well. (KaLP: 4000)

"You're going down Scum," Stanford growled snapping his five cards off his dueling deck. (SLP: 4000)

Ken began to speak as well as he spun five cards off the top of his deck while Eric did the same. "Heh…you're right Ken…this'll be like Ro Sham Bo…" (KeLP: 4000) (ELP: 4000)

"Now then, for my deck master," Ganryu stated lifting his monster card up, making a dark shadow appear behind him. "I'll choose this guy…"

"Heh…Then for my deck master," Eric announced lifting his card up to allow Gilford the Lightning to appear on his side of the field. "Gilford the Lightning will do nicely!"

"I choose you!" Kael as an older warrior with long golden hair and beard wearing blue armor appeared next to him. "Freed the Matchless General!"

"My card of choice will be Gilford the Legend!" Stanford announced as his dark armored warrior appeared crossing his arms.

Through his muffled cries, a Gearfried, the Swordmaster appeared next to Ken.

"Then you two won't mind if I go first…" Ganryu sighed pulling his sixth card into his hand, then spinning the first card he drew; the samurai duelist slipped the card into his duel disk. "And I'll start with the spell card, Scared Scrolls of the Shogun!"

From the mist above Ganryu, two bloody old scrolls unfurled over his body, crossing his body while leaving space between him and the scrolls. The Samurai Duelist smirked evilly while crossing his arms to slip a few other cards into his duel disk. "Next, I'll set two cards face down…your turn fat ass." (GLP: 8000)

"Hey don't call me fat!" Eric shouted snapping his next card from his duel disk. "I'm big boned!"

"Then you must have a huge bone in your ass!" Kael suggested getting a laugh from Stanford and Ken…hell that even made Ganryu smile.

"Goddammit! Stop making fun of me you A-holes!" Eric shouted, although, it was hard for him to say it, his voice sounded more like a squeal. "I'm not fat you dumbasses!"

"Heh, don't forget it guys…and fat ass," Ganryu reminded wagging his fingers up, trying not to snicker at Eric's reaction. "You all have the same turn…so all of you can draw now if you like; it doesn't matter to me…"

"You're going to regret that rookie," Stanford sighed as he, Ken and Kael drew their next cards.

"Heh! Allow me to start this off guys!" Eric ordered lifting two cards from his hand up. "Now, I'll start by setting one card face down…and I'll activate the continuous spell card, Dimensional Fissure! Now, all monster cards are immediately removed from play…"

"I think he knows what the card can do Eric," Kael said shaking his head as a powerful vortex appeared over the five duelists' heads.

"Nah, neh, nah, neh," Eric mocked lifting his hands up.

"Shut up fat boy!" Kael growled sending sparks from his eyes.

"Can you please continue with your move?" Ganryu snarled with a large blood vessel appearing on the back of his head as the cold duelist tapped his foot on the ground.

That's when Ken lifted up one of his cards, spinning it around to show the old spell card, Card Destruction. That forced all five duelists to discard their cards…of course, all monsters in all players' hands immediately sucked into the vortex above them all. Ganryu had two of his cards removed, Eric had three, Kael removed four of his cards, Ken slipped also slipped three cards, and Stanford filled five of his cards.

"And what pray tell was that for?" Ganryu asked pulling his three cards.

"Heh, look at the dumbass!" Eric laughed snapping his fingers over his face down card. "He can't see our strategy! Allow me to introduce the spell card, Dimension Fusion! So, by paying two thousand life points, we all must special summon as many monsters that are removed from play!" (ELP: 2000)

"…I see…" Ganryu replied pulling his two cards up and slapping them onto his duel disk, however, the two monsters were hidden by the mist. "…these two will do a good job…"

"Well whoopee doo for you!" Eric shouted as three forms appeared before him, all three of them Marauding Captains (1200/400 x3). "I've got my three kickass Captains out…"

"That's nothing!" Kael shouted when two red armored women, both raising a sword up (1200/1900 + 400/0 +400/0 x2) and two dark armored knights appeared on the field in front of him (1800/1600 + 800/0 x2). "Since I have two Command Knights, all warriors on our field gain eight hundred attack points! So my Gearfried, the Iron Knights will make mincemeat out of you!"

Standing in front of Ken, were three more knights, one a beautiful blonde woman wearing red armor with card suits on it (1500/1600 + 800/0), the second an older man wearing golden armor with card suits on it (1600/1400 + 800/0). And the final knight was a strong man wearing blue armor that resembled the other two knights (1900/1000 + 800/0), allowing all three of the warriors lifting their swords up into the air. Ganryu recognized all of the monsters as Queen's, King's and Jack's Knights.

"And as for me…" Stanford announced as the five figures in front of him appeared from the mist. Two of the monsters were two more copies of the Command Knights (2000/1900 + 800/0 x2) and the other three were silver armored knights, known as Blade Knights (1600/1000 + 1600/0).

Ganryu just turned his head to the side as many bloody kanji symbols appeared onto his two scrolls…seventeen marks to be exact.

"Now then…since we have an army here," Eric chuckled lifting his hand up as all fifteen warrior monsters began to raise their weapons up into the air. "Charge!"

"Yeah!" Stanford and Kael shouted along with Ken, all of their monsters heading forward into the Samurai duelist. "Finish him!"

"Go! Negate Attack!" Ganryu shouted as a powerful vortex erupted in front of the large army of monsters, sending them all back to the Dark Rose Brigade's fields. "Sorry…but your attacks are all negated…and your charge has ended."

"Well, we've got fifteen monsters," Stanford sighed shaking his head. "I'd rather say that we've got this duel under wraps…"

That's when a powerful flame exploded around the field, destroying all of the monsters that were on the Dark Rose Brigade's fields, making all four of them widen their eyes at what just happened. "I've got one word about your strategy…predictable…"

"What!?!" The Dark Rose Brigade questioned all at the same time as Ganryu lifted his next card.

Then, lifting his hand up, the two shadowed monsters leapt into the air in front of Ken, and sliced him with great ease, making him fall backwards defeated. (KeLP: 0)

Stanford raised his hand up in surprise at his companion's defeat. "Oh my god! You defeated Ken!"

"You bastard!" Kael shouted throwing his arms at Ganryu.

"…you three are next," Ganryu chuckled lifting his fist up towards the remaining three duelists.

/-/--//-/--/--//-/

"Man, what's up with that guy?" Klein sighed walking through the morning sun at the main building. Behind him, Van and Koji followed him on the concrete.

"Well, you didn't have to wake him up," Koji sighed raising an eyebrow at his brother. "It's almost a crime that you don't learn from your mistakes…"

"Almost doesn't cut it little brother," Klein chuckled walking backwards now with his arms behind his head, mostly for a chance to rub the bruise that was on his head.

"One of these days you're going to get knocked down from that invisible high horse," Van chuckled getting a glare from Klein. "Glare at me all you like, doesn't change the fact that you're going to be knocked down."

"Well…you're nothing more than…" Klein started until he just stopped in his tracks.

"Why'd you stop broth…er…" Koji stuttered seeing what he, Klein and Van were viewing before all three of the Red Duelists.

The three had made their way to the entrance of the main building of the duel academy, where many Obelisk Blue were gathered around, lifting up five knocked out blue students.

"What could've happened?" Van questioned rubbing his chin slightly.

"Quite simple really," Tony replied appearing behind the three Red duelists.

"ACK!! THE PSYCHO!" Van, Koji and Klein shouted out jumping away from a laughing Chess Duelist.

"Yeesh…I'm not a psycho…" Tony chuckled shaking his head. "Anyway…to answer your question, earlier this morning, those five Obelisk Blues all suffered a large drama from an excessive duel. According to four of the duelists, it was a duelist with cold eyes…"

"Cold eyes?" Van, Klein and Koji muttered with a large thought bubble appearing over their heads and picturing the cold eyes.

"…currently in the Slifer Red dorm…" Tony continued rubbing his chin.

"Red dorm…" the red trio hummed to themselves adding a red jacket to the cold eyes.

"And he had a sharp face with wild dark gray hair," Tony wrapped up snapping his fingers once.

After adding the last two features in their thought bubble, Van, Klein and Koji clapped their hands together. "It's Ganryu!"

"Ding, ding, ding!" Tony laughed crossing his arms in front of his chest. "Give the reds a prize!"

"You okay psycho?" Van asked raising an eyebrow at Tony. "You're not your usual self…"

"Ah, it just feels like there's a sword stabbing into my chest," Tony sighed shaking his head slightly, tears starting to appear in his eyes. "I've got a bad feeling about today…"

"Wait…you said four of the duelists said it was a red student that defeated them," Koji stated tilting his head to the side and adjusting his glasses slightly. "What about the fifth? Didn't he see the same person?"

"Actually, he described a masked Ra Yellow duelist," Tony replied pushing his hat up to allow some of his orange hair flow slightly from his head. "Which is weird…because I think I'd remember a masked freak…?"

"Sounds like that Black Tiger guy who was peeping in at the girls' hot spring," Klein chuckled allowing his uniform to drape over his shoulders.

"H-he was peeping?" Van and Tony asked keeping their thoughts silent from the two short duelists.

"Yeah…but what are you guys thinking?" Koji asked raising his eyebrow, making a large blush appear on Van and Tony's faces.

"Ah-Ah, w-well…" Tony stuttered tapping his fingers a few times, before shaking his head at the three reds. "But enough about that!"

"…perverts," Klein chuckled thinking as to how he could use this as blackmail.

"Y-you guys better find Ganryu…" Tony coughed turning away from the three. "Rumors are already flying about…mostly concerning this first year red challenging many duelists at once. And remember, our cold duelist was able to hold his own to the Kaiser…"

"Actually, since our Kaiser's a girl," Koji stated wagging his finger. "She's a Kaisaris; a Kaiser is the male status…"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Tony sighed shaking his head and rubbing his temples at the same time. "That's not the point….you guys need find Ganryu before other blues find him…"

"And why would we do something like that?" Klein asked placing his hands at his hips as a large smile appeared on his face. "What's in it for us?"

"Hmm…" Tony seemed to think a little bit on these questions but then snapped his fingers. "If you all do this little task, then, I'll give you all one of my greatest barrels from my vast collection!"

"…" Van, Klein and Koji sweatdropped at the offer that Tony gave filled with pride, until Klein just wagged his finger up in a disapproving manner. "Swing and a miss, psycho…"

"Okay…then, how about I'll give you each twenty bucks?" Tony re-offered with a large sweatdrop on his head.

"Deal!" Klein answered lifting his hands up. "You give me the money and then we'll get started on our little escapade…"

"Sorry, but I'll only pay once you three get the job done," Tony replied walking away from the three red students. "So, once you find the guy, just bring him to me and you'll all get your twenty bucks…deal?"

"Deal," Klein growled slightly as Tony began to walk away. As soon as the Chess Duelist was out of the way, Klein turned towards Van and Koji with a large smile on his face. "Well then…let's find the old stiff!"

"…it's sinful how he's easily tempted by money…" Van sighed shaking his head while slapping his forehead.

"And he's my brother too…" Koji groaned as the two began to follow Klein into the distance.

/-/-//-/--//-///-/

"Hmm…" Beck muttered rubbing his chin, it was an hour since Kazin went back to review his subject's behavior and health results. This allowed Beck to stay at his desk, reviewing a large amount of cards that made up his deck… "Now let's see…how am I going to do this?"

"…Having problems with that deck I gave you?"

Beck's eyes opened widely at the sound of the cold voice; there was only one person who could send chills up his spine…the one person who Beck actually feared. "…w-what do you want?"

Slowly turning in his chair, Beck turned around to see the form that was standing behind him, the very sight of the man making Beck's eyes widen.

The man's body was covered with a fancy, old styled black tuxedo with a frilly white corset in the front. His hands covered by a pair of fancy white gloves while a regular sized top hat covered the top of the man's head…while underneath, the man's long silver hair was tied in the back into a long tail and long side burns that seemed to rest on the man's shoulders.

The man's face…was a mystery to Beck; however, the man was wearing a vertically colored white and black mask. The mask's face displayed a joy filled expression that seemed to mock Beck, as if he was a jester.

"E-Eternity A-Angelo," Beck gulped loudly trying to push back in his seat, trying to get away from the dark man that stood before him.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," Eternity Angelo chuckled lifting his glove covered hand up and wagging the pointer finger at Beck. "No, no, no, that simply won't do…you have to say my name with more love…don't soil my name with stuttering…"

"R-right…Eternity Angelo," Beck gulped again slowly standing up. "W-what brings you here?"

"I think it should be obvious…" Eternity Angelo sighed walking past Beck and looking at all the cards that were scattered about on the table. Slowly, and gently, the masked man lifted up one of the cards and spun it around in his fingers a few times. "I felt a disturbance in the force…no, I sensed a new intent. Were you planning on double crossing me?"

"N-no sir!" Beck stuttered lifting his hands up in a defensive manner.

"You realize what I need from that vault correct?" Eternity Angelo asked as he began to grab all of the cards that were on the desk and slowly began to shuffle them into a single deck. "Without a single card, a decks strategy can easily over turned in a matter of seconds…same thing with the item that I require to grant your wish…"

"I-I know…" Beck stuttered lowering his head as the white gloved hand lifted up the deck of cards.

"Then…with my strength and knowledge…" Eternity Angelo chuckled dropping the cards into Beck's hands; the fancy masked man began to head for the shadows. "Do my bidding…and I shall reward you my pet…"

"Y-Yes, Eternity Angelo," Beck gulped remembering to add love when he was speaking the masked nobleman's name.

"Excellent…" Eternity Angelo chuckled lifting a piece of paper up, and tossing it onto Beck's desk over his shoulder. "Now then…I have a suggestion that might be able to help you…I'll expect you to carry out the orders immediately…"

"Otherwise…your Yokai…your riches…your life…consider them all obsolete…"

"Thanks, sir…" Beck sighed as Eternity Angelo disappeared into the shadows. As soon as the shadows mysteriously receded back into the corners of the room, Beck fell to his knees holding his shoulders. '_D-Damn…e-every time…why?'_

"Master Beck?"

"Argh!!" Beck shouted jumping to his feet with his spine straightened immediately. Shivering slightly, Beck let out a sigh of relief. "Oh! Oh…Bravo, the Artist formally known as Morty, and Xander…what are you…doing?'

Bravo just smiled, revealing a large smile on his slightly bruised face. "Oh…well, I needed to apply some ointment and bandages to my face…that little punk knows how to fight monkey style…"

"Are you alright sir?" Xander asked tilting his head slightly trying to keep his bandage on face. "And Bravo…what the hell are you talking about? Monkey style? Seems like someone's been reading the Kung Fu books again…"

"Now, now, now," the Artist formally known as Morty sighed, shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders at his comrades. Unlike the other two, he had no injuries on his person. "Remember you two…there's something wrong with Beck…and he's the one we need to help right now. Wouldn't you two agree?"

"Can we get you something sir?" Xander asked pushing his bandage on his face until it was stuck on his face.

"Y-yeah…" Beck sighed sitting back into his seat and lowering his head slightly. "I…I need some Orange Soda…mixed with a little non-alcoholic wine if you don't mind…"

"How does something like that taste?" Bravo asked turning around to get the right beverage that Beck had requested.

"Just get it Bravo," Xander snarled kicking Bravo in the back, making the gangster duelist stagger forward into the wall.

"Oh, that had to hurt," Morty snickered as Bravo began to stumble till he was out of the room.

"S-so…" Beck sighed rubbing his temples, while getting Morty and Xander's attention. "How's the test subject looking?"

"He's getting creepier the second," Xander answered bluntly rubbing his other cheek. "And to quote Bravo during the experience… 'Damn! That's a cheap blow!'"

"Heh…that bad, huh?" Beck chuckled imaging what the test subject could be up to.

"Well…he's certainly interesting to paint," Morty answered with a smile on his face. "But then again…I say that about everyone I meet…"

"Anyway sir…do you have a mission for the three of us to accomplish?" Xander asked slamming his fist onto his chest, a determined look in his good eye.

"Actually…" Beck sighed lifting the paper that Eternity Angelo left on his desk and opening it up slightly. After a few quick seconds, Beck looked up from the paper into his two Yokai members' eyes. "…I've got specific orders for you two to perform…get Lirin, Kazin, the Musik Twins and De Masque after they are finished with their tasks, and meet us in room D…"

"Room D?" Morty asked raising an eyebrow. "What are we going to do in the disguise room?"

"Simple…we're going to take down a pillar…" Beck answered as he began to type on his computer. "Hmm? Looks like our silent fist is about to strike…we'll need him and the mistress of the heart for our plan…"

Leaning over to Morty, Xander lifted his hand up to cover his mouth. "Do you think Beck's this confusing?"

Bringing up his hand in response, Morty whispered back. "Wouldn't doubt that fact at all…"

"…I can hear you two cuties, ya know," Beck chuckled back to his old self with a smile on his face. That just made both Morty and Xander step back with cold sweat droplets appearing on the back of their heads.

//--/-/-/-/-/-/-/

"Here you go sir…one dark coffee, one teaspoon of sugar, and a one sour scone," the waiter announced placing the small dainty plates on the table in front of the cold customer.

The cold customer raised his eyes up, making the waiter gulp slightly, taking a few steps away from the cold duelist. "E-Enjoy your meal sir…a-and don't worry about the tab. I-it's on me, if you stop starring at me!"

The cold stare just kept piercing the waiter's soul, making him run off with a small tear appearing in his eye.

So, with no more distractions, Ganryu slowly lifted up his specified coffee up…took a quick sniff of the warm coffee…and smiled as he spoke his words. "Dark as the devil…hot as hell…and sweet like a kiss…truly that makes the perfect cup of coffee…"

"There you are you cold hearted bastard!" Klein shouted appearing behind Ganryu, along with Van and Koji.

"…hmm…you've got good timing," Ganryu sighed, ignoring Klein's shouts before he took a quick sip of his coffee. "Join me for a cup…"

"We've got no time! We need to get you to the psycho!" Klein laughed placing his hand on Ganryu's shoulder. "So drop the coffee…"

With a blood vessel appearing on his head, Ganryu did the most sensible thing he could do at the moment…

SPLASH!

"ACK!" Klein shouted falling to the ground, covering his eyes as the hot liquid was splashed in his face.

"B-brother!?!" Koji shouted kneeling next to his in pain brother. "What should I do!?"

"G-Get me some water…" Klein stuttered rubbing his face in the dirt to stop the burning.

"Now then…" Ganryu snarled standing up and cracking his neck. "I'm giving you two a chance…either you don't bug me again for the rest of the day, or I'll make you two have the same fate as the munchkin reject down there…"

"Y-yeah…" Van stuttered stepping to the side, as Ganryu walked past him with the scone in his mouth as the cold duelist slowly chewed on the pasty.

"N-no…stop him…" Klein moaned with tears in his eyes…

At another table, a pair of Ra Yellows kept their eyes on the scene, and when Ganryu was walking away from the scene.

A few minutes later…Ganryu was sitting at the base of a tree near the main building, his arms behind his head and the scone in his stomach digesting. His secret spot was to far, and he was too tired from this morning…

"Its annoying isn't it?"

Ganryu's eyes widened immediately, there was someone sitting to his right. It was a male Ra Yellow duelist, tanned skin on his muscular body and a fancy brown bowl cut that had a small tail in the back. "…it's annoying how people can't be quiet right?"

Narrowing his eyes at the duelist, Ganryu was waiting for the mysterious Ra Yellow to say something…however, the duelist just remained silent.

That silenced continued on until Ganryu placed his head back on his arms. "I know what ya mean…"

"Got an annoying girl after ya?" The Yellow asked lowering slightly placing his hands on his chest.

"…Last time I counted…I've got some fan club falling me thanks to some crazy board," Ganryu sighed shaking his head.

"That's rough," The Ra yellow agreed closing his eyes. "…ya got a name?"

"…Ganryu Dashiben…"

"…Luke Konan…"

Was it possible?

It's said that when two people with the same personality meet, one of two things will happen. One, the two people will hate each others' guts…

…Or the two will become the greatest of friends…

"…cool…" Luke sighed looking at Ganryu's duel disk and the five pins that Ganryu had on the inside of his jacket. Four of them were blue and the first one was red. "…Ya must be skilled…"

"Yeah…but thanks to morons," Ganryu growled, remembering what he did. "I'm in red…"

"Heh, I've been in yellow ever since I got here," Luke sighed lowering his head to allow his hair to flow over his eyes. "Three years with this curse of a jacket…it's dreadful…"

"…what do you want?" Ganryu asked moving his eyes towards Luke, but not moving his neck.

"Don't be standoffish," Luke yawned stretching his arms and legs. "Its not like I came here to fight you or something…I came here because this is my favorite tree to sleep under…"

"Bull…at least have the decency to tell the truth," Ganryu sighed combing the hair from his face up.

"I see…" Luke sighed lifting a duel disk up. "…interested in a duel?"

"…sure…" Ganryu answered lifting his disk up and his deck as well. "At least then we can get this annoyance out of the way…"

"…So true…" Luke yawned standing up stretching his arms. "Oh…and we'll be betting two pins…I've got three…"

"Seems reasonable…" Ganryu replied jumping to his feet.

A few minutes later…

"Duel!" Ganryu and Luke announced at the same time pulling their five card hands.

"Now then, as for a Deck Master," Luke sighed pulling a card from his deck. "I choose the Rock Spirit!"

The ground rumbled violently allowing a dark skinned muscular man to crawl next to Luke, his body covered with old Spartan armor. "And I'll tell ya his ability. Its called the Earth's Protection. And by discarding one trap card, I can prevent an Earth monster from being destroyed by trap cards. And what's your deck master?"

"I choose…Vengeful Fencing Samurai!" Ganryu announced as his dark haired samurai appeared next to him, glaring at his opponent.

"I'll start off…" Luke announced drawing his sixth card, then lifting a card into his duel disk, another card shot from Luke's deck. "I activate the spell card, Gather Your Mind…this spell allows me to add another Gather Your Mind from my deck and play it into my hand." (LLP: 8000)

Raising an eyebrow, Ganryu was confused. '_Why include such a card in a deck? The only deck I can think that'd be an asset would have to be a spellcaster deck…but you need a monster on the field to use them effectively…'_ (GLP: 8000)

"And now…I'll activate another Gather Your Mind," Luke continued slipping the spell card into his graveyard and pulling the other card from his deck. "So now…why wait? I'll play the final one…and since I have no other Gather Your Mind spell cards in my deck…I can only shuffle my deck."

'_What's he doing?_' Ganryu thought, raising his eyebrow as Luke lifted up his next card. "And to end my turn…I'll set one monster on the defensive and set one card face down…"

"Hmm…I wonder…will you actually be able to pull a challenge?" Ganryu asked shifting his next card into his hand. "…I summon Samurai Grandmaster – Lau!"

Rushing onto the field, the dual blade wielding Samurai Grandmaster lifted both of his swords up (1800/900), ready to strike. "And now…Lau! Attack his face down monster!"

The Samurai Grandmaster leapt into the air, spinning both of the blades in his two hands, before stabbing them both into the back of the face down monster, making the card reveal itself immediately to show a large blue rat (1400/1450). "Hmm…a Giant Rat…many cards go with that thing…"

"True…like my Monk Fighter!" Luke announced as the bowl cut monk appeared, wearing a battle scared yellow gi (1300/1000), raising his fists up.

"…A monk deck, eh?" Ganryu asked raising an eyebrow. "Is that the best you could come up with?"

"My monk deck isn't like the others you've seen," Luke snickered as his Monk Fighter stepped back into a double knife Martial art stance. "But if you think you can top this one, go right ahead…"

"Very well…I already know what that face down card of yours is by a mere guess…" Ganryu sighed lifting two of his cards up and slipping them into his duel disk. "So I'll just have these two face down."

"Then it'll just go to my turn…" Luke yawned pulling his next card, then with a small light appearing in his eyes; Luke looked up at Ganryu with a slightly dulled look. "Connecting old words that have been used up, I just want to covey my simple thoughts…"

"Huh?" Ganryu questioned as the Monk Fighter fell to the ground and began to mediate.

Then in a great flash of light, the Monk Fighter was now sporting a long beard and longer hair, his muscles bulging through his tattered yellow gi, and his expression stone cold (1900/1000). "…The day's faint wind blows away, allowing new challenges to appear…including my Master Monk…"

"I've got one word for your moves…" Ganryu snickered taking a card from his hand and slipping it into his duel disk's graveyard. "Predictable! I activate the quick-play spell card, Quick Draw!"

"Quick Draw?" Luke questioned, half bored with the question.

"By discarding one Samurai from my hand," Ganryu explained as Lau placed both of his swords at his sides as he began to run forward. "I can destroy any face up monster on the field! And even if that face down card of yours was Lone Wolf, it doesn't protect it from spell cards!"

Not even the slightest emotion appeared on Luke's face, as the dual wielding swordsman sliced the Master Monk in two. "Oh well…I life, loss is an occurrence. We just need to move on and get on with our lives…and since I haven't summoned yet this turn…I'll set a monster on the defensive."

'_More than likely, that card is either a second Monk Fighter or Giant Rat_,' Ganryu thought slowly drawing his next card into his hand. '_But…either way…I'm taking his monster down now!_'

"I activate the spell card, Graceful Charity!" Ganryu announced as a large amount of light began to rain down over his deck, drawing three cards from the top of his deck.

"No need for an explanation for that card," Luke snickered as Ganryu slipped two monster cards into his graveyard.

"Good…maybe you won't ask stupid questions either…" Ganryu hoped looking over his hand again.

"Now that would be a good request," Leo stated appearing behind Ganryu with Kimatori on his shoulders.

"What the?!" Ganryu questioned doing a double take at Leo's appearance. "What the hell? Where'd you come from?"

"Whoa…he just came out of no where…" Luke snickered rubbing his eyes slightly. "How'd you do that dude?"

"I am the planet Mars and I can pass though solid objects," Leo answered shaking his head slightly.

"Wow…really?" Luke asked tilting his head to the side…

Lowering his head, Ganryu shook his head. "…that's Martian Man-Hunter."

'_I guess I was wrong about him…he fell for such a simple trick._'

"What!?! How dare you!" Luke shouted looking more serious than he was a few minutes ago.

"What are you doing here…Leonardo?" Ganryu asked narrowing his eyes at Leo, while Kimatori's eyes widened.

"Leonardo? That's your full name?" Kimatori asked getting a nod from Leo. "Kawaii!"

"Truly…" Leo chuckled with a smile on his face. "Anyway, I just saw you dueling and wanted to say hello…"

"Oh…now go," Ganryu snarled barring some of his teeth.

"AH! Scary!" Kimatori shouted covering her eyes with her hands.

"No need to scare the children here," Leo joked with his smile back on his face. "I'll see you later Mr. Dashiben."

"Yeah…later," Ganryu sighed watching Leo walk away into the distance. "…he always freaks me out…"

"Seems to be that kind of person if you ask me," Luke yawned sitting on the ground. "Now then…I think it was still your turn…"

"Right…I remove my Skilled Samurai from play," Ganryu announced lifting the card up from his graveyard and slipped it into his jacket's pocket. "That allows me to special summon my Fukarin Samurai!"

A large blaze of fire erupted from Ganryu's duel disk, flying into the air until the flames receded, showing a young samurai with flame red and yellow armor. At the warrior's feet were a pair of enflamed wheels that allowed the samurai to float in mid-air, while the warrior spun a large spear made of flames (500/700).

At the sight of the monster, Luke just clapped his hands a few times. "Sweet move dude, I know what that little dude can do…"

"Yeah…but I've still got my normal summon," Ganryu replied flipping the other card in his hand up and onto his duel disk. "And I normal summon my Crescent Moon Samurai (1700/1200)!"

In a flurry of cherry blossom petals, the moon themed samurai appeared on the field, twirling the spear in her hands. "Now then…Fukarin Samurai! You're up first! Attack Luck directly!"

Charging forward, the Fukarin Samurai was engulfed in a powerful flame that crashed into Luke's torso, making him fall onto his back. "Oof! Even though I've seen that monster's direct attack ability before…it still gets me…" (LLP: 7500)

"And you know what my Crescent Moon Samurai is capable of as well," Ganryu stated lifting his hand up towards Luke's face down monster. "So…attack that face down monster!"

Leaping into the air, the female samurai spun her spear into the face down monster, making it flip up…

Clash!

The large crescent moon spear was stopped by bare hands belonging to young monk with long blonde hair covering his dark glaring eyes. This monk's clothes resemble the Monk Fighter's only topaz yellow (1000/2000), and with great strength, the new monk threw the Crescent Moon Samurai back into Ganryu. "What the!?!" (GLP: 7700)

"Oh…I guess you didn't hear about the new monks that came out recently," Luke chuckled as his monk sat down and began to meditate. "Allow me to introduce, Topaz Monk…one of the new Jewel Monks."

"Well that's annoying," Ganryu sighed as his three warriors stood before him. "I've got nothing that can take down that defense right now…but I'll end my turn…"

"Then I draw," Luke announced pulling his next card before lifting up his duelist disk up, showing that the life points counter on his duel disk began to go down. "And during my standby phase, thanks to my Topaz Monk's ability, by paying five hundred life points, I can draw an additional card from my deck." (LLP: 7000)

Looking at his newest card, Luke immediately slipped it into his graveyard and lifted up the other one he just drew. "Now then…by discarding one card from my hand, I activate the spell card, Monk's Training Hall!"

Just as Luke fitted the card into his the duel disk, the entire duel area began to shake violently, making Ganryu stumble slightly. However, all around him, Ganryu's surroundings emerged a large Buddhist Temple, with many golden statues and calming areas around it. "W-What the? What is this field spell?"

"Actually…it's a continuous spell card," Luke corrected wagging his finger. "But here's how my spell works. In order for me to activate it, I needed to discard a card from my hand. But then, for every Gather Your Mind spell card in my graveyard, my card gains a counter. And now, once per turn, by removing one of those counters, I can return one Monk monster on my side of the field back to my deck…in response, I'm allowed to special summon another one from my deck with a level equal to the monster I returned."

"So you needed those Gather Your Mind cards," Ganryu growled, kicking himself mentally not thinking that those cards had a use…

"Correct…now then, Topaz Monk thanks for the defense man, but its time to say goodbye," Luke chuckled as his monk disappeared into a bright yellow light that flowed into the card on Luke's duel disk.

Then taking the card into his duel disk, Luke lifted another card up from his deck and began to shuffle the cards. Then slapping onto his duel disk, a bright green light emerged from his disk, allowing a new Monk to leap onto the field. "And say hello to Jade Monk!"

Crashing onto the newly concrete ground, Luke's next monk had a larger build than the last one, resembling a ruff looking monk with spiked up emerald green hair on the top of his head and a small goatee starting to sprout out from his chin. His clothes resembled the Monk Fighter's only emerald green (1750/1200). "And now…attack his Fukarin Samurai!"

"Nice try!" Ganryu shouted throwing his hand over his face down card, making it flip up to show a Samurai and a Knight arm wrestling. "I activate my trap card, Test of Strength! Now, by allowing you to draw a card from your deck, your attack target becomes the strongest monster on the field! And guess what…this is a continuous trap! So now you have to attack the strongest monsters from now on!"

Pulling his next card, Luke just smiled as his Jade Monk began to charge towards Lau. "Alright man…Jade Monk…go and attack Lau!"

"Now! Lau! Counter Slash!" Ganryu counter as Lau began to charge forward.

Both monsters charged forward, Lau bringing both of his swords down on the Jade Monk who brought his fist up at the last second…

CLASH!

Both of Lau's swords shattered by the Jade Monk's powerful fist, then with a powerful kick, the Jade Monk delivered his foot to the Samurai Grandmaster's jaw, shattering the samurai into pixels. "W-What just happened?" (GLP: 7050)

Luke just spun the card he just drew, pulling it from his duel disk, revealing Rush Recklessly (1750/1200 + 700/0). "Till the end of the turn, I my monster gains seven hundred attack points."

"…that was a backfire…" Ganryu growled, knowing that his trap card automatically gave his opponent the needed edge for defeating his monster.

"More than you know big guy," Luke chuckled snapping his fingers, making his monk jump onto one of the holographic roofs. "You see…when my Jade Monk defeats a monster as a result of a battle when it was special summoned by my Monk's Training Hall, it can attack again! But since your trap card is still out, then I have to attack your Crescent Moon Samurai!"

"Jade Palm!"

In a green blur, the Jade Monk, leapt from the roof and slammed his large palm into the face of the Crescent Moon Samurai. As the female samurai screamed, she fell backwards, bits and pieces of her armor shattering until she disappeared. (GLP: 6300)

"And guess what…since he's still got an attack since he destroyed your samurai!" Luke explained raising his hand up. "And now…Jade Monk! Finish that Fukarin Samurai as was originally determined!"

Barely turning, the Jade Monk immediately slammed his foot into the Fukarin Samurai's jaw, destroying the flaming warrior. (GLP: 4350)

"And to bring worse news to ya guy…" Luke snickered wagging his finger, as his Jade Monk jumped into the air. "But, my monk can now attack you directly since he still destroyed a monster as a result of battle…"

With that in his mind, Ganryu looked up, just in time to receive a powerful drop kick to his face, sending him to the ground slamming. "D-Damn…" (GLP: 1900)

"And now…with that," Luke yawned placing his head back onto the ground. "I'll end my turn…so my Monk returns to his normal attack strength…"

"Y-You're no ordinary Ra Yellow are you?" Ganryu growled slowly standing up and shaking his head. "Why don't you drop the act?"

"What act?" Luke asked tilting his head to the side. "I honestly hate annoying people and I like being alone…"

"Okay…" Ganryu sighed raising an eyebrow at Luke. "But…you're still no normal Ra Yellow…"

"True…so very true," Luke sighed placing his hands behind his head. "Well…I tell ya what…you beat me; I'll answer any question you've got about that subject Ganryu…"

"Very well…" Ganryu growled narrowing his eyes and rubbing his head slightly. "You got your turn done or what?"

"Yeah…I'm done," Luke yawned crossing his legs and relaxed as his Jade Monk sat on the ground and began to meditate.

"Then…draw!" Ganryu snarled, nearly ripping his next card into his hand. With his eyes flashing slightly, Ganryu spun his next card in his hand. "Now then…I remove my Crescent Moon Samurai and Fukarin Samurai from my graveyard…"

Sliding the two cards from his graveyard, Ganryu slapped his next card onto his duel disk, creating a powerful wind storm onto the field. From the wind storm a white armor cloaked man walked from the storm, lifting up a very long silver katana over his shoulder. The man's long black hair flowed over his white cloth covered eyes and past his shoulders (2350/1700). "…this allows me to special summon the Blind Samurai to my side of the field…"

"Interesting tactic," Luke yawned falling on his back. "But you'll have to do a lot better than that…"

"I will…I activate the spell card, United We Stand!" Ganryu announced slipping the card into his duel disk, making a powerful gold aura appear on his Blind Samurai (2350/1700 + 800/800). '_Thanks Riko…I'm taking a page from your book._'

"And next, I activate the spell card, Scapegoats!" Ganryu announced as four little, multi-colored sheep tokens appeared next to his blind samurai (0/0 x4), whose golden aura seemed to increase in ferocity (3150/2500 + 3200/3200). "And now…Blind Samurai! Attack his Jade Monk!"

Lifting his sword up slowly, the Blind Samurai stood still for a few seconds, until in a quick white blur, the Blind Samurai charged towards the Jade Monk who leapt to his feet…

CLASH!

The Jade Monk managed to stop the sword of the Blind Samurai with his bare hands, struggling to keep the blade from cutting his skin. Then, with a swift kick, the Blind Samurai forced the Jade Monk skidding back and then fell on top of Luke. "OOFO!" (LLP: 2400)

"Hey, you shouldn't disturb someone when they're trying to relax," Luke growled jumping to his feet along with his monk. "It's rude and annoying!"

"How'd your monk survive?" Ganryu asked raising an eyebrow at the risen trap card, showing the Master Monk standing alone. "Lone Wolf? But, you need the Monk Fighter, Master Monk or Che-Suke…and your monster…"

"Has the effect to be the Monk Fighter," Luke sighed shaking his head. "Come on…if I took the time to learn about your cards, you should've at least taken the trouble to learn mine…"

Ganryu's eyebrow raised up at that comment. "What do you mean?"

"Oh…I wasn't supposed to say that," Luke sighed slapping his forehead. "Just, uh, forget that last part…"

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Ganryu asked with a cold sweat appearing on the back of his head before slipping another card into his duel disk. "Turn end."

"Then it's my move," Luke announced pulling his card once more, and then spun it around. "I activate the spell card Mystical Space Typhoon! So you can say goodbye to your United We Stand. Now you'll be divided and conquered!"

A powerful windstorm shattered the golden aura around the Blind Samurai (2350/1700), making his hair fly about. Ganryu lowered his hand down, mainly to glare at Luke. '_What are you planning?'_

"Now then…I send my Jade Monk away," Luke announced as his Jade Monk disappeared into a flurry of silver sparkles. "In order to special summon, Diamond Jewel Monk!"

The ground in front of Luke began to visibly shake violently…before shattering open to allow an older monk with long, shinning white hair that seemed to mix with his long beard, wearing a beautiful white gi that seemed to sparkle in the light as he demonstrated his martial art skills (2400/1000).

At the sight of the monster, Ganryu's eyes seemed to narrow down at the monk. "And let me guess…he's the equivalent to Master Monk…"

"Yep," Luke answered with a nod as he lifted another card from his hand. "And that means, I can equip him with the Legendary Black Belt! And now he's even deadlier!"

'_Brace yourself Ganryu!'_

Ganryu's eyes widened. '_T-That voice!_'

"Diamond Jewel Monk!" Luke shouted throwing his arm towards Ganryu's full field. "Attack the Blind Samurai! Diamond Fists of Fury!"

With an abnormal speed, the Diamond Jewel Monk appeared directly in front of the surprisingly calm Blind Samurai. Then with a flurry of white blurs, the Blind Samurai was assaulted repeatedly with the many punches delivered by the Diamond Jewel Monk.

Then with a final punch, the Diamond Jewel Monk sent the Blind Samurai flying over Ganryu's head, shattering into many sparks that stung Ganryu to the touch. (GLP: 1850)

"And don't forget!" Luke shouted as his monk appeared in front of Ganryu, cracking his fists. "Thanks to Legendary Black Belt, you take damage equal to your monster's defense!"

Before Ganryu could react, the older monk slammed his knee into Ganryu's stomach, knocking the air from the samurai duelist and then slammed his fist into a powerful uppercut that sent Ganryu flying to the ground. (GLP: 150)

"Urgh…" Ganryu moaned holding onto his jaw.

"You should've tried harder Ganryu," Luke advised.

Those words…that's what started Ganryu's nightmare every night…

When Ganryu opened his eyes, he was alone…his duel disk was gone… and the ground he was standing on was completely dark.

"I told you brother…" Ganryu's eyes widened once more before he jumped to his feet and turning his head around to meet the owner of that voice…

"Taikoubou!" Ganryu gasped taking a step back from his supposed brother.

Shaking his head, Taikoubou had a depressed look on his face. "You weren't hero material brother…"

"N-no…" Ganryu stuttered taking a few steps back until he backed up into something.

"Destiny cannot be changed…" Slowly, Ganryu moved his head back to meet eyes with an older version of himself, only with a small beard and tamed hair. "…you should know this already…"

"F-father…" Ganryu gasped stumbling forward away from his father and keeping his distance from Taikoubou.

"Everyone in our world has a part to play…" Ganryu's father and Taikoubou stated at the same time, their height growing with every second that they glared down at the shrinking Ganryu. "You have yet to achieve the knowledge as to where you stand in this vast world…"

"S-shut up!" Ganryu shouted slamming his fists into the black ground. "Y-You're wrong! I know where I stand in this world!"

"Yes, you do…"

At the echo of that voice, Ganryu looked up to see that his father and Taikoubou were beginning to faze out. That's when footsteps began to echo through the darkness, getting louder and louder.

"With your skills, you have found your place in this world," The familiar voice stated, getting louder along with the footsteps.

"However, that place was taken…no, stolen from you…"

That's when a single spotlight appeared before Ganryu, revealing the familiar owner of the voice that spoke to him. "Take my offer…and when you do…your place shall rightfully be returned to you, Ganryu Dashiben."

"Take my hand…say my name…" The owner said extending his hand. "And you shall get what you rightfully deserve and punish those that have taken your destiny away from you."

Shakily, Ganryu lifted his hand up, slowly taking the voice owner's hand. "I accept…Big Boss…"

"Heh…excellent…"

Snapping his eyes open, Ganryu stood up just in time to see two of his sheep tokens shatter thanks to the Diamond Jewel Monk. "Heh! Looks like you blacked Ganryu…just to let ya know, my Diamond Jewel Monk can attack three times in the battle phase."

"I see…" Ganryu sighed rubbing his head. Was that just an illusion? Or a dream?

"My turn is done," Luke yawned sitting down while his Diamond Jewel Monk sat down and began to meditate. "Oh, and don't forget that my Lone Wolf trap card is still out, so you can't destroy my monk through battle or monster effect."

"Thanks for the reminder," Ganryu sighed pulling his next card, then looking at it, Ganryu's eyes widened. '_W-what the? I-I never put this card in my deck, I've never even seen this card before…where did this…'_

'_Heh…I told ya kid…I'm giving you what you rightfully deserve…'_

Shaking his head, Ganryu narrowed his eyes at his deck master. "I invoke my Deck Master's special ability! Call to the Bushido! By sending any number of monsters on my side of the field away, I can special summon a Bushido Armor Token!"

The remaining two Scapegoats disappeared into red sparks, both of them falling to the ground and forming a set of red samurai armor that seemed to be alive (0/0). Luke on the other hand, he seemed to be dulled by the monster. "Okay…what was the point of that?"

"Simple…since there were two monsters used for its summon, I can tribute it immediately for a monster with 'Samurai' in its name," Ganryu explained as the armor shattered upwards. "And for every monster that was tributed, my monster can be used as an extra tribute…in this case, two tributes! This allows me to summon my Raikoben Samurai!"

The air began to tense up, and a large bolt of electricity slammed into the ground before the samurai duelist, blinding Luke. When the electricity died down, Luke lowered his arm just in time to see a young samurai with long dark hair tied up with a long silver head band. Covering his entire body was white and black armor that glistened in the light, and in his right hand, the warrior held up a large whip that seemed to be made of lightning itself (2600/2000). "Raikoben…the thunder whip…suiting, as it will strike you down Luke…"

"Heh…did you forget?" Luke asked pointing towards his trap card, Lone Wolf. "My monster can't be beaten in battle or monster skill…"

"True…" Ganryu replied raising his hand up. "But that's all about to change; I equip my Raikoben Samurai with Volt Masamune!"

Raising his other hand, the Raikoben Samurai created another bolt of electricity, this one forming into a large katana (2600/2000 + 500/0) that sparked with electricity. "And now, I activate his other ability! Once per turn, I can take one monster's defense and give him the equal attack points! And I choose your Diamond Jewel Monk!" (3100/2000 + 1000/0)

"Still not enough…" Luke stated making the calculations in his head.

"We'll see about that!" Ganryu shouted throwing his hand up towards his Raikoben Samurai who lifted up both of his weapons into the air. "Raikoben Flash!"

Then with a great slap and slash, the Raikoben Samurai launched a powerful surge of electricity towards the surprised Diamond Jewel Monk who crossed his arms over his chest. The powerful surge made the monk force his feet into the ground, trying to keep himself from being pushed backwards, although the electricity surged into Luke's body, making him shout in pain. "ARGH!!" (LLP: 700)

"Heh…hehe…hehehe…" Luke chuckled shaking his head. "You'll have to do a lot better than that Samurai-boy!"

"Fine!" Ganryu shouted snapping his fingers over his face down, showing a blood covered samurai charge into battle. "I activate the quick-play spell, Prideful Bloodlust! This spell card forces a monster on my side of the field that has been involved in battle…it forces him to attack once more!"

Coughing a few times, the Raikoben Samurai coughed up a large amount of blood, surprising Luke and the Diamond Jewel Monk. Then once more, the Raikoben Samurai lifted both of his weapons up and charged towards his opponents, electricity surging all about his body.

"W-Wait!" Luke pleaded raising his arms up along with his monk.

'_This power…_' Ganryu thought as a powerful explosion of electricity shattered the Monk's Training Hall. '_I…I've never felt so good before! So this is what true strength is!_'

/-//-///--/-/-/-/-//

"Huh?" Rena asked panting slightly as she; Rukia, Leo and Kimatori arrived at the dueling area where Ganryu was supposedly dueling at. "H-he's not here?"

"It would appear that the duel is over," Leo stated combing his hair with his hand. "Pity…it looked like a good match up…"

"Aw man…" Kimatori sighed.

"Well…it's Ganryu," Rukia commented placing her hands behind her head. "He probably won…"

"While that is probably true," Leo stated shaking his head. "It probably won't be good news…"

"Why's that?" Rena asked finally catching her breath.

"Early this morning," Leo started with a distinct smile on his face. "Five obelisk blue students were found knocked out in front of the main building of the academy. Four of the five claimed that a Red Duelist had defeated all of them at once…"

"Many people speculate that Ganryu was the red that defeated all five of them…"

"WHAT!?!?" Rena, Rukia and Kimatori shouted at the same time in surprise.

"Right now…Ganryu may just be a target for everyone in the tournament," Leo finished with an innocent smile.

"How can you say that with a smile!?!" Rena questioned with a large question mark appearing over her head.

"Simple…" Leo replied with a large smile. "Because I'm me."

"Well…he's certainly truthful," Rukia chuckled with a large sweatdrop appearing on her head.

//-/--////--//--//-/

"Master Beck," De Masque started tilting his head to the side looking at the large racks of clothing that were set in front of the Yokai agents. "Why are we all here?"

Spinning on his heel, Beck just turned around with an evil, yet simple smile on his face. His eyes reflected all the Yokai that had currently appeared so far, and even a couple who's faces were still trapped in the shadows. "My friends…my Yokai…lend your attentions unto me…"

"For too long…we have hidden in the shadows ourselves, resembling the crowds, taking those in silence. But now…with the plans now…we shall begin our conquest! Starting by eliminating one of the biggest threats that appears before us…"

"Our target is…"

/-//-/-/--///-/-//

**Card Stats**

**Monk's Training Hall / Continuous Spell / Effect:** When this card is activated, for each 'Gather Your Mind' in your graveyard, place one counter on this card. Once per turn, by removing one counter on this card, you may return one face up monster on your side of the field with 'Monk' in its name to your deck. Then select one monster from your deck with a level equal to or lower than the returned monster. When there are no more counters on this card, destroy this card and add one 'Taurus Golem' from your deck or graveyard to your hand.

**Image:** A large Buddhist

**Jade Monk / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 1750 / DEF: 1200 / Rock/Effect:** When this card is face up on the field or in the graveyard treat this monster's name like 'Monk Fighter'. If this card was special summoned by the effect of 'Monk's Training Hall', and then when this monster destroys an opponent's monster as a result of battle, this card may attack once more.

**Description:** A ruff looking monk with spiked up emerald green hair on the top of his head and a small goatee starting to sprout out from his chin. His clothes resemble the Monk Fighter's only emerald green.

**Topaz Monk / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 2000 / Rock/Effect:** When this card is face up on the field or in the graveyard, treat this monster's name like 'Monk Fighter'. By paying 500 life points during your draw phase while this card is face up, you may draw one more card from your deck.

**Description:** A young monk with long blonde hair covering his dark glaring eyes. This clothes resemble the Monk Fighter's only topaz yellow.

**Diamond Jewel Monk / Light / LV. 7 / ATK: 2400 / DEF: 1000 / Rock/Effect:** This card can only be special summoned by sending one face up monster on the field with 'Monk' in the card's name to the graveyard. When this card is face up on the field or in the graveyard treat this card's name as 'Master Monk'. This card may attack three times during the battle phase.

**Description:** An older monk with a shinning white hair, wearing a beautiful white gi that seemed to sparkle in the light.

**The Blind Samurai / Wind / LV. 5 / ATK: 2350 / DEF: 1700 / Warrior/Effect:** By removing two monsters from your graveyard with 'Samurai' in their name from your graveyard, you may special summon this card to your side of the field. When this card battles a Fusion monster, after damage calculation, destroy the opposing fusion monster.

**Description:** a white armor cloaked man walked from the storm, lifting up a very long silver katana over his shoulder. The man's long black hair flowed over his white cloth covered eyes and past his shoulders

**Fukarin Samurai / Fire / LV. 3 / ATK: 500 / DEF: 700 / Warrior/Effect:** By removing one monster from your graveyard with 'Samurai' in its name from play, you may special summon this card from your hand. This card may attack your opponent directly.

**Description:** a young samurai with flame red and yellow armor. At the warrior's feet are a pair of enflamed wheels that allowed the samurai to float in mid-air, while the warrior spun a large spear made of flames

**Volt Masamune / Equip Spell / Effect:** This card can only be equipped to warrior monster. Increase the attack points of the equipped monster by 500. During each of your opponent's standby phases when this card is equipped, inflict 500 points of damage to your opponent's life points.

**Image:** A katana being stabbed directly into ground attracting lightning.

**Test of Strength / Continuous Trap / Effect:** As long as this card is face up, all players must attack the strongest monsters on their opponent's side of the field.

**Image:** A knight and samurai arm wrestling.

**Raikoben Samurai / Light / LV. 7 / ATK: 2600 / DEF: 2000 / Warrior/Effect:** This card cannot be destroyed by the effects of Magic Cards. Once per turn, you can select and activate 1 of the following effects:  
-By removing one monster from your graveyard with 'Samurai' in its name, you may increase the ATK strength of this card equal to the DEF strength of 1 monster on the field (this monster cannot be selected).  
- Each time either player activates a Magic Card, increase the ATK strength of this card by 400 points until the end of the turn.  
- Each time either player activates a Magic Card, you can remove 1 card your opponent controls from play. If you do this, inflict 1000 points of damage to your Life Points.

**Description:** a young samurai with long dark hair tied up with a long silver head band. Covering his entire body was white and black armor that glistened in the light, and in his right hand, the warrior held up a large whip that seemed to be made of lightning itself

**Deck Master**

**Vengeful Fencing Samurai: Call of the Bushido:** Send up to three monsters on your side of the field away to special summon one 'Bushido Token' (Dark/LV. 4 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 0 / Warrior) to your side of the field in defense mode. For each monster that was used to summon this token, this token can be used as that many tributes for a monster with 'Samurai' in its name.

**The Rock Spirit: Protection of the Earth:** Whenever a Rock-Type monster is targeted or destroyed by a trap card; you may discard one Trap card from your hand to negate the trap card's activation and effect.

///--/-/-/-/-//

**Riko:** I think its time…

**Sen:** Brother?

**Riko:** I grow tired of being treated like a little kid…well now…

**Sen:** W-What are you doing Riko?

**Luntina:** Riko?

**Tony:** What the? H-He's back!

**??-??-??: **Hmm…this seems interesting. So this is duel academy.

**Riko:** Today! I show I'm not just a side character whose only role is to be helpless!

_**The darkness of an old foe…the light of the holy warrior…sore eyes unblended for the sight that appears…an old tale once again appears before us all…**_

_**Next chapter of Duelist Twilight! **__**Chapter 32: Risen from the Ashes**_

**??-??-??:** Why is everyone getting my name wrong? I've never been here before!

/--/-//--/-//---//--//

**Vyser D:** Hey everyone! Guess what? With the holiday season coming up, I thought that I'd give you all a little holiday celebration! So, in a few weeks, there will be an OVA Christmas Special Chapter!

And as an added bonus, you will be allowed ask as many questions for any of the current questions! For they shall all be answered by your favorite characters! Just post those in your reviews or you can post them in this story's forum!

Until then…enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday! And if you don't celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas…happy holidays!


	32. Chapter 32: Risen from the Ashes

_**These bondages that hold me down…for far too long I have been submitted to being treated like a little kid…**_

_**For a majority of my life…I have been forced to stand to the side, only to hear the cries of joy and love that are all around me.**_

_**The darkness that I experience, it was said that it would engulf me for the rest of my days, unless I wanted to risk my life for a surgery that would only allow me my greatest desire…**_

…_**the cost was the risk that came with it…**_

_**The Chaotix Tai Gars…an ancient warrior that would face against any foe…despite the fact that he would lose. He never gave up…the holy revival warrior would always revive, striving to attain his goals…**_

…_**that gave me strength and the courage to take that surgery…**_

_**But now…I need that courage once more…**_

_**//--//--//-/-/-/--/-/**_

_**Chapter 32**_

_**Risen from the Ashes**_

/-/-/-/-/--/---//--/-/

Every morning at the Atlantic Duel Academy, a boat would arrive to deliver supplies and mail for the student body. More often not, a few passengers would also board in case they wanted to visit some of the students or faculty for some reason or another…

…well, that was the case for this passenger…he had someone to see…

"Hey!" The captain of the boat shouted getting the young man's attention. "You sure this is where you were supposed to go?"

The young man turned around on his heel to face the old sea captain, showing his pale body that gleamed off the light from the boat; his head was topped off with pitch black hair with white highlights tied back into a ponytail. He seemed to be quite upbeat with his large white overcoat that had black imprints of angelic wings at the shoulders, covering a tight black muscle shirt and had baggy dark gray cargo pants. "Yeah, I'm sure old man …don't worry about it."

"Ya know someone here kid?" The captain asked as the young man reached into his pocket to pull out a small photo.

"…I guess you could say that," the dark haired man answered lifting the photo in the light up to the captain. "You ever see this person?"

After taking in the photo, the old captain slowly snickered to himself at the sight photo. "Oh…looking for an old girlfriend are ya boy?"

"Heh, I assure you, its nothing like that…" The Dark haired young man answered shaking his hair from his eyes. "…but have you seen that person or not?"

"Actually, no, I'm sorry kiddo," The captain sighed passing the photo back to the dark haired teen. "Are you going to go find yer lover then?"

"I thought I just told you it's not like that," The dark haired teen moaned pocketing the photo into his pocket with a large sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head.

"The more you keep denying it," The old captain chuckled making a small blush creep on the young dark haired teen's face. "And your face is giving it away as well…"

"Ah shut up," The dark haired teen turned around and walked away from the dock.

"Go get her Tiger!" The captain shouted from his boat.

"Go to hell!"

As soon as he was far enough from the captain and his embarrassing assumptions, the dark haired teen lifted the photo up once more and continued his way to the duelist academy. "…I will find you…and finish where it was left off with…"

//--//--/-/-/--//--//-/

A loud sigh filled the room that was as dark as the night's sky; the turn of pages filled the air accompanying the sighs. "…somewhat sad when you have to read Braille comic books…"

Tossing the comic book to the side, Riko stood to his feet and slowly walked over the curtain covered windows. For the three years that he was here for, it was a simple task of remembering where everything was, not that difficult really for him to remember where any given item he was familiar with would be…

Removing his glasses, Riko revealed the bandages that were covering his eyes, slowly caressing the bandages. '_It's been two years…two years since my incident…I can't even cry for myself…_'

"Riko!"

Turning his head (pure instinct); Riko moved his head towards the door. From the sound of the voice, Riko was able to determine that it was his brother Sen who was at the door. "What do you need, brother?"

"I'm glad that you've been busy with your studies," Sen sighed looking at the desk while Riko placed his sunglasses back on his face. "But you mustn't stress yourself brother…"

"Yes, I know that…" Riko sighed turning back to the curtains. "…tell me Sen…is the sun out today?"

"It is, Riko," Sen said opening the curtains for his brother, making the morning sun's light pour into the room. Then turning his head to the side, Sen shook his head. "…I realize that it's been two years…"

"That's enough!" Riko snarled making Sen step away from him. "…I feel bad enough as it is…this anniversary of the incident is more than a match in making me feel horrible…"

"I know…" Sen moaned with a cold sweat appearing on his head. "It just…"

"Yeah…a year ago," Riko sighed pushing his sunglasses up and rubbed the bandages that covered his eyes. "I received that surgery…"

Then, walking away from Sen, Riko grabbed his dust covered Obelisk Blue vest from the nearby chair and threw it over his shoulders as he headed for the door. "…I need some time alone…if I'm not back in an hour or two, come looking for me at my secret spot…"

"I understand…" Sen sighed lowering his head…as soon as the door slammed shut; Sen turned his head to the nearby desk to see that Riko's duel disk and dueling deck were gone. "…I really see…"

//-//-/-/-/-/-//-/

"Aw man…there goes my twenty bucks," Klein sighed just aimlessly walking around. Today he was all alone; Koji didn't want to be in the tournament, so he gave Klein his pendant, giving him a total of two red pins.

Van…well; he was probably dueling to get ahead in the tournament. So currently, Klein was struggling along, his mind buzzing with thoughts about future scams and how he could get farther into this tournament to get into that safe… However, he did have a meeting with the psycho…oh, wait, his name was Tony right?

"Damn it," Klein growled stomping his foot on the ground, kicking up a large amount of dust. "Why does everyone pick on the little guy?"

"First, I get into a debt thanks to that stupid hard ass…" Kneeling to the ground, Klein immediately slammed his fist into the ground…despite the pain that was rumbling through his arm. "Then, that damn bounty hunter appears to get even more debt added to my record…and now I've got psycho after me…"

Then standing up straight, Klein placed his hand onto his forehead, some of his hair tangled in his fingers. "But then again…I am the Martyr of the Atlantic Duel Academy, forced to take the crap that others create and bail them out at the last minute…"

"Ya sure gotta large opinion 'bout yerself," Tony sighed shaking his head appearing behind Klein.

"WTF!?!?" Klein roared jumping up into the air, his arms and legs flailing in the air. Then with a small crash, Klein stomped his foot onto the ground to shooting at the psycho. "Where the hell did you come from!?!"

"Master Leo's been teaching me well," Tony chuckled scratching the side of his face; however that was quickly replaced with a more serious look on his face. "But now then…I think we've got something to talk about…"

"Look, I couldn't find the damn bastard!" Klein admitted waving his arms in the air. "There! You happy now! I admit it! I couldn't find him!"

"…Well…I kinda had already figured that you'd be unable to get him anyway," Tony chuckled rubbing the back of his head.

"THEN WHY DID YOU SEND ME YOU PSYCHO!?!" Klein shouted jumping on Tony's chest and keeping him up grabbing Tony's jacket.

"W-Well, I-I-I…" Tony tried to say only it was because he was being shaken up by Klein.

A few minutes later…

Click!

"Cool yourself off with a soda," Tony sighed tossing the small can of soda towards Klein, who caught it with his right hand.

"Heh…been a while since I've had a soda," Klein admitted before sipping on his dark colored drink. "…I forgot how good it tastes…"

"Man, you seriously confuse me," Tony chuckled fingering the top of his soda can. "Honestly…I can't tell if you're prideful, or just a hot head…"

"Heh, I'm the Fighting Dog of the Atlantic Duelist Academy," Klein laughed out loud placing his hands at his hips. "I'm supposed to be confusing! Just like you're supposed to be a barrel loving psycho!"

"Heh…well, ya got me there Fighting Dog," Tony laughed right back lifting his drink up to Klein.

With a few large gulps, Klein finished his drink and threw his can towards the side, turning towards the barrel obsessed Obelisk Blue. "…So spill it psycho…why did you need Ganryu?"

"I thought I told ya," Tony replied with a large smile on his face. "Since he defeated those four Obelisk Blues…"

"Yeah…I'm not buying that like the idiots who bought those mushrooms I was selling," Klein scoffed walking up to Tony. "So what's the big idea? I think I should at least have some idea as to why I'm doing this…"

"…" Shaking the soda can a few times; Tony immediately sipped the remaining drops from the can before setting it next to him. "…I have to admit…You're a lot more determined than when we first met…"

"With all the crap going on around here," Klein growled pushing his hair back. "It's hard not to change for the better."

"True…" Tony sighed shaking his head. "I have to give you that as well…Fine…I'll tell ya what ya need ta know, but, this stays between us, and us alone."

"No worries on that matter," Klein chuckled with a large toothy grin. "I'm known far and wide as the Dark Secret Keeper of the Atlantic Duel Academy!"

"…huh? I thought you were the Fighting Dog?" Tony asked with a large question mark appearing over his head.

"I have many names that refer to me," Klein stated slamming his fist on his chest a few times. "I'm known as the Martyr of Love, the Purveyor of the Dark Network, and…"

"That's enough, I don't need to know about all of your names," Tony gulped waving his arms in front of him. "How about I tell ya about what I needed Ganryu for?"

"Preferably, I'd choose to tell you about the other seventeen names that were given myself," Klein offered crossing his arms. "But then again, I want to get away from you as fast as I can…"

"I'll take that as a yes," Tony sighed waving his hand over Klein's face. "So let's get into it shall we?"

/-//--/-//-/--/-///-/

The warm sea's breeze caressed Riko's hair as he stood before the beach, the warm smell of the salt water and sand filled the air as Riko slowly sat down on the edge of the beach. '_I can only picture what this sight might be…with my usable senses, I can only guess that the sea is a little restless today…'_

'…_I wonder…how do the people I know look…its been so long since I last remember their faces…and my new friends…what do they look like?'_

'_And…I fear this…how do I look? I can't even remember my own face, nor can I remember what my cards look like…'_

'…_Do I even want to see again? With everything that's been happening in this world of ours, do I even want to see this ugly world that I live in?'_

"Excuse me," A new voice asked Riko, getting him to turn towards the side.

Although he couldn't see who had called to him, Riko still faced the voice's owner. "Yes? Is there something I can help you with?"

"Yeah," The voice replied, from the sound of it, the voice belonged to a young teenaged man, with a slight scratch tone to it. "Have you seen this girl before?"

At that moment, Riko would've loved to punch this guy, but he had more restraint than that. "I'm sorry…but I have never seen this person in the photo before…"

It was the truth, if the person in the photo had never been seen by Riko before the incident, then he wouldn't likely know who this person was talking about. "Oh…I see…"

From where he was, Riko was able to get a good grasp of people, since sight never blinded his judgment. This person…from his tone and from the feeling in Riko's other senses… "But, I know someone who sees people in a more…distinct manner. Allow me to help you find him."

"Thanks, you're alright," The voice stated with a little laugh. "Ya got a name?"

"Hmm…" Riko hummed to himself as he stood up and began to walk forward, he knew that today, that person would be near the main building, more often near the vending machines. "I'm Riko Kamika…you?"

"Heh…call me Kyo."

//--//-/---//-/-/-/-/-/

"So…the real reason you wanted me to find Ganryu was because of this guy?" Klein asked pointing to the sketch pad that was placed in front of him. Draw on the sketch pad, was none other than Dias, wearing his attire before his ritual.

"Yeah…" Tony replied nodding his head. He had just gotten done telling Klein about that night that Ganryu had disappeared and what had happened between Rena, Ganryu and Dias.

In response, Klein had told Tony that he lost to Xander…and blacked out for a while before putting a hurting on the Mercenary. "…Heh, but that doesn't make any sense. If the girlie was able to defeat this freak…shouldn't you be looking for her? And why do you even need to find Ganryu? He's more than able to defend himself, I know that first hand."

"Allow me to explain," Tony sighed shaking his head. "Unfortunately, Rena was able to win thanks to Ganryu's impressive skills, weakening her opponent. I'll say Rena does have potential…but if she had face against Dias alone, the outcome would've been different."

"Oh, okay, but I still get why you need Ganryu," Klein stated with a confused look on his face.

"We don't need Ganryu," Tony replied closing his eyes. "But someone else does…or, at least what Luntina told me…"

"You mean that Alchemist Chick?" Klein asked scratching his head. "How does she play in a role in all this?"

"I told her what had happened as well," Tony answered opening his eyes and sitting back into his seat. "And she got worried…Ganryu has a lot of pride as you can tell. Ganryu lost to her, then Dias…what's worse is Rena had to save him by picking up where he left off…with those blows, any prideful man will resort to any manners to regain that pride…"

"…that's true…" Klein sighed, knowing exactly what Tony was getting at. "So…who's this guy that's after him?"

"I'm not too sure of it myself," Tony stated crossing his arms and looking more serious than usual. "Riko or Luntina would know that…if we see either of them, we can ask them…"

"Oh come on, it's not like either of those two are going to just appear out of the blue," Klein laughed with a large smirk on his face.

"Tony?" A familiar voice sounded, making both Tony and Klein turn around to see Riko standing behind them both with a smile on his face and a blue vest over his sweater.

"…it's not like ten thousand dollars are going to rain from the sky above me!" Klein shouted into the air raising his hands up. "…damn…it didn't work…"

"Oh…is that Rena's friend Klein?" Riko asked turning towards a sulking Klein.

"…yeah…" Klein sighed placing his head on the table that he was at.

"Speak of the devil…" Tony chuckled standing up from his seat. "We were just talking about you…"

"So I heard," Riko replied rubbing the side of his face. "…and from what I heard, it would appear that Klein knows what we're going to do…"

"Some of it, yes," Tony answered with a grim look on his face. "…so…what brings ya here Riko?"

"Well…there's someone here who would like ask you a question," Riko stated snapping his fingers a few times. "Here's the guy, Kyo!"

"Ah…this is the guy?"

Turning from the corner, the owner of the voice appeared before Klein and Tony…making both of the blink a few times, then perform a double take at the picture that Tony had created to represent Dias.

"…AH!! IT'S DIAS!" Tony and Klein shouted taking a few steps backwards.

"Dias?" Riko questioned tilting his head to the side. "…you mean the Dias Swartzvauld that came to our island a while back?"

"Dias?" 'Dias' questioned rubbing his chin. "No, my name's Kyo. Kyo Swartzvauld…"

"Yeah, right!" Klein shouted pointing a finger at 'Kyo'. "You look exactly like the guy in the picture!"

"And your voice sounds just like his," Tony added crossing his arms over his chest. "…but I thought that you were still hospitalized due to your surgery…"

"That's Dias!" 'Kyo' snarled slapping his forehead. "I'm his twin brother, Kyo Swartzvauld! How many times do I have to say that?"

"You can say it forever, and we still won't believe ya!" Klein laughed waving his arms in the air.

"…it was a lie…" Riko muttered to himself slowly stepping away from the white overcoat wearing 'Kyo'. "State your purpose for being here, Dias."

"Goddammit!" 'Kyo' shouted stomping his foot into the ground, then taking a deep breath, 'Kyo' combed his hair back with his hand and reached into his pocket. "…look…I'm not going to cause any trouble. I'm just looking for this person."

Lifting up the photo, Tony's face reddened and Klein just laughed out loud pointing at the photo. "HA! I didn't think that people would visit my website!"

"I-I didn't know that Rena wore purple pajamas," Tony admitted looking away, trying to get the blush hidden away. "…although…I never did expect to see Rena's blue undergarments either…"

"Uh…so you know her!" 'Kyo' announced with a great smile on his face as he pocketed the photo. "Now then…where is she?"

"Like we're going to tell you!" Tony snapped out of his little perverted daydream raising his fist up. "Get out of here Dias!"

"My name is Kyo!" Kyo shouted reaching into the back of his overcoat, only to pull out a small metallic disk and toss it up and down in the air. "And if you're not going to tell me…then I think we have a problem here that can easily be resolved with a duel…"

"Fine," Tony stated gruffly lifting his duel disk up. "I'll be you're…"

"No!" Riko announced sliding in front of Tony, pushing the Chess duelist back a little bit. "…I'm your opponent, Dias…"

"What the?" Klein questioned with a large question mark appearing over his head.

"Huh?" Tony stated blinking his eyes a few times.

"I'm not Dias!" Kyo shouted pressing a button on the small metallic disk before tossing it into the air. Then with a bright flash, the disk began to fold out, forming into a silver duel disk with the many playing card suites on it. Then lifting his left arm up, Kyo allowed the duel disk slid onto Kyo's arm, activating at the same time. "And it doesn't matter which of you I duel! When I win, you three gotta take me to see this 'Rena'."

"Very well," Riko replied calmly activating his duel disk and snapping in his shuffled deck. "Now then, should you lose Dias, you'll give me your reason why you're here, and depending on that…we'll determine what you're punishment is Dias…"

"For the last time…" Kyo snarled lifting his activated duel disk into the air. "I'm Kyo Swartzvauld!"

//--/-//--/-//-/--/-/

"Hmm…most interesting…" Kazin stated writing down on the notepad as he looked over the sleeping test subject that was graciously given to him. "Subject's breathing…normal. Pulse…normal. Sleeping status…normal. Hmm…it would seem that the hibernation period seems to be best time for the test subject to calm down. I'll have to study him further to see how he's affected further if there are any side effects…"

"Hey Kazin!" De Masque, Bravo and Kirin announced at the same time, making the scientific duelist turn around slightly with an annoyed look on his face.

"…what?" Kazin asked with venom pouring from his eyes.

"Dang," De Masque sighed snapping his free hand's fingers. "I was hoping we could mimic that one blue's appearance technique…"

"I'll ask again…what do you want?" Kazin asked pushing up his glasses looking at the three Yokai members. One thing he noticed was all three of them had brown paper bags in their arms (Bravo was carrying four thanks to his immense size). "…and what's with the bags?"

"Well…first of all Kazin," Bravo chuckled hiding behind the four brown paper bags. "Beck wanted to know why you weren't at the fitting yesterday…"

"Simple…I refuse to dress up like a clown," Kazin answered swiftly turning back to his clipboard. "But it would appear that some members enjoy dressing like fools…"

"Hey! Was that a shot at me!?!" De Masque shouted with fire appearing behind his mask's eyeholes.

"…if the mask fits…" Kazin replied writing down some data that he had taken.

'_He's not going to get away with that…_' De Masque thought reaching into the brown paper bag…unnoticed by everyone else.

"Anyway…Kazin, I would assume that you remember what's going on in a few days right?" Lirin asked placing her free hand on her hip as De Masque pulled out a small decorative popper from the brown paper bag.

"Of course…we're celebrating the third year anniversary of the Yokai's creation into the world," Kazin answered rubbing the bridge of his nose in annoyance, not noticing that De Masque was lifting the decorative popper close to his ears.

"BANZAI!" De Masque announced pulling the popper's string.

BOOOOOM!

"ARGH! MY EARS!" Kazin shouted covering his ears in pain; he was entirely covered with red and blue streamers and yellow confetti.

"De Masque!" Lirin scolded dropping the bag in shock, Bravo was doubled over in pain from the laughter he was experiencing at the moment. "You can do that!"

"Why not?" De Masque asked folding his arms over his chest. "Anyone who mocks my mask will be…"

"Hey, can I have some shrimp?" Bravo asked freed from his laughter.

"What!?!" Kazin shouted shaking his head around. "Who's getting a chimp?"

"Geez, I'm surrounded by impatient men," Lirin sighed shaking her head. "De Masque…you weren't supposed to make Kazin deaf, and Bravo, those shrimp are for the party!"

"Knock, knock!"

Everyone except Kazin looked towards the door to see Beck walking in, a large smile on his face. "It's my favorite masked thief, the lovely flower, the strongman, and the scientific mind…"

"Who's blind?" Kazin asked slapping his ears a few times.

"…what just happened?" Beck asked pointing towards Kazin who was talking softly.

"De Masque had the bright idea to pull a party popper in Kazin's ear," Lirin answered bluntly with a dulled look on her face.

"Will someone answer that damn phone!?!" Kazin yelled spinning around in a small circle.

"Kazin!" Beck shouted grabbing Kazin by the shoulders. "The ringing is in your ears!"

"Sure!" Kazin shouted back to Beck with a nice grin on his face. "A couple of beers would hit the spot!"

"Whatever," Beck sighed shaking his head and turning towards the other three members of the Yokai. "Anyway…I have a mission for you three…wait, did you three get the party supplies?"

"Yeah, sir!" Bravo answered with a stiff salute.

"Excellent!" Beck winked at the three with a small heart floating from his eye. "But then again…we've got a special guest on the island."

"Who is it?" Lirin asked with a question mark over her head.

"Dias Swartzvauld," Beck answered, getting a large stare from De Masque.

"Are you sure, sir?" De Masque asked blinking a few times behind his mask.

"Well…for some reason, he's calling himself Kyo," Beck replied twirling some of the hair that came under his bandana. "But…I'm sure it was because of the disease having an after effect…"

"Sir!" De Masque shouted saluting towards Beck. "Please! Allow me to keep an eye on this so called Dias…"

"Very well…" Beck answered without a problem. "Just be sure to take notes as to why he's here and what he's doing at the moments…"

"What!?!?" Kazin asked loudly, making everyone sweatdrop at him.

//-/--/-//-/--//-/--/-/

"Now then," Kyo announced reaching for his sixth card. "I think its time for to duel…"

"Not just yet," Riko sighed pulling out his deck and fanning the cards out in front of him while he lifted up a single card up. "Since you're on our island…we'll play by our tournament rules…" (RLP: 8000)

"Tournament rules?" Kyo asked as Riko's card began to glow, forming into a younger version of the Chaotix Tai Gars…only with longer hair. "…What's that for?" (KLP: 8000)

"It's a deck master," Riko answered as the monster he choose began to float around him. "Before each duel, each duelist must select one…and I chose Chaotix Ban Ten."

"If that's the case…" Kyo muttered looking through his rather large deck…then with a small grin, Kyo lifted up one single card into the air. "I choose this one!"

In a dark light, a thin jester like magician, dressed in black and white clothes appeared next to Kyo. Floating around the mysterious magician were many different playing cards of the spade and club suites. "Meet the Black Ace – Joker!"

"Black Ace – Joker?" Tony questioned rubbing the back of his head. "That's weird?"

"How so?" Klein asked blinking a few times.

"I don't think a card like that would fit in his deck," Tony answered as Kyo drew his sixth card. "…Dias used to play a Demon Slayer deck…and that card wouldn't fit his style…"

"I'm…not…Dias!" Kyo shouted, a powerful fire erupting behind him. "I'll burn that into all your heads before this duel is done!"

"Yeah, yeah, we get it Dias," Klein sighed shaking his head. "No one's buying that poor excuse…"

"Damn it!" Kyo shouted pulling his first card from his hand. "I activate the spell card, Boss Battle!"

Kyo's spell card materialized onto the field, this card showing a large demonic warrior standing before many medieval knights. "Now then…this spell card forces you to special summon any monster you want from your deck, Riko. So the choice is yours!"

"Hmm…you're a lot more generous than I heard, Dias," Riko admitted pulling out his deck and began to feel the cards.

"I don't get it…" Tony admitted with a dulled look on his face. "Dias is practically giving Riko his best monster out…where's the point in that?"

"Heh, I guess you're not all knowing after all psycho," Klein laughed loudly while Kyo's shouts of anger went ignored. "That spell card is a must have for zero attacker decks…"

"While it allows the opponent to special summon a powerful monster, which can actually be a bad thing. Even I have a copy of that card in my deck…and I think that speaks for itself."

"Wait, you run Ojamas…so are you saying," Tony placed the pieces together.

"Yeah, he probably runs a deck like mine," Klein finished as the Chaotix Tai Gars (500/500) erupted onto the field, striking a pose. "However…that Deck Master wouldn't work for an Ojama deck."

"Now then…due to the second effect of Boss Battle," Kyo continued fanning out his dueling deck, selecting two cards from his deck. "For every three stars on the special summoned monster, I can special summon one level three or lower monster from my deck with zero attack points! Since your monster is a level eight, I can special summon two monsters!"

Throwing his two selected cards into the air, many playing cards began to float down from the sky, all of them forming into two piles of the cards. When the card piles flew into the air, two cards appeared before Kyo, both of them with a red border but they had either the heart or diamond suites on them (0/0 x2). "I choose Poker – Heart and Poker – Diamond! And to end my turn…I'll set two cards face down…Turn end!"

"Well…that's certainly interesting," Riko sighed pulling his sixth card up. It was a good thing that Dias played that Boss Battle card…Riko didn't have a single monster summon card nor card addition in his hand at the moment. "But now…I set one card face down…and equip my Chaotix Tai Gars with Lancer's Heaven!"

Raising his hands up into the air, the powerful warrior began to chant as small orbs of light began to float around his fingers. Then, the many lights began to form up into two large lances that had angelic markings all over them. Lifting up the remaining four cards in his hand, Riko immediately slid them into his duel disk graveyard. "This equip card can only be equipped to Chaotix Tai Gars…and when equipped I must discard every card in my hand."

"Well that was a stupid idea," Kyo stated with a smirk on his face as a powerful aura began to engulf the Chaotix Tai Gars.

"It would be…but for every card that was discarded," Riko began to explain as his revival warrior began to roar, increasing his muscle mass (500/500 + 1200/1200), filling his armor up quite well. "He gains three hundred attack and defense points!"

Then with a beep, a card popped off the top of Riko's deck and into his hand. "And one of the cards I discarded was my Discard Compensation. When discarded, I can draw another card from my deck!"

"Not bad at all," Kyo admitted with a smile on his face. "I can tell our decks are going to be quite different against each other…"

"We'll see Dias," Riko replied raising his hand up into the air.

"It's Kyo!"

"Still intend to keep up that ruse?" Riko asked throwing his hand towards Kyo. "Then allow my Chaotix Tai Gars to destroy that ruse, Dias!"

With a blinding golden speed, the Chaotix Tai Gars flew towards one of the floating cards, and pierced directly through it. Immediately, the card shattered into pixels that flew into Kyo. "I…I thought I told you! I'm Kyo!"

"And besides, my Poker monsters negate all battle damage done to me!" (KLP: 8000)

"Didn't know that…" Klein muttered rubbing his chin as two cards popped out of Kyo's deck.

"Next, by my Poker – Hearts effect, I can take two cards with 'Poker' in their name from my deck, and add them to my hand," Kyo announced refreshing his hand and lifting up the five cards he now held.

"Strange strategy," Riko admitted although, his strategy wasn't all that normal either. "Turn end, Dias. Let's see what you've got."

"God damn it!" Kyo snarled pulling his sixth card up. "…with this next move…I'll burn my name in your heads! I sacrifice my Poker – Diamond…in order to summon Black Jack Ace – Spade!"

The remaining playing card shattered into more cards, flying into the air, all of them beginning to clump together into a large pile of cards floating in the air. When all the cards scattered into the wind, a dark form fell to the ground, creating a large indent in the ground.

Standing before Kyo, casting a large shadow on the group of three students, was a large black armored knight with silver spades all over his muscular body. With large black overcoat tails, a sharp noble sword with a spade hilt is tided around his waist (0/0). "Whoa…now that's really anti-climatic…"

"Oh shut up!" Kyo shouted at Klein lifting up his five card hand. "Here's how my Black Jack Ace works, for each card in my hand, he gains four hundred attack and defense points…and since I have five…"

The Black Jack Ace – Spade immediately drew his sword, strengthening himself (0/0 + 2000/2000) by raising the sword high into the air. "Black Jack Ace – Spade! Attack his Chaotix Tai Gars!"

Leaping forward, both warriors headed directly for each other, both of them having their weapons clash a few times. However, with a quick slash, the two lances in the Chaotix Tai Gars' hands flew into the air, leaving him susceptible to be stabbed by the silver sword that the card warrior held onto.

A loud scream filled the air, and the Chaotix Tai Gars shattered into many pixels. (RLP: 7700)

"…I assume my warrior lost," Riko sighed lowering his head. "…Oh well…"

"…I expected a little more oomph from you," Kyo stated looking over his hand. "Anyway…since I don't feel like spending any cards…I'll end my turn…"

That's when the ground opened up, allowing a more muscular version of the Chaotix Tai Gars to leap from the ground, sending a thumbs up to everyone in the area (500/500 + 500/500). "…am I missing something?"

"I guess you've never heard about Chaotix Tai Gars' effect," Riko explained wagging his finger while his deck master began to cheer for the newly revived holy warrior. "Well, Dias, this monster's effect revives itself during the end phase of the turn its destroyed, and increases it attack points by five hundred every time it was revived."

"That's pretty cool…" Kyo admitted before shaking his head. "Wait a minute! I'm not Dias! I'm Kyo!"

"Yeah, yeah, we all heard you already," Klein sighed laughing slightly as well. "But it's still not going to make us believe you…"

"Damn it…" Kyo moaned slapping his forehead as the Riko's Deck master began to glow. "Now what?"

"…from what I was told, my Chaotix Ban Ten allows me to draw a card when Chaotix Tai Gars is special summoned from the graveyard," Riko explained drawing his next card. "The ability is called, Gift for the Virtuous!"

"…way not to be full of yourself…" Kyo muttered as Riko felt the card on he just drew.

"Chaotix Tai Gars! Attack his Black Jack Ace – Spade!" Riko commanded as the muscular Chaotix Tai Gars charged towards the Black Jack Ace.

"What?!?" Kyo questioned raising his arm up towards his running Black Jack Ace. "Counter attack!"

"Spell card go!" Riko announced fitting his card into his duel disk. "I activate, Heavenly Battle Cry! This increases my Chaotix Tai Gars' attack by one thousand!"

"WHAT?!?!" Kyo shouted as both monsters disappeared into flashes of light.

"…of course…" Riko replied lowering his head to push up his sunglasses slightly. "I'm forced to skip my next battle phase…and thanks to my monster's effect…"

The ground erupted allowing the Chaotix Tai Gars (500/500 + 1000/1000) to leap into the air, showing off his more developed muscles and height. When the holy warrior landed on the ground, he crossed his arms over his chest and knelt down. Then, thanks to the glowing Chaotix Ban Tai, Riko drew another card. "Turn end…"

"Heh…I should have expected this," Kyo snickered pulling his next card…that's when a dark look appeared in his eyes. "…well, well, well…my luck must be good today…I activate my trap card, go One Pair!"

Spinning two cards from his hand, Kyo slapped both of them onto his duel disk, creating two playing cards, both of them had the Ace of Spade on them (0/0). "This trap card can only be activated by showing you that I have two cards that have a common word in their name. I can automatically special summon the two monsters from my hand. But at the end of the turn, they're destroyed. So my Poker – Spades happen to fit that bill…"

"It doesn't take a genius to see what you're planning," Riko interrupted crossing his arms. "You're planning on sacrificing both of those monsters for a sacrifice…right Dias?"

"Yes…and no, I'm not Dias!" Kyo shouted as both of his card monsters shattered into many playing cards. "Its Kyo! I sacrifice both of my monsters, and summon this!"

The many playing cards began to spin around the entire dueling field, all of them gathering in front of Kyo who raised his hand up. Then, all of the cards burned up into small flames allowing another armored monster to appear on the field before Kyo. This one was large knight with red torso armor with a golden heart at her chest and a golden diamond at her back. On her arms is a pair of black armor with a silver spade on the right arm and a silver club on the left. On her red helmet is a large silver crown with a black and red cloak at the back of her armor. In her hands were a pair of sharp swords (one red and the other black) (0/0). "Royal Straight Flush Knight – Heart Diamond!"

"Sounds like an impressive monster Dias," Riko complimented with a smile on his face.

"Damn it!" Kyo shouted jumping up and down in place, trying to crush the ground before him. "Dias is my twin brother! Didn't he ever mention he had a brother damn it!?!"

"Actually," Tony muttered with a small sweatdrop on his head, just remembering what Dias was talking about earlier.

"Sweet, flashbacks," Klein muttered.

/-/-//-/-//--/-//--/-/

"_But why are you doing this?" Leo questioned rubbing his chin._

"…_Fine…Close your eyes and you will see…" Dias growled closing his eyes._

///-/--//--//-//-//

_The sun shined over the large family estate of the Swartzvauld family, many people dressed in fancy clothes each of them with similar features to Dias. All of them enjoying the expensive food that was prepared and the classical music that softly floated through the cool summer breeze._

_The kids of the family were playing outside in the large yard with a younger Dias, wearing a black vest over a dark gray shirt with Dante on it, chasing a few of his cousins and siblings. "Come on guys! I've been it for a half an hour!"_

"_You'll have to catch us!"_

"_Stop complaining Dias!"_

"_Yeah! You've got to train more often!"_

_After a while more playing, Dias fell to the ground backwards tired and breathing heavily with his cousins and siblings standing over him. "D-d-dang you guys…"_

"_Man, you need to get more nutrition in your diet."_

"_Or an inhaler."_

"_Knock it off you guys," a calming voice stated making the group of kids turn around to see an almost carbon copy of Dias, only with white clothes and wearing a shirt with angel wings on the front. "Dias hasn't been feeling well, so lay off of him!"_

"_Yeah, yeah, yeah, we get it Kyo… no need to bit our heads off."_

_Kyo shook his head slightly and crossed his arms over his chest. "You guys get in the house, it's almost time for the main course in lunch and our parents want us in there."_

"_Thanks Kyo!"_

_Standing over his tired brother, Kyo couldn't help but chuckle at his twin brother. "So bro…how ya feeling?"_

"_Ugh…I feel like Uncle Theo's punching bag," Dias moaned clutching his chest._

"_Ouch…that's got to hurt," Kyo chuckled lifting his hand to Dias. "Now come on…everyone else is in the house, so hurry up to get up so we can get some food before there's nothing left."_

"_I know…I know…" Dias chuckled slowly standing up._

_All of a sudden, a powerful explosion rocked the ground, sending both Dias and Kyo to the ground. Turning their heads up, their eyes were met with the sight of the family estate was engulfed in a large flame._

_Later, after being recuperated in a nearby hospital from the shock, Dias and Kyo learned that the cause of the explosion was due to a group of terrorists that had targeted their family. Thanks to the actions of the actions of these terrorists, all the debt that the Swartzvauld family had secretly accumulated was paid from the money that was left to Dias and Kyo…leaving them enough money to survive in a house…_

_The vision then changed itself a few years in the future, to a teenaged Kyo standing in front of a sleeping teenaged Dias sleeping in a hospital bed. A grave looking doctored strolled into the room, reading from some various charts with a grim look on his face._

"…_So…what's wrong with him doc?" Kyo asked, biting the end of this thumb slightly._

"_I'm afraid Mr. Swartzvauld, that your brother…" the doctor stated looking at Dias sleeping. "Has a rare disease…causing him to cough blood from his lungs. I have to inform you…that there is a surgical procedure that could possibly save your brother…"_

"_Hell yeah! We're getting him that surgery!" Kyo shouted, surprisingly, he didn't wake Dias up._

"_Well okay, then here's the cost estimate," The doctor stated handing Kyo the paper that had the estimates on it._

_Looking at the paper, Kyo's eyes widened in a matter of seconds. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! What year do you think it is? We can't afford this?"_

"_Well…there are several medicines that could help him retain his life," The doctor stated writing down several prescriptions on the clipboard he had in front of him. "Of course, one day they won't be enough and his body will give out on him. At the most, he's got ten years…"_

"_We've got no choice," Kyo stated taking the prescriptions. "But tell me…will the surgery cure him?"_

"_It should…but in ten years it won't matter…" The doctor replied._

"_That's more than enough time!" Kyo shouted slamming his hand to his chest. After that Kyo devoted his time to becoming a pro league duelist. He was known as the youngest member in the pro leagues…and managed to be a top contender._

_Dias on the other hand…_

.//---/-/--//-//-/

"So! Isn't it possible, that I might be that Kyo?" Kyo asked tilting his head to the side. "I mean…I know it's a small chance that I could be here, but still…come on…"

"Well…we've never seen his brother before," Tony countered rubbing his chin slightly. "And for the fact is because you look the exact same as Dias himself…although, I found it strange that you're here…I would've thought that the surgery would've had a rebound…"

"Dias is still in the hospital," Kyo replied rubbing his temples a little bit. "So there's no way I could be Dias…so theoretically, I am Kyo…Dias's twin!"

"I hate to say this Dias…" Riko stated getting everyone's attention back to him. "But we can get to your identity crisis after your move…so please make it…"

"Fine…" Kyo replied lifting his arm up. "Royal Straight Knight – Heart Diamond! Attack Chaotix Tai Gars!"

"What!?!" Klein and Tony shouted, shocked but Riko on the other hand was clam as the large knight began to charge forward.

The large knight brought two both of her large swords down on the surprised Chaotix Tai Gars, however, the powerful holy warrior lifted his fists up, slamming into the swords. The force sent the Royal Straight Knight flying stagger backwards, making Kyo jump to the side not to be stepped on. (KLP: 6500)

"But why did you do that?" Klein asked as the knight stood up straight and sheathed both of her swords (0/0 + 800/800).

"Simple little man," Kyo chuckled wagging his finger. "You see, after battle calculation, my knight gains one hundred attack points times the level of the monster he battles…"

"But for now…I'll end my turn…" Kyo chuckled crossing his arms. "However…I know that there's nothing you can do this turn…"

"You would be correct," Riko answered spinning one of the cards in his hand around, showing Pot of Greed. "Thanks to my spell, I can draw two cards…"

"And…with that…my turn's over…"

"I was kind of expecting something a little bit flashier…" Kyo admitted slowly pulling his next card, then with a snap of his fingers, Kyo's other card flipped upwards showing a man throwing a large amount of playing cards next to a deck while reaching for a stack of cards. "But maybe my trap will fix that! I activate my continuous trap card, Discard! So I can discard all four cards in my hand…and then draw the exact same number of cards that I discarded!"

"Just like in a real game of poker," Riko assessed lifting his hand up. "And I assume that I have the same option."

"Correct, only both of us can only use this effect once per turn," Kyo answered pulling his replacement cards. "And now…I'll activate the spell card, Royal Flush Blade! This card…"

"I think that's enough."

Everyone just turned to the side to see Alan standing to the side, his arms crossed and his face lit up with a bright smile. "Stop this duel right now…"

"Man, do you have a fetish for stopping duels or what?" Klein asked making Alan fall to the ground out of embarrassment.

"NO!" Alan shouted jumping to his feet while adjusting his collar. "Anyway…this Dias is not lying…"

Kyo was steaming as he slammed his foot into the ground. "Damn it! I have a name! Its Kyo!"

"Yeah, yeah, we all hear you," Alan answered walking in front of Kyo and slapping his forehead with his hand.

"Ack!" Kyo yelped falling backwards rubbing his head, as he fell to the ground, his duel disk accidentally turned off, making all of the holograms disappear in front of the two duelists.

"Riko…I apologize," Alan said bowing in front of a surprised Riko. "I realize that your duel was important…but I have business with Mr. Swartzvauld…"

"But wait a minute…" Tony was about to protest until Alan lifted his hand up to his face.

"Tony, I don't want to hear it…Kyo Swartzvauld has a meeting with me," Alan replied as Riko removed his cards from his duel disk and began to walk away, shaking his head slightly.

"Y-Yeah, I've got a meeting with Mr. Wright here!" Kyo announced with a cold sweat dripping off the side of his head. "And I told you that I was Kyo Swartzvauld!"

"I guess we have to give you that one," Klein chuckled with embarrassment. "Hey…where'd that one guy go?"

"That one guy?" Tony asked looking around till he realized who Klein was referring to. "Oh! You mean Riko… I have no clue where he is…"

"Well then," Alan stated grabbing Kyo by the shoulders and began to pull him away. "We'll just be heading out then!"

"Hey! Wait a minute!" Kyo shouted before being pulled away against his will.

"Well that was weird…" Klein admitted crossing his arms over his chest.

"…now what do we do?" Tony asked turning towards Klein.

"Wait a minute! I'm the one who's supposed to ask that!" Klein shouted waving his hand up towards Tony. "So what's the play, psycho!?!"

"…Well…I guess I'll have to take you to the next meeting…who knows," Tony sighed leaning towards Klein. "You might be able to lend us a hand…but for now…you uh, got any other pictures of Rena?"

"Heh…I guess I should call you pervert instead of psycho," Klein chuckled making Tony raise his arms up, blushing madly.

"W-W-W-W-WHAT! N-N-N-NO!!" Tony shouted before he began to strangle Klein. "If you say that to anyone, I'll personally strangle you to death!"

Meanwhile…

"Now then…" Alan stated throwing Kyo to the ground in front of him. "You owe me big time Kyo…"

"Y-yeah," Kyo gulped slowly standing up and dusting himself off. "It's been what…six, seven years?"

"Seven, but who's counting?" Alan replied crossing his arms. "Now then, I've got a pretty good idea why you're here…"

"Oh, and what would that be?" Kyo asked with a nice smile.

"Maybe it has to do with this?" Alan suggested lifting up the scandalous picture of Rena on it.

"What the!?! How'd you get that?" Kyo questioned searching all of his pockets.

"You'd be surprised what the faculty learns from the students," Alan answered putting the picture in his pocket and lifting up a white version of the jewel pins that all the students had. "Now then…I'll allow you your chance…but you'll have to earn it by dueling the other students here in the tournament and hope that she appears in the final sixteen…"

"Well, I would like to finish that duel I had with that one guy…" Kyo admitted rubbing the back of his head. "His revival deck was most excellent…"

"I'll be sure to let Riko Kamika know," Alan replied spinning on his heel. "Now then…follow me, and I'll find ya an empty room…"

"Thanks…" Kyo stated following Alan.

//--///-/-/-/-//-/

Standing alone in front of the academy Riko slowly removed his sunglasses, looking up into the sky, knowing that no matter how hard he tried, he was unable to see the sky…

…he couldn't even cry at the moment…

"…I guess its true…"

"I have gotten weaker…but I suppose…I'll have to become stronger…no matter what happens…"

"No matter how painful…I will succeed…even if that means…"

Slowly raising his hands up, Riko slowly pulled the bandages from his eyes, allowing them to fly towards the ground. With his eyes closed…Riko slowly began struggle to open his eyes…

…slowly…his eyes began to open, stung slightly by the sun's light…

"…S-so beautiful…"

Immediately, Riko placed his sunglasses back on his face. "…I wish…"

/-/--//--/-//--/-/-/-/-/-/

**Poker – Heart / Light / LV. 3 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 0 / Spellcaster/Effect:** When this card is destroyed as a result of battle, negate all battle damage. Then add two cards from your deck with 'Poker' in their name from your deck to your hand.

**Description:** A red bordered card with an Ace of Hearts on it.

**Poker – Spade / Light / LV. 3 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 0 / Spellcaster/Effect:** When this card is destroyed as a result of battle, negate all battle damage. Then add two cards from your deck with 'Poker' in their name from your deck to your hand.

**Description:** A red bordered card with an Ace of Spades on it.

**Poker – Diamond / Light / LV. 3 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 0 / Spellcaster/Effect:** When this card is destroyed as a result of battle, negate all battle damage. Then add two cards from your deck with 'Poker' in their name from your deck to your hand.

**Description:** A red bordered card with an Ace of Diamonds on it.

**Black Jack Ace – Spade / Light / LV. 5 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 0 / Spellcaster/Effect:** This card's attack and defense are 400 times the number of cards in your hand. When this card is destroyed, you may add two level three or lower monsters from your deck to your hand with 0 attack.**  
Description:** A large black armored knight with silver spades all over his muscular body. With large black overcoat tails, a sharp noble sword with a spade hilt is tided around his waist.

**Boss Battle / Spell / Effect:** When this card is activated, your opponent may special summon one level four or higher monster from his or her deck. For every three stars on the special summoned monster you may special summon one level three or lower monster from your hand or deck with 0 attack points.

**Image:** A large demonic warrior standing in front of a large amount of medieval warriors

**One Pair / Trap / Effect:** This card can only be activated showing two monster cards in your hand with one or more of the same word in their name. Special summon the two monsters in defense mode. At the end of the turn, destroy the special summoned monsters.

**Image:** A pair of playing cards with the same number on them.

**Discard / Continuous Trap / Effect:** This effect can only be activated during each players' standby phase. The respective player may discard any number of cards from his or her hand and draw the same number of cards from the top of his/her deck.

**Image:** A man throwing a few cards into a pile and then drew the same number of cards.

**Lancer's Heaven / Equip Spell / Effect:** Equip this to a face up 'Chaotix Tai Gars' monster on the field. When this card is equipped to a monster, discard a number of cards from your hand to the Graveyard. For each card discarded by this card's effect, the equipped monster gains 300 attack and defense points.

**Image:** The Chaotix Tai Gars lifting two angelic lances in the air.

**Royal Straight Knight – Heart Diamond / Light / LV. 7 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 0 / Spellcaster/Effect:** This card cannot be special summoned. This card cannot be destroyed as a result of battle. When this card battles a monster, after the battle damage increase this monster's attack by 100 times the level of the opposing monster.

**Description:** A large knight with red torso armor with a golden heart at her chest and a golden diamond at her back. On her arms is a pair of black armor with a silver spade on the right arm and a silver club on the left. On her red helmet is a large silver crown with a black and red cloak at the back of her armor. In her hands are a pair of sharp swords (one red and the other black).

**Deck Masters**

**Chaotix Ban Ten: Gift for the Virtuous:** Whenever a 'Chaotix Tai Gars' is special summoned from your graveyard, you may draw one card from the top of your deck.

**Black Ace – Joker?**

/-/-/--//-/--/--//

**Rena:** With the exception of that photo 'blush', I didn't show up at all in this chapter.

**Van: **Well, a lot of the characters didn't show up…

**Leo:** Still, I think that next time will be quite enjoyable…

**Cleo:** Oh, Leonardo…your dueling is simply divine…

**Leo:** Oh…you are two kind…

**Rena:** Suck up…

**Cleo:** Shut up flat chest!

**Rena:** Bimbo!

**Leo:** Oh my…it looks like we've got to finish this one Van…

**Van:** Right…But man, this guy's just as weird as you are…

**Leo:** Well then, I guess it's a good thing I'm dueling against him…

_**From the depths of the underworld league of duelists, a large powerful foe appears in front of the noble duelist…will his weirdness be enough? – **__**Chapter 33: Rough Patches**_

**???-???-???:** Time to face the wrath of the future king!

**Leo: **Well…we'll see about that.


	33. Chapter 33: Rough Patches

**Our world is covered with people, each of them different and each of them with their own reasons for their existence. **

**Destiny…a word that I really couldn't care for, I believe that we all have the ability to write our own stories. **

**Myself, I'm trying to forget my past and look towards a brighter future…in fact many people try to do that. So I can't say that I'm too original. **

**I wonder what other people think about destiny? Do they think that they can bend it to their wills?**

**Do they think that destiny doesn't exist?**

**Or, do they really believe that destiny does exist?**

**That's something that everyone has to stop and ask themselves at least once in their life. Mostly, the time when someone asks that question would be in the middle of their lives…**

…**I asked my question when I was very young. I'd rather not go into that, but, I'll just admit that Kazin…H-he was involved…**

**But enough about that, when he comes before me once more, I'll face my problem head on. **

**So this brings me to this down my path of life. The man who stands across from me is from the illegal Underground League of Duelists. **

**This league was known far and wide for…well, you've more than likely heard of it yourself.**

**All I can say about it right at this moment, was thanks to the acts of the Emperor of the Underworld (the best duelist in the league) that league was closed up for good…**

…**or it would seem.**

**This man is one of the remaining Underworld Duelists, and that means that he has skills that can rival that of professional duelists…**

**And it looks like he misses the good old days at his league…**

**/--//-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/**

**Chapter 33**

**Rough Patches**

/--//--/-//-/-/--/-/-/

The steam rising from the hot beverage lofted from the dark blue coffee mug managed to cover up the strong smell of medication that seemed to float around the room. For Kazin, the coffee was his sanctuary from the various smells that were in the room.

"…Hmm…" Kazin slowly sipped from the coffee mug while reviewing the scans that were produced by the statistic machines that beeped every few minutes. '_Hmm…this is weird, the level of darkness in the subject's body seems to be stimulating his natural senses and nervous system. Normally, if a subject was pushed to his level…_'

Kazin turned from the scans towards the subject's bed, his face was covered with a brown cloth that had many weird rune markings drawn on it. '_…the test subject would display some physical stress. Muscles would grow, veins would appear all over the person's body, and the darkness would cause rapid hair growth on the head and an increase in calcium._

'_Either the experiment is a flop… or the side effect should show up in a while…'_

"Kazin…"

Turning back towards the door, Kazin slowly sipped his coffee as Beck entered the room. "…yeah sir?"

"How's the condition of the subject?" Beck asked tilting his head towards the subject's cloth covering his head.

"Still no change with the exception of the increase of darkness in his body," Kazin reported bluntly sitting down in his seat. "Sir, why don't we just cut our losses right now and get to working on the main plan?"

"Unfortunately, we don't have a choice in the matter Kazin," Beck replied closing his eyes, remembering the words that Eternity Angelo told him. "We need to continue with the experimentation with this young specimen…"

"…it's your money," Kazin stated turning his head back to his papers.

"And that money funds your paycheck," Beck shot back making Kazin blink a few times in annoyance.

"…alright…what is it you want me to do?" Kazin sighed rubbing his nose under his glasses.

"We need to secure more pins," Beck stated crossing over his arms. "Not only are we planning on taking down one of the top dogs here, but we need to make sure that at least eight of our members get into the finals."

"And how do you expect me to do that?" Kazin asked not turning away from his papers.

"Well, think about it," Beck chuckled pulling three duel monster cards from his yellow pocket and throwing them on Kazin's desk. "We have the darkness on our side, and with these three cards…well…you'll be working with De Masque to use them to the potential that was intended for them…"

"You just love to pair me up with the freaks, don't ya?" Kazin sighed looking at the three cards, and raising an eyebrow at the selection. "…and what's with these three?"

"Never mind that," Beck replied adjusting his bandana. "Now then…I'm going to have Maderas, Bravo and…that Nathaniel character to watch our little experiment."

"Great…idiots watching a ticking mental time bomb…" Kazin groaned standing up clutching the three cards in his hands. "With that costume crap, this card spirit idea, and having those three watching this unstable situational dolt…no wonder our organization is in debt."

As soon as Kazin left the room, Beck just smiled brightly with a small laugh leaving his lips. "Heh…that's why I keep lowering your salary to pay for the extras."

/--/-/-/--//-/-/-/

"Hmm…the first cup of the day…"

The calm morning was creeping through the windows of the Obelisk blue dorm, as the smell of the fresh cup of tea began to fill the air of the fancy café. Sitting alone in the café, Leo slowly sipped the tea in the calm aura created by the café.

Only a day had passed since Ganryu's duel had occurred, and during the rest of that time frame, Leo had assisted Rena, Rukia and Kimatori search for the samurai duelist. As expected, their search had come up fruitless…

Kimatori had decided to spend a few days with Rukia, so that left Leo alone this beautiful morning to enjoy his usual tea. '_On the plus side of being alone…I can at least get closer to my own personal thoughts…'_

…

'…_Okay, now I'm bored,_' Leo thought as he slowly sipped his tea once more.

As soon as Leo placed his half emptied tea cup, Leo looked down at his uniform's collar. He had two jewel pins pinned to his collar, his original and a second blue pin that he had won from a fellow blue student that had challenged Leo while he was searching for Ganryu.

The bloke who challenged Leo had used a very interesting deck strategy, a deck that had consisted of a monster family known as the V to Z union machines. Although the duelist was definitely skilled enough to be in the Obelisk Blue dorm, Leo had learned that first hand…

…the V to Z duelist wasn't the nicest person that Leo had encountered in his short days at the academy. In fact, with the exception of his friends in red and the small number of blues that he met, Leo had come to a simple conclusion…

"…People here need to get off their high horses," Leo sighed before lifting up his tea cup towards his lips.

"I couldn't agree more…"

That calm voice (that sounded somewhat like his) got Leo to open his eyes and look up at the owner of the voice. Quite simply, he had to admit that the person who had owned the voice was actually quite different than what the voice would entail…

He was actually quite a scrawny person with somewhat dark skin (it had a slight grayish-tone to it) who's thin face was topped with an odd feathery sandy blond hair that seemed have a couple of strands from the middle of his head.

He had a pair of circular thick rimmed glasses covering his eyes, so it was hard to see what those were like…but his uniform was clearly noticeable. His uniform was somewhat like a long coat-tailed tuxedo with a white frilly shirt that seemed to hang out of his sleeves and around his collar. In his hands, the fancy blue had a fancy cup of coffee that steamed into the air. "I must apologize…I didn't mean to intrude on your little monologue…"

"No, it's quite alright," Leo replied placing his tea cup on the table and waving his hand towards the empty seat across from him. "Pleas join me…"

Placing his cup of coffee on the table, the fancy blue sat down across from Leo and placed his elbow on the table as he fingered his cup of coffee. "Please…my name is Genjyo Zosimos…"

"Genjyo Zosimos?" Leo questioned extending his hand towards Genjyo, a smile still on his face. "Odd…I don't remember seeing you at the entrance exams."

"Oh, well, that's easy to explain," Genjyo chuckled taking Leo's hand for a few minutes to shake. For a scrawny guy, Genjyo had a strong grip. "I recently transferred here from the North Atlantic academy."

"Ah, oh, where are my manners?" Leo gasped slightly while still maintaining his smile on his face. "I go by the name Leo Childsman…"

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance Leo," Genjyo snickered quickly grabbing his coffee and sipping it a few times. "So…how is the academy here anyway?"

"Hmm, an interesting question…" Leo muttered rubbing his chin. "Where should I start? The students? The events? The amount of weirdness that seems to keep popping up?"

"…" Genjyo raised his eyebrows, maybe he made a small mistake when he was choosing his academies. "Uh…why not start with the people?"

"Very well," Leo replied with a quick nod, only to stop slightly and stare at Genjyo with his calm eyes. "But first…may I ask you a question or two?"

"Huh? Uh, sure," Genjyo replied reaching for his cup of coffee.

"I recently met another transfer student…but he was put in red," Leo pointed out making Genjyo stop half-way through his sip of coffee. "…my question to you is…how'd you end up in blue?"

"Well, the student who got transfer obviously was in red before he got the transfer," Genjyo pointed out before sipping his coffee.

"It would seem like it…but the student was well known amongst the Obelisk Blue of the Pacific Academy," Leo answered crossing his fingers over each other. "The student was Vic Vanhemer, the Dark World Prince of the Obelisk Blue dorm…And now, he's just a red student."

"True…but did you hear that he was being demoted down to Ra Yellow…" Genjyo defended placing his coffee cup on the table and looking a little more serious. "So there wouldn't be a contradiction…"

"Yes…but you would at least be in Ra Yellow," Leo pointed out making Genjyo sweat a little. "Care to try to explain that?"

Shaking his head, Genjyo smiled while taking a few sniffs of his coffee. "Of course, you see, I come from a fancy rich family, so thanks to the connections that I have, I stand before you in blue…answer your questions Leo?"

"Hmm…I must admit…I'm impressed with your argument," Leo complimented rubbing his chin with his smile still on his face. '_I suppose that this is one way to liven up the day…_'

"Leonardo!"

"Huh?" Leo questioned as a familiar pair of Obelisk Blues ran up to the table. Well…one was being dragged by the back of his collar. "Oh, Miss Cleo and Asche…"

"What's up, ya know?" Asche asked waving his hand up as he stood up.

"It's nice to see you here with your fellow blue students Leonardo," Cleo stated with a smile on her face looking at Genjyo. "I still don't see how you can stand to be near them…"

"Well, one thing is…I take the time to know them," Leo replied lifting up his cup of tea, before stopping to realize what he was doing. "Oh, I must be off my game today…where are my manners? Cleo, Asche, I'd like to introduce…Genjyo…are you okay?"

Genjyo's glasses were simply replaced with pulsating hearts as he starred directly at Cleo. Apparently, Leo was able to guess that now Genjyo was off in his own little world…

"Such beauty!" Genjyo exclaimed leaping from his seat to kneel down before Cleo and grasping her hand, making the Obelisk Blue jump slightly. "Miss! Among the dirt of duelists here…you stand out as a beautiful diamond!"

"Huh?" Cleo gasped blinking a few times in confusion.

"What the?" Asche shouted jumping up with his arms up in the air.

"Heh, ha! Just what the day's doctor ordered!" Leo chuckled with a great smile on his face as he sniffed his tea. "We needed another hopeless romantic."

"So my beautiful jewel," Genjyo sighed filled with love as he stood up and held Cleo's hand with both of his. "Shall we talk more over some coffee? I know a beautiful little café that opened up during the tournament…"

"W-Well, that's sweet," Cleo chuckled with a sweatdrop on the side of her head. "But, I had plans today to watch Leo duel…"

"NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Genjyo shouted releasing Cleo's hand and crouched to the ground with a dark aura around his body. "It's never fair…"

"Uh…anyway," Asche chuckled at Genjyo's behavior. "Mr. Childsman, Miss Cleo would like to invite you to join us for lunch today…"

"Hmm…well, actually I was hoping to duel some more today," Leo answered looking at his collar. "After all, I only have two pins…"

"Not a problem Leonardo!" Cleo announced stepping in front of Leo with a cute smile on her face. "In fact…we can have that five star sushi that was prepared after you duel!"

"Rather excellent!" Leo chuckled standing up combing his hand through his hair. "However…I'd like to invite my friends, including Genjyo, to join us for lunch. Is that okay?"

With her left eye twitching slightly, Cleo just continued with her innocent smile. "S-Sure! I don't mind that at all…"

"Uh, Miss Cleo, you've got a blood vessel appearing on your neck," Asche pointed out only to receive a palm to his face. "OOF!"

"And now it's gone…" Cleo sighed with relief while Leo slowly walked towards the gloomy Genjyo.

Placing a hand on Genjyo's shoulder, Leo managed to break the new blue from his dark trance. "Its okay Genjyo…you don't need to worry about your chances with Cleo…"

"I know," Genjyo sighed shaking his head. "Sides…that just leaves me open for the other girls I have yet to meet here. There's probably plenty of fish in the sea of duelists here!"

"True…so true," Leo chuckled…

//--//-/-/-/-/-/

An hour later…

"Man! This is boring!" Bravo moaned bashing his head against the wall, apparently trying to relieve some of the boredom.

"Well you don't see us causing brain damage to each other," Maderas chuckled pulling two cards from the deck of playing cards. "Instead, we've got playing cards…anyway, Nathaniel your move."

"Finally, I thought you'd never finish fancy boy," the still cloaked Nathaniel chuckled taking three of the five cards in his hand and placing them next to the stack of cards. "I discard three, and take three…"

Sighing loudly, Bravo cursed himself why he didn't bother to learn how to play poker. However, turning towards the test subject who was starting to twist and turn slightly. "Uh…guys?"

"Ugh! What!?!" Maderas snarled not turning away from the intense poker game.

"This guy is going loco," Bravo stated pointing towards the struggling subject. "I think he's having a nightmare."

"Well then, wake him up you idiot," Maderas growled slapping his head. "Call…"

"Royal Straight Flush," Nathaniel chuckled placing the full set of cards on the table.

"No…damn it…" Maderas moaned slamming his head onto the table as Bravo reached for one of the water bottles that were brought into the room. "There goes half of my funds…"

"What can I say?" Nathaniel laughed pulling all of the money that was wagered towards him. "The goddess of luck must be smiling on me."

"ACK!"

"Huh?" Maderas and Nathaniel questioned turning to see a knocked out Bravo on the ground…

…but their main concern was the fact that the bed was empty, water was all over it and the cloth that had covered the subject's face was soaked making the weird markings on it stain slightly. There was also the fact that the window that was set up next to the bed was wide open.

"What the hell!?!" Nathaniel shouted, standing up from his seat.

"NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Maderas cried out with a stone 'NO' crashing behind him (only to have it disappear a few seconds later). "What happened!?!"

"Ugh…well, you told me to wake him up," Bravo moaned (how he regained conscious was a mystery, even to him) as he rubbed his newly bruised head. "So, I took one of those water bottles and splashed it on the guy's face."

"Why!?!" Maderas shouted with a large stone 'WHY!?' crashing behind him. "Why!?! Why would you do that?!?"

"And get my finger bitten off? No thank you!" Bravo laughed crossing his arms.

That's when both Maderas and Nathaniel slammed their fists into Bravo's face, making the bruiser duelist fly backwards into the wall. "UGH!"

"You moron!" Nathaniel and Maderas snarled at the same time, lowering their arms.

Then, with a small flurry of cards being released from his cloak's sleeve, Nathaniel shot to the ground trying to pick them up. However, that wasn't fast enough for Maderas not to see. "I knew it! You were cheating!"

"Uh…We better find that dude!" Nathaniel stuttered standing up and running straight out of the room.

"Get back here!" Maderas shouted chasing after Nathaniel.

"Ugh…the pain…" Bravo moaned struggling to get free from the wall. "Hey…where'd everybody go?"

/-/-/-/-/-/--/-/

"Hey Cleo…" Asche whispered to Cleo while staying a few feet behind Leo and Genjyo. "Why are we following these two?"

"Well, I've wanted to see Leo duel again ever since his match with that Dark World Prince," Cleo sighed clasping her hands together, remembering the interrupted duel involving Leo and Vic. "Ah, his angelic techniques are simply divine…"

"Yeah…but why did I have to come?" Asche asked pointing towards himself.

"Someone has to carry the sushi," Cleo admitted with a slight smile on her face.

"…great, ya know," Asche sighed as Cleo skipped ahead to catch up with Leo and Genjyo.

"Hey there!" Cleo announced getting Leo and Genjyo's attention; Leo just simply smiled while Genjyo's eyes were once again replaced with hearts. "What are you two talking about up here?"

"Oh, we were just discussing why Genjyo came to the academy," Leo answered with his innocent smile.

"Y-Yeah…" Genjyo stuttered, keeping his eyes on Cleo. "I came here because I heard of your Kaisaris here…"

"Oh…Luntina," Cleo growled clutching her fists tightly.

Cleo and Luntina were never on good terms, especially when they first met in Cleo's first year. Asche knew that event all too well; it was the day that Cleo had challenged Luntina to a duel…

…unfortunately, somehow Asche was roped into the catfight duel. And although he did enjoy seeing Cleo's unique deck (in more reasons than one) he honestly didn't expect to face off against the Kaisaris along with Cleo.

As anyone could expect, the duo couldn't win, their decks were obviously too different to use in a tag duel and with Luntina's alchemists…

"Ugh…" Asche shuddered at the mere mention off the Kaisaris's name. '_Not again…ya know.'_

"And let me guess…you came to get a better look at her," Cleo guessed rubbing her forehead.

"Actually, I'm here for a different reason," Genjyo replied making the hearts in his eyes disappear. "You see, I heard that the lovely Kaisaris uses alchemy in her strategy…and frankly, I want to face off against her with my own alchemy…"

"So, you use alchemists?" Leo asked raising an eyebrow.

"No…" Genjyo answered adjusting his glasses while looking forward.

"Then, you must run an Alchemy Beast deck," Luntina guessed before bumping into a cloaked person, making her fall to the ground. "Oof! Hey! Watch where…you're…going?"

The cloaked person turned and looked down at Cleo, his large shadow covering her easily. "What you say ta me?

"Uh…" Cleo gulped trying to stand up.

"Listen girlie, watch where you're walking," The Cloaked man growled turning towards the group of four blues. "You little wench…I'd smack you around a few times if I had a minute…"

"Don't talk to Miss Cleo like that! Ya know!" Asche shouted charging towards the cloaked person, his right fist raised for a punch.

POW!

"ARGH! YA KNOW!"

The cloaked person had simply punched Asche into the air, sending him crashing back quite a few feet. Cleo, Leo and Genjyo just sweatdropped as Asche landed in a small explosion of dust and flying sushi. "OH MY BACK! YA KNOW!"

"Asche! Is the sushi okay?" Cleo shouted to Asche as she jumped to her feet.

"I-I landed on it! My back really hurts now…" Asche shouted back not moving from the crash site.

"Now then…Get out of my way!" The cloaked person snarled lifting his hand up in a pushing manner towards Cleo.

"AH!" Cleo shouted as the large palm came closer to her.

"Miss Cleo!" Genjyo shouted jumping to take the palm, sending him flying towards a slowly standing up Asche.

"Oh…I think my back's getting better…" Asche moaned before Genjyo slammed directly into him. "OOF! Scratch that, ya know!"

"Great…now I smell like sushi," Genjyo sighed trying to move off of Asche.

"Heh…nerd," the cloaked person chuckled turning towards Cleo. "Now then…I think you owe me a little apology…"

"My, my, my, you're quite the brute," Leo admitted appearing behind the cloaked person.

Jumping a foot into the air, the cloaked person turned around to see Leo smiling at him with innocence basically dripping off of Leo. "What the hell?!? How'd you get behind me?"

"You really need to pay attention to your surroundings," Leo sighed shaking his head. "Now then…you need to treat ladies with respect…"

"Shut your trap!" The Cloaked person roared throwing his fist towards Leo…

…only to hit nothing but air, leaving the cloaked person confused with many question marks buzzing around his head. "What the? Where'd he go?"

"That's a good question," Leo chuckled appearing to the right of the cloaked man, making the cloaked man jump another foot in the air.

"ACK!" The cloaked person yelped slamming his feet into the ground. "What kind of freak are you!?!"

"Is that a rhetorical question?" Leo asked rubbing his chin as the cloaked person charged towards the noble duelist.

"Eat my rhetorical fist!" the cloaked person roared throwing his fist towards Leo…

…only this time, instead of hitting air, Leo managed to jump on top of the cloaked person's large fist, forcing him to the ground. "My, even your comebacks are bad…"

"How in the?" The cloaked person questioned with his eyes widening from under the cloak.

"I detest violence," Leo sighed shaking his head before immediately kicking the cloaked person directly in his face. "But, I detest people who treat my friends like dirt even more!"

Leo must've been stronger than he looked; the kick was strong enough to send the cloaked person skidding back at least three feet. "URGH!" Rubbing his red face, the cloaked person glared at Leo as he walked towards Cleo. '_T-this fancy boy…there's no way. Could he be…?'_

"Are you alright Cleo?" Leo asked lifting his hand up to Cleo.

"Oh…well, thanks to you I am…" Cleo sighed taking Leo's hand.

'_What!?!_' Genjyo thought slowly standing up from his crash site. '_I'm the one who protected her from getting hurt…'_

"Hey, fancy boy," the cloaked person snarled standing up straight. "What's your name?"

"…well, it would seem you do have some manners," Leo chuckled shaking his head with a smile on his face. "Of course, you'd have to give your name first…"

"Fine…" The cloaked person growled reached for his cloak at the shoulder, and immediately pulling the cloak off into the air.

With the cloak dramatically flowing into the air, the cloaked person's features immediately revealed themselves. He was a brawny, tanned skin man, looking around to be in his mid-twenties, wearing a large black weighted vest with long white sleeves and baggy gray cargo pants. His shaggy black hair was waving slightly above his shoulders and his three strands standing in the front slowly floated in front of the man's developed face. On his left arm, a large duel disk that resembled that of a bronze shield was strapped tightly on his muscular arm. "The name's Walker…Nathaniel Walker."

"Walker, eh?" Leo muttered rubbing his chin slightly. "I recall hearing a name like that…but, my name is Childsman. Leo Childsman."

"Damn it…are you mocking me?" Nathaniel growled raising his fist up.

"I don't mock people," Leo replied with an innocent smile on his face.

"Knock if off," Nathaniel snarled throwing his arm to the side. "I don't really have time to deal with you pretty boy."

That's when something caught Leo's eyes…clipped to Nathaniel's right arm was a jewel pin, blue to boot. "But it would appear that I have a bone to pick with you."

"What the hell are you getting at?" Nathaniel asked raising an eyebrow at Leo.

"You're an unknown adult on this island," Leo stated crossing his arms in deep thought. "Yet you have a duelist pin on your sleeve…but only student duelists are allowed to duel here for the prize. What would happen if I told Headmaster Alan Wright that you were here?"

"Little runt…" Nathaniel gulped taking a step back. '_And with that disappear and reappearing act, it's impossible for me to beat the snot out of this guy…'_

"But…I'm willing to make a little deal with you," Leo offered lifting up his duel disk and dueling deck. "All you have to do is duel me. I win, and you have to give me that duelist pin and you must leave this island without a struggle…"

"Heh…with a stake like that," Nathaniel laughed activating his duel disk. "That means I can make one just as serious! If I win, not only do you have to keep quiet about me, but I get to rough up that little pretty face of yours!"

"…very well," Leo agreed nodding as he slowly stepped away from Nathaniel. "Now then…"

"Leo! Wait!" Cleo stated running up to Leo. "You can't risk ruining your face!"

"Oh, but I'd take the risk to help my friends," Leo admitted making Cleo blush slightly. "And in case you forgot…you're in that category."

'_Yes! I'm one step closer!_' Cleo was in her own little world with many cherubs appearing around her.

"Hey! Turn that off!" Nathaniel shouted at Asche who had his duel disk activated. "We're about to duel!"

"Sorry," Asche chuckled removing the field spell card from his duel disk.

"Now then…I've got one other condition," Nathaniel chuckled turning around and looking through his cloak. A few seconds later, Nathaniel was lifting up a small silver briefcase. "We'll be dueling with these things on!"

Opening the suit case, Nathaniel revealed two pairs of black collars and bands that had spikes protruding from the ends. At the very sight of those, Leo's smile turned into a frown. "…you can't be serious…"

"Oh, I'm very serious," Nathaniel chuckled reaching into the case and lifting three of the bands. "Put them on, or I'll put them on your little friends…and I doubt you can protect all three of them from me…"

"…toss them here," Leo sighed as Nathaniel did.

While Leo and Nathaniel were locking the bands around their necks and forearms, Asche and Genjyo walked up to Cleo. "Miss Cleo…what are those things?"

"Your guess is as good as mine Asche," Cleo replied biting the end of her finger.

"Heh, my, this day just keeps getting more and more interesting," Genjyo chuckled pushing up his glasses.

"Huh? Do you actually know what those things are?" Cleo asked pointing towards the collars as both duelists began to look through their dueling decks.

"Those are a nasty fashion accessory," Genjyo explained rubbing his chin. "They're called shock collars; they're normally used to restrain criminals if they try to escape from the police or if they try to start a prison riot. However…among some duelists, they add an element to the game."

"You see, if the shock collars are in close range of a duel disk, their wavelengths often sync up. In simple terms, if a duelist were to take damage, in addition to the normal pain they would receive, they would also receive a powerful jolt of electricity from the collars."

"What!?!" Cleo and Asche gasped at the same time at the new information. "Who would want to do that?"

"Its actually quite popular in the Underground League of duelists," Genjyo answered before shifting his eyes behind his glasses. "Uh…I mean…or so I heard."

"Okay fancy boy…I may be an intruder here," Nathaniel snickered lifting up one of his cards from his deck. "But, I know exactly how to use this deck master system! I choose my Ancient Gear Knight!" (NLP: 8000)

In a bright flash of light, a large rusted man sized machine appeared next to Nathaniel. The monster lived up to its knight's title, brandishing a rusted cone like sword and gear like shield. "And I'll even tell you what his ability is! It's known as Gears of War…"

"Boo! Weak name!" Asche shouted getting a glare from Nathaniel.

"Who cares!?!" Nathaniel snarled crossing his arms while drawing five of his cards. "Now then…what's your deck master?"

"…I think I'll choose," Leo muttered to himself gracefully lifting one monster card. "I choose Airknight Librarian!"

In a grace of falling feathers, the shy angelic girl appeared next to Leo, blushing at the fact that she was chosen by Leo. "She maybe shy…but, that's a rarity to find in girls now-a-days…making her a rare sight." (LLP: 8000)

"Heh…to each his or her own," Nathaniel chuckled pulling his sixth card. "I prefer a woman who can kick my ass…but not too muscular."

"How'd the duel turn to this?" Cleo asked with a large sweatdrop beading off her head.

"You'd be surprised how men are able to turn these things into those kinds of things," Asche stated with a great smile on his face and getting a nod from Genjyo.

"Now then…for my first move I'll set one monster on the defensive," Nathaniel announced placing the card on top of his duel disk. "And I'll set one card face down…turn end."

"Well…I was expecting something a little flashier," Leo admitted slowly drawing his next card. "But maybe this will fix that. I activate the spell card Cost Down! Now I simply discard my Airknight Shield…"

"I know what your card does," Nathaniel interrupted with a dulled look on his face as Leo placed his card into his graveyard. "And since you're all wearing blue, I doubt that you have to explain the card to your little friends."

"Very good…then I guess that means I can normal summon this!" Leo announced slapping his next card onto his duel disk.

In a flurry of feathers, a large angelic knight wearing blue and gold armor appeared on the field, his long blonde hair billowing behind his blue helmet. In the warrior's right hand was a large glowing broad sword (1700/1600).

"Heh…fancy boy summoned a pretty boy," Nathaniel chuckled pointing towards the angelic warrior. "And if that thing was a level six or five…it must be pathetic!"

"Never underestimate monsters by their appearances," Leo stated lifting his hand up towards his angelic warrior. "Airknight Valor! Attack the face down monster!"

Dashing forward with many feathers flowing behind it, the Airknight Valor immediately slammed his sword into the face down monster, making it reveal itself to be a giant blue rat until it shattered. "Hmm? A Giant Rat? Now I think I know exactly what you're playing…"

"Just because you know…doesn't mean you can stop what I'm planning!" Nathaniel shouted snapping his deck from his duel disk and pulling a single card out. "I special summon Ancient Gear Soldier!"

Another ancient man shaped machine appeared on the field, only this one had a large gun on for his right arm and looked to be a little bit smaller (1300/1300 + 400/400). "And thanks to my Deck Master, my monsters with 'Ancient Gear' in their name gain one hundred points times their level!"

"Not bad…but now thanks my monster's own ability," Leo explained as more feathers began to float around his angelic warrior's body (1700/1600 + 400/400), strengthening the warrior. "He gets the same effect!"

"Heh…not bad…" Nathaniel whistled pointing his thumb towards himself. "But your pretty boy may have a nice trick, but it's nothing that will last too long."

"Then I think I'll just set this card face down…" Leo stated fitting the card into his duel disk. "And call it a turn…"

"Then I think I'll activate my spell card! Ancient Gear Scope!" Nathaniel shouted as a sniper scope appeared on the Ancient Gear Soldier's gun. "This spell card forces the activation of one face down card on the field. If that card's activation is incorrect, it's destroyed."

"So, it's a more updated version of Bait Doll…" Leo muttered to himself as the Ancient Gear Soldier took aim.

"Reveal that face down card now!" Nathaniel demanded as the set card began to flip up, showing a weird trap card that had an angelic man holding onto a young girl in his arms. "Oh…too bad! That card can only be activated in the battle phase!"

Realizing that the card was not needed, the large Ancient Gear monster took aim and blasted the trap card into pixels. "Heh…so much for that card."

"Indeed…so please, continue with your move," Leo stated as Nathaniel drew his next card.

"Heh…you're going ta regret saying those words," Nathaniel chuckled looking at his newest card. "I activate the continuous spell card, Ancient Gear Castle!"

The ground began to shake, allowing a large ancient castle with many gears and cannons to emerge from the earth. The mere presence of the castle seemed to make the two ancient gear monsters that were visible to stand straighter (1700/1700 + 300/300). "Three guesses what this card is capable of…"

"You're still short on a few attack points," Leo stated crossing his arms.

"Really? Well…why not change that by summoning my Ancient Gear!" Nathaniel announced as a small machine that was composed of gears (100/800 + 200/200 + 300/300).

At the sight of the new monster, a small torch lit up on the Ancient Gear Castle. "Now…thanks to its effect, I can summon another Ancient Gear from my hand!"

Leo just raised an eyebrow as a second mess of gears (600/1300) appeared in front of Nathaniel, lighting another torch on the castle. "Hmm…unless you have Double Summon in your hand, I don't really get this…"

"Heh, you still don't get it!" Nathaniel laughed spinning the second to last card in his hand. "I equip my Ancient Gear Soldier with Ancient Gear Tank! This boosts his attack by another six hundred attack points!"

A small dual wheeled tank appeared around the Ancient Gear Soldier, making it larger and stronger (2000/2000 + 600/0). "And now…Ancient Gear Soldier! Attack his pretty boy!"

Revving up the wheels, the Ancient Gear Soldier charged forward, aiming the cannon directly towards the surprised Airknight Valor. Before the angelic warrior could respond, the cannon fired and shattered the Airknight into many pixels. "Heh! Feel the burn fancy boy!"

"…No thanks," Leo replied with an innocent smile on his face as the Airknight Librarian grabbed onto Leo's body with a huge blush on her face. (LLP: 8000)

"What the?!? How da heck did ya not lose life points?" Nathaniel snarled as his Ancient Gear Soldier revved back to his side of the field.

Patting the head of the red faced Airknight Librarian; Leo smiled at her without paying Nathaniel much mind. "…you're not the only one with a Deck Master Ability…my librarian is a researcher of Celestia, the grand kingdom of the Airknights. As such, her ability is known as the Celestia Knowledge of the Past."

"Okay and what the hell is that?" Nathaniel growled slapping his forehead.

"To make it easier," Leo replied as the Airknight Librarian released herself from Leo, folding her hands over her book. "My Librarian can negate the battle damage that involves the Airknights. A more specific version of the Sanctuary of the Sky if you will…"

"La de da…unfortunately for you…I've still got my Ancient Gears!" Nathaniel pointed out as both of his gear monsters began to spin at top speed and shot off towards Leo, slamming into the noble duelist. "And here comes the fun part…"

"Huh?" Leo questioned before black sparks of electricity began to surge from the collars and bands, sparking into a flurry on the noble duelist's body until his life point counter clicked to its lower score. "G…gug…" (LLP: 6800)

"Leonardo!" Cleo shouted lifting her hands up to her mouth.

"Oh, that's got to hurt, ya know," Asche sighed turning to see that Genjyo had disappeared. "Hey…where'd the nerd get to?"

"Heh…my turn's over…" Nathaniel chuckled as Leo slowly stood up. "Not even a two thousand attack and already you're having trouble standing!"

Shaking his head, Leo immediately stood up straight and drew his next card. "Draw!"

"What the?!?" Nathaniel shouted taking a step back with Leo looking over his hand. '_There's no way a person could stand up so fast after taking their first shock like that…unless…that wasn't his first shock!'_

"Now then…I believe it's time to repay you for that shock," Leo stated with a smile plastered all over his face. "I summon Airknight Saber (1700/1000)!"

From the falling feathers, the sword wielding angel floated towards the ground, smiling at the group of blue students. "Airknight Saber! Attack Ancient Gear!"

With a graceful nod, the Airknight Saber flew past the Ancient Gear, snapping his sword to the side, turning the Ancient Gear into scrap metal. Then, lifting his hand towards Nathaniel, Leo smiled calmly. "Now then…I think it's time you had a taste of your own medicine!"

The black sparks began to fly around Nathaniel's body, and although his deep bellows of pain echoed through the air…Nathaniel was smiling all the while. (NLP: 6900)

"Ha! How do you like it you dolt?" Cleo asked as steam slowly began to rise from Nathaniel's body.

"Heh…Heh…actually, I love this kind of stuff…" Nathaniel chuckled slowly fixing his hair with his hands. "As much as I hate biographies…I'll tell you all something interesting…I'm a sadist and a masochist."

"Hey…what does that mean?" Asche asked scratching the side of his head.

"…Asche…" Cleo sighed slapping her forehead. "He's a guy who gets his kicks off of pain…"

"Oh…eew…" Asche spat out his tongue.

"If that's the case," Leo stated taking a card from his hand and slipping it into his duel disk graveyard. "I can discard my Airknight Archer from my hand to allow my Airknight Saber attack again…this time with an additional three hundred attack points (1700/1000 + 300/0). And his target…is your second Ancient Gear!"

Once again, the quick Airknight Slashed directly through the second Ancient Gear, making the monster explode into pixels. And once again, Nathaniel was rewarded with a large amount of dark electricity. "AH! The thrill!" (NLP: 5500)

"You seriously scare me," Leo admitted shaking his head as he fitted a card into his duel disk. "But…that's to be expected. After all…you're from the Underground League of dueling…"

"Heh…about time you figured it out," Nathaniel sighed with disappointment as he drew his next card. "But first…I'll set one card…and activate the spell card, Coins of the Underworld!"

A powerful dark aura erupted underneath both duelists' feet. "First we discard our entire hands. Then…both of us can now draw from the bottom of our decks till we have five cards!"

"Very well…" Leo sighed placing the remainder of his cards in his hand into his graveyard before pulling the five bottom cards from his deck.

Nathaniel did the same, only instead of having a poker face like Leo's, Nathaniel was smiling greatly. "Oh…you're in big trouble now! First, I activate the spell card Premature Burial! I may get a little jolt…but it'll be worth it to bring back my Ancient Gear!" (NLP: 4700)

The powerful surge of black electricity sparked all around Nathaniel's body as the Ancient Gear appeared once more. "Heh, why'd I do it? Simple! I can use it to sacrifice for my Ancient Gear Beast!"

The small mess of gears exploded into a flurry of parts that immediately melded together into a large mess of gears. Soon the gears began to interlock, and some beastly armor appeared on the gears until it resembled that of a wolf (2000/2000 + 300/300 + 600/0). "What do you think of this fancy boy? Cause now I'll go on the attack…"

"…I think you've got a basic Ancient Gear strategy, but you still haven't used it to its potential," Leo admitted pressing a button on his duel disk. "I activate my trap card, Wings On An Angel!"

Instead of the set card flipping up, a pair of angelic wings appeared on Leo's back, white feathers flying all around the duelist area. Everyone was in shock as the holographic wings began to flap a few times, sending feathers flying around the two Ancient Gear monsters, making the ancient monsters freeze immediately. "My trap card allows me to move the phase count by one…since you were in your battle phase, you're now in your second main phase."

"Huh?" Nathaniel questioned scratching the back of his head. "I don't get those phase parts…never have, never will."

"Oh, then you can't attack this turn," Leo answered as his wings disappeared.

"Oh…that sucks," Nathaniel sighed looking at his hand, then taking one of the remaining three; Nathaniel made the face down card appear in front of him. "Then I'll just set one card face down…my move is over with…"

"Then my draw," Leo replied looking at his next sixth card. "Now then…I think its time you revealed who you really are…"

"What? But I gave you my name," Nathaniel stated raising an eyebrow.

"I'm not talking about that, I'm referring to your reputation," Leo retorted pointing his finger towards Nathaniel. "You're last name is Walker…more than likely you're related to recently arrested Isaac Walker."

"Grr…yeah right, I may have the same name," Nathaniel snarled narrowing his eyebrows. "But, that's a common name in England!"

"Then I suppose I should provide evidence that you're related to him," Leo stated tapping the shock collars. "But then again…you've already provided it."

"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Nathaniel questioned with a few question marks appearing over his head.

"The shock collars gave me the immediate impression that you had a relation to the Underground League of Dueling," Leo answered crossing his arms with his innocent smile back on his face.

"Yeah…well, maybe I was just a duelist working in the underground league," Nathaniel growled slamming his foot into the ground. "That would solve that problem…"

"Yes, but you also dug your own grave once more," Leo chuckled combing some of his hair back. "In fact, when you said that Walker was a common name in England, it was stated that you knew that Isaac was English. And with the way you are, I highly doubt you're the kind of guy to take the time to learn your boss's name."

"…erg…damn it…you've got it," Nathaniel snarled lowering his head. "Yeah…I'm Isaac's son."

"Isaac Walker, owner of the Underground League of Duelists," Cleo explained rubbing her chin in deep thought. "Was arrested one month ago and put to trial for the use of illegal technology and earning money for sadistic entertainment."

"I read about that too," Asche added crossing his arms. "It was obvious he was guilty and it was all due to a certain individual who was in the league."

"Shut up!" Nathaniel roared getting all three of the blue's attention drawn towards him. "I don't want to hear that! Don't you dare talk about that traitor like he's a savior! Because of him, I lost half of the family I had!"

"Defending your family is understandable," Leo stated looking at his six cards and taking one of them to slap onto his duel disk. "But, you must admit that your father deserved the guilty verdict for causing many people to suffer…"

"Cut the crap!" Nathaniel snarled snapping his card off the top of his deck. "Let's get this duel back on the path of destruction! And to do so, I activate the spell card, Magical Mallet! So by shuffling my two other cards, I can draw two different cards!"

Nearly ripping his two cards, Nathaniel slowly looked at the cards…and at the very sight of them; a crooked smile appeared on his face as he raised his hand up towards his Ancient Gear Castle. "I sacrifice my Ancient Gear Castle…allowing me to summon Ancient Gear Golem!"

The large castle behind Nathaniel began to collapse under its weight, weakening the two other Ancient Gear monsters (2300/1300) (2600/2000). However, from the rubble, a large mechanical being erupted from the ground, showing its large dark gray metallic body with many gears and cogs showing. The large machine resembled the Ancient Gear Soldier, only with a large claw for its left arm.

The large machine creaked loudly as it took a step forward (3000/3000 + 800/0), while Nathaniel began to laugh loudly. "Ha! Now, with the ultimate weapon of destruction out on the field…there's nothing you can do!"

"Did you forget about my deck master?" Leo asked pointing towards the shy Airknight Librarian who had her face buried in her book. "If both of my monsters are Airknights, then damage is reduced to zero…"

"Did you forget I still have my soldier and my beast?" Nathaniel chuckled throwing his fist forward. "Ancient Gear Soldier attack the Airknight Saber! And Ancient Gear Beast! Attack the face down monster!"

The two Ancient Gear monsters charge forward, the Soldier firing off a few rounds into the Airknight Saber, making the angelic warrior cry out in pain. While that was going on, the Ancient Gear Beast torn the face down card into shreds. "I don't think I have to tell you this, but my Ancient Gear Beast negates the effect of any monster it destroys."

"I understand that perfectly," Leo sighed closing his eyes as the Ancient Gear Golem's gears began to rev up.

"Ancient Gear Golem! Mechanized Melee!" Nathaniel commanded as his Ancient Gear Golem pulled back its large fist.

Then, met with no resistance, Leo took the powerful fist directly to his torso, sending him to the ground. And as the Ancient Gear Golem's fist pulled back, a large amount of electricity jolted through his body, making the angelic duelist scream loudly. "AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" (LLP: 3000)

"Heh…try to stand fancy boy," Nathaniel chuckled looking at his set card. '_Even if you destroy any of my monsters, not only will my Ancient Gear Tank take six hundred life points…but, my face down card is known as Rust of the Ancient Gears…and when an Ancient Gear monster bites the dust, it takes the same attack points and pulls it out of fancy boy's life points…_

'_There's no way he'll be able to win!_'

"Leonardo! Get up!" Cleo shouted as she started to run towards Leo.

"Hold it girlie!" Nathaniel shouted raising his hand up. "If you so much even take another step towards him, you'll interrupt the duel and make me the automatic winner…and you don't want to see the sparks that appear at the end of a duel…"

"What?!?" Cleo gasped taking a few steps back.

"Eh…eh…don't worry…"

Everyone looked towards Leo as he slowly stood up, grasping his chest and his head pointed towards the ground. After taking a few labored breaths, Leo raised his head to show his smile. "…we'll see some sparks…but they won't be me!"

"Ah, another glutton for punishment," Nathaniel chuckled as Leo drew his next card. "You must be really grasping for straws here…"

"Actually…I was waiting for a moment like this," Leo replied spinning his next card. "I activate the spell card, Angelic Gift!"

Pulling three cards from his deck, Leo immediately shuffled the deck of cards and immediately pulled the next three from the top. "…you say you're from the underworld…but allow me to introduce you to the heavens!"

"Huh?" Nathaniel questioned as Leo lifted up his duel disk, and flipping open the field card slot to slip a card into it…

Causing a large amount of light to cover the entire field, blinding everyone except Leo. When the light died down, the entire area around the duelists were changed to a beautiful temple that seemed to be built on a million clouds. Nathaniel could only chuckle to himself. "Heh…Sanctuary of the Sky? That's the best you could do?"

"Not really…it's just the first gate," Leo answered reaching for his field zone once more. "You see, I need to send my Sanctuary from my field to bring you to the kingdom of the heavens!"

As soon as Leo slapped his newest field card into his zone, the entire Sanctuary of the Sky began to mold into a beautiful angelic paradise with a large golden door in front of a beautiful lake, multiple feathers floating down from the sky. "Welcome to…Celestial Kingdom…"

Cleo's eyes began to glow and sparkle at the sight of the field spell, and Leo standing in front of the gate. "So…so beautiful…"

"…I can't help but feel like I've seen this before…" Asche muttered under his breath as he scratched the side of his head.

"So you changed the field…big deal," Nathaniel scoffed covering his mouth as if he was getting sick just by being exposed by the field spell.

"It's a very big deal…sacred ground instill even the greatest of techniques," Leo answered fitting his next card into his duel disk, materializing a spell card that had three fancy armored angel's lifting up their weapons in the air. "Like this…I activate the spell card, Honor of the Airknights! This card can only be activated by having me pay two thousand life points…and since I'm paying them and not losing them, I don't get any shocks!" (LLP: 1000)

"Heh…you found a loophole, not that big of a loophole to say the least," Nathaniel cackled before many feathers began to float down in front of Leo.

"Yes…but my spell card allows me to special summon three tokens," Leo explained as the feathers combined into three different piles of feathers, each of them at a different height (0/0 x3). "And, when they're special summoned, I can remove three Airknights from my graveyard, giving my three tokens their names."

"So I remove my three Grand Airknights, Third Class, Second Class, and First Class from my graveyard! So my tokens gain their names!"

"Heh, you just keep making things easier and easier," Nathaniel laughed loudly as the three piles of feathers began to fly up in pillars of light into the air. "Huh!?!? What the hell is going on!?!"

"I activate the spell card, Ascension of the Highest!" Leo explained with an innocent smile on his face. "And my spell card can only be used when I have my field spell out and my three Grand Airknights. By removing my Grand Airknights, I can special summon my deck's headliner!"

The three pillars of light shattered into many feathers that began to rain over the field, making everyone gasp with their own reasons. From the shining sun, a glowing form began to descend to the lake, making the air whistle loudly…

…And before the figure could crash into the water, it suddenly stopped, forcing the light that surround the being to shatter like glass to reveal the being's true form. Floating over the water gracefully, the man that floated before Leo was a handsome dark blue haired angel with the hair going past the six majestic wings and his fancy dark blue clock over his white robes.

The angelic being smiled innocently, making the angel resemble Leo…to a point when the two could be the same person with the exception of hair length (3400/2800 + 300/0). "Seraph Airknight…the lord of Celestia, and leader of the Airknight angels…"

"AHHH! LAMINGTON!" Asche shouted pointing towards the angel.

"Asche, what the hell are you screaming about?" Cleo asked making Asche blush madly.

"Uh…nothing…I'm just going to hum the Evagalion theme song now, ya know," Asche chuckled before he began to hum loudly to the famous anime's theme song.

"So what if you got that fancy, pretty boy," Nathaniel shouted lifting his fist up. "Your monster's not strong enough to tackle my Ancient Gear Golem!"

"I agree," Leo replied pulling a card from his hand, lifting up a single card. "This is why I activate the spell card, Feathers of the Angels! This spell will increase my Airknight's attack by half of his defense (3700/2800 + 1400/0)!"

'_That's right…just keep powering up that monster's attack…it won't matter in a few minutes!_' Nathaniel thought to himself with a diabolic smile appearing on his face.

"And now…I activate the equip spell card…" Leo sighed fitting the card into his duel disk, creating a large golden lance in the Seraph Airknight's hands. "Heavenly Airknight's Lancet!"

"Uh…what the hell is that thing?" Asche asked ceasing his humming.

That's when five cards shot out of Leo's graveyard; all five of them monster cards that were light attribute and were fairy monsters. "It's my Lancet's ability, when activated; I can remove any number of Light Attribute Fairy monsters from my graveyard. And for each card that removed with this effect, the equipped monster can attack that many times!"

'_It won't matter how many attacks you've got! If you destroy even one of my monsters its all over for you!_' Nathaniel thought as the Seraph Airknight began to float higher into the air.

"Seraph Airknight! Attack Ancient Gear Golem! Cross Way Light!" Leo announced as the Seraph pointed his lance towards the Ancient Gear Golem, firing a powerful wave of light in the shape of a cross that engulfed the large ancient machine.

"FOOL!" Nathaniel laughed loudly raising his hand over his face down card. "I activate my trap card! Go Rust of the Ancient Gears! Now, you'll take over three thousand points of damage!" (NLP: 3400)

While the sparks flew around Nathaniel's body, the Underground League duelist slowly raised his head up to see the pain that Leo was in…

"…Unfortunately, you're trap doesn't activate," Leo stated standing tall and strong with a small smile on his face. (LLP: 1000)

When the sparks subsided, Nathaniel's eyes widened and many question marks appeared over his head. "H-How!?!"

"Your trap requires your Ancient Gear monster to be destroys," Leo answered pointing upwards.

Slowly turning his head around, Nathaniel's jaw dropped as his Ancient Gear Golem, although was severely damaged was clearly standing strong. "What the hell?!?"

"It's the downside…or in this case advantage, of my equip card," Leo explained as the Seraph Airknight lifted up his lancet up again. "The equipped monster cannot destroy monsters as a result of battle! So, since I know exactly what your little face down card is now…I can continue with my Seraph's attacks!"

"NO!" Nathaniel shouted as the Seraph charged a powerful surge of holy light into the lancet.

Firing three more holy blasts of light, the Seraph's attacks crashed into the Ancient Gear Golem, sending the waves soaring past the large golem and into Nathaniel's body. And with each attack, the bolts of electricity that caused Nathaniel's piercing screams began to turn from black to white. "AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!" (NLP: 0)

With one final powerful jolt of white electricity, all of the holograms disappeared back into the final background as Leo waved to his deck master and Seraph. "Thank you…you all did an excellent job…"

Then turning towards a smoking Nathaniel who had fallen face first into the ground, Leo slowly trekked towards Nathaniel. "And with that, a deal's a deal…"

Struggling to get up, Nathaniel snarled and began breathing heavily, his eyes gleaming with death towards the angelic duelist. "…Heh…heh, heh…Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! You've got to be kidding!"

"Hmm?" Leo hummed to himself as Nathaniel struggled to stand up.

"Did you really think I'd keep my word!?!" Nathaniel shouted pulling his right fist back. "I'll freaking pummel your face in fancy boy!"

"Leo!" Cleo shouted as she and Asche slowly began to run forward…

SLAM!

"ACK! GURE!"

Cleo and Asche were dumb founded, Leo had just delivered a powerful kick to the front of Nathaniel's head, making the Underground League Duelist fall backwards, blood spurting from his nose. But the thing that managed to creep Cleo and Asche even more…

…was the fact that Leo still had that innocent smile even, as he lowered his leg to the ground.

"Man…remind me never to get on your bad side, ya know," Asche stated in awe as Leo began to remove the shock collars and bands.

"Leo! That was amazing!" Cleo announced as Leo combed his hair with his hands.

"Why thank you Miss Cleo," Leo replied kneeling down to pull Nathaniel's pin. '_That makes three…boy, I better hurry up._'

"Asche," Leo stated standing up straight with his smile still on his face. "Do me a favor and tell the nearest teacher or dorm leader about Mr. Walker here. I assume that he has a few bounties over his head, so that'll help the school greatly."

"Y-Yeah, I'll get right on it, ya know," Asche replied running off.

'_Hmm…This may have turned out good now,_' Leo thought to himself as he watched Cleo's eyes turn into hearts just starring at him. '_But…what in the world was a former underground duelist doing here? There are more questions…but what's going on?'_

"Oh, Leonardo, I'm sorry but that brute ruined our five-star sushi lunch," Cleo sighed lowering her head.

"Relax, it wasn't your fault," Leo replied shaking his head. "In fact, when Asche gets back, you, Asche, me and…Genjyo? Where'd he get off to?"

"He disappeared during your duel," Cleo answered walking a little closer to Leo. "So…you were saying?"

"Oh, yes, well, I know a decent little café where we can get a decent little lunch," Leo finished with an innocent smile on his face. "My treat."

"Thank you Leonardo!" Cleo announced throwing her arm into the air.

"Please…" Leo chuckled shaking his head. "You can just call me Leo…"

Meanwhile…

"Hmm….that Leonardo Childsman is an interesting young man," Genjyo muttered to himself taking off his glasses, showing his dark gray eyes. He quite a distance from where the duel was taking place, far enough not to be spotted, but close enough to watch. "I suppose I'll have to keep an eye on him…"

Then reaching into his uniform's inner pocket, Genjyo pulled out a small black circular disk, tapping it a few times making the disk pop up into a fancy top hat. "Well then…I suppose that I should get a few duels in…I want to see the look on their faces…"

/--/-//-/-/--//-/--/

**Card Stats**

**Ancient Gear Scope / Quick-Play Spell / Effect:** Force the activation of 1 face-down Spell or Trap Card. If the timing of the activation of the Spell or Trap Card is incorrect, negate the effect and destroy it. That card's activation and effect cannot be negated by any other card.

**Image:** A large sniper scope on the Ancient Gear Soldier's gun.

**Rust of the Ancient Gears / Trap / Effect:** You can only activate this card when an "Ancient Gear" monster you control is destroyed. Inflict damage to your opponent's Life Points equal to the ATK strength of that monster.

**Image:** The remains of the Ancient Gear Golem falling on top of a blue wearing man.

**Airknight Valor / Light / LV. 5 / ATK: 1700 / DEF: 1600 / Fairy/Effect:** Whenever this card destroys a monster as a result of battle, increase this monster's attack and defense points by 100 times the level of the destroyed monster.

**Description:** A handsome blonde angel wearing blue and gold armor with an angelic broad sword in his hand.

**Ascension of the Highest / Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you have 'Grand Airknight – Third Class', 'Grand Airknight – Second Class', and 'Grand Airknight – First Class' on your field and have a face up 'Celestial Kingdom'. Remove all three of them from your field. Special summon one 'Seraphim Airknight' from your hand or graveyard.

**Image:** A large amount of feathers falling from the sky with a handsome man floating above with his hands outstretched.

**Celestial Kingdom / Field Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated by removing one face up 'Sanctuary in the Sky' from your field. Increase the original attack of all monsters with 'Airknight' in their name by 300 points. Whenever a monster is destroyed, increase your life points by 100 points times the level of the destroyed monster.

**Image:** A beautiful angelic paradise with a large golden door in front of a beautiful lake, multiple feathers floating down from the sky

**Heavenly Airknight's Lancet / Equip Spell / Effect:** This card can only be equipped to a monster with 'Airknight' in its name. When this card is activated, you may remove as many LIGHT Attribute Fairy type monsters from your graveyard. For each card removed from play, the equipped monster gains an additional attack during each battle phase. The equipped monster cannot destroy monsters as a result of battle nor can the equipped monster attack your opponent directly.

**Image:** Many falling feathers floating around a glowing golden lance.

**Wings On An Angel / Trap / Effect:** When this card is activated, you can move the phase count by one. When this face down card is destroyed by your opponent's card effect, you may special summon one level six or lower monster from your graveyard with 'Airknight' or 'Angel' in its name (disregarding summoning conditions).

**Image:** A wounded young man with angels appearing on his back.

**Honor of the Airknights / Spell / Effect:** Pay 2000 life points. Special summon three '???? Tokens' (LV. 1/Light/ATK: 0 / DEF: 0 / Fairy) to your side of the field in defense mode. When these tokens are special summoned, you may remove up to three monsters from your graveyard with 'Airknight' in their name. Each '???? Token' is treated like the monsters that were removed with this card's effect.

**Image:** Three fancy armored angels lifting their weapons in the air.

**Seraph Airknight / Light / LV. 10 / ATK: 3400 / DEF: 2800 / Fairy/Effect:** This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned except by the spell card 'Ascension of the Highest'. ???????????

**Description:** A handsome dark blue hair angel with the hair going past the six majestic wings and his fancy dark blue clock over his white robes.

**Deck Masters**

**Ancient Gear Knight: Gears of War:** Increase the attack of all face up 'Ancient Gear' monsters by 100 points times their level.

**Airknight Librarian: Celestia Knowledge of the Past:** Decrease the battle damage that is inflicted to the duelist to 0 whenever a monster with 'Airknight' in its name is destroyed as a result of battle.

**/-/--/-/-/-/-/-/-/-//**

**Cleo:** Ah…a lunch date with Leo! Its heaven! Its…wait, why are you here?

**Rena:** I work here…

**Leo:** Oh, I didn't know you were working today Rena…what a surprise.

**Asche:** This can't end well…

**Klein:** Aw man, I'm going to miss an awesome cat fight!

_**Let's watch closely and hold our breaths men…next chapter… **__**Chapter 34: Duelist Cat Fight!**_

**Rena and Cleo:** Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Hey you perverted author! Change that damn title!

**Vyser D:** Erg…right, don't hurt me!

_**Uh…change of plans. The match that we've all been waiting for! The cute red versus the beautiful blue! Next time – **__**Chapter 34: Battle Trickery 101**_

**Rena and Cleo:** That's better!

**And guess what! The Christmas chapter is coming up closer and closer, so get those questions in and prepare yourselves for the zaniness (not that kind, sorry Zane Truesdale Fan Girls) and madness you usually find in this story…times five!**

**Till the next time…**


	34. Chapter 34: Battle Trickery 1O1

_**Heh…ever since I met her, I never liked her.**_

_**For some reason, a large amount of the hottest guys that came in the academy this year seem to have a weird idea about spending time with her.**_

_**Heck, even one of the top duelists of the school seems to have a crush on her…**_

_**Hey, wait a minute; I just realized that this is my first time doing an opening! **_

_**I guess this is kinda cool…hold on a second, I'm getting off topic.**_

_**Like I was saying, I was actually hoping something like this would happen; now I can finally show that flat chest what the elite of this school can do!**_

_**From the records of the school, I believe that the flat chest once faced against Talo Krys and his eternal blizzard deck…**_

…_**and it ended it in a draw…**_

_**Let's see how she's able to face the flames of illusion…**_

_**The same strategy that made Luntina sweat!**_

_**/-/-/--/-//--////--/-/-/**_

_**Chapter 34**_

_**Battle Trickery 1O1**_

_**//--/--//-//-/--/-/-//**_

"…okay, you mind telling me why he's here?" Luntina asked pointing downwards.

Standing in the middle of Luntina's room, Klein was looking around taking in all of the fancy furniture and appliances. "Damn! Is this all the perks to being a blue? Or perhaps this is because of you being a Kaisaris?"

"Sorry, but I found us another ally!" Tony laughed rubbing the back of his head while Luntina just glared daggers at him and Klein. "Uh…could you not look at me with death glares?"

"I would…but then you broke our pact to keep our meetings only to the top three and Sen," Luntina growled not noticing that Klein was going through her fridge until a can of soda rolled over to her foot. "Huh? Hey! Get out of there!"

"You have no idea how hard it is to get this kind of cheese!" Klein shouted throwing the cheese into his mouth to chew loudly.

"Speaking of Sen…where is Riko and his older brother?" Tony asked looking around the room as Luntina stomped towards Klein.

However, Klein managed to maneuver fast enough to jump from Luntina's grasp. A little frustrated, Luntina turned towards Tony slapping her forehead. "Your guess is as good as mine. I haven't seen them in two days…"

"Same here…it's like they disappeared after Riko's duel with Kyo," Tony mumbled to himself as Klein began to jump up and down on Luntina's bed.

"Wait, who's Kyo?" Luntina asked blinking a few times before realizing that Klein was on her bed. "HEY! GET OFF OF THAT!"

"MAKE ME!"

"Why you little!"

CRASH!

"HA! YA MISSED ME!"

Tony just sweatdropped watching Luntina get free from her messed up bedding while Klein laughed loudly on the table while drinking one of the cans of soda he took from Luntina's fridge. "For a Kaisaris, you've got bad moves…"

"Come here you little midget!" Luntina shouted leaping towards a slightly surprised Klein.

"Holy crap!"

Shaking his head at Klein and Luntina's behavior, Tony slowly began to question whether it was wise or not to bring Klein in the first place. "…this won't end well at all…"

//-/--/-/-/-//-///

While Leo's duel with Nathaniel was wrapping up, in a more populated area of the island, a large group of students were gathered around what appeared to be a duel…

…of course some people in the crowd called it a massacre…

On one side there stood a smirking Obelisk Blue student (who had his long sandy blond hair tied back into a large tail) that had a face down monster with two set cards behind it. "Well…I think its time that I put you in your place little red…" (SLP: 5500)

Standing across from the sandy haired Obelisk Blue was none other than Van…only he was wearing a large overcoat version of his red uniform on his shoulders with the collar buttoned up to act like a cape and instead of his head band, Van had a hat that had the back part on the top ripped off to allow his hair to flow freely…

…his new uniform was a gift from Rukia…

And in front of him were also a set monster and two set cards, matching his opponent. (VLP: 3200)

However, both of the duelists had different deck masters. The Sandy haired blue duelist had a large futuristic man shaped robot that had jet like armor, otherwise known as Perfect Machine King (2700/1500) that slammed its fists together every few seconds.

While standing next to Van was a large dark cloaked man who was wearing ripped black pants with no shirt on but had bandages wrapped over his chest and had a black overcoat hanging over his broad shoulders. The man's eyes were covered by a bulky black hat, but his long silver hair was allowed to flow freely and in his mouth he had a twig between his teeth as if it was a cigarette. "Heh…did you forget Sandy? I've still got life points!"

"My name isn't Sandy!" 'Sandy' snarled pulling his next card, giving him five cards total. "But that's beyond this point…Its time for my combo! First, I'll flip up my face down trap! Go Cyber Summon Blaster!"

In an electric flash, the large satellite that was attached to a pair of tank treads appeared next to 'Sandy', making Van groan. This trap card appeared earlier in the duel…needless to say it was very annoying. "Don' you have any other moves?"

"Heh…I could ask the same Mr. Hero Fusion," 'Sandy' chuckled reaching for his next card. "I flip up my face down monster, Jinzo 7!"

Leaping up from the face down card, a small android that looked to be made of junk parts appeared (500/400) sparking a few times. "And now…I'll activate an all too familiar spell card! I activate Machine Duplication! Now, I can special summon the other two Jinzo 7s from my deck! Enjoy!"

In two flashes of electricity, two more poorly designed androids appeared on the field next to the original (500/400 x2), both having the expressionless face as the first. Then, as if on cue the Cyber Summon Blaster began to charge before sending a powerful wave into Van's body, making him stagger backwards. (VLP: 2600)

"Great…just what I needed…" Van growled as all three of the Jinzo 7s disappeared into light.

"And now…I enact my deck master's special ability, Royal Power Boost!" 'Sandy' announced lifting his next card up, and slapping it onto his field. "Thanks to it, all level five or higher machine monsters in my hand have to be tribute summoned with an extra tribute…"

Then from the sky, another Perfect Machine King crashed onto the ground, causing a large amount of the earth to fly up into the air. Then from the remains of the ground, three metallic plugs shot from the ground attaching to the Perfect Machine King (2700/1500 + 1350/0). "…but thanks to that, the newly summoned monster gains thirty percent of its defense added to its attack times three! Thirty percent of my king's defense was four hundred and fifty, but since I tributed my three Jinzo 7s it was tripled to thirteen hundred and fifty!"

"Well, it's a lot better than your Jinzo…" Van growled remember the large amount of stress the trap hating monster caused. "But it'll take a lot more than that to stop me!"

"Heh, looks like Mr. Hero doesn't get the fact that I'm still not done…" 'Sandy' chuckled taking another card form his hand. "I activate the spell card…Royal Ascension of the Machines! Now, for many intervals of cost of five hundred life points, I can special summon one 'Gear Token!'" (SLP: 3500)

From his spell card, four small gears each with a red bionic eye in the middle of the gears (0/0 x4). And once again the powerful Cyber Summon Blaster fired several waves into Van's body, making his new uniform fly up into the air. (VLP: 1400)

"And, since all four of my tokens are machines, my Perfect Machine King's original effect kicks in!" 'Sandy' announced as the Perfect Machine King that stood on the field slammed its fists into each other (4050/1500 + 2000/0), causing a large amount of electricity to surge into the air. "He gains five hundred attack points for each machine monster on the field other than himself! And now…Perfect Machine King! Royal Rocket Barrage!"

With the two silos on the large machine opening up, a large flurry of missiles rocketed into the face down monster on Van's field, making a large amount of debris to fly into the air.

However, immediately two cards popped out of Van's graveyard and into his hand, giving him a total of five. "Thanks! The monster you destroyed was Wroughtwieler! Now I can add E-Hero Stratos and Polymerization from my graveyard to my hand…but your attack did something else! Hero Signal!"

From the face down card, the familiar signaling beacon for the Elemental Hero appeared into the sky, however, Sandy just smiled. "Heh…you think that scares me? Please! Mr. Obvious you need to try a lot better! So go ahead and summon your monster!"

"Fine, 'Sandy'!" Van announced pulling out his deck and looking at one card in particular…this one made him smile in retaliation. "Now then…you ready to meet one of my favorite heroes? Cause I summon Elemental Hero Lone Wolf!"

With a loud howl, a blur fell from the signal in the sky, and when the new monster landed on the ground a new E-Hero stood up strong. Standing in front of Van, snarling at the Perfect Machine King, was a muscular werewolf with dark blue fur. Covering his torso is a black cloak with baggy khaki pants. At his wrists were a pair of large silver bracelets. And around his forehead was a long red headband that was streaming in the wind (1300/1200).

"Heh…well, well, looks like Mr. Surprise has a few tricks left," 'Sandy' chuckled shaking his head allowing his long hair to billow in the air. "And what does this little beastie do?"

"He's just a normal monster," Van replied watching as Sandy crossed his arms, completely satisfied with the current situation. "And with that look, I can assume that you're done."

"Pretty much, Mr. Impatient," 'Sandy' stated pointing towards E-Hero Lone Wolf. "Mr. Beastie here doesn't have the skills needed to take my king down, and even if you were to destroy all of my tokens, I'll still have over four thousand attack points to hit ya with Mr. Obvious. And just to let ya know, my face down will stop any destruction spell you've got…so I'd like to see you try Mr. False Hero."

"…Can it with the mister stuff!" Van shouted pulling his next card, giving him six cards in his hand. "And watch and learn! First, I activate my spell card, Instant Fusion!"

Falling from the sky, Van held out his hand to catch a small cup of what appeared to be Ramen Noodles with 'FUSION' written on the side. "Hmm…my favorite. But, just like the real thing, you need to pay something for it. For this, I have to pay one thousand life points." (VLP: 400)

"Just like a red to enjoy Ramen Noodles," 'Sandy' sighed shaking his head. "Have you no taste Mr. Dull?"

"Hard to have good taste when you're in the red dorm," Van sighed ripping off the top of the cup of Ramen Noodles. "But, this taste is just good enough! Because now, I can special summon a fusion monster from my fusion deck and count it as a fusion summon! So I choose E-Hero Flame Wingman!"

Erupting from the small cup, the large dragon armed hero flew into the air, starring down at Sandy and the two Perfect Machine Kings (2100/1200).

"Well, well, look everyone!" Sandy announced pointing towards the newest hero. "Its Mr. Flame burst!"

"Do you have a fetish with mister or something?" Van asked shaking off the comment and taking two of the cards in his hand to fit them into his duel disk. Then immediately, Van lifted up another card of his into the air. "Anyway…I play Polymerization!"

"Mr. Predictable…I know exactly who you're summoning," 'Sandy' remarked wagging his finger as a large vortex appeared over the field. "And I happen to know that even with the eight heroes you'll have in your graveyard it won't even be enough…and not even if you have something to help you…I've still got my face down card…"

"Enough of your babbling!" Van shouted as the vortex began to suck in both of Van's monsters on the field. "I fuse E – Heroes Lone Wolf and Flame Wingman!"

"What!?!?" Sandy exclaimed before the vortex shattered with a loud howl into the air.

A few minutes later…

"NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"

//-/-/-/-////-/-/-/-/-/

"You know Leonardo…" Cleo chuckled with a large sweatdrop rolling down the side of her head. "When you said you knew a decent café to get lunch, I was expecting something quaint…"

"And this is quaint," Leo replied with an innocent smile on his face as he slowly opened the red painted doors of the run down building. "And the food here is certainly tasty…"

"It's the red dorm!" Asche announced taking a step back pointing a finger at the dorm building's entrance.

"Very observant Asche," Leo admitted entering the building. "Now then…come along you two…it won't kill you to enjoy the different colors…"

"Well…he's got a point Asche," Cleo gulped slowly entering the red café (as Leo had put it) and slowly entered the building…

In the building…

"Hello Rena!" Leo announced appearing behind Rena's seat, hoping to scare the red duelist from her seat.

"Hey Leo," Rena replied with a smile on her face…absolutely calm.

"What is this? Did you actually anticipate that I was coming?" Leo chuckled with a smile on his face (although in his mind he was actually panicking).

"Nah, Rena's just tired from all the dueling this morning," Rukia replied as Kimatori leapt from her seat into Leo's arms.

"Leo-kun!" Kimatori shouted smiling at Leo as she climbed on top of Leo's shoulders. "I've missed you Leo-kun!"

"Heh, same here Kimatori," Leo replied with a glistening smile that made Kimatori squeal in delight.

"…I wonder what toothpaste Leo uses to get that shine," Rukia thought out loud rubbing her chin.

"Peppermint Crest," Leo answered as Leo and Asche walked up behind Leo, nervous looks all around. "Plus twenty other brands to get that perfect shine!"

"Huh? Do spend like an hour on your teeth every morning?" Rena asked just now noticing Cleo and Asche standing behind Leo.

Silence seemed to fill the entire café as Rena and Cleo's eyes met…sparks immediately fly as the two narrowed their eyes at each other. "Uh…what are you two doing here?"

"Hmm…doing a little research," Cleo replied with a smug look on her face.

"Research?" Rena was almost afraid to ask.

"Research on how you reds can live like this," Cleo pointed out gesturing towards one of the walls that was boarded up messily.

"Well, unlike you spoiled blues, we have to work for success," Rena growled with a small blood vessel appearing on the back of her head.

"Leo, did you do this on purpose?" Rukia asked as Rena stood up while Asche and Leo (Kimatori squirmed around to sit across from Leo-kun).

"Why whatever do you mean Rukia?" Leo asked very innocently looking at one of the menus that was on the table. "Hmm…I wonder what the special is today…"

"Childsman, did you really plan this?" Asche asked with a sweatdrop looking back to see Rena and Cleo shouting at each other. Surprisingly, the management didn't seem to care that the loud noise was echoing through the café…apparently neither did the customers.

"Hmm…I haven't had a decent hamburger in a while," Leo muttered rubbing his chin.

"Hey! Don't ignore us!" Rukia and Asche shouted while Kimatori just giggled at Leo's behavior.

"Waiter, I believe we're ready to order here," Leo requested raising his hand up.

"Oh well…might as enjoy the show," Rukia sighed loudly shaking her head lifting up the menu.

"Hey wait a minute, we don't know how this'll turn out, ya know!" Asche pointed out pointing his finger at the menu's page. "…we should order mozzarella sticks for an appetizer…"

"Sounds good," Leo replied turning his head around to see the scuffle involving Rena and Cleo getting worse. "Oh my…who could've predicted this would happen?"

"You're the one that brought us here!" Asche pointed out as the waiter appeared with a small notepad, completely ignoring Cleo and Rena's small fight. "Oh, hey, I'll have your Combo Meal A…extra pickles please."

"Kimatori, this is why men are stupid," Rukia explained wagging a finger towards Kimatori. "So be careful around them…"

"Why don't you just drop out you little wannabe duelist!" Cleo shouted raising a fist towards Rena.

"Tough words from a spoiled bimbo who bought her way into the academy!" Rena roared throwing her arms to the side.

"What did you say?!?!" Cleo snarled with a fiery aura appearing around her. "You little runt!"

"Is your head too big that you can't hear?!?" Rena shouted pointing a finger at Cleo's head. "Or maybe it's your split ends?"

"OH…that does it!" Cleo roared leaping forward, her hair looking like the mane of a lion's.

Meanwhile at the entrance of the café…

"Ya know, this is was actually a nice idea," Kryancelo chuckled with a small blush on his face as he opened the door for Professor Maria. "Although…I say we should've gone to the Ra Yellow Café instead…"

"Why thank you Professor Kryancelo," Maria giggled making Kryancelo blush even more. "And it's nice to enjoy a meal with the students…"

"Why yes! I quite…agree…" Kryancelo stated while looking inside the café to see Rena and Cleo fighting with each other while rolling on the ground. "…I should just walk away…I don't need to get involve with this…"

"Kryancelo! Do something!" Maria gasped pointing towards Rena and Cleo.

'…_damn it…_' Kryancelo cursed in his mind as he stomped towards Rena and Cleo. "You ladies! Enough of this!"

That's when both Cleo and Rena pulled on Kryancelo's jacket, making the Ra Yellow professor's eyes widen before he was pulled down. "Jesus!"

After a few more minutes, a large amount of yellow clothing was thrown up into the air…and of course everyone was too preoccupied watching the fight to help the poor teacher. "Oh dear lord! Why isn't anyone helping me!?!"

"Hmm…you're right Leo, this would be good with pudding," Asche chuckled with some drool slightly slipping from his lips.

"But we haven't even had our main course yet," Leo replied blinking a few times…apparently he and Asche were on two different frequencies.

"…Rukia…what's does pudding have to do with this?" Kimatori asked watching the fight between Rena, Cleo and Kryancelo.

"Uh, hopefully, you'll never find out," Rukia sighed shaking her head. '_Men now a days…'_

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Kryancelo shouted standing up and holding Rena and Cleo apart in his arms, he had them by the collars of their uniforms. "FIGHTING ON CAMPUS IS STRICKLY FORBIDDEN! BOTH OF YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS BY NOW! I OUGHT TO GET THE BOTH OF YOU EXPELLED…"

"Oh just relax Kryancelo," Maria stated placing a hand on Kryancelo's (now bare) shoulder.

"I WILL NOT RELAX!" Kryancelo shouted lifting the two girls higher with a fiery aura appearing around his body. "VIOLENCE IS PROHIBITED! ESPECIALLY IF IT'S AGAINST ME! THEY RUINED MY CLOTHES, GAVE ME BAD CUTS AND…AND…AND…and…"

Kryancelo suddenly released the two girls and a large blush crept onto his face as Maria wrapped her arms around Kryancelo's torso. "Now, Kryancelo…take a deep breath and relax…"

This was certainly a day for Kryancelo…Professor Maria was hugging him, scraps of clothing barely separating him and direct contact. It was this little thought that made Kryancelo's usually stern face soften with a great smile and a little blood to drip from his nose. "…a-alright…"

As soon as Maria released her hold on Kryancelo, the Ra Yellow professor fell to the ground with a smile on his face and a small blood stain running down his nose. Then turning towards the two glaring female students, Maria wagged her finger at them with a frown on her face. "Now then…Kryancelo is right…you two shouldn't be fighting. What was the cause of this anyway?"

"She's a bimbo!" Rena shouted pointing towards Cleo.

"She's a disgraceful tramp!" Cleo retorted narrowing her eyes at Rena.

"That's enough!" Maria shouted getting everyone in the café to look at her. "Now…seeing as how trying to get you two to get along won't work at all…I propose that you two duel each other…"

"How's a duel going to solve this?" Rena asked raising an eyebrow.

"Are you really that dull witted?" Cleo groaned slapping her forehead. "It's easy to understand, if we're not allowed to settle disputes with fists…we'll settle it with cards."

"…great…" Rena sighed standing up pulling out her deck of cards. "I've been waiting to see if you were nothing more than a bunch of hot air…"

"Save the insults for the duel," Cleo remarked crossing her arms over her ample chest while holding up a small deck of cards. "…flat chest."

"Then what was that!?!" Rena growled as Maria sweatdropped at the two girls fighting again.

//--//-//--///-/-/

Standing at least thirty feet away from each other, Rena and Cleo snapped their dueling decks into their disks. Standing to the side, Maria watched as the two prepared themselves outside the café.

And near the outside part of the café, Leo, Kimatori, Rukia and Asche moved to watch the duel.

"Heh…I must be crazy for accepting this duel…" Cleo sighed shaking her head.

"I've actually been looking forward to this," Rena huffed, puffing up her cheeks in frustration. Somewhat for Cleo's attitude, but mostly for when she and Cleo first met…

_//-/--/-//-/-/--/-/_

"_RENA AKIRA!"_

_Rena and Van turned to see a holographic darkness appear in front of them, then the darkness separated to show a bright light shining over the Obelisk Blue Cleo. A sweatdrop appeared on the back of Rena and Van's heads as Cleo made an over dramatic pose. "I AM CLEO SOL! ONE OF THE ELITES OF OBELISK BLUE!"_

_Just as Cleo was walking towards the two Slifer Reds, she didn't notice the stone in front of her. Cleo tripped to the ground and landed with a small crash. The bright light disappeared to show Asche with a duel disk holding onto a Yami field card as well as a Luminous Spark field card. _

"_What the hell?" Rena asked blinking a couple of times to make sure that she just saw what she thought she saw._

_Van just sighed but then chuckled to himself. "Guess it goes to show ya that they let the crazy in as well…"_

_Rena's attention then turned to Asche who was pocketing the cards. "And who are you?"_

_Asche just blinked in confusion. "Uh, the name's Asche."_

"_I'm Rena! Nice to meet you!" Rena stated and smiled._

_Asche just smiled back. "Likewise I guess…"_

"_ASCHE!" Cleo yelled slamming her fist into the back of Asche's head. "DID YOU FORGET WHY WE'RE HERE?"_

_Asche just rubbed the back of his head and smiled sheepishly. "…yes…"_

_Cleo just fell to the ground out of embarrassment, but then got back on her feet once more. "We're here to pick a bone with her!" Cleo pointed accusingly towards Rena with her hand._

_Shocked, Rena just gasped. "Huh?!?" _

"_Someone like you doesn't belong here!" Cleo replied with an assured look on her face._

"_Yeah!" Asche added throwing his fist in the air._

"_What's that supposed to mean?" Rena shouted glaring daggers at the two Obelisk Blues._

"_Just the way it sounded, you dropout…" Cleo explained crossing her arms. "Now, this is going to be the only time I'm going to say this…leave the island peacefully…"_

"_Who are you calling a dropout!?!" Rena roared._

_Cleo smirked as she snapped her fingers. Asche quickly lifted up a paper that he had in his pocket and began to read off it… "Rena Akira. Age fifteen. Passed the written exam to receive a rank of seventy-seven. Unfortunately, the student failed to even take the dueling examination."_

"_And there you go," Cleo declared crossing her arms. "A duelist needs to duel, not just know a few facts about the game. If you got in here with out a proper exam, then you are nothing more than a con artist and a cheater!"_

_Van stepped out in front of Rena with his right arm in the air. "Hold on! Rena's no con artist nor a cheater!"_

"_Thanks Van." Rena turned her glare back at Cleo. "That's right!"_

"_Very well…then care to explain how you got here?" Cleo had Rena cornered._

"_I…I…" An answer wouldn't come, Rena was only here thanks to Ganryu's intervention and the bet he made with Professor Kryancelo._

"_Everyone else in your class had to study hard to get here!" Cleo said with a disgusted tone. "Not even taking a proper exam, you have made everyone else feel rejected and their hard work all for nothing!"_

_Asche looked like he was caught between ties, but he shook it off and followed Cleo's comment. "Yeah!"_

_Rena's head lowered with shame as Cleo and Asche's comments kept hitting her like multiple bricks. "…"_

_Van's eyes widened before he stepped to her side. "Rena! Snap out of it! You gotta tune them out!"_

"_Stay out of this Slacker!" Cleo yelled making Van narrow his eyes at the Obelisk blue._

"_You want to say that to my face?" Van questioned as he started walking towards Cleo._

_A few feet before Cleo, Asche stepped in front of Van and lifted the Slifer red by the shirt collar before throwing him to the side. "Don't threaten Miss Cleo…"_

"_Now then, head back to where you came from you Slifer Red drop……" Cleo stopped yelling suddenly._

//-/-/-/-//-//--//-/

"Ganryu-kun and Riko won't be coming to your rescue this time," Cleo chuckled with a few hearts dazzling around her as she remembered Ganryu. "Although…I wouldn't mind seeing Ganryu here…"

"…you're such a fangirl," Rena sighed shaking her head.

"Both of you make your wagers and choose your deck masters, please," Maria pointed out as both female duelists looked through their decks.

"Hmm…I think I'll choose Fox Fire," Cleo stated easily with the small red fox appearing on her shoulder, squeaking a few times. "Just a little cutie isn't he?"

"…Well, yeah," Rena replied lifting a card from her deck and lifting it up into the air. "As for my deck master…I'll choose my Reflect Carbuncle!"

In a few flurries of sparks, the green creature landed on Rena's shoulder squeaking loudly like the Fox Fire.

"Dang…two cute deck masters…" Asche admitted nursing his cherry coke.

"I take it that Rena found her all time deck master," Leo chuckled turning the straw in his drink.

"Actually…in the other duels she's used Celtic Guardian and Mallet Elf," Rukia admitted petting Kimatori's head. "More than likely she's not taking any chances in this duel with Cleo…"

"Now then…I've got six pins, flat chest," Cleo flaunted while shuffling her deck of cards.

"Then how's three a piece sound?" Rena offered pulling her first five cards.

"Deal!" Cleo shouted reaching for her deck.

"Duel!"

"Allow me to start off by showing you the ropes of strategy making!" Cleo shouted pulling her sixth card into her hand. (CLP: 8000)

'_Alright…let's think…what kind of a deck would a duelist premadona use?_' Rena thought as Cleo fanned her hand to look at all the of cards she currently had. '_Sounds like trick question…maybe she uses some kind of handsome warrior deck…or maybe a cyber deck like Ashton…'_

"Now then…I'll start by setting a monster on the defensive, and end my turn with a face down card," Cleo started easily with the two cards appearing before her. "And I think that's all I've got for you right now, flat chest."

"What exactly have I done to you to deserve this treatment?" Rena asked looking at her sixth card. (RLP: 8000)

"Hmm…let's review shall we?" Cleo sighed wagging her finger. "You see, dropout, each and every year, applicants apply to the various academies, only allowing the best of the best through their doors…but, for right now, I'll leave it at that…"

"Wow…that rings a bell," Rena chuckled looking at her cards, then taking one of the cards; Rena slapped the card onto her duel disk, creating a large flash of light to appear before her. "I summon Elf Swordsman to the field!"

From the flash of light, the sword-less elf leapt onto the field with a goofy smile on his face while rubbing the bridge of his nose (1400/1600). Then raising his other hand into the air, a powerful burst of light flashed in his palm. "And when he's summoned, I can special summon my Sol Saber and I'll equip it to him!"

The light dimmed down, showing a large yellow sword that had a sun emblem at the hilt, empowering the Elf Swordsman (1400/1600 + 1000/1000). "And you mentioned strategy? Well this is mine, giving me the strongest monster out on the field in my first turn! Attack that face down monster now!"

With a powerful leap, the Elf Swordsman brought the Sol Saber down upon the face down monster, revealing it to be a fancy red fox with many flames and feathers floating around its body before shattering into a flurry of flames (1300/1000).

And at the sight of the destroyed monster, Rena blinked a few times as the many flames began to float around the duelist field. "…a fox? Not what I was really expecting…"

Then wagging her finger, Cleo shot Rena a small innocent smile. "Simple little red…it's not a fox, but rather, a kitsune. To be more specific, that monster was Inari's Messenger Kitsune…and my face down card activates! Backfire!"

As soon as Cleo's face down card flipped up, the remaining embers left by Inari's Messenger Kitsune rocketed towards Rena. And on contact, the many flames erupted into a small explosion that made Rena step back slightly. (RLP: 7500)

"Okay…a burn deck was something quite unexpected," Rena admitted shaking her head as a small ember landed in front of Cleo.

"The Kitsune are natural tricksters," Cleo giggled pulling her deck and fanning the many cards in front of her face. "Take my Messenger Kitsune for example. When destroyed as a result of battle, I can special summon a Fire beast monster with fifteen hundred or less attack points…and to have the cutest little kitsune…Kit Kitsune!"

Walking from the small ember, a small red fox with a single tail with a small fire on the tip of her tail yawned loudly curling up on the field (600/800). "Aw! Isn't she the cutest little thing?"

"Well…actually, I have to agree with you on that," Rena chuckled rubbing the back of her head as the Elf Swordsman began to tear up thinking that he was no longer cute in the eyes of his master. "Huh!? Wait! Don't cry! You're cute too!"

"Looks like your monster is a little jealous," Cleo pointed out shaking her hair a little bit. "You know what they say…the holograms often take the personality of their master."

"Ya know…I'm starting to believe that," Rena sighed looking at her hand. '_Okay…let's see…more than likely she'll use that monster as a tribute. And it'll probably be something with a large amount of attack points to…_'

"I'll set one card face down and end my turn," Rena finished up as the set card appeared behind her calmed down Elf Swordsman.

"Hmm…you're thinking that I'm going to sacrifice my cute little fox," Cleo sighed shaking her head as she drew her next card.

That little comment just made Rena's eyes widen slightly.

"Well…I thought I told you," Cleo explained fingering her five card hand. "I'd show you a real strategy…and the first rule of strategy is simple. The first move, is always a feint attack."

"You'll have to forgive me if I don't understand it," Rena replied blinking a few times in confusion.

"Then the best way is through example!" Cleo stated fitting the card into her duel disk, materializing a spell card that depicted a small girl petting a white fox. "I activate the continuous spell, Omniscience of the Fox! This spell card can allow me to give you any card from my hand once per turn…"

"Seems a little too generous for you," Rena muttered getting a blood vessel to appear on the back of Cleo's head.

"…But now, I'll set two cards face down," Cleo continued fitting two thirds of her hand into her duel disk. "And activate the effect of my spell card! So you get the last card in my hand…enjoy."

With a small toss, the card flew towards Rena who immediately caught the card between her fingers. Then looking at the strange card, Rena blinked a few times reading the card out loud. "Huh? 'Kitsune Fireworks!'? When this card is added to your opponent's hand, inflict one thousand points of damage to your opponent and discard this card from your opponent's hand."

From the small card, many red fireworks exploded into the air, making Rena drop the card and fall to the ground. Then in a large explosion, Rena was left on the ground with holographic dust covering her entire body while Cleo lifted up the Kitsune Fireworks card. "And by the way…my Omniscience of the Fox gives me five hundred points. Quite the combo wouldn't you say?" (CLP: 8500) (RLP: 6500)

Coughing out some of the smoke, Rena tilted her head to the side before standing up. "Yeah…it was the bomb…"

"Heh…you'd better save your bad jokes for someone who cares," Cleo chuckled raising her empty hands. "But for right now…I've got no more cards in my hand so I'm forced to end my turn."

"…alright," Rena gulped slowly drawing her next card. Then blinking a few times, Rena immediately slapped the card onto her duel disk. "I summon Mallet Elf!"

Running up to the field, the hammer wielding elf skidded to a stop, slamming the hammer into the ground (1200/900). "And I'll go straight into my battle phase! Mallet Elf! Attack Kit Kitsune!"

Obeying his master's orders, the Mallet Elf immediately slammed the large hammer into the surprised Kit Kitsune, shattering it into flames that immediately flew into Rena's body. (RLP: 6000)

"Heh…that attack made you lose more life points…are you sure you're up to this little red?" Cleo asked fitting the Kit Kitsune card into her graveyard.

"It may have cost me some points…" Rena gasped raising her hand up towards the smirking Elf Swordsman. "But…it was worth it to get you wide open!"

Then with a great leap, the Elf Swordsman slashed right through Cleo's abdomen, making the Obelisk Blue take a knee and glare at Rena's returning elf. "You'll regret doing that, flat chest…" (CLP: 6100)

"Do you have to keep saying clichéd lines?" Rena asked with a dulled look on her face. "Anyway…my turn's done."

"Easy turns for an easy mind," Cleo chuckled looking at her newest card, then turning towards her small Fox Fire, Cleo lifted up her duel disk. "And now…I'll enact my Deck Master's special ability! My deck master allows me to special summon one Fire Attribute monster from my graveyard…"

A small ember appeared in front of Cleo, immediately forming into the Kit Kitsune (600/800). "Of course for this special ability, there are several key instances that must be met. First, the monster that's special summoned must have less than one thousand attack and defense points. Second, I need to pay one thousand life points. And finally, my special summoned monster can't attack or be used for a tribute summon." (CLP: 5100)

"Well…that ability is going to be annoying…" Rena muttered as one of Cleo's face down cards flipped up.

"True…but its going to get worse," Cleo explained as the set card flipped up showing a small yellow fox creating a whirlwind of leaves around her body. "Let me introduce to you my continuous trap, Whirlwind Jutsu. Now once per turn, I'm allowed to return up to two spell or trap cards on my side of the field. And for each one I can increase my life points by three hundred points. So I'll just bounce my last face down card back to my hand." (CLP: 5400)

Then spinning the returned card around, Cleo immediately reached for her deck. "And by returning my trap card, Treasure Map, I'm allowed to draw two cards…and discard one. So since Treasure Map has done its job, I can discard it for its effect."

"That's was some good foresight," Leo admitted cutting the hamburger he got just a few minutes ago with his knife.

"No kidding ya know," Asche chuckled as Cleo began to look through her cards. "Here's a little tidbit about Miss Cleo…her strategy was able to make Luntina sweat."

"She challenged the Kaisaris?" Rukia questioned with her eyebrows up.

"Yeah, and she would've won too…" Asche muttered before sipping his Cherry Coke a little faster. "If it wasn't for me…ya know…"

"Hmm?" Leo questioned blinking a few times. "What do you mean by that?"

"…she won't like me telling ya this…" Asche sighed slamming his Cherry Coke onto the table, shaking the other drinks violently. "…but…last year, when me and Miss Cleo entered the academy, she and Luntina got into an argument…actually…it reminds me of what happened between Miss Cleo and Miss Rena…"

"You mean the Kaisaris got into a catfight?" Rukia gasped a little angered that someone who should be above that sort of behavior would act that way.

"Pretty much ya know," Asche chuckled with a little drool dripping from his mouth. "Uh…anyway…cause since Miss Cleo was a first year, Luntina offered that Miss Cleo should tag up with me to duel against her…"

"Unfortunately, our strategies are totally different," Asche turned towards Leo and nodded his head at the noble duelist. "Ya know that first had don'tcha Mr. Leo, right?"

"Yes, your rush strategy is completely different when compared to Cleo's," Leo admitted rubbing his chin. "I think I can image what happened next…"

"Yeah…ya know," Asche sighed turning back to the duel.

"Now then…I activate the spell card Pot of Greed! Now I can draw two more cards!" Cleo announced drawing her next two cards, while a small flame appeared next to the Mallet Elf (1200/900 + 200/0). "And next…I'll activate the effect of my Kit Kitsune! By tributing it, I can special summon two Kit Kitsune Tokens (0/0)!"

With a loud yawn, it looked like another Kit Kitsune was on the field with the first one, but both of them had blue flames on their tails instead of red flames. "And now…I'll set one card face down…and I think I'll activate my Omniscience of the Fox's effect…but, since the card I'm giving you is my second Kitsune Fireworks! I'll just discard it right now and give you the damage."

The powerful, colorful flames erupted from the ground, making Rena jump back slightly coughing some smoke up. "…That just burns…" (RLP: 5000)

"What did I say about those bad jokes?" Cleo sighed wagging the last card in her hand up. "Not that it matters…I summon Omen Kitsune!"

A larger flame appeared on the field, only this time, a larger fox walked from the flame. This fox, however, was bright orange and had five tails, each with the tips on fire (1450/700). That's when two cards popped out of Cleo's graveyard, Pot of Greed and one of the Kitsune Fireworks cards. "When summoned, my Kitsune can return two spell cards from my graveyard to my deck. So you'll be seeing those two soon enough."

"Well…are you going to attack?" Rena asked looking at her face down card.

"Please…like I would really attack," Cleo sighed crossing her arms over her chest.

"Fine, I'll just draw then…" Rena muttered looking at her cards. Then with a smile, Rena spun her card around. "And activate the spell card, Double Summon! Now I can perform two normal summons this turn!"

"Hmm…Should've expected a move like that…its so pedestrian," Cleo sighed as Rena lifted two of her cards up, as well as there being a second Spell Counter on the Mallet Elf (1400/900 + 200/0).

"…hmph!" Rena growled slapping both cards onto her duel disk. "I've had it with your attitude! I summon Edge Elf and Cursed Half-Elf!"

In two flashes, the dual blade wielding elf appeared on the field next to the Mallet Elf. But standing beside the Elf Swordsman was a new elf…this one a tall cloaked elf with black and white hair standing up with a scary face (1600/1400). "Now then…Cursed Half-Elf! Mallet Elf! Attack both of the Kit Kitsune Tokens!"

Slamming the large mallet into the surprised kit, the Mallet Elf distracted the other Kit Kitsune from the Cursed Elf. Describing the Cursed Elf's attack was horrendous, almost like a vampire sucking the blood of the Kit Kitsune Token, shattering the fox in its large teeth.

Cleo had her tongue stuck out at the sight of the Cursed Elf licking his teeth clean from what looked to be blood. "That's simply disgusting!"

"Once again, I have to agree with you on that," Rena sighed shaking her head at her Cursed Elf. This was actually her first duel using this monster, and she was slightly curious what this elf's attack was… "But that's beyond the point! Edge Elf's effect will choose your Omen Kitsune…and he'll attack her right now!"

In a black blur, the Edge Elf had managed to slice the Omen Kitsune without allowing even a single drop of blood to fall to the ground. Instead, the Omen Kitsune howled out in pain, shattering into small embers that flew into Rena's body once more. (RLP: 4500) (CLP: 5150)

"Forget about my Backfire trap?" Cleo asked raising her hand up over her deck. "And here's a little something you may want to know…my Omen Kitsune allows me to draw another card from my deck."

"That's all fine and good…but I can still attack with my Elf Swordsman!" Rena announced as her Elf Swordsman slashed through Cleo's torso once more. (CLP: 2750)

"I activate my Deck Master's effect!" Cleo coughed as the small Kit Kitsune reappeared on the field with a small yawn. "In case you didn't know, I'm able to enact my deck master's ability during either of our turns…" (CLP: 1750)

"You sure that's wise?" Rena asked blinking a few times fitting another into her duel disk. "I mean…I've got…"

"Heh…what did I say at the beginning of the duel?" Cleo asked drawing her next card and wagging her finger in front of Rena. "The first move is always a distraction! This is no different! First, I activate my Omniscience of the Fox once more, this time giving you Kitsune Udon. And once again it's immediately discarded but instead of damaging you…"

As soon as Cleo fitted the card into her duel disk's graveyard, a small light spring of light began to rain down on Cleo. Her life point counter beginning to tick upwards. "…it gives me fifteen hundred life points…" (CLP: 3750)

"Great…just great…" Rena sighed shaking her head.

"You think that's great? Then watch this! I activate my Whirlwind Jutsu trap's effect again! Returning it and my Back Fire Trap back to my hand!" Cleo announced as a powerful whirlwind snapped both of the two cards back into her hand. "So tell me…what do you think about my strategy?" (CLP: 4350)

"Honestly? I'm confused," Rena replied scratching the back of her head. "Why fox…I mean, Kitsune?"

"Why do you play elves?" Cleo retorted shaking her head. "Tell ya what flat chest…you make it to the finals and I'll tell you why I play with Kitsune."

"O-Okay…" Rena stuttered rubbing her chin. "And if you make it…then you'll have the pleasure of learning why I use elves ya bimbo!"

A large blood vessel appeared on the back of Cleo's head with that bimbo comment. "Watch yourself slacker! Now…I activate the spell card, Magical Mallet! Returning the remaining two cards in my hand into my deck!"

That's when another counter appeared next to the other three around the Mallet Elf's body (1600/900 + 200/0)…and there was one counter around the Cursed Elf's cloak. "Thanks to your spell, my monsters gain some more counters!"

"I see…" Cleo muttered pulling her next two cards, then with a smile, Cleo immediately fitted one of the cards into her duel disk. "Now then…I think its time we say hello to Pot of Greed once more!"

With the large green pot giggling madly, Cleo pulled two more cards from her deck while another counter appeared around the Mallet Elf (1800/900 + 200/0) and the Cursed Elf. "And now…I'll activate my Kit Kitsune's effect once more! So I get two more Kit Kitsune Tokens (0/0 x2)!"

Once again, the small Kit seemed to create another copy of itself on the field, both of them yawning loudly. "But I'm not done…I'll activate my deck master's effect once more! Kitsune Flame of Rebirth on the Kit Kitsune!" (CLP: 3350)

For another time, the cute Kit Kitsune yawned as it reappeared as it curled up in between the two Kit Kitsune Tokens (600/800). "And now…its time for my Kit Kitsune to use his effect once more!"

That's when another pair of Kit Kitsune Tokens (0/0 x2) appeared where the original Kit Kitsune, all four of them yawning loudly. "And now…I'll sacrifice three of my Kit Kitsune Tokens to summon…"

"_**Kyūbi no Kitsune!**_

Three of the young Kit Kitsune Tokens exploded into three powerful flames that erupted into one single flame that began to take shape into a large, red, nine tailed fox that had white tufts of fur at his paws, chest, and tips of his tails (2400/2200). The large beast roared loudly, making the entire area shake, and making all four of Rena's elves step backwards. "Now then…since your face down cards worry me…I'll just end my turn…"

"O-Okay…" Rena muttered reaching for her deck, before the large Kyūbi no Kitsune extended all nine of its tails into the air, creating a large amount of powerful red and black flames that began to fly all around the duel area. "Aah! What's happening?!?"

"Allow me to explain…you see, during the end phase my Kyūbi is summoned," Cleo explained as her large fox leapt into the air as the many flames began to engulf the duelist field. "All cards on the field other than itself are destroyed and we both take damage equal to the attack of my fox…so enjoy!"

The many flames engulfed both duelists and their duel disks, clearing when the Kyūbi landed on the ground, pushing the flames into the air…revealing that both duelists were covered with soot. "…now you see why I don't duel…it ruins my hair." (CLP: 950) (RLP: 2100)

Shaking her head free from the soot, Rena snapped her fingers. "Yeah…but thanks to that little move, my Cursed Elf's special effect takes action!"

A dark shadow began to sweep the field, forming into a completely shadowed Cursed Elf that flew directly into the Kyūbi no Kitsune's chest, making the beast howl out in pain (2400/2200 – 200/0). "For every Spell Counter on it when it's destroyed, your big bad fox loses one hundred attack points!"

"Heh…it's too bad that…" Cleo stated shaking her hair to get the soot out of it.

"GRRRRRRRAAAAGGGGHHH!"

Turning to the side towards the entrance of the café, everyone saw the enraged Kryancelo, creating his own fireworks with the deadly aura surrounding him. "YOU TWO ARE IN A HEAP OF TROUBLE! YOU OWE ME MY CLOTHING BILL!"

"Um…any ideas?" Rena asked tilting her head to the side.

"Temporary truce," Cleo replied turning her duel disk off before she and Rena took on in opposite directions! "Run like heck!"

"Wow…I didn't know Miss Rena could run that fast ya know," Asche whistled watching both Rena and Cleo take off in different directions while Kryancelo switched views to figure out which of the two to follow.

"DAMN IT!" Kryancelo roared pulling his hair.

"Aw come on Kryancelo…" Maria cooed, tracing a finger on Kryancelo's chiseled and slightly exposed chest. "I'll tell you what…you promise to put this behind you, and I'll treat you to a nice dinner tonight."

"Y-Y-Y-You mean it!?!" Kryancelo stuttered with a dazed look on his face while Maria turned towards the rest of the students.

"Now then…you four stay out of trouble alright?" Maria requested with a small wink, having a heart floating away.

Meanwhile…a few yards away…

"Damn it Bravo!" Maderas snarled narrowing his eyes down at the large duelist. "First we lose Nathaniel…where is that bastard away? And now it's probably certain that Beck knows he's gone!"

"Well…we could always flee the island and join the circus…" Bravo suggested getting a fist to his face. "OOF!"

"How many times do I have to say this…it isn't going to work!" Maderas snarled slapping his forehead not noticing that a familiar sandy haired duelist with a pair of glasses on his grayish skin.

"…hmm…perhaps I can be of some service…"

/-/--/-//-/--//--/-//-

"Heh…heh…not bad shorty…"

"Not so bad yourself toots…"

Tony was standing in the corner of the room, his eyes widened at the sight of the messed up room and the bruised up Luntina and Klein. '_Maybe I should learn from Klein…_'

"I hope you're ready to work though," Luntina chuckled lifting her hand up to Klein who just smiled with a missing tooth.

"I just hope you know that I don't come cheap…" Klein laughed loudly taking her hand into his.

//--//-//-//--/-/-/

**Card Stats**

**E-Hero Lone Wolf / Earth / LV. 3 / ATK: 1300 / DEF: 1200 / Beast-Warrior/Effect:** _Unlike the previous Elemental Heroes, this new member of the team was once a small wolf cub who was exposed to the chemical waste…his goal to protect nature from the corrupted hands of humans._

**Description:** A muscular werewolf with dark blue fur. Covering his torso is a black cloak with baggy khaki pants. At his wrists are a pair of large silver bracelets. And around his forehead is a long red headband that streams in the wind.

**Royal Ascension of the Machines / Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you have a face up 'Perfect Machine King'. Special summon 'Gear Tokens' (EARTH / LV. 1 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 0 / Machine) in all open spaces on your side of the field. For each token special summoned this way, pay 500 life points. 'Gear Tokens' cannot attack or be used for a tribute.

**Image:** Many gears appearing around the Perfect Machine King.

**Kit Kitsune / Fire / LV. 2 / ATK: 600 / DEF: 800 / Beast/Effect:** During your Main Phase, you can Tribute this face-up card to Special Summon 2 "Kit Kitsune Tokens" (Beast-Type/Fire/LV.1/ATK 0/DEF 0) in defense position.

**Description:** A small red fox with a single tail with a small fire on the tip of her tail.

**Omen Kitsune / Fire / LV. 4 / ATK: 1450 / DEF: 700 / Beast/Effect:** When this card is summoned to your side of the field, you may select two spell cards from your graveyard and shuffle them into your deck. When this card is destroyed as a result of battle, you may draw one card from your deck.

**Description:** A slightly larger fox with orange fur with four tails.

**Inari's Kitsune Messenger / Fire / LV. 4 / ATK: 1300 / DEF: 1000 / Beast/Effect:** When this card is destroyed as a result of battle, you may special summon one FIRE Beast monster with 1500 attack or less.

**Description:** A fancy red fox with many flames and feathers appearing around its body.

**Kyūbi no Kitsune / Fire / LV. 9 / ATK: 2400 / DEF: 2200 / Beast/Effect:** This card cannot be Special Summoned. This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set except by Tributing three Beast-Type monsters. During battle between this attacking card and a Defense Position monster whose DEF is lower than the ATK of this card, inflict the difference as Battle Damage to your opponent's Life Points. During the End Phase of the turn this card was summoned, destroy all cards on the field (except this card) and inflict damage to both players' Life Points equal to the original ATK strength of this card.

**Description:** A very large red fox with many white tufts of hair at his tail, forehead and chest.

**Omniscience of the Fox / Continuous Spell / Effect:** Once per turn (during all player's main phase) you may give your opponent one card from your hand with 'Kitsune' or 'Fox' in its title. Increase your life points by 500 when this card's effect is activated.

**Image:** A young girl petting a small white fox.

**Kitsune Fireworks/ Spell / Effect:** When this card is added to your opponent's hand, inflict 1000 points of damage to your opponent and discard this card from their hand.

**Image:** A small brown fox lighting a small red firework.

**Kitsune Udon / Spell / Effect:** When this card is added to your opponent's hand, increase your life points by 1500, and your opponent must discard this card from their hand.

**Image: **A bowl of udon with a fox guarding it.

**Whirlwind Jutsu / Continuous Trap / Effect:** Once per turn, you may return up to two spell or trap cards on your side of the field back to your hand. For each spell and trap card returned this way, you may increase your life points by 300.

**Image:** A small yellow fox creating a whirlwind of leaves around her body.

**Cursed Half-Elf / Dark / LV. 4 / ATK: 1600 / DEF: 1400 / Spellcaster/Effect:** Whenever a spell card is activated, place one Spell Counter on this card. When this card is destroyed and sent to the graveyard, decrease the attack of all face up monsters on your opponent's side of the field by 100 points for every Spell Counter that was on this card.

**Description:** A tall cloaked elf with black and white hair standing up with a scary face.

**Deck Masters**

**Perfect Machine King / Royal Power Boost:** All level five and higher Machine-Type monsters in your hand require one additional tribute. For each monster tributed to summon a Machine-Type monster, increase the attack of the tribute summoned monster by 30 percent of the summoned monster's defense.

**Van's Mystery Deck Master ???????**

**Fox Fire / Kitsune Flame of Rebirth:** Special summon one level four or lower FIRE monster with 1000 or less attack points to your side of the field in defense mode. Pay 1000 life points to use this effect. The special summoned monster cannot attack or be tributed for a tribute summon. This effect can be used during each player's main phase.

**/-/-/-/-/--//-//-/**

**Maderas:** O-Oh my! I-Its…LOVE!

**Van:** Who the hell are you?

**Gitarre and Harfe:** He's not your opponent! We are!

**Rukia:** Great its you…never thought I'd see you here…

**Rena:** Hey? What the hell happened to me?

_**Who the hell is Maderas? What's up with the Musik Twins? What DID happen to Rena? Next time – **__**Chapter 35: Duel Attackers!**_

**Rena:** Seriously…what happened to me?

**Congratulations everyone! Next chapter we'll reach over the halfway point of the story! **

**But, now I have a question that I would like to pose to all of you…concerning the Yokai. I'm letting you, the viewers decide which of the four Yokai (not counting Beck or Vic) should appear in the finals!**

**Just let me know in your reviews and remember your questions for the Christmas Chapter Coming Soon!**

**Later!**


	35. Twilight Christmas Short Stories

**Vyser D: **Welcome one and all to Duelist Twilight's Christmas special! I'd like to say thank you all for reading so far and thought that this would be a very good present to all of you…

…and if you don't celebrate Christmas, I'd still like you to see this chapter as a gift and wish you all happy holidays…

This chapter will not have dueling and won't really have a part in the main storyline…but, that doesn't mean that the characters will be any less crazy!

Enjoy!

**//-/-/-/-//-/-///-**

**OVA Chapter!**

**Twilight Christmas Short Stories**

**/-/-//-/-/--/-//**

Twas the day before Christmas, and all through the Atlantic Duel academy, students were scurrying about trying to find gifts for all their friends…

We turn our attention however, to a small group of familiar reds…

"Hey, guys, you get the feeling we're being watched?" Rena asked her head turning to the left and to the right.

"I'd be more concerned with this weird snow," Van pointed out, giving everyone a wondrous sight.

The small group of reds, containing Rena, Van, Rukia, Klein and Koji sat in the Red Café, cups of hot cocoa in their hands. And as delicately put before, there was a mysterious snow that had appeared overnight…

Which was weird, cause this was a tropical island…I guess the author didn't think this through…

(Hey! Shut up! Or I'll get Ed Wright to do the narration!)

NNOOOO! Anyone but him!

(Then get to work!)

…anyway, the many students were merely sitting in the café, their heads covered with Santa caps in celebration for the holiday season while slowly sipping their cocoa. "Heh…this year is always the best! Free gifts, all the cocoa you can drink…and the weather is a nice touch…"

"…Koji, is Klein usually filled with Christmas Spirit?" Rena asked watching as Klein leapt from his seat to laugh as if he was Santa Claus.

"I know its weird…but it's nice to have a caring brother," Koji admitted with a bright smile on his face. "Sides…I know I can expect a great gift from him…"

"Gift? I thought that we weren't doing gifts," Van stuttered with a blank look on his face.

"Of course we were getting gifts for everyone," Rena pointed out as Van pulled down his Christmas hat over his eyes. "…you didn't get anyone gifts now did you?"

"Uh, no, of course I got everyone gifts," Van chuckled slowly getting up from his seat. "Now if you excuse me…I need to…uh, I left the stove on in my room!"

Then in a great dash of speed, Van ran out of the café with a large trail of dust following behind him as everyone sweatdropped at his behavior. So with a dulled look, Rukia turned towards Rena. "…he didn't get anyone a present did he?"

"More likely," Rena giggled placing a hand up to her mouth to try to stifle the giggle.

"Come Koji! The game is afoot!" Klein shouted pulling Koji from his seat, making his cocoa spin. "We must aid Van in his quest for the ultimate Christmas Presents!"

"But…I want to enjoy my cocoa!" Koji shouted before being dragged after Van. "NO!"

"…the holidays really bring out the weird in people," Rena chuckled before sipping her cocoa.

"If that's true…" Rukia gasped with a smile on her face. "Then everyone on this island is going to be crazy!"

//--///--/-/-/-/

At the Yokai's base, the entire inside of the base screamed Christmas cheer!

Lifting a large mug of Eggnog into the air, Beck smiled at the many Yokai members that had gathered at the party with flare. "Here, here!"

With the golden tree in the corner glowing so bright, the mistletoe clung to the ceiling oh so tight…however Bravo had managed to sneak some mistletoe and his target was none other than Lirin. "Hey there cutie! Look who's under the mistletoe! How 'bout a kiss?"

A look of simple disgust covered the Rose Duelist's face, as she watched as Bravo come closer and closer, his lips puckered ready for a kiss. She only had a few more seconds before Kirin's face would be locked with the bruiser duelist's lips. "Uh…"

Thinking quickly, Lirin tossed the hot cup of coffee that she had into Bravo's lap…halting Bravo for a second to register the fact that he had a large amount of hot coffee in his lap. "Oh…AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"

"Sorry muscle man, you just surprised me," Lirin innocently stated with a smile on her face as Bravo began to run around trying to cool the coffee down.

"Heh, nice one Lirin!" A fancy voice laughed making the rose duelist turn around to see De Masque…

…only wearing a Santa Claus version of his usual attire, with a large red sack slung over his shoulder. "…nice outfit De Masque…you planning on handing out gifts?"

"Actually, yeah, I am!" De Masque announced reaching into the sack pulling out small box with yellow wrapping paper with a pink bow on it. "Merry Christmas Lirin!"

"Oh, well…that's very sweet of you…" Lirin giggled taking the present with a slight blush on her face.

"Think nothing of it!" De Masque laughed before jumping away. "Now if you excuse me…I have other presents to deliver!"

'_Only if he didn't wear that mask and act like a freak…_' Lirin shook her head at De Masque while tugging on the bow a few times.

Meanwhile, at the side of the room…

Ching!

"To another year of mayhem and misery!" Beck laughed pulling his mug from the four fancy wine glasses that belonged to Maderas, Xander, Morty, and Kazin. Then with a large gulp of eggnog that went down his gullet, Beck sighed loudly with a large red blush on his cheeks and nose. "Ha! That's some good eggnog!"

"…I take it that Beck's a fan of eggnog," Xander sighed shaking his head at Beck's behavior.

"Yeah…hence why I keep spiking it every year," Kazin chuckled while Beck took another swig of his eggnog.

"Hmm…I do seem a rather bit tipsy," Morty admitted rubbing his forehead. "Alcohol and I never mixed…"

"We usually do this every year," Maderas chuckled before swirling the drink in his glass. "The boss is usually very suggestible…hence how we get our raises…"

"I'll put that to the test!" Xander announced stepping towards the tipsy Beck with a smile on his face. "Hey there Mr. Beck…I was wondering if I could have a raise…"

"Why sure little one-eyed buddy!" Beck laughed wrapping his arm around Xander's neck, surprising the guy. "You'll get a great raise!"

"Well, I'll be damned…" Xander chuckled before Beck dropped his mug on the ground, surprising the one-eyed duelist. "Huh?"

"Eh…who in the world are you?" Beck slurred tightening his grip around Xander's neck. "What…da hellll rrr uuu duing der mi arm?"

"Help! What's going on?!" Xander pleaded turning his head slightly to see Kazin and Maderas snickering at him.

"Oh…that…well, Beck happens to be a master of the drunken fist," Maderas pointed out as if it was a common fact. "However he doesn't even know that he has the ability."

"Wait! What's going to happen to me?" Xander asked before being lifted into the air over Beck's head. "Agh! Help me!"

"Naw…I like to breathe," Maderas snickered before a loud crash bellowed through out the room.

"ACK!"

"DIE!"

"…anyway, Maderas…where's the test subject?" Kazin asked narrowing his eyes at Maderas who broke out in a cold sweat. "I never got a chance to ask you about it earlier this month…"

"Ah…well…" Maderas stuttered before De Masque appeared before the three young men.

"Merry Christmas you three!" De Masque announced scaring Maderas and Kazin…although Morty seemed to be very calm. "I've got you all presents!"

"Oh…thanks…but I don't celebrate Christmas…" Kazin sighed taking a black and gray present from De Masque's hands.

"That doesn't matter to me!" De Masque laughed reaching into his sack pulling out two more presents to Morty and Maderas. "Christmas day is a day for peace on earth! Good will towards men! Hark the herald angel sang! Joy to…"

With a great kick, Maderas sent De Masque flying backwards, leaving the sack of presents on the ground. "We don't need singing in this party!"

"…do you have something against Christmas?" Morty asked dumping his eggnog on the ground, with blatant disregard for safety.

//-/--///-/-/-/-//

"Wow! You got that for Ganryu?" Rukia whistled as Rena re-wrapped the present.

"Yeah…well, I never really got much of a chance to thank Ganryu for helping me," Rena replied lifting the present next to the other ones that she and Rukia had wrapped in the last hour. "I just hope that this will be enough…"

"So, you really do like him," Rukia muttered with a sly look on her face.

With a large red blush flashing on her face, Rena immediately waved her arms in front of her face. "W-W-What!?! N-No! I-I just...it's just a thank you!"

"Sure…you keep telling yourself that," Rukia snickered before shaking her head. "Although it looks like Tony's going to be heart broken…"

"Huh? Why's that?" Rena asked tilting her head to the side while many question marks appeared around her head.

"Oh dear, it looks like she still hasn't figured it out yet," Leo sighed shaking his head as Kimatori (who was sitting on his shoulder) shook her head in sync.

It took a few seconds for it to register…

"AAAAAHHHHH! LEO!" Rena and Rukia shouted at the same time jumping back with their hair standing up.

"Happy Hanukah!" Leo announced with his patented smile placing Kimatori on the ground who just smiled back up at him.

"L-Leo…how'd you get in here?" Rena gasped fixing her hair slightly.

"Oh, well, I'm good friends with Santa Claus and he showed me how to get into buildings without chimneys," Leo chuckled lifting up a small blue box with a bag in his other hand.

"Wait a minute…" Rukia muttered rubbing her chin. "Are you Jewish or Catholic?"

"Hmm…actually, I'm Catholic…" Leo replied placing the large box on the ground.

"Then why'd you greet us with 'Happy Hanukah?" Rena asked blinking a few times.

"There's no harm in greeting someone with a different holiday slogan," Leo replied placing the bag next to the box. "But, anyway…Happy Holidays Rena and Rukia."

"Well, merry Christmas Leo!" Rena, Rukia and Kimatori announced at the same time.

"Anyway…what brings you here Leo?" Rena asked innocently as Leo crouched down next to the box and bag.

"I wanted to drop off a couple of gifts that I got you and Rukia," Leo answered lifting up two boxes with fancy silver wrapping with blue bows tied onto them. "But…"

Taking the gifts, Rena and Rukia looked at each other…only until Kimatori giggled loudly. "Leo-kun wanted to get away from the evil fruitcake!"

"…evil fruitcake?" Rena asked blinking a few times.

"Allow me to explain…" Leo sighed, while still maintaining his smile. "You see, it began yesterday…a small little challenge was issued yesterday between Cleo and Luntina…I don't know how it began but they both were making fruitcake to see who's could taste better…"

"And so far…any of the blues that had tried either of their cakes are in the medical ward having their stomachs pumped…"

"Whoa…that must be some powerful fruitcake," Rena muttered blinking a few times.

"You should try asking Asche about this," Leo chuckled with a small devious smile appearing on his face. "After all…he was the first to taste the deadly fruitcakes of the two…"

Knock, knock!

From a simple tapping at the door, Leo's eyes widened as if he knew exactly who was at the door. Oblivious to Leo's eyes, Rena slowly turned towards the door and reached for the knob. "Oh, hold onto that thought Leo, I'll just see who this is…"

As soon as Rena opened the door, she was meet with a familiar face of an Obelisk Blue female student…in her hands looked to be…a fruitcake?

In fact, at the very sight of the blue's face, Rena was immediately taken back. "Luntina? What in the world are you doing here?"

"I hate to intrude," Luntina sighed shaking her head. "But, Leonardo was seen heading towards this hut…"

"Well…Leo's here…" Rena started while turning around to see that Leo and Kimatori had disappeared from the room, making Rukia and Rena look at each other in confusion. "W-well…he was here…"

"Oh…you're Rena Akira aren't you?" Luntina asked entering the dorm hut.

'_Is there a welcome mat out here?_' Rena thought closing the door behind Luntina. "Uh, yeah…we met at the beach party, remember?"

"I know, I just never got a chance to really talk to you before hand," Luntina stated placing the fruitcake on the desk. "But, if Tony and Riko think you're not that bad, I might as well get to know you as well…Fruitcake?"

"Uh, no thanks, I'm allergic to a fruit," Rena stated waving her hands up. "But, Rukia loves fruitcake!"

'_I guess this is your revenge…'_ Rukia still shot death glares towards Rena for sending a death ticket.

//-//-//-/-/--//-/

Meanwhile, near the Obelisk blue dorm, where many of the residents of the dorm had fallen ill. Atop the nearby large hill, a group of three familiar obelisk blues who were able to escape the fate of many other blues…

"Tony, I don't think your plan will work," Riko sighed shaking his head from what Sen had described to him moments ago.

"Why not? I mean, this is the perfect plan to get Rena to fall head over heals with me!" Tony laughed adjusting the Santa hat he had on his head.

"Still, I don't think you possess the capabilities to fly like Santa," Riko pointed out reaching out to touch the barrel themed Santa sled. "…especially since you've got no reindeer…"

"Shush Riko!" Sen hushed with a large smile on his face. "I wanna see Tony crash and burn!"

"Oh, don't worry," Tony laughed throwing his arm around Sen's neck. "I'm not riding in this no horse sleigh…Sen is!"

"Yeah…wait what?" Sen questioned before Tony managed to throw him into the barrel themed sleigh. "I never agreed to this!"

"Too bad!" Tony laughed getting behind the sleigh to give a big push before Sen could even have a chance to get out.

"TTTTTTTTTTTOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!" Sen shouted as the sleigh began to pick up speed due to the steep hill and the force of gravity.

"Oh, yeah…nothing like a Christmas Prank to liven up the day!" Tony laughed out loud watching as the sleigh began to speed towards the Ra Yellow Dormitories.

"Anyway…I can assume that you've gotten a present for Miss Akira correct?" Riko asked not really caring that his brother just crashed through the walls of the Ra Yellow dorms.

"You'd assume correctly!" Tony laughed lifting up a large box that was covered with red and yellow paper with a large blue bow on it. "I got her a custom duel disk that has a…"

"Yeah, that's nice," Riko sighed kneeling down to feel the snow between his fingers. "I'm thankful for the snow…but how is this even possible?"

"Oh, Alan did it…" Tony answered immediately wagging his finger at Riko. "He bought several snow machines, and apparently he's been keeping them going for a while…"

"But that doesn't make any sense," Riko muttered rubbing his chin. "Wouldn't the snow melt already?"

"Beats me how the physics on this island work," Tony replied with a shrug. "Anyway…we better get out of here before Cleo or Luntina find us to make us eat their fruitcake."

"Agreed, I can't stand no taste buds," Riko shuddered standing up and began to walk down the hill. "We'd better go get Sen…"

"Yeah, the yellows are beating him up about now," Tony chuckled placing the gift on his shoulder.

"What?!? What the heck happened?" Riko asked as Tony ran after him.

//-/-/--/-/-/-/-/--//-/-/-//-

"Outta my way!"

Many Red, Yellow and Blue students were immediately thrown to the sides of the hall, making a path for Van (who was currently pushing the students into the walls) with Koji and Klein following him with many bags in their arms. "Come on, come on, come on!"

"Van! Are you sure this frenzy is necessary?" Koji asked almost tripping while following his brother and larger friend.

"It's the day before Christmas Koji!" Klein shouted while managing to keep up with Van.

"Yeah! We still have the last shop on the island to get to!" Van roared throwing many more students into the air. '_I have to get the perfect gift for Rukia!'_

A few minutes later and a few more students being thrown into the walls…Van, Klein and Koji were standing in front of the last store that was on the island. However…

"IT'S EMPTY!?!" Van shouted with his eyes enlarging at the sight of the empty shelves. "NO!"

"…morons…"

That cold voice got all three of the red students to see Ganryu standing to the right of them with a small bag in his hands. "…I'd think that you'd be more concerned with your debt rather than with gifts…"

"Eh, who asked you Scrooge?" Klein chuckled placing the bags on the ground, he knew for some reason or another that he shouldn't be holding onto breakables with Ganryu around.

Shaking his head at the cold hearted duelist, Van lowered his head with a loud sigh and fell to the ground in disappointment. "Great…just great…"

"This is what ya get for being a procrastinator," Klein snickered, going back to his original self.

That's when a small bag landed in front of Van, turning to the side, Van saw Ganryu walking away, his hands in his pockets. "…you owe me runt…"

"Wow…I guess even the Christmas spirit can even touch a cold heart like his," Klein chuckled making Ganryu stop in his tracks. "…uh oh…"

In a red blur, Ganryu immediately slammed both of his feet into Klein and Koji, sending them both flying into the distance. "…Santa's not the only one to give judgment on Christmas eve…"

"…that line seemed corny," Van sighed shaking his head.

/-/-/-/-/-/---/-//--/-/-/

"Happy Holidays everyone!" Vyser D announced waving at everyone.

"Well…I didn't think the chapter would be that short," Leo admitted appearing behind Vyser with Kimatori dancing around Vyser's room.

"What the?!? How'd you get here?" Vyser shouted turning around and jumping from the computer. "And how'd you get past the fourth wall?"

"Are you forgetting?" Leo asked taking Vyser's seat and began to type. "You gave me the ability to appear and disappear anywhere…now if you excuse me, I think I'll write from now…"

"Hey!" Vyser shouted about to strangle Leo…only to stop to see Kimatori ripping through his few presents. "Hey! Keep out of those!"

"How hard could writing be?" Leo asked while thinking about a familiar Christmas tale. "This will do well…"

//--/-//-///-/-/-/

A small country Christmas tune began play as Riko and Tony walked through the snow covered sidewalk near the Ra Yellow dorm.

_Tony got run over by a reindeer…_

"Huh?" Tony muttered stopping in the middle of the sidewalk making Riko bump into his back.

"Oof! Tony watch it!" Riko groaned pushing up his sunglasses.

"Sorry, but I thought I just heard my name…" Tony replied shifting his eyes left and right. "…being sung in a country song…"

_Walking to Rena's hut on Christmas Eve…_

"There it is again!" Tony stated this time looking very concerned.

"…you must be going nuts…" Riko sighed shaking his head.

_You can say there's no such thing as Santa…_

…_But as for Riko, he believes!_

"Riko, I'm starting to get scared," Tony started to breathe a little harder, not noticing that a few Ra Yellows were starting to have a small snowball fight that was getting closer and closer…

SPLAT!!!

With a snowball smashing up against his face, Tony accidentally threw the large gift he got for Rena into the snow covered grass. "Dang it!"

_He'd been drinking too much eggnog…_

Just as Tony leapt near the present, he raised his head up in confusion. "What? But I haven't had any eggnog…"

_And they begged him not to go…_

"Go where?" Tony asked with a few question marks appearing over his head.

"Hey Blue! Get out of the way!" One of the Yellows who had thrown the snowball yelled at Tony.

_But he forgot his greatest present…_

…_and walked out in the cold._

"Huh?" Tony questioned before noticing that the barrel themed sleigh was being pulled at a fast rate at him with several muscular Ra yellow guys (all with reindeer antlers and fake bright red noses) tied to it. "ACK!!"

_When he was found on Christmas Eve,_

_At the scene of the attack…_

The Ra Yellows and Riko cringed as the muscular yellow guys and Sen (who was driving the sleigh) ran over Tony. "HA! Got ya back Tony!"

_He had foot-prints on his forehead,_

_And incriminating Sen marks on his back._

As soon as the sleigh had passed over the crushed Tony (who as actually dazed and had several large foot prints on his face), the two Ra Yellows saw that the present had miraculously managed to come out without a scratch.

_Tony got run over by a reindeer! _

_Walking…_

?/--//-/--/-//--/--/

"Alright! That's it!" Vyser shouted placing his hands on Leo's shoulders, getting the noble duelist to stop typing. "This is my Christmas special, and I'll write it!"

"Yes…but I'm willing to bet that the viewers loved my scene much better than what you had," Leo pointed out making Vyser step back and turn to stone.

"NNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

"Hey Leo!" Tony laughed walking into the room, noticing that Vyser was standing in the middle of the room. "…what's up with him?"

"Drama queen," Leo answered with his innocent smile as he stood up from the computer…allowing Tony to read the previous passage.

"…hey! That's not funny!" Tony pouted pointing at the computer screen.

"Yes it is," Leo replied still with his innocent smile plastered all over his face.

"Oh yeah? I'll show ya funny!" Tony huffed jumping into the seat and began to type. "Watch this!"

/-//-/-/--//-/-/

With Rukia sick in bed (from eating Luntina's fruitcake), Rena decided to spend the rest of her afternoon building a small snowman in the middle of the Slifer Red dorm's main field.

Placing a bucket as a hat on its head, a carrot for a nose, and a red scarf around its neck, Rena smiled at the sight of her snowy work of art. "Hmm…not bad, could almost look like…Klein?"

Indeed, for some odd reason, the snowman's face did look exactly like the small Ojama Duelist's…with the exception of the carrot nose.

"Hmm…I know what I can do!" Rena announced to no one in particular as she walked away from the snowman…

_Klein the snowman was a scamming kinda soul,_

_With a bucket hat, and a carrot nose…_

_And two eyes made out of coal!_

At the very moment that Rena left to go get a certain item…Klein and Koji flew from the sky (Thanks to Ganryu's kick) and crashed into the snowman.

Klein was now, Klein the snowman!

And before the two had a chance to get out, Rena had returned with a red jacket in her hands.

_Klein the snowman is a blasphemy they say_

_He wasn't made of snow by then Rena_

_Didn't know that fact that day._

Placing the red jacket over the shoulders of the snowman, Rena giggled at the sight of the almost snow clone of Klein. "There! Looks just like him!"

_There must not have been some magic in that_

_Old dusty jacket she found…_

"Ugh…"

Rena blinked a few times at the weird nose that seemed to come from no where.

_For when she placed it on his shoulders_

_He began to rampage around!_

"BAHLE!' Klein shouted waving his arms in the air.

"AAAAH!" Rena screamed before falling backwards due to the shock of seeing the snowman coming to life.

"Oh, my head," Klein moaned falling from the snowman. As soon as he stood up, Klein just tilted his head at Rena. "Huh? Did I miss out some black mail material?"

"Klein…I need medical transportation…" Koji sighed climbing out of the remains of the snowman.

//--//-/-/--//

"Heh…that's funny right there," Vyser chuckled taking the keyboard from Tony.

"WHAT THE!?!?" Tony shouted stomping his foot into the ground at Vyser's rude behavior. "HOW DARE YOU DO THAT TO RENA!?!"

"…you do realize that I'm still at the keyboard right?" Vyser questioned before a large pit in the floor opened up under Tony, making the chess duelist fall back into the story.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

Looking through the hole, Kimatori and Leo blinked a few times at the echo of Tony's scream. "My…that seemed to be a little much…"

"You're right…I should make it up to the readers!" Vyser shouted turning back to the computer while cracking his fingers.

"…Leo-kun, that really didn't seem right…" Kimatori stated really confused with the writer's actions.

"That's because this writer is crazy," Leo answered with a bright smile.

//-/--////--/-/-/

Later, with all the students asleep in their beds, only a single shadow moved around in the large room. With the small flashlight he had in his hands, the shadow revealed himself to be none other than…

"_You're a mean one, De Masque!_"

After that little note, De Masque eyed the presents that were underneath the fancy decorated tree. "Merry Christmas to me!"

_You really are a heel!_

_You're cuddly as a cactus,_

_You're as charming as an eel…_

_De Masque!_

Taking a large red sack from under his jacket, De Masque opened the sack and spun two gifts into the bag, a smile appearing from underneath his mask.

_You're a bad banana _

_With a greasy black peel!_

"Oh, get off my case!" De Masque pouted into the air while stopping to put another present into the sack. "I'm a thief! Get used to it!"

_You're a monster, De Masque!_

_Your heart's an empty hoooooooooollllllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeee!_

"Words hurt man," De Masque sniffed sulking a few minutes.

_Your brain is full of spiders,_

_You've got garlic in your soul…_

_De Masque!_

_I wouldn't touch you, with a…_

_Thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole!_

"Wouldn't want to touch you either buddy," De Masque snarled juggling a few presents in his hands.

_You're a vile one, De Masque…_

_You have termites in your smile._

_You have all the tender sweetness,_

_Of a seasick crocodile,_

_De Masque!_

"That honestly sounds like an oxymoron there," De Masque stated spinning a present on his finger as if it was a present.

_Given the choice between the two of you  
I'd take the seasick crocodile._

_You're a foul one, __De Masque__  
You're a nasty, wasty skunk.  
Your heart is full of unwashed socks  
Your soul is full of gunk._

_De Masque!_

_The three words that best describe you,  
are, and I quote: "Stink. Stank. Stunk."_

In response to that last line, De Masque just lifted up his right arm and took a quick sniff. "…what?"

That's when the lights all turned on, making De Masque turn around to see all of the members of the Atlantic Duelist Academy Yokai branch…all of them in their sleeping clothes and with angered looks on their faces.

"De Masque!" Lirin shouted removing her beauty mask. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Uh…I'm sleep walking," De Masque answered with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of this head.

"Why are you stealing our presents?" Morty asked, almost looking very innocent like a child.

"…oops…wrong place…" De Masque chuckled before all the members of the Yokai (with the exception of Beck and Kazin) circled around him. "Um…peace on Earth?"

"Let's break his legs!" Bravo roared as many hands grabbed De Masque.

"NO!"

"STOP!"

"OW! THAT DOESN'T BEND THAT WAY!"

Rubbing his forehead, Beck seemed to be nursing a small hangover he got from too much eggnog (and when Xander kicked him in the head a few times). "Ugh…its too early for this…"

"Actually…its technically Christmas," Kazin answered looking at his wristwatch, completely ignoring De Masque's cries for help…

That's when Beck lifted up a small green and red box that had a tag with his name written on it, a large smile on his face. "Well…when you're right, you're right!"

In a flurry of red and green wrapping, Kazin just pushed his glasses up as Beck torn through the box like a little five year old kid. "…I've said this before…but ladies and gentlemen, our leader, Beck."

"Ooh!" Beck shouted with glee holding up a small green robot with black hands a red plastic beard. "Its Super Robo Mc Fist!"

"…Super Robo Mc Fist?" Kazin had to ask to have Beck move the fists towards Kazin.

"Yeah!" Beck laughed lifting the robot in the air before lowering it to Kazin's eye level. "The super hero of Ireland! The Irish Robot!"

"…that's the dumbest thing I've ever…" Kazin sighed as Beck began messing with the buttons on the back of the Irish Robot. "Heard of…who would want something like that?"

"I do!" Beck answered pressing the large red button on the back of the Irish Robot, launching the black fist into Kazin's right eye.

"ARGH! MY EYE!" Kazin yelped falling backwards holding his right eye. "That was my good eye!"

"…just goes to show you," Beck chuckled putting Robo Mc Fist under his arm. "Never anger an Irish Robot…especially Robo Mc Fist!"

/--//-/-//--/-/-//

All the songs that appeared in this chapter don't belong to me…but I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!

And I just realized…I didn't answer any questions! Of course…not a lot of people sent questions…

Oh well…

**Merry Christmas Charlie Brown!...whoops! Wrong story!**

**Happy Holidays everyone! Peace out!**


	36. Chapter 35: Duel Attackers

_**Many people can stare at me…thinking I'm nothing more than a rouge from the streets. Getting here on luck…**_

_**Honestly, when I had taken the entrance exam…my deck wasn't up to snuff to win. **_

_**So…I suppose my luck was like that…**_

…_**and since I've gotten here…I can honestly say that my luck has actually improved.**_

_**I've got new friends…**_

_**I've gotten better in both this game of duel monsters and the game of life…**_

_**But…most of all…I think…I think I have…**_

'_**blush'**_

_**Ahem…anyway, let's just say it's important. And that importance is currently in trouble with someone from her past. **_

_**I'd cheer her on…but, currently…I'm stuck facing two familiar foes that seem to run a deck from one of my favorite games…**_

_**E-Heroes against ZX …sounds fun!**_

_**//-/-/-/--//-//**_

_**Chapter 35**_

_**Duel Attackers**_

_**//-/--///-/-/-/-/**_

An empty bed…

That's all that Beck was looking at in the almost empty room…well, with the exception of familiar suited masked man. "Well…it looks like your little experiment is gone Beck…how disappointing…"

"Eternity Angelo…" Beck growled lowering his head at the bed. "…I…I'll find him. Don't worry about him…"

"Actually, I was expecting this," Eternity Angelo chuckled making Beck look up blinking in confusion.

"Forgive me sir…but, huh?" Beck questioned tilting his head slightly.

"Tell me Beck…Do you have an affinity to a god?" Eternity Angelo asked walking towards the window to see the moon shine down onto the island.

"Sir, with all due respect," Beck chuckled removing his bandana to allow his hair to flow freely. "You should know that with the cards I use…"

"Ah yes…" Eternity Angelo replied turning around to face Beck. "You are correct Beck…however, that soon may change…"

"Sir?" Beck questioned crossing his arms.

"Anyway…am I correct when I say that one of your rented subordinates was removed from the island earlier today?" Eternity Angelo asked leaning up against the wall while pushing his hat up to not hide his mask's eyes. "…I believe the young man's name was Nathaniel…"

"Yes, quite a shame if you ask me," Beck sighed clasping his hands with a few stars shinning from his body. "He had an excellent body…not much in the face or brain department…"

"…sometimes I wonder which of us is creepier…" Eternity Angelo muttered with his hand over his mask. "…but…that's beyond the point, even though our experiment has escaped, we hold all the cards in this little match."

"And how exactly does that help us?" Beck asked rubbing his chin.

"Think about it…on our side we have several of your Yokai," Eternity Angelo replied walking away from the window as a black smoke began to appear around the room. "A majority of them disguised as students, a few rouge agents, a trio of spirits…and not to mention myself. At best, our chances of victory stand at eighty-three percent, but, with our experiment…"

"It increases by an additional five percent…"

"Wow…that's sweet, how'd you figure that?" Beck asked his eyebrow raised.

"It's called calculations, boy," Eternity Angelo sighed shaking his head. "But there remains the last twelve percent…no matter how little a percentage, there's always a threat to our plans."

"Is it really that big of a deal?" Beck questioned with a smile on his face. "All we need to do is win this little tournament dealie and our plans will be a success."

"…cockiness will only lead to downfall Beck," Eternity Angelo stated adjusting his mask as the shadows slowly began to wrap themselves around Eternity Angelo's body. "I want you to take care of those fools who would stand in our way…I am sure that I left the list of who's the most dangerous to us…"

The shadows had nearly finished covering Eternity Angelo's body, save for his mask, and even that was slowly being covered. "…now…I'm off to make my own place…later…"

As soon as the shadows disappeared, Beck placed his bandana back on his head. "…I still think he's weirder than us…but I can't help but feel attracted to his mysteriousness!"

KNOCK! KNOCK!

"…enter…" Beck replied as the door slowly opened, allowing Kazin and De Masque to enter into the room.

"Beck…we have news for you…" De Masque stated kneeling down while Kazin just stood up straight adjusting his glasses.

"…there's no need to be so formal," Beck sighed sitting down at the nearby chair. "So…what's going on?"

"Sir, there's still no information on our little experiment," Kazin sighed shaking his head while lifting up a piece of paper. "However…that's as far as location. He's still dueling and is actually winning…at the rate he's going he should be able to make it to the finals."

"Hmm…that's interesting," Beck muttered with a large yawn following…understandable since it was late in the morning. "And how are our duelists doing?"

"Actually, sir, a large amount of our duelists are succeeding so far in the tournament," De Masque stated opening his overcoat to show many different colored jewel pendants clipped to the inside of his overcoat. "Take me for example! With the exception of one duelist, I've managed to accumulate many…"

"Yeah, yeah, that's nice," Beck groaned slapping his forehead. "Now…who are our duelists that aren't succeeding in this tournament?"

"…unfortunately, our dual agents and Maderas are lacking in the ranks of this little tournament," De Masque answered lowering his head in shame.

"…I see…" Beck muttered looking at the list of names that Eternity Angelo had left him. Looking down near the bottom of the list, a small plan formed in Beck's head. "Tell the dual agents to face off… …"

"Yes sir!" De Masque shouted while standing up, removing his hat to bow down towards Beck.

"And as for Maderas… … will be his opponent…" Beck sighed sitting back in his seat.

"It shall be done sir," Kazin replied pushing his glasses up.

//-//-/-/-/-//-/

The morning sun gleamed down onto the Atlantic Duel academy island, with a smooth breeze flowing over the grassy hills of the island…

…it was a perfect morning for a familiar hero using duelist in his new uniform, simply relaxing on the ground with his arms behind his head. Several jewel pins tagged on the inside of his coat, as proof his skills.

"Ah…now this is the life…" Van sighed adjusting his hat to cover his eyes from the sun's light. "Not a care in the world…being ahead in the tournament…and what's better, no cold hearted bastard to ruin it…"

"Aw! Don't worry; I'll ruin your day for ya!"

Before Van could get another word in, Klein and Koji immediately slammed into Van's torso, making the hero duelist gasp loudly in pain. "Ha! Got ya, Van!"

"Klein…Koji…what the hell are you doing?" Van growled lifting his head up to glare at the two brothers. The pins were sticking him in between the ribs, and the weight of Klein and Koji wasn't helping either.

"Can't spend the day with our friend?" Klein laughed loudly crossing his arms and legs.

"…sorry Van," Koji sighed lowering his head.

"…get off of me!" Van shouted standing up immediately throwing both Klein and Koji off of him immediately.

"OOF!" Klein moaned landing on top of Koji. "Hey! Is that anyway to treat a friend?"

"Please explain to me, why we're friends?" Van asked sitting back down on the ground. "Cause frankly I'm at loss of words when we get to that…"

"Heh…I'd figure that you'd be nicer to me Van," Klein laughed lifting up his makeshift cloak of his jacket, showing that there was about twenty-five of the pins, a majority of them being red with a few blue and yellow. "Especially since I've manage to get a large amount of these pins!"

"That's a good collection…" Van sighed pulling his coat up to reveal…thirty of the jewels, most of them yellow. "But I think mine is a touch bit better…"

"That's amazing Van!" Koji exclaimed looking at the many pins before Van closed his jacket.

"Thank you Koji," Van replied with a smile on his face. Truth be told, Van did consider Koji to be a good friend of his…if only he didn't hang out with Klein all the time…

…but then again, it wasn't Koji's fault that Klein usually dragged him all over the place.

"Grrr! How the hell did you get ahead of me!?!" Klein snarled pulling his hair at Van. "I've been dueling like crazy!"

"…you gotta learn to take risks," Van stated bluntly making Klein and Koji blink in confusion. "In every match, I've wagered all of the pins that I currently had…my last duel with a machine user, I wagered all fifteen that I had…"

"I can do the math!" Klein shouted slamming his foot into the ground a few times. "But I've been working my tail off trying to get to the head of the pack…well…at least I'm sure that I'm ahead of that girlie…"

"Oh, I guess you didn't hear then," Van chuckled standing up straight while adjusting his hat. "Yesterday, from what Rukia told me, Rena got in a small scuffle with that blue Cleo…"

"A catfight!?! And I missed it!" Klein shouted throwing his arms into the air a few times. "That sucks!"

"…anyway…" Van chuckled with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head. "In order to settle what dispute the two had, they decided to duel each other…it ended up getting interrupted by Professor Kryancelo, and so the two girls had to cancel their match.

"But, ever since, Rena's been in quite a few duels…I think she might have about twenty-five pins as well."

A small ghostly spirit appeared from Klein's mouth as all the color from his face began to drain. '_Even the girlie's managed to get to my level…this can't be true!?!'_

"I actually like it when my brother is speechless," Koji admitted with a mischievous smile on his face.

"Quiet is good…" Van replied shrugging his shoulders with a smile on his face.

"Aw shut up!" Klein shouted regaining the color back to his face.

//-//--/-///-/-//-/

"…so tired…" Rena sighed sitting onto the nearby bench, her eyes immediately getting replaced with dizzy marks. "Too many duels…"

"Well, you've been dueling since yesterday Rena," Rukia giggled rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Does this have to do with Cleo?"

"…I suppose so…" Rena sighed lowering her head to catch her breath.

"Why do you let her get to you?" Rukia asked sitting down next to Rena. "I mean, you shouldn't let a girl like her get to you."

"You're right…but," Rena said sitting up straight taking her duel disk off her arm. Then with a small smile on her face, Rena looked to the sky. "When I was younger, I had to go to a small private school. My dad wanted me to get one of the best educations, but the school had a lot of fancy rich kids there…"

"…a lot of them acted like Cleo, thinking that they were all better than me. And in a sense… they were right. I was even lucky to go to that school, but my dad couldn't afford all the extras…"

"Forgive me for asking, but what does your father do?" Rukia asked tilting her head to the side.

"Oh, he's actually a detective for the police," Rena replied scratching the side of her head. "He's pretty good at his job, but he doesn't earn enough money to support both me and my brother. Anyway…when I was in that private school, a lot of the high class girls would often tease, insult, and…uh…well…you remember that secret that De Masque managed to get out of me?"

"Which one?" Rukia asked with a devious look on her face. "…oh! Are you talking about when that girl pants…"

"Shush! Not so loud!" Rena snapped with a large blush on her face. "But…yes…because of that experience, I can't stand people like that."

"…sounds like you're going to have a tough time in the future," Rukia replied rubbing her chin.

"Out of curiosity…what kinds of people make you mad Rukia?" Rena asked with a few question marks appearing over her head, still a little confused what Rukia was going on with.

"…there's only one person that makes me truly mad…" Rukia answered leaning back closing her eyes…

"Can it be!?! Is it true!?!"

"Huh?" Rena and Rukia questioned turning around…only to sweatdrop at the sight that was standing behind them.

With many red, white and pink roses set up behind him and with a bouquet of roses in his hand, was the classy Maderas, wearing a much fancier version of his usual clothing. With a dazzling (yet sharp toothed) smile, Maderas knelt to the ground raising the bouquet up to Rukia, many hearts and sparkles popping from his body. "…but its true…no other girl can match the pure beauty of Rukia Nagata!"

Blinking a few times, Rena and Rukia were both stunned at seeing Maderas kneeling down…even the nearby students were struck dumb from the sight of pathetic Maderas.

Then, with a loud sigh, Rukia rolled her eyes at Maderas before turning towards Rena. "…speak of the devil…"

"Such a sting! You have intelligence and a sharp tongue!" Maderas cried out with a spin allowing some of the rose petals to float into air. "Truly! No matter what angle I see you…you are a beauty from all sides!"

"…somehow I don't think that's how it's said…" Rena muttered with a sweatdrop rolling down her head.

"Maderas…what a displeasure to see you," Rukia sighed standing from her seat to face Maderas.

"Push me away all you want," Maderas announced with hearts appearing in his eyes. "My love for you will never die out! LOVE!"

A large stone carving of the word 'LOVE' crashed into the ground behind Maderas, sending a large amount of the petals flying into the air. Rena, Rukia and everyone else in the area stepped back as the stone word disappeared into a dark mist. "…that's a new trick…"

"You like it?!?" Maderas asked raising his arms up with hearts replacing his eyes, throwing the roses into the air. "It shows emotions very well!"

"Rukia? Who is this?" Rena asked pointing towards Maderas, who heard Rena's question…

…and immediately stepped up to Rena holding onto a single rose. "Oh! Where are my manners Miss 'Friend of Rukia'? A proper introduction is needed! Sven Maderas!"

As if on cue, a large glowing words 'SVEN MADERAS' crashed down behind Maderas surprising Rena. "Heir to the Maderas' Export Company, playboy millionaire, lady killer, and…"

"…Rukia's Fiancé…"

"Oh…" Rena stated letting all of those titles to sink in… "…WHAT!?!? Fiancé!?!"

Before Maderas could answer that little outburst, Rukia immediately delivered a fist to the back of the lover boy's head. With his tongue and eyes bulging out, Maderas fell to the ground face first. "Don't act like I'm yours you idiot!"

Immediately sitting up, Maderas's eyes were starting to water but then shaking it off… "Oh! Rukia! Your fists are as strong as your will! You just make me fall in love with you all over again!"

"What's going on!?!" Rena shouted with many question marks appearing over her head.

Five minutes later…

"An arranged marriage?!?" Rena gasped, her eyes widened while Maderas lifted up a very fancy drink.

"Correct, Miss Friend of Rukia!" Maderas announced swirling the fancy drink before taking a quick sip.

"Unfortunately, it's only a little deal set up by our parents," Rukia sighed slamming her empty soda can onto the table that three were sitting at. "They set it up a few years ago in order to have our families' businesses merge and the marriage would seal the deal…"

"Ahh, and what a glorious day as that was!" Maderas sighed with many hearts floating around him. "And with each year since, your beauty has increased!"

"Save it Maderas," Rukia growled shaking her head, shooting an arrow through Maderas's heart. "I don't agree to any marriage…especially to a guy who can't pick up a date on his own."

"AAAHHH!?" Maderas cried out with many tears streaming from his eyes.

"Rukia…wasn't that a little much?" Rena asked as Rukia turned her head away from Maderas.

"He's just a spoiled brat," Rukia spat out sending another arrow to pierce Maderas's heart once more. "Besides…I'd only marry a man who had skills…courage…and can hold their own! I also have my dueling career to think about…"

"Heh…I see…"

Rena and Rukia turned back to Maderas who seemed to have a large plastered smirk on his face and a dark aura surrounding him. "…it's been at least three years since we last saw each other Rukia my love…"

Reaching into his fancy pocket, Maderas immediately pulled up a small deck of duel monster cards, fanning them out to show that they were well kept and new. "…and a lot can happen in that time frame! Me becoming a duelist is one of those many changes…"

"You can't just buy some cards and just call yourself a duelist," Rukia growled slamming her fist into the table.

"Tsk, tsk, so innocent and naïve," Maderas sighed lifting reaching into his fancy jacket to pull out ten blue pins. "I've got the skills of a duelist to get invited to this little tournament of yours…"

"Yeah right…I bet you just bought your way into the tournament," Rukia scoffed crossing her arms over her chest.

"…then you won't mind facing me in a tournament duel..." Maderas chuckled carefully slipping his cards back into one clean pile. "After all…I'm nothing more than a spoiled brat…"

"Fine! But if I win, then you've gotta leave me alone and our little marriage is canceled!" Rukia announced standing up from the table.

"Oh, such a fiery passion," Maderas chuckled pulling his left sleeve up to show a small compact duel disk that was slowly activating. "Very well my love…however, there's going to be an equally painful consequence…but for the basic wager, I'll ante all ten pins…"

"…kinda looks like a lover's spat…" Rena sighed lowering her head to her drink.

////-/-//-/-/-/--/-//

"Come on! Duel me!"

"NO!"

"Brother! Please! Leave Van alone!"

"Shut up, Koji!"

Ever since Van showed his pins to the two brothers, Klein had been trying to get Van to face him in a match…its obvious that Van managed to keep himself from dueling. Especially since the three had been walking towards the red dorms for an early lunch.

"Damn it! Duel me!" Klein shouted jumping in front of Van.

"No! And stop asking!" Van shouted slamming his foot into the ground.

"My, my, my," Leo chuckled appearing behind the trio of red students, Kimatori on his shoulders giggling. "Full of energy today aren't you all?"

"ACK!?" Van, Klein and Koji shouted out jumping away from the smiling Leo.

"What the hell is wrong with you!?!" Klein shouted throwing his fists into the air at Leo.

"Hmm…I forgot that you hated my appearances the most…Little Three?" Leo chuckled making many question marks appear over Klein's head.

"Huh?" Klein questioned tilting his head to the side. "Little Three? Where does that come from?"

"Well, your name is German," Leo explained wagging his finger at Klein. "Klein is 'little' and Drei is 'three'. Therefore, Little Three is your name."

"I never thought of it like that," Van muttered to himself rubbing his chin. "How'd he get Klein anyway?"

"…oh, you'd have to ask him," Koji replied.

"Cool! Bruder! This guy speaks German!"

"…I see that schwester," Gitarre replied as he and Harfe appeared out of no where as well.

"Ack!" Klein, Van and Koji shouted out once more since two more people appeared out of no where.

"It's spreading!" Klein roared, referring to the fact that there were more people who appeared out of no where.

"Hey…aren't you two those twin duelists?" Van asked thinking back to the beach party that was interrupted due to the weather.

"Guten tag, Herr Van," Harfe laughed shaking her head to allow her hair to flow slightly.

"Ja! It's nice to see you again," Gitarre announced waving to the hero duelist.

"Okay! What exactly is attracting the freaks to us today?" Klein asked into the air loudly.

"You're the one who first appeared," Van pointed out before noticing that Leo was glaring at the two Musik Twins (yet, he still had a smile on his face). "Hmm?"

"…you two," Leo stated raising an eyebrow at the two. "What brings you here?"

"Ah, well, it's a duel tournament is it not?" Gitarre asked wagging his finger at the noble angel duelist. "Its not that hard to have someone duel against fellow peers…"

"Ja!" Harfe roared into the air jumping towards Van. "So…care for a duel?"

"Huh?" Van questioned raising an eyebrow.

"Now hold on a minute!" Klein shouted stepping in between both Van and Harfe, surprising the two of them. "I'm the one who's going to be dueling here!"

"May I propose something?" Gitarre suggested raising his hand. "How about you two duel together against me and my schwester?"

"Heh! Even more pins for me!" Klein laughed with a smirk on his face as he rubbed his nose. "You got a deal…"

"Hey! Wait a minute!" Van shouted waving his arms.

"Good idea bruder," Harfe complimented lifting up her duel disk.

Lowering his head with a sigh, Van slapped his forehead. "…looks like I don't have a choice in the matter…"

Five minutes later…

"Now then…" Gitarre chuckled activating his duel disk to pull his deck out… "We all need to decide how many pins we're going to wager…"

"Fifteen from each of us, bruder," Harfe interrupted lifting up a card from her deck, all the while surprising Gitarre.

"Sounds good to me!" Klein laughed balancing a single card on his finger.

"…yeah…" Van sighed shaking his head. "…and for my deck master, I choose Elemental Hero Banchou!"

In a burst of light, the mysterious deck master that Van used earlier appeared onto the field, adjusting the twig in his mouth.

"Heh…you call that a deck master?" Klein laughed fitting his card into the deck master slot. "Meet my Ojamagician!"

Floating from the sky above, the fancy red cloaked magician landed on the ground with a smirk on his face that could rival that of Klein's. "He'll definitely be able to the trick!"

"You both have interesting deck masters…" Harfe commented as she and her brother lifted up their selected cards.

"But…they're no match for ours!" Gitarre finished, with both Musik Twins fitting the cards into the slots.

In two flashes of lights, the Humanoids, M and F, both stood next to Gitarre and Harfe respectively with ready looks on their faces.

On the sidelines, Koji shook his head while Leo set Kimatori down next to Koji (there was a slight height difference between the two). "Oh…why does my brother do these things?"

"There, there," Kimatori patted Koji on the back while Leo looked down at the short glasses wearing teen.

"Don't worry Koji…" Leo consoled with a bright smile on his face. "Its just common for brothers to do this…I wouldn't know since all I've got is a baby sister and no brothers."

"Then you're no help," Koji sighed again with tears streaming from his glasses.

"Duel!"

"Watch and learn!" Klein laughed snatching his six card hand immediately, a large smirk on his face. "And now…I'll set on card face down, and summon Ojama Yellow in defense mode!" (KVLP: 8000)

With its card appearing underneath it, the small yellow beast crouched down with its arms over his chest (0/1000). "And that's all for me."

"An Ojama deck?" Harfe questioned blinking a few times while pulling her cards. "I guess I have to quote you on being unique…but my strategy is unique as well! I activate the special ability of my Deck Master!" (HGLP: 8000)

"Huh?" Van questioned as a second Humanoid – F (1000/1000) appeared on the field while a slight twirl in her step. "Already using your deck master's special ability?"

"We have to," Gitarre pointed out as Harfe smiled at her brother.

"Yeah! It's a part of our strategy!" Harfe shouted wagging her finger. "You see, my Deck Master's ability is R.O.C.K. On Battle. By paying five hundred life points, I can special summon one Humanoid – F from my deck, graveyard, or remove from play pile. However, my monster can't attack, switch modes, be used in a tribute…and is returned to where she was during my end phase." (HGLP: 7500)

"Then why use it?" Klein asked as a card popped out of Harfe's deck.

"Simple…she still gets her effect!" Harfe replied cheerfully lifting up the monster card Bio-Metal X (0/1000). "And next, I'll activate the field spell card…Fusion Gate!"

The entire ground underneath the duelists began to rock, before transforming into what appeared to be a large vortex with many stone blocks underneath the duelists to prevent them from falling in themselves. "Now all I have to do is remove my Bio-Metal X and my Humanoid from the field…"

In a bright flash, a flashy blue armor was now covering the Humanoid – F, with a blaster on her left arm and much more serious look on her face (1600/1400). "Buster Maverick – F is out! And to end my turn, I'll set one card face down."

"You like fusions?" Van asked snapping his next card off his duel disk. However, before he could continue, a powerful blue aura surrounded the Buster Maverick – F on the field (1600/1400 + 400/0). "I see…your monster's effect works even on the first turn too…"

"Yeah…but it's still your turn," Harfe giggled combing back some of her hair with her right hand.

"Right…but still, since you like fusions," Van stated lifting up three of the cards from his hand, and immediately slid them into his graveyard. "How about I play Polymerization? And fuse Sparkman and Clayman in my hand…to form Thunder Giant!"

With a loud crash onto the concrete platform, the large electrical hero landed on the ground, charging a powerful surge of electricity through the palms of his hands (2400/1500). "And now…I'll discard E-Hero Necroshade! Thunder Giant, blast that Buster Maverick into the next century!"

Roaring loudly, a powerful surge of electricity flashed from the Thunder Giant's hands that immediately zapped the Buster Maverick – F until she was a small pile of smoking ash. "N-No! Not my Buster Maverick!"

"Heh…if that's all you've got," Klein laughed loudly placing his hands at his hips. "Then me and Van will have this duel won when we're able to attack!"

"Klein, don't get overconfident," Van warned placing one of the remaining two cards into his duel disk. "We've still got one long duel before us…"

"Whatever you say, Van," Klein scoffed to the side while rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"In a tag duel you need to have sync with your partner," Gitarre replied shaking his head at Van and Klein's behavior. "That way your strategies will be able to go more smoothly and victory will be assured…"

"Geez, bruder, can you be any cornier?" Harfe asked with a dulled look on her face.

"Oh, schwester! Why do you have to be so mean!?!" Gitarre pleaded with a few tears streaming on his face.

"…looks like this guy is a few DVDs short of a collection," Klein remarked getting a snicker from everyone except Gitarre…he was crying even more from the comment.

"S-Stop being mean!" Gitarre cried as his and Harfe's life point counter began to drop once more. Apparently his deck master heard him and activated his ability… (HGLP: 7000)

…creating a second Humanoid – M (1000/1000) on the field lifting his arm and thumb up towards the opposition. "My deck master has the R.O.C.K. On Battle ability as well! And now, thanks to my Humanoid – M's initial ability, I can add Bio-Metal F to my hand! But they won't be staying for long…cause I remove both of them from play to fusion summon a familiar face!"

With a powerful flame erupting around the second Humanoid – M, the fiery armor of the Flare Maverick – M appeared over his body, strengthening him (1800/1800). "Heh…what do you think? Pretty impressive?"

"Oh please, all you did was dress up your monster," Klein laughed loudly while his deck master did the same.

"Oh, yeah? Well watch this! I activate the spell card, Riryoku!" Gitarre announced as two auras appeared around the Flare Maverick – M (3000/1800) and the Thunder Giant (1200/1500), having different affects of them. "And now, Flare Maverick! Attack Thunder Giant! Flare Buster!"

Pulling both of the large guns from his back, the Flare Maverick immediately unleashed a powerful flame like laser that slammed directly into the Thunder Giant, resulting in a large explosion seemed to make Van and Klein step back. (KVLP: 6200)

"And now, since he defeated a monster," Gitarre announced proudly with his chest puffed up as a powerful aura surrounded the Flare Maverick (1800/1800 + 600/0). "My monster's attack increases by one hundred points times the level he destroys!"

"Heh…well, at least you proved that you have some skill," Klein mocked with a large smirk on his face. "But can you keep it up!"

"You should keep your mouth shut, little three," Harfe suggested wagging her finger as Gitarre fitted two cards into his duel disk.

"Damn it! See what you did, you freak!?!" Klein shouted towards Leo who only smiled back in return.

"No need to thank me," Leo replied waving his hand back in return.

"No one's thanking you!" Klein roared snapping his next card from his deck, however, with a small cackle, the Ojamagician leapt into the air, surprising everyone except Klein. "However, I will thank my deck master…Ojamystic Healing!"

Throwing his cloak into the air, many sparkling red lights began to rain down on both of Klein and Van, while the Ojama Yellow danced around in joy. "As the name suggests, my Deck Master's ability increases my life points by three hundred points for each Ojama on the field during each of my standby phases." (KVLP: 6500)

'_Hmm…I guess Klein had a little trick up his sleeves,'_ Van thought with a small smile on his face.

"And next, I activate my trap card, Oja Bounce!" Klein laughed as a large platform that resembled the Ojama Yellow with a large steel plate on its eyes, appeared under the four duelists. "You see…my trap card forces me to discard one card from my hand…"

As soon Klein fitted that card into his graveyard slot, the platform sprung up sending both Ojama Yellow and the card version of the Fusion Gate into the air. Then both of the ejected beings were formed into orbs of light that flew back into each respective duelist's decks.

Needless to say, Harfe was surprised. "W-What?!?"

"…allowing me to return one Ojama on the field and one face up monster back to our decks!" Klein laughed loudly shuffling his deck…only to allow three cards to pop out of his deck. "Of course, you'll be seeing Ojama Yellow back…along with his two brothers! The card I discarded was my Ojamagic spell card!"

"Wow! I didn't know that my brother could think that far ahead," Koji admitted with an amazed look on his face.

"I can hear you!" Klein shouted at his brother, making Koji cover his mouth. "When this is over with, I'm going to teach you a lesson about manners!"

"Oh no…not the ruler again," Koji moaned.

"I feel your pain," Gitarre shouted with tears in his eyes.

"You're about to feel a different sort of pain!" Klein shouted slapping another card from his hand onto his duel disk. "I summon X-Head Cannon in attack mode!"

In a flash of light, the cannon like monster appeared on the field allowing its yellow and blue armor to shine in the light (1800/1500). "And now…I discard all three Ojamas, to activate Ojama Get Ride!"

In two more flashes of light, the red Y-Dragon Head (1500/1600) and the yellow Z-Metal Tank (1500/1300) emerged onto the field next to their cannon counterpart. "And why not let me in on all the fusion action? They combine! Form my machines into one!"

The three machines combined together, the Z-Metal Tank landed on the ground first, that was then the Y-Dragon Head land on top of the tank, its wings gone. And finally the X-Head Cannon connected itself to the top of the Y-Dragon Head (2800/2500). "XYZ-Dragon Cannon! True…I may not have any cards left in my hand…but I can get rid of your monster the old fashion way!"

"XYZ Cannon Blaster!"

With a powerful barrage of red, yellow and blue lasers, the large machine destroyed the surprised Flare Maverick – M in a large explosion! (HGLP: 6600)

"HA! Take that!" Klein laughed loudly before noticing that there was a powerful fiery aura around the XYZ Dragon Cannon. "Huh?"

"Trap card, ZX Metal!" Gitarre announced as the entire armor of the XYZ Dragon Cannon turned a vibrant red and yellow, forcing it to Gitarre's field. "When a fusion monster destroys a Maverick monster, I can equip it with this trap card and I gain control of it! However, it loses any effect and loses four hundred attack and defense points."

"…okay…" Klein chuckled with a large sweatdrop on his head, noticing that he was now wide open.

"And now…I draw!" Harfe announced gracefully, raising her arm up to create another Humanoid – F (1000/1000) on the field to stretch her arms. "As you can tell, I use my deck master's ability once more…and thanks to my Humanoid…" (HGLP: 6100)

Snapping another card from her deck, Harfe immediately pulled it and another card from her hand. "I can add Bio-Metal P to my hand! And with the Polymerization I had already…I can fuse my monsters on the field and in my hand!"

A powerful dark aura enveloped the Humanoid – F, creating purple armor on her body with a metallic red scarf around her neck (1600/1400). Then raising her hand, the newly armored Maverick created a small kunai in her hand. "So meet my Shadow Maverick – F, and now…attack Little Three directly!"

"Now wait a second!" Klein shouted as the Shadow Maverick immediately appeared in front of him, ready to strike.

Just as the Shadow Maverick was about to stab the kunai into Klein's chest, a powerful vortex appeared to block the attack and send the Shadow Maverick skidding backwards. "Heh…nice try, but my Negate Attack stops your attack!"

"Van! You had that all along?!" Klein shouted at his friend, making the hero using duelist sweatdrop. "Why didn't you use it with Thunder Giant?"

"It was better to save it when we needed it, Klein," Van pointed out wagging his fingers as Harfe looked at the remainder of her hand.

"Hmm…I think I'll just end my turn," Harfe giggled fingering her cards.

"Fine then…" Van muttered drawing his next card while looking on the field facing him. '_Let's see…I've only got two cards in my hand and nothing on the field…while against us we've got that weird fusion monster, Klein's stolen monster and two face down cards…'_

'_I'd rather not use this, but…we really don't have that many options…'_

"I set one card face down," Van announced as the card appeared in front of him. "Next I'll activate the spell card, Card of Sanctity! Now all of us draw till we have six cards!"

"Hmm…most interesting," Gitarre muttered pulling his next cards while everyone did as well till they all held six cards.

"Now then…I summon E-Hero Stratos!" Van announced slapping his next card on the field, creating a blue and silver hero with wings that had turbines on them (1800/400) floating on the field. "And he has a search ability as well! So I'll take E-Hero Lone Wolf from my deck and add it to my hand!"

"Lone Wolf?" Gitarre questioned tilting his head to side. "…that's news to me…"

"Well…allow me to acquaint you two with one of his fusions! I activate Polymerization!" Van announced as a large vortex appeared over Stratos. "I fuse both Stratos and Lone Wolf!"

Appearing in the air next to Stratos, the Lone Wolf hero and Stratos were immediately pulled into the large vortex…creating a powerful vortex of air that crashed into the ground. As soon as the vortex shattered, the E-Hero Lone Wolf stood on the ground wearing a pair of black shades over his eyes and futuristic armor with many silver emblems on his body. His fists were covered with large silver metallic gauntlets and at his back were a pair of turbines that revved up as the beastly hero roared loudly (2200/1800). "Arise on the field, E-Hero Ariel Fang, and make me proud!"

"That's a might impressive beast," Harfe admitted starring at the monster intently. '_But if you attack my monster…'_

"Now then! Ariel Fang! Attack XYZ Dragon Cannon!"

"Huh?" Klein, Gitarre, and Harfe questioned as the wolf like hero flew towards the red and yellow machine.

"Counter blaster!" Gitarre commanded as the mechanical monstrosity began to charge up.

"And now, I discard E-Hero Crescent Saber…in order to activate Ariel Fang's special ability!" Van shouted as the speed of his charging hero increased even more allowing the monster to slam his fist directly into the XYZ Dragon Cannon's face, shattering the machine into pixels.

"W-What?" Gitarre and Harfe questioned as the pixels fluttered into their duel disks. (HGLP: 5500)

"You see, when my monster attacks another with a higher attack score," Van explained as Ariel Fang leapt back to Van's side of the field, raising his fists up. "I can discard one Hero card from my hand to increase his attack points by one hundred points times the level of the monster he attacks."

"Well…that could get annoying…" Harfe sighed as Van lifted up his next card. "Huh?"

"You don't need to worry about that! I activate De-Fusion! Allowing me to special summon Stratos and Lone Wolf from my graveyard by returning my Ariel Fang to the fusion deck!" Van shouted as it did happen, Lone Wolf howling loudly while Stratos flew around the field. "And in case you've forgotten…we still have our battle phase! Stratos! Attack Shadow Maverick!"

With the turbine wings revving up, the flying hero shot out a pair of powerful burst of air that shattered the Shadow Maverick without a sweat. "And now…Lone Wolf! Attack Harfe, directly!" (HGLP: 5300)

With a quick spin, the Lone Wolf leapt into Harfe's torso, making her skid backwards immediately. "That was just mean!" (HGLP: 4000)

"Heh, get used to it!" Klein shouted with a large smile on his face. "We're not planning on going easy on either of you!"

"Klein, there's no need to taunt your opponent," Van sighed shaking his head as he fitted another card into his duel disk, making it appear next to his other face down. "Anyway, I'll end my turn."

"No one attacks my lovely sister!" Gitarre shouted snapping his next card from his duel disk. "…and it looks like things are about to get rough for you! I activate the spell card, Polymer Flash! By sending a Polymerization card from my deck, I can send Bio-Metals X and Z from my deck to special summon Bio-Metal ZX to the field!"

In powerful explosion of light pixels, a blue machine with a red jewel on the front connected to a red and black machine with a pointed chin, both of them spinning together (0/3000). With a small beep, a card popped out of Gitarre's graveyard. "And when my Bio-Metal is special summoned, I can take Polymerization from my graveyard. Now then…R.O.C.K. On Battle activate!" (HGLP: 3500)

Appearing on the field with a large smile, the Humanoid – M (1000/1000) raised his hand up, allowing the Bio-Metal ZX to float over his body. "And now…I play Polymerization once more! Fusing Humanoid – M and Bio-Metal ZX!"

With a loud battle cry, a powerful red and black light showered over the Humanoid – M…creating a powerful aura around his body. Then, leaping from the aura, the Humanoid landed on the ground, only dressed in sharp red armor with a black jumpsuit underneath. Under his helmet was a long tail of blonde hair that whipped in the air, and in his hand, the new Maverick created a blade of pure energy (2600/2200). "Then, gracing the field is my Zero Maverick – M!"

"That's quite a monster…" Klein gulped as the Maverick glared down at Van's two monsters.

"Just wait! Zero Maverick!" Gitarre announced as his Zero Maverick spun the laser saber into the air before charging towards Stratos. "Attack! And thanks to my Maverick's effect, you can't chain any effects to his attack!"

Van's eyes widened as Stratos was sliced in two by the powerful laser blade, creating a powerful force that slammed into Van's body. (KVLP: 5700)

"And to end my turn…" Gitarre announced as two set cards appeared behind his glaring cybernetic warrior.

"About time you ended your turn," Klein scoffed snapping his next card off his deck, then with a small glare…Klein spun one card in his seven card hand. "I activate the spell card, Ojamandala, for a mere one thousand life points…I can bring the three stooges back to the field!" (KVLP: 4700)

In three flashes of light, the three Ojama Brothers appeared on the field, all three of them dancing wildly (0/1000 x3). "And if you think that these three are weak…"

"…We all know you have that card in your hand," Harfe sighed shaking her head. "So just get it over with."

"…you're no fun at all," Klein muttered shaking his head.

"Finally! Someone agrees!" Gitarre laughed pressing a button on his duel disk. "But, that won't stop me from activating my trap card, Threatening Roar!"

With a loud battle cry, the Zero Maverick created a powerful shockwave that made everyone cover their ears in pain. "And now…"

"Speak louder!" Klein shouted over the battle cry.

"What?!" Gitarre shouted before his cybernetic warrior calmed down. "As I was saying…my trap prevents you from declaring an attack this turn…"

"Fine…then I'll still play Ojama Delta Hurricane!" Klein roared as all three of his Ojama leapt into the air, creating a powerful tri-colored hurricane that began to draw in all of the cards on Harfe and Gitarre's field.

And just as the Zero Maverick was about to be sucked into the hurricane, a weird machine appeared before it, making the cybernetic warrior disappear into a vortex. "My other face down card is Interdimensional Matter Transporter! So my Zero Maverick gets removed from play until the end of the turn!"

"Humph," Klein growled before his three Ojamas landed on the ground before him. "Well…if I can't attack, I've still got one more option for damage this turn…I activate the spell card, Cost Down! So by discarding one card from my hand, I can lower the level of all monsters in my hand by two…which is helpful when I want to summon Blitzkrieg Jet Shot!"

With a spot light appearing over the field, all three Ojamas turned around with very amazed look on their faces at the newest monster that walked out onto the field. Standing in front of Klein was a rugged blonde athlete wearing a yellow jacket with black shorts. He resembled that of a soccer player, and with his very presence, the three Ojamas danced in joy (1500/2400).

"…that's a weird choice," Leo commented rubbing his chin. "I don't even know what that monster is capable of…"

"Well…it's actually quite good with Klein's deck," Koji admitted with a small smile on his face. "And just watch…"

"Now then…its time for the penalty kick!" Klein announced as all three Ojamas lined up in a single file line in front of the Blitzkrieg Jet Shot who just smirked.

Then with a powerful kick, the soccer player monster sent all three Ojamas flying towards the surprised Gitarre and Harfe, exploding into fireworks of yellow, black and green colors. The force sent both Musik Twins to the ground coughing a few times. (HGLP: 500)

"Heh…you see…my monster allows me to tribute normal monsters to inflict one thousand life points to you two!" Klein laughed crossing his arms. "Of course…that's all I've got this turn…"

And with those words, the Zero Maverick re-appeared on the field with a scowl that could match the two that Gitarre and Harfe had on their faces. Silently, Harfe drew her next card and smiled slightly. "…bruder…are you ready?"

"Schwester? Are you…" Gitarre questioned raising an eyebrow.

"Ja…I think its time we end this!" Harfe announced slipping the newly drawn card into her duel disk. "I activate the spell card, Future Fusion! Now…I send Bio-Metals X, Z, F, H, L, and P to the graveyard! And in two turns I'll get the fusion monster that I selected…"

"Heh, like we'll give you a chance," Klein laughed making Van lower his head.

'_Klein…please don't push these two…'_ Van thought shaking his head.

"…then allow me to finish," Harfe continued with a dark smile on her face as she took another card from her hand. "I activate Junkyard Recycle!"

Harfe's spell card emerged onto the field, showing a large junkyard crushing down a large amount of machinery, from the spell card, six different colored lights began to float about the field. "This spell card works exactly like Dragon's Mirror…only for Machines! So I'll just remove all six of the Bio-Metals I sent to the graveyard…"

In a great explosion of pixels, Van, Klein, Koji, Leo and Kimatori covered their eyes until the explosion died down…

…and what stood before everyone was an extremely large silver and yellow Bio-Metal that had many tubes and containment units racing down its large form (2000/3000). The large machine seemed to be alive as it seemed to pulse as if it was a heart. "Allow me to introduce Bio-Metal W…one of the strongest creatures you'll ever meet."

"Okay…a fusion of six monsters…don't see that everyday," Klein gulped as a powerful surge of electricity began to warp from the huge Bio-Metal W, crackling electricity into the two monsters that were Van and Klein's field. Soon the electricity was too much and made them both shatter into pixels. "…that either…"

"Bio-Metal W is a doom bringer," Harfe explained fingering another card in her hand. "And although it can't attack, it only prepares itself by destroying all monsters on your side of the field."

"Well…not good at all," Van whistled pulling down his hat over his eyes.

"What are you worried about?" Klein asked with a smirk on his face. "That floating junkyard can't attack, we're practically untouchable this turn!"

"True, little three," Harfe giggled taking one of the cards from her hand. "But…what if I play Polymerization once more?"

As Harfe fitted the card into her duel disk, a powerful vortex appeared between Bio-Metal W and the Zero Maverick…melding the two together. "Thanks to mein Bruder, we have the proper fusion materials on the field to summon our best monster!"

From the vortex, an extremely large machine flew onto the field slowly circling over the field. The machine itself was a large serpentine steel snake trying to bite its tail with many jagged yellow spikes from its body with multiple kinds of machine parts streaming from its body (4600/0). With a loud roar, Klein and Van lost all the color in their faces and their eyes were widened.

"What…" Van started with his jaw dropping.

"…the hell…" Klein continued blinking a few times.

"…IS THAT THING!" They both shouted at the same time.

"Oh, this is Ragnorok Maverick," Gitarre explained combing his hair with his hand. "You see, this card can only fusion summoned with Bio-Metal W and any machine monster. Then the attack of both monsters are added to our machine's original attack…"

"And when summoned," Harfe interrupted with a smile on her face lifting her hand up into the air. "He destroys all other cards on our field…but we don't have any. And since you don't have any monsters…Ragnorok Maverick! Attack them directly!"

With a loud roar, many lights began to flash around the Ragnorok Maverick's body, forming a ring of powerful energy that fired into both Van and Klein, forcing them to skid backwards. (KVLP: 100)

"Uh oh…that's going to get Klein mad…" Koji moaned knowing that he'd never hear the end of this and how it would be Van's fault.

"Ah, ah, ah," Leo replied wagging his finger. "Don't be so quick to judge the duel Koji."

"What? But, look!" Koji shouted gesturing towards the field. "They've got only one hundred life points, and they've got a monster that has more attack points than the ultimate dragon!"

"Well…there are more ways than one to take down a giant," Leo replied as Van stood up straight to draw his next card.

"Draw!" Van announced pulling his next card, giving him a hand of four cards. "Now…I activate the spell card, Back Up Hero!"

Van's spell card appeared on the field, showing Sparkman charging forward with Avian and Burstinatrix following the electrical hero. "This spell card can only be activated when I have five or more E-Heroes in my graveyard, I can then special summon one fusion monster from my fusion deck…of course that monster can't attack this turn."

Shattering the spell card into pixels, the famous E-Hero Flame Wingman (2100/1200) flew onto the field, crossing his arms at the large Ragnorok Maverick.

"But now, I activate my trap card, Call of the Haunted! Bringing back E-Hero Lone Wolf!"

As the beastly-hero appeared onto the field with a howl, Klein eyed what Van had on the field. "What? You should've brought Sparkman out!"

"Klein! Trust me!" Van shouted getting Klein to step back slightly. "…I know what I'm doing here…"

"…fine," Klein grumbled sitting on the ground with his legs crossed. "So you better not screw up."

"Maybe you should've listened to your partner, Herr Van," Harfe suggested wagging her finger at Van.

"Ja! Tell them Schwester!" Gitarre cheered on.

"Quiet, Bruder!" Harfe shouted making Gitarre fall to his knees to draw in the dirt.

"…can I continue?" Van asked taking his third card.

"Sure," Harfe replied with smile on her face.

"I activate the spell card, Polymerization! I don't think I need to explain what this can do," Van stated as both of his heroes on the field leapt into the air, melding together before they formed into a single form that gently landed on the ground…

…what stood in front of Van was the E-Hero Flame Wing man wearing a dark blue wolf helmet over his head with a large amount of white hair that seemed to stream backwards. Covering a majority of his body, was matching glowing blue armor with crescent moons on the shoulder pads and chest area. And covering his arms were a pair of large silver claws that glowed a bright silver (2500/2200). With a loud howl into the air, the new hero leapt into the air. "Elemental Hero Mirage Wingman, take the field!"

"All that hype for this thing?" Klein questioned as the Mirage Wingman (2500/2200 – 1000/0) charged forward with its claws glowing even brighter. "Huh?"

"By lowering my Wingman's attack by 1000, I can destroy one face up monster on the field!" Van shouted as his Mirage Wingman created a powerful silver aura that resembled that of a howling wolf. "And unless your monster is unaffected by monster effects…"

Gitarre and Harfe stepped backwards as their large machine was sliced in half…resulting in a very large explosion that rocked the entire duelist area. "…from that…I take it that my assumption was right…and now…"

Appearing immediately before the Musik Twins, the Mirage Wingman landed before the two, preparing a silver orb in both of his hands. "Attack! Full Moon Flame!"

Unleashing the powerful attack, the Mirage Wingman unleashed a powerful silver flame that immediately engulfed both of the Musik Twins, sending them both to the ground. (HGLP: 0)

"And that's…" Van shouted giving a thumbs up towards the fallen duelists as the holograms began to disappear. "How its done!"

"…VAN!" Klein shouted leaping on his shoulders and beating up on the top of Van's head. "You risked the duel and my pins with an assumption!?!"

"GET THE HELL OFF ME!" Van shouted trying to pry Klein off of him.

"You know…it's like those two are brothers," Leo commented with a smile on his face.

"…one can only wish," Koji sighed shaking his head.

/--/-/-///-/-/-//-/-//

"Now then…finish this! Children of the Night!" Maderas commanded as a large amount of bats flew from behind him and began to attack Rukia with their fangs.

"AH!" Rukia screamed as the many bats began to let up on their biting as her life points drained to zero. "W-what just happened?"

"That…that was amazing…" Rena gasped as the many ghostly holograms disappeared from the field.

"Indeed it was Miss 'Friend of Rukia'," Maderas chuckled walking in front of Rukia with his hand out. "My lady…"

With a quick slap, Rukia sent Maderas's hand to the side, surprising the young man slightly. "Don't touch me! There's no way that you could be that…"

Smirking widely, Maderas shook his head at Rukia with a slightly superior look on his face. "Pitiful…if it wasn't for your looks and mind…I wouldn't forgive you so easily…"

"I didn't ask for…" Rukia started before Maderas held up his hand in front of her face.

"But…now then, our little wager will be fulfilled," Maderas chuckled rubbing his chin. "And not only that…but it will happen even sooner than when the date was first decided. I look forward to the…"

"Wait! You can't do that!" Rena interjected making Maderas glare at her. "Uh…"

"Miss 'Friend of Rukia'," Maderas spat out with venom dripping from his tongue. "As much as a gentleman that I am…its better for your health that you keep out of this matter. You don't want to mess with the Maderas Group…"

"…so butt out," Maderas lifted his hand, showing that he had taken ten of Rukia's duelist pins. "Unless you're willing to make a wager with me…"

"Rena…don't waste your breath," Rukia sighed lowering her head slightly in shame.

"Rukia…" Rena gasped slightly as Maderas began to walk past the two girls.

"Later lovelies…" Maderas chuckled with a smug smirk on his face. "And Rukia…after this tournament, I think we should contact our parents about the marriage arrangements…"

"…yeah…" Rukia replied, her voice completely devoid of emotion before Maderas walked away laughing loudly.

Giving her hand to Rukia, Rena helped the Red Eyes duelist up to her feet. "…Are you going to be okay Rukia?"

"…don't worry about it…" Rukia answered staggering off leaving Rena alone with her thoughts.

/-/-/-/-/--/-/---/

**Card Stats**

**E-Hero Ariel Fang / Wind / LV. 6 / ATK: 2200 / DEF: 1800 / Warrior/Fusion/Effect:** [E-Hero Stratos + E-Hero Lone Wolf This card can only be special summoned via Fusion Summon. When this monster battles a monster, by discarding one card with 'Hero' in its name from your hand, you may increase the attack of this card by 100 points times the level of the opposing monster.

**Description:** The E-Hero Lone Wolf wearing a pair of black shades over his eyes and having futuristic armor with many silver emblems on his body. His fists are covered with large silver metallic gauntlets and at his back is a pair of turbines.

**E-Hero Mirage Wingman / Light / LV. 7 / ATK: 2500 / DEF: 2200 / Warrior/Fusion/Effect:** [E-Hero Flame Wingman + E-Hero Lone Wolf This card can only be special summoned via Fusion Summon. By lowering this monster's attack by 1000, you may destroy one face up card on the field. When this card destroys a monster and sends it to the graveyard as a result of battle, inflict damage to your opponent's life points equal to the DEF of the destroyed monster. When this card is destroyed as a result of battle you may special summon one level six or lower fusion monster from your fusion deck with 'E-Hero' in its name (ignore summoning conditions).

**Description:** The E-Hero Flame Wing man wearing a dark blue wolf helmet over his head with a large amount of white hair to stream backwards. Covering a majority of his body is glowing blue armor with crescent moons on the shoulder pads and chest area. And covering his arms is a pair of large silver claws that glow a bright silver.

**Bio-Metal X / Light / LV. 1 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 1000 / Machine/Effect:** When your opponent declares an attack against a face up monster on your side of the field, you may send this card from your hand to negate the attack.

**Description:** A small blue machine with a red jewel on the front.

**Bio-Metal Z / Light / LV. 1 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 1000 / Machine/Effect:** By discarding this card from your hand when this is the last card in your hand, you may draw two cards from the bottom from your deck.

**Description:** A small red and black machine with a pointed chin.

**Bio-Metal H / Wind / LV. 1 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 1000 / Machine/Effect:** By discarding this card from your hand, you may return one card on the field back to it's owner's hand.

**Description:** A sharp green machine.

**Bio-Metal F / Fire / LV. 1 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 1000 / Machine/Effect:** By discarding this card from your hand, you may inflict 500 points of damage to your opponent's life points.

**Description:** A bulky red machine with a pair of blue eyes

**Bio-Metal L / Water / LV. 1 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 1000 / Machine/Effect:** By discarding this card from your hand, you may destroy one spell or trap card on the field.

**Description:** A dark blue machine with a aqua theme to it.

**Bio-Metal P / Dark / LV. 1 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 1000 / Machine/Effect:** By discarding this card from your hand, you may return one level four or lower monster from your graveyard back to your hand.

**Description:** A purple machine with a white mask.

**Polymer Flash / Spell / Effect:** Send one 'Polymerization' from your deck to the graveyard. Then select one fusion monster in your fusion deck. If you have the proper fusion material monsters on your side of the field or in your hand, send those to the graveyard to special summon the selected fusion monster (This is considered to be a fusion summon).

**Image: **A polymerization card being engulfed in a powerful light.

**Bio-Metal ZX / Light / LV. 8 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 3000 / Machine/Fusion/Effect: **[Bio-Metal X + Bio-Metal Z This card can only be Fusion Summoned. When this card is Fusion Summoned to the field, you may take one 'Polymerization' from your graveyard and add it to your hand.

**Description:** Bio-Metals X and Z merged back to back.

**Bio-Metal W / Dark / LV. 8 / ATK: 2000 / DEF: 3000 / Machine/Fusion/Effect:** [Bio-Metal X + Bio-Metal Z + Bio-Metal F + Bio-Metal H + Bio-Metal L + Bio-Metal P This card can only be Fusion summoned. When this card is successfully fusion summoned, destroy all monsters on your opponent's side of the field. This card cannot attack.

**Description: **A large silver and yellow Bio-Metal with many tubes and containment units.

**Zero Maverick – M / Light / LV. 7 / ATK: 2600 / DEF: 2200 / Machine/Fusion/Effect:** [Humanoid – M + Bio-Metal ZX This card can only be fusion summoned. When this card attacks, your opponent cannot chain spell or trap cards.

**Description:** A red and black armored version of the Buster Maverick – M with a long tail of blonde hair.

**Shadow Maverick – F / Dark / LV. 4 / ATK: 1600 / DEF: 1100 / Machine/Fusion/Effect:** [Humanoid – F + Bio-Metal P This card can only be fusion summoned. When this card is targeted by a card effect, you may remove this card from play until the end of the turn.

**Description:** The Humanoid – F wearing purple armor with a white mask and metallic red scarf

**Ragnorok Maverick / Dark / LV. 10 / ATK/ DEF: 0 / Machine/Fusion/Effect:** [Bio – Metal W + one Machine type monster This card can only be fusion summoned. The attack of this monster is the combined attack of the monsters used for this card's fusion summon. This card cannot be destroyed by spell or trap cards.

**Description:** A large serpentine steel snake trying to bite its tail with many jagged yellow spikes from its body.

**Blitzkrieg Jet Shot / Light / LV. 6 / ATK: 1500 / DEF: 2400 / Warrior/Effect:** When this card is face up on the field, you may tribute one normal monster (not counting tokens) on your side of the field to inflict 1000 points of damage to your opponent's life points.

**Description:** A rugged blonde athlete wearing a yellow jacket with black shorts. He resembles a soccer player, and at the bottom of his foot is a bruised up Ojama Yellow.

**Deck Masters**

**E-Hero Banchou / Ability?**

**Ojamagician / Ability: Ojamystic Healing: **During each of your standby phases, increase your life points by 300 for each Ojama monster on the field.

**Humanoid – M/F: Ability: R.O.C.K. On Battle: **In order to activate this ability, you must pay 500 life points. Special summon one 'Humanoid – M/F' (respectively) from your deck, graveyard, or removed from play pile. The special summoned monster cannot attack, be used as a tribute and is returned to your deck during end phase this effect was used.

**//-/--//-/-//-/**

**Alan:** Greetings y'all! And welcome all you duelists from different states and nations!

May the gods of luck be with our guests and prepare them for the butt whooping they are about to receive!

Many of you have tried your hardest to get to the finals…but alas, only sixteen of you were able to make it…

_**Next time, the finals begin! Unleashing the strongest of the strong! So…watch and learn! **__**Chapter 36: Opening the Gates of Hell!**_

**Alan:** …although…do the duelists have to be all so weird?


	37. Chapter 36: Opening the Gates of Hell!

_**Finally…after a month of exciting duels and weird characters showing up…the sixteen finalists have been determined.**_

_**I have to say, I'm surprised with the results that have been chosen…a lot of freshmen…quite a few red students, and a couple of transfer students.**_

_**We even got a couple of invited duelists with us!**_

_**I can honestly say that everyone is different in the finalists, although a few of them are slightly questionable…**_

_**Of course, as principal of the school, I'm paid not to judge people on their looks alone (yeah, I'm the only decent principal you've probably heard of). **_

_**Still…I must accept this and try my hardest that my plan works out for the best…however, there's only a small chance…**_

…_**ya know what? I'll just leave that up to your imaginations as to what may happen…**_

_**Good luck my students! With the competition that has arisen on the field…**_

_**You'll all need it!**_

_**/-/--//-/--//-//-**_

_**Chapter 36**_

_**Opening the Gates of Hell!**_

/-/-/-/--/-/-////---/

"Quick! Hurry up!"

"Camera one, ready?"

"Ready sir!"

"Camera two?"

"Waiting for the go sir!"

"Light system?"

"Give me thirty seconds!"

"Ooohhh…" Alan was having a panic attack, and who wouldn't? The month had flown by and the finalists were selected for their skills in dueling with the pins they had collected.

And while the finalists were supposed to duel, the duels were going to be broadcasted to all of the TV sets in all the dorms so people could watch could happen. Alan even managed to get a couple of higher up students to MC the matches…

"ALAN!"

"Huh?" Alan questioned turning around to see Kaisaris Luntina dressed in the stage clothes that were selected for her, and unfortunately, she was very mad…

…of course, the fact that she was dressed in a skimpy blue skirt with a white blouse (that had a small amount of cleavage showing) and her hair was tied in a small cute blue bow.

"Oh, hey there Luntina," Alan greeted as Luntina stomped up to him. "Uh…is there something I can help you with?"

"Yeah…you mind telling why the hell you selected this outfit?!?" Luntina snarled pointing towards her outfit. "There's no way I'm wearing this!"

"F-Fine!" Alan yelped jumping back a few feet. He'd never admit it openly, but Alan was sometimes afraid of Luntina's anger. "Anyway, where's Tony? I thought you both were supposed to MC the matches…"

"…uh, he's struggling with the bow tie that you gave him," Luntina replied with a sweatdrop, pointing over her shoulder.

With a quick glance, Alan saw what Luntina meant. Tony was on the ground, struggling with the tight bow tie around his neck, his face was even beginning to turn blue from the lack of oxygen. "Um…you both can appear in your uniforms…"

/-/--/-/-/-///-///-

All over the island, every student was gathered to the nearest television, the screens shifting to the screen that had both Luntina and Tony sitting behind a desk with a large screen behind them. Both of them were dressed in their usual uniforms and the screen behind them flashing with the words 'Rush for the Treasure!'

"Greetings y'all!" Tony announced into the microphone jumping on top of the desk. "And welcome to the televised finals of the…"

"Tony! That's enough!" Luntina growled slamming her arm into Tony's arms, forcing the chess duelist to fall face first into the table with a loud crash. As soon as Tony was off the table, Luntina smiled brightly towards the camera. "Um…anyway, allow me to introduce myself! For those of you who don't know me, I'm the Kaisaris, Luntina!"

"And…" Tony laughed making a complete recovery in record time. "I'm Tony Havoc, the Chess Duelist, here at your service!"

"Yes," Luntina coughed a little snapping her fingers to get the camera to focus on her. "Now then…"

"Hey!" Tony shouted off camera.

"We are both here to commentate on the finals of this tournament, Rush for the Treasure," Luntina continued while Tony began to have a tantrum. "It's been an exciting month to say the least, with many different characters appearing in the midst of the duels…"

"Are you going to let me have any lines?" Tony asked poking his face into the sight of the camera…only to have Luntina push it back. "OOF!"

"…all of it leading up to the final sixteen," Luntina stated as the screen behind her immediately changed to an overview of the entire island. "And now…as for the location of the finals, Tony, I'm leaving it up with you!"

"…about time," Tony scoffed before pumping his fist into the air. "But now that I have my chance…lets get this explanation over with! Okay, under the island are many tunnels that were left when this island was once discovered for its many cavities of jewels."

The screen flashed to a horizontal view of the island, and then had a many different tunnels racing through it. "The location for the finals is set under the island actually with these tunnels. Duelists will follow the main paths of the tunnels towards the vault where the main prize is…"

Once again, the screen shifted to show a small chibi version of Luntina walking through a small tunnel, a duel disk on her left arm. "Duelists will walk through the tunnels until they come across an opponent…" At this, a small chibi version of Tony walked in front of Luntina, surprising both of them. "When they face each other, their duel disks will activate a signal that will alert one of the teachers that's stationed nearby."

Appearing in between the two chibi duelists was a chibi version of Kryancelo (with a peeved look on his face). Raising her hand, Luntina continued for Tony. "And while the teacher is arriving, the duelists can actually change their decks if they so wish."

"And now for the rules!" Tony shouted jumping in front of the desk to get in front of Luntina. "The deck master system is still in effect, so if your deck master gets destroyed, you automatically lose the duel. Each duelist will use eight thousand life points…"

"…and as an added bonus," Luntina interrupted pushing Tony to the left by his head. "During each match, both duelists may make wagers…this includes the ante rule. And forfeiting…unfortunately, it is allowed. When a duelist wins, he or she will immediately be allowed to proceed down the tunnels…the losers however will be immediately rejected from the caves."

"And with those rules out of the way!" Tony announced jumping back in front of the camera as the desk was pulled away. "Let's meet our duelists!"

"Thanks you two!" Alan announced as the cameras turned towards him.

"HEY!" Luntina and Tony shouted at the same time.

On all of the screens of the televisions around the island, the screens immediately turned black. Then with a white and black blur, De Masque appeared on the screen adjusting his mask. With three puffs of grey smoke, Mask Cu Raid and his two clones appeared behind De Masque. "Making a name for himself…well, two actually, is Alex Tudor…or better known as De Masque!"

As if cut by a katana, the screen fell in two to show Ganryu placing a very sharp katana on his shoulder with a cold look on his shoulder. "Second highest is the great and cold duelist of the bushido…Ganryu Dashiben!"

Lightning then struck the screen, shattering it into pixels to show Beck striking a very effeminate pose and blowing a kiss to the screen. "…I'm a little confused with this guy, but this is Robert Becker…it's a miracle that he was able to get to the finals if you ask me…"

From the middle of the screen, a powerful explosion erupted into a picture of Cleo with an innocent smile on her face with many foxes appearing around her. "…but its no miracle for Cleo Sol to be in the finals. As one of the top female duelists at the academy, she's already made a name for herself."

Many feathers began to float in front of Cleo, covering the screen until they all scattered to show Leo standing in the middle of the screen, his face with the same innocent smile he always had. "Another notable young duelist…Leonardo Childsman, the Champion of the Airknights…"

A powerful vortex appeared into the middle of the screen, shifting Leo's picture into Van, adjusting his new hat over his right eye with his many heroes appearing behind him. "…and the Hero of the Back Streets, Van Tenka, takes the next place in our select finalists!'

A large coffin appeared before Van, opening to show a smirking Maderas, slowly stepping from the coffin with many bats flying around him. "And one of our invited duelists, from the Maderas family is none other than Sven Maderas…an unknown in the world of dueling…"

Maderas was soon engulfed into many dark spirits…allowing a very creepy look Vic to step slowly onto the screen…a large black bandana covering his mouth and nose… "All the way from the Pacific Academy, the former Dark World Prince is Vic Vanhemer!"

Then, the screen began to be pushed away by many Bruisers and fighters, Bravo following them onto the field, performing a large amount of muscle man poses. "Master of the rush, and body like abilities is Sheldon Boomer!"

That's when Sheldon…er, I mean Bravo was swept into a large yellow, green and black tornado that separated into the Ojama trio with Klein standing in between all three of them with a toothy grin. "Weird name…but not as weird as Little Three…I mean, Klein Drei!"

A small push from above managed to pull a picture of Genjyo smiling brightly adjusting the top hat he had on his long hair. "Another transfer student, from the mainland academy, Genjyo Zosimos…huh, weird name…"

In a flash of many red lights, three elf like monsters appeared onto the field, showing Rena lifting up her duel disk. "Unlike Rena Akira, a young duelist trying to grasp into the world of dueling!"

Many elements, ranging from the water to fire crashed into the screen, showing Kazin push up his glasses. "From the third year class, allow me to introduce Russell Kazin!"

That's when many playing cards blew into the screen, allowing Kyo to float into the air on the screen. "Another invited duelist takes the stage, Kyo Swartzvault! The man with many tricks up his sleeves!"

With a mighty kick, the Chaotix Tai Gars shattered the screen into many shards, showing Riko waving his hands into the air. "Ah yes, a familiar soul, and second year student, Riko Kamika, the one hit wonder!"

And finally, in a flurry of rose petals, a new face was on the screen. This one a young girl (who looked to be sixteen years old) with her dark brown hair tied into two tails that fell onto her shoulders, smiling at the camera. Covering her petite body was the Ra Yellow uniform with a slightly longer skirt and a white T-shirt under the yellow top she had. "And, second year, but second to none, the fair Erika Terrance!"

"…wow, he managed that in a single breath," Tony remarked with his eyes glued to his watch.

"…it's almost scary," Luntina admitted.

"So! Duelists!" Alan laughed loudly pumping his fists into the air. "Good luck to you all!"

/--/-/-/-/-/-///-

"So! Duelists! Good luck to you all!"

All the duelists that were previously mentioned stood into a small room in the main building, each of them watching as their names were called…

…and after that, all of them with mixed feelings about their introductions…

"…De Masque would've been fine by itself…"

"…" Ganryu was silent…but his thoughts were in rage. '_…cold? That's a little much…'_

"Oh, that was a low shot!" Beck spat out with fake tears dripping from his eyes.

"He always says the basics," Cleo sighed loudly combing some of the hair out of her eyes.

"I wouldn't say champion," Leo admitted with his normal smile.

'…_Rukia…I'll use that title, and do what I can,'_ Van thought turning towards the smirking Maderas.

Shaking his head a little bit, Maderas kept his insidious smirk on his face. "…I've already claimed my prize…but, I must help Beck…."

In the corner, Vic just narrowed his eyes at all of the duelists, his mouth and nose still covered with the black handkerchief. '_…they'll all pay…I swear…'_

"DAMN IT!" Bravo shouted throwing a large tantrum. "Why!?! WHY DID HE USE MY REAL NAME!?!?"

"Heh, Sheldon…" Klein snickered loudly.

"SHUT UP LITTLE THREE!" Bravo roared slamming his foot into the ground.

"Put a lid on it…" Genjyo sighed keeping his eyes on the three girls in the room. '_…especially since I'm trying to enjoy the views…'_

With a large sweatdrop appearing on the side of her head, Rena had a nervous smile on her face. '_W-well…at least he didn't mention how I got into the academy…'_

"…dull and precise…" Kazin muttered pushing up his glasses. "…I like it…"

"I take it no one has noticed it yet," Kyo whispered to himself, keeping his eyes on Rena.

Sitting on the floor, Riko was slowly meditating, ignoring the noises that were flying all through the room's air. '_…this is my chance…my chance to prove my skills…_'

"Fair? Yeesh, I'm not girly," The Ra yellow, Erika protested with a blood vessel appearing on her head.

"Alright! Listen up!"

All sixteen of the duelists turned their heads towards the entrance of the room, seeing Kryancelo standing in the doorway with a small box under his arm. "Congratulations on making it to the finals…yadda, yadda, blah, blah…now, each of you will take turns drawing one of the pieces of paper. You're not allowed to show anyone these papers, mainly because they represent the gate number you'll be going through to get to the underground tunnels…"

"Ten minutes after everyone has drawn their number, one of our teachers will appear calling two of the numbers. You are to go with them to your gates…and just because you're both called at the same time; it's not true that you'll face each other in a duel…"

"…now then…get in a line and draw your number before I get pissed off!"

It didn't take long for everyone to draw their numbers from the box, in fact, as soon as everyone had drawn their numbers everyone was in their own little groups…

De Masque, Bravo, Kazin and Maderas were standing before Beck, each of them with their arms crossed with each other. "…I'm surprised…I didn't expect to see this many in the finalists…"

"It was a given that I'd be here," De Masque stated adjusting his mask while his stare was pointed towards Bravo and Kazin. "How'd Sheldon and Kazin get here?"

"DON'T CALL ME BY THAT!" Bravo shouted with his fists clenched tightly.

"…it's not that hard to grasp," Kazin stated lifting up a small clipboard to his face. "You see, with those three duel spirits you and I summoned, De Masque, they collected the necessary pins that we needed in order to compete."

"And I managed to get my pins the fair way," Maderas answered flicking some hair away from his eyes. "Although…I already have the hand of my fair maiden already in my grasp…so I don't really see the reason why I'm here now…"

"Because you still have a contract," Kazin answered bluntly.

"Why Sheldon!" Bravo shouted falling to his knees, making everyone take a step away from him.

"In any case, I have one order for you all to follow," Beck stated wagging his finger towards the four Yokai members. "Should you face a certain duelist…"

"Heh, you want us to forfeit against ya?" De Masque guessed adjusting his hat towards Beck.

"…oh, no, you are to face me with all the strength you four have…" Beck chuckled with a large smile on his face. "…it concerns someone else…"

Van was leaning up against the wall, glaring at Ganryu and Maderas. Both of them were duelists that he wanted to face…

One of them…for his chance to prove himself…

The other…to save a friend.

"Hey! Get your head out of the clouds!" Klein shouted snapping Van out of his small trance.

"Huh? What?" Van questioned shaking his head to look directly at Klein.

"About time…listen…" Klein sighed raising his hand up towards Van. "I hope you don't have any ideas of winning this thing! Cause in case you haven't noticed, I'm standing before ya!"

"Klein, this is a matter that is bigger than you," Van stated…only realizing what he just said. "Uh…well, that was a low blow…"

"…short jokes don't work on me," Klein growled with a small blood vessel appearing on the side of his head. "But…just to let you know, that you better not lose till you get to me!"

"Trust me…I wouldn't miss that for the world," Van chuckled before pointing towards Ganryu who was all alone up against the wall with his arms crossed. "Besides…there are three people that I still have to fight…you, Ganryu…and…"

Across the room…

"Heh…looks like the dropout was able to make it this far," Cleo chuckled lifting her hand next to her mouth with a sneer on her face.

"I made it to the finals," Rena sighed lowering her head. "You'd think that'd make me a respectable duelist…"

"You still need to beat me flat-chest," Cleo chuckled twirling some of her hair in her fingers.

"That's enough you two…"

Rena and Cleo turned to the side to see Erika Terrance standing before them, in a very masculine pose. "I can't stand girls like you two…always yapping and never doing! Save your prattling for the duels!"

"…still as sharp tongued as ever, Erika," Cleo sighed shaking her head. "Fine…but, don't expect any mercy."

"That's my line," Erika growled back.

'…_geez, looks like Cleo's not that popular with the girl side of the academy,'_ Rena thought as Leo appeared behind her.

"My, I'm so glad that you made it Rena," Leo congratulated, scaring Rena slightly.

"Ah! L-Leo, thanks," Rena stuttered slightly with a nervous smile on her face.

"Alright! Ten minutes are up!" Kryancelo shouted getting everyone's attention in the room. "The first two students that are numbers eight and twelve, you're both coming with me."

Slowly Rena stepped forward, since her number was twelve. But…Rena was surprised to see Vic stepping forward along with her.

As soon as the two duelists were in front of him, Kryancelo turned his back to them and slowly led the two out of the door. Outside, leaning near the door were other teachers, Rex, Weevil, Hughes, Maria and Alonso. With a quick second, Kryancelo raised his hand up. "Give me two minutes to lead these two to their door…"

"No need to tell me Kryancelo," Alonso sighed shaking his head.

//-/--//---////-/-

"And we're back!" Tony announced with the screen flashing behind him into a map of the underground with chibi versions of all the duelists in the tunnels.

"Each of the duelists have entered the tunnels," Luntina declared turning slightly to face the screen, and right smack dab in the middle of the screen appeared a large safe and a chibi version of Alan. "So now…we wait…"

A large beeping sound went off as soon as Luntina finished her sentence, and near the corner of the screen the chibi versions of Cleo and Genjyo facing each other with their duel disks ready. "Wow…that was fast…"

"True!" Tony laughed lifting up a small remote. "Let's turn to the cameras to see how the duelists are interacting! And remember, you can change to channel five to watch this duel…"

/--/--/---////-/

Genjyo's eyes were replaced with pulsing hearts at the sight of Cleo. "Oh! It's the beautiful blue rose of the Obelisk Dorm!"

With a large sweatdrop appearing on the back of Cleo's head, even though she was all for having someone praise her like Genjyo did…this was a serious competition. "Odd…I never really expected to see you here though…"

"I know! Its fate! It's destiny!" Genjyo shouted clasping his hands together with many hearts appearing around his head. "It's true love! It's…"

"Its time for you two to duel!"

Cleo and Genjyo immediately turned towards the side, seeing that Alonso was standing before them both adjusting his glasses. "Now then…both of you are from the Obelisk Blue dorm, the entire campus is watching you both…I hope you two know exactly what that means…"

"Yes sir," Cleo answered immediately with a nod.

"…uh, a little help?" Genjyo admitted making both Cleo and Alonso fall to the ground.

"You're supposed to represent the Obelisk Blue dorm!" Alonso shouted with a small bandage on his forehead. "Now, if either of you have a wager say so before you select your deck master!"

"Ah, how about, if I win…" Genjyo said lifting up his deck of cards that he immediately fanned out. "…the young lady has to grace me with a kiss on the lips?"

"Ugh! Do I have to accept that?" Cleo spat out turning to Alonso with a disgusted look on her face.

"Unfortunately, Miss Cleo, you have to," Alonso chuckled shaking his head. "But, you can make a wager that is equal to or steeper than the one he has issued…"

"Great…" Cleo sighed loudly lowering her head.

/--//-/-///--///

"Oh! This just in! Another pair of duelists have met!" Tony shouted, changing the channel back to show him and Luntina.

"What the? How'd you do that?" Luntina asked as the chibi versions of Ganryu and Vic appeared on the screen behind them, both of them readying their duel disk. "Uh…I mean…it appears that Ganryu Dashiben and Vic Vanhemer are about to lock horns…let's go check to…"

"OH! No time for that!" Tony announced lifting up the remote control. "There's another duel going on, and the combatants…Rena's in it! Go Rena!"

"Tony! You can't cheer for individual duelists!" Luntina growled with a blood vessel appearing on her head as the screen behind her shifted to show a chibi Rena standing across from…Luntina's head was blocking the other duelist however. "We're supposed to be impartial."

"Forget the rules granny! I'm going to cheer for…" Tony replied before realizing the deathly aura surrounding Luntina.

"Cut to a commercial…" Luntina snarled looking directly at the cameramen. "NOW!"

"NO! WAIT! I NEED WITNESSES!" Tony pleaded before the entire screen shifted into a blue 'Please Stand By' screen.

"HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU NOT TO CALL ME OLD!"

"HELP!"

/-/--/-//--///--//-

Indeed, Rena was facing against her opponent in the underground, but, she was too engrossed with the caves themselves. The area itself was quite beautiful though, many crystals lined the walls of the cave and with the dim light from the bulbs on the makeshift ceiling, the crystals created a dramatic effect on walls.

"Hey! You going to just going to be a statue all day?"

"Huh?" Rena questioned snapping out of her little daze to see the Ra Yellow, Erika standing before her with a ticked off look on her face. "S-sorry, I didn't see you there…"

"Well, it's about time you noticed," Erika spat out lifting her duel disk up. "I really am a little annoyed with how things turned out…"

"What?" Rena asked with a question mark appearing over her head. "What do you mean by that?"

"No offense or anything," Erika sighed rubbing the back of her head. "But, you're just not an opponent I'd like to face off against."

"Well, you've kinda lost me," Rena admitted with a sweatdrop appearing on the back of her head.

"…oh great, I get you two…" Kryancelo sighed loudly appearing almost out of no where, freaking out the two girls.

"Oh! Uh, hey there Professor Kinsman," Rena greeted with a slight bow.

"Prof. K, haven't seen you since the spring," Erika chuckled.

"…just to let you know…I hate you both," Kryancelo admitted with a dull look on his face as he turned towards Rena. "You…for getting that cold hearted samurai to embarrass me!"

"Wait…so you're the one who got in without an entrance duel?" Erika asked blinking in confusion towards Rena.

'_And here I thought everyone forgot about that…_' Rena thought to herself lowering her head even more so.

"And you!" Kryancelo growled narrowing his eyes towards Erika. "I still haven't forgiven you for putting hair dye in the water heater last year!"

"Oh, come on, it was a harmless little prank," Erika giggled winking towards Kryancelo.

"…you act like a tomboy most of the time," Kryancelo growled slapping his face with his palm. "And when you're in trouble you put on that girlish charm…that doesn't work on me!"

"…um…didn't we have a match to get on with?" Rena asked with a sweatdrop appearing on the side of her head.

Meanwhile, in another part of the tunnels…

The caves were immediately filled with challenges…

"Alright boys, I want a clean match," Maria asked wagging her finger at the two duelists. "No direct attack below the belt…but trash talking is optional!"

"No need to sully the ears of a beautiful teacher," Leo admitted fanning out his deck to look at his cards…

"…right Kazin?"

"…it's a cruel joke to hear those words come from your mouth," Kazin spat adjusting his glasses up.

/--/-//-/-//-/-/-/

"…"

"…"

"Geez, I get stuck with the two silent guys," Rex sighed adjusting his hat. Rex had the displeasure of judging the match consisting of Ganryu and Vic. "Yeesh, duelists now-a-days don't know how to properly trash talk…"

"Shut the hell up you washed up has-been," Vic snarled getting Rex's attention. "Duelists have evolved since your stone age of dueling."

"Let us real duelists duel," Ganryu added lifting up his duel disk, snapping head towards Rex. "And maybe you'll learn how to become a better duelist!"

"…well, that's better, but you're supposed to direct the trash talking to each other!" Rex protested as both duelists turned away from him. "…great…just ignore me once more…"

"Select your deck master," Vic growled looking at his cards. "As if it would make a difference..."

"…no one will stop my ambition," Ganryu snarled back.

"Damn it! Don't start stealing my lines!" Rex shouted as both duelists immediately lifted up a single card from their decks.

"Then do your job!" Vic snapped fitting his card into his deck master slot on his duel disk. "The deck master that will stomp your ambitions…will be this!"

Many ghostly blue flames began to float around Vic's body, before the flames dissipated to show a mysterious phantom like man wearing an armored black overcoat over his entire body floating in midair next to Vic. The skin under his black demonic mask was an odd blue, and the man had a pair of red glowing eyes with a sniper goggle over his right eye. In his right hand was an older, medieval sniper rifle that was immediately aimed towards Ganryu. "Allow me to introduce Ghost Knight Sniper…and his aiming to take you down in the prime of this tournament…"

"…great, now they're doing bad jokes," Rex moaned slapping his forehead.

Ganryu remained silent while he slipped his selected card into his duel disk. Then leaping from the ceiling, the battle scarred Dishonored Samurai – Kyu landed on the ground, shooting a glare towards Vic. "Dishonored Samurai – Kyu is my choice, and we'll see who'll walk over whom."

"…alright, and now that…" Rex started raising his fist up into the air.

"We're not done," Vic interrupted making a blood vessel appear on Rex's head.

"Hey! I'm the referee here and…" Rex growled narrowing his eyes at Vic.

"Listen you lousy red," Vic started shaking his head while adjusting the cloth that was around his mouth. "I'm not going to lose a guy like you…never again…so, welcome to hell, where there is no escape!"

"Nice introduction," Ganryu scoffed pulling his five cards. "Too bad intimidation tactics don't work with me…now watch out! I'm going first!" (GLP: 8000)

"Hey! Hold it!" Rex shouted throwing his hand up. "I'm the one who says who goes first!"

"Then say it's him and get it over with!" Vic growled getting Rex to step back slightly. (VLP: 8000)

"Uh, y-yeah, Ganryu, you can go first," Rex coughed with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head.

"Then draw!" Ganryu announced doing so. A single face down monster appeared on the field before him.

Then Ganryu simply crossed his arms.

"…I see you like to be the silent type," Vic snickered snapping his sixth card off his deck. "Let's see you stay silent after this, I'm enacting my deck master's ability!"

Lifting three cards from his hand, Vic immediately tossed them into his duel disk's graveyard slot, allowing the Ghost Knight Sniper to take aim and kneel down. "This ability is known as Ghostly Assault! For each Ghost I discard from my hand, I can knock off five hundred life points per card!"

"…a cheap trick," Ganryu growled as the Ghost Knight Sniper had Ganryu in his line of sight.

Then with three pulls of the trigger, the Ghost Knight Sniper fired three ghostly shots that struck Ganryu directly in the chest, making the samurai take a knee himself. (GLP: 6500)

"Not bad taking a lead," Rex muttered rubbing his chin. "But…now he's at a disadvantage with only three cards in his hand…"

"Hey, old man, pay attention," Vic chuckled pulling up his handkerchief a little higher. "When you're using my Ghosts…being in the graveyard is always a plus! Now, I summon Ghost Knight Swordsman!"

Appearing out of a dark mist, the ghostly knight appeared before Vic, raising his demonic sword (1000/500 600/0). Then from the ground, many rusty chains stabbed into the Ghost Knight Swordsman, empowering the monster as it screeched loudly. "You see, I discarded two copies of my Ghost Knight Blade Chains. As long as they're in the graveyard, all Ghost Knights gain three hundred attack points."

"Well, that's an impressive strategy," Rex whistled adjusting his cap slightly.

"Of course you old coot," Vic chuckled fitting the last two cards in his hand into his duel disk.

"I'm only twenty-seven!" Rex shouted slamming his foot into the ground. "So who the hell are you calling an old coot!"

"Well, let's look at the facts shall we?" Vic suggested raising his hand up. "You see, you're older than me…by a good ten years, so no matter how old I get, you'll always be older than me. Hence I can call you old coot."

"…just get this duel over with," Rex sighed crouching down to draw on the stone floor.

"With pleasure," Vic chuckled snapping his fingers as his Ghost Knight Swordsman leapt forward, spinning its demonic sword in its hand. "Attack his face down defense!"

Stabbing its blade into the face down card, the Ghost Knight Swordsman immediately made the face down card reveal itself as the Bushido Scroll (800/400), only to be sliced in two by the sword.

"Thanks, since Bushido Scroll was destroyed in battle," Ganryu stated as a card popped out of his duel disk, and turning it around to show that it was the Samurai of the Void. "I can add one samurai to my hand."

"Not bad…but, it'll take more than a samurai to defeat me," Vic chuckled crossing his arms over each other. "Turn end."

"Draw!" Ganryu shouted now having seven cards in his hand.

"…they forgot I was here," Rex sighed lowering his head even more.

"I summon Samurai of the Void!" Ganryu announced as the dark armored samurai appeared before him (1700/1400), spinning the large katana he held in tightly in his hands. Then, without speaking, Ganryu took the Samurai of the Earth from his deck and add it to his hand.

"Oh, a monster with a hundred points stronger than one of my weakest monsters," Vic joked with his tongue sticking out. "I'm so scared…"

"You better take a look at your monster," Ganryu stated pointing towards the staggering Ghost Knight Swordsman.

"What in the world are you…" Vic started before noticing his Swordsman's weird behavior (1600/500 – 200/0). "What?! How in the…"

"My deck master," Ganryu stated gesturing towards Kyu, whose eyes were glowing a dark purple. "Known as the Glare of Dishonor lowers the attack points of all your monsters by two hundred points for each Samurai I have on the field."

"Heh…not a bad selection…not bad at all," Vic admitted closing his eyes. "But…that's all you've got going for you…"

"Samurai of the Void! Send that ghost back to the abyss!"

Vic's eyes shot open as the Samurai immediately sliced right through the ghost, shattering the chains and turning the ghost into a small spirit orb. (VLP: 7700)

"Trap card activate now!" Vic countered as many chains erupted from the ceiling and ground, slamming into Vic's deck. "Ghost Summon Chain! Since you've destroyed a monster, I can special summon another ghost! Ghost Knight Vanguard!"

The many chains shattered, forming into the heavily armored ghost knight (1000/500 600/0 – 200/0), slamming its large rusty pike into the ground. "Now…it's still your turn…"

Ganryu simply fitted two cards into his duel disk, and held up another card. "I activate the spell card, Heavy Storm!"

Vic's eyes widened as a powerful storm swept the field, sending the echo of wind through out the entire caves. His face down and the two cards on Ganryu's field immediately shattered into the storm. "But that doesn't make any sense! You've already summoned this turn, so if those two were Statues of Wicked, you should've done it earlier so that my trap card wouldn't have activated."

"I have my reasons," Ganryu admitted crossing his arms. "Turn end…"

"Not yet you don't!" Vic interrupted as a card slowly appeared in front of him, showing an exorcist being warped by many ghostly spirits. "That last face down card was known as Spiritual Rebound, and when destroyed, I can special summon one level three or lower Ghost from my graveyard…and choose this one!"

A small ghostly visage appeared around Vic, only to walk forward, forming into a mysterious phantom like man wearing an armored black doctor coat over his entire body. Like the previous two ghosts, this one had a dark mask over his face with a pair of glowing red eyes. In his hands was an old black medical kit (0/0).

"Now before you ask…I sent my Ghost Empire Medic during my first turn by discarding it for my deck master's ability," Vic answered drawing his next card. "But now…I draw…"

'_Man…I didn't think duelists these days were so extreme,_' Rex thought standing up straight. '_Honestly…these two could probably give some of the duelists I once faced a run for their money…and these two are in Slifer Red, the lowest of the low! I'd hate to face a blue student here!'_

'_Damn it! This spell is useless,'_ Vic thought looking up at Ganryu and narrowing his eyes. '_But then again…I can take down his samurai with what I've already got out!'_

"Now watch and learn red," Vic chuckled snapping his fingers as both of his monsters disappeared. "I can activate the effects of both my Ghost Empire Medic! By tributing them him, I can special summon two monsters!"

"…" Ganryu was silent with a raised eyebrow as the medic shattered into many flames that flew into the air.

"Heh! Speechless I see!" Vic laughed loudly as two cards popped out of his deck. "So, I special summon two more ghosts! So I choose Ghost Researcher and Ghost Shield Gardna!"

The many flames that were once the Ghost Empire Medic immediately crashed into the cold floor, exploding into a large ghostly cloud of smoke. The smoke dissipated slowly showing two figures, one a pale ghostly scientist with balding hair wearing a tattered scientist coat (1000/500 – 200/0).

The other figure was a mysterious phantom like man wearing an armored black overcoat over his entire body. Like the previous ghosts, this one had a demonic mask over his face. In the monster's arms was an extremely large shield (200/2000 600/0 – 200/0).

"…interesting…" Ganryu stated raising an eyebrow at the two new monsters.

"Now then, I'll activate the effect of my Ghost Researcher," Vic shouted as his Researcher began to cackle loudly, immediately disappearing. "For each increment of five hundred attack points he has, I can draw that many cards! So I get two cards!"

Snapping two cards up, Vic's eyes flashed a dark mist for only a second at the sight of the cards. "Now then…I summon Ghost Knight Lancer!"

A powerful ghostly flame fell from the ceiling, crashing into the ground, forming into a mysterious phantom like man wearing an armored black overcoat over his entire body standing strong. In the monster's hand was a large lance that is glowing dark purple aura on it, while still wearing a dark mask (1800/900 600/0 – 200/0) like the previous monsters. "Lancer! Attack the Samurai of the Void!"

Ganryu closed his eyes as the Ghost Knight Lancer charged forward at a ghastly speed, a dark aura streaming off his lance…

CLANK!!

Only to be stopped by a trap card that displayed a young man placing a katana at a gravestone, forcing the ghostly knight staggering backwards. "…you're not the only one who commands the graveyard…"

"Ha, ha, ha…aren't you the clever one," Vic spat narrowing his eyes at the shattering trap card. "You mind just getting this over with?"

"Fine…you see, my trap card was known as Bushido Last Will," Ganryu stated taking the trap card to fit it into his pocket. Then snapping his deck out of his holster, Ganryu immediately fanned the cards in front of him. "You see, by removing this card from my graveyard, I can end your battle phase. But, then, both of us can take one level four or lower monster from our decks and add them to our hands, of course, we have to show each other what we choose…"

"Fine with me!" Vic snarled snapping his deck out, and with a quick second, the former Dark World Prince held up a single monster card. "I select my Ghost Knight Army Commander."

"And I choose my Wandering Samurai," Ganryu stated slipping the card into his hand. "Any other moves?"

"Yeah…one card face down," Vic growled closing his eyes. '_With that last move…I managed to draw 'him'…if my three monsters can survive next turn…I'll show this punk true terror…'_

"…I draw," Ganryu muttered adding another card to his already large hand. "And now, I summon Samurai of the Earth!"

The ground opened up, allowing the green armored samurai to climb out of the earth, lifting up his spear (1200/1400) towards the ghost. "And now…combo attack!"

"What?!?" Vic shouted as another trap card appeared behind Ganryu, this one forming into the Call to War card.

"My Call to War allows me to special summon any Samurai that is added to my hand," Ganryu stated as a card shot out of his deck and into his hand. "Like for example, my Samurai of the Water!"

In a spout of water, the blue armored samurai appeared spinning the trident in his hands (1300/1100), allowing another card to pop out of Ganryu's dueling deck. "And thanks to my Samurai of the Water, I can add and then special summon Samurai of the Flame!"

A powerful burst of flame, the red armored samurai appeared lifting up his large katana in his hands (1500/1000), and as with the previous three Samurai, a card popped out of Ganryu's deck which was immediately slapped onto the duel disk. "And if you couldn't guess, my Samurai of the Flame adds Samurai of the Sky to the field!"

The wind echoed through the caves, introducing the Samurai of the Sky, skidding across the stone floor (1400/1400), taking aim with the bow that he held in his hands. "Normally, I'd add Samurai of the Void to my hand…but he's already here…so Samurai of the Five Rings!"

Vic just sweatdropped as all of the samurai all struck a pose, while the cold glare from the Dishonored Samurai – Kyu grew colder. "And because your deck master's ability works with the number of samurai you have…"

Before Vic could finish his sentence, the glare had infected all of the ghosts on Vic's field…

(2200/900 – 800/0) (600/2000 – 800/0) (1400/500 – 800/0)

"Of course," Ganryu chuckled with a dark smile on his face, while he immediately took another card from his hand, fitting it into his duel disk. "And I'm not done; I activate the spell card, the A. Forces! Now for each warrior and spellcaster on my side of the field, my warriors gain two hundred points each!"

A powerful aura appeared over the five samurai on Ganryu's field, empowering them all greatly. (1700/1400 1000/0) (1200/1400 1000/0) (1300/1100 1000/0) (1500/1000 1000/0) (1400/1400 1000/0)

"W-What an amazing rush!" Rex stuttered falling back at the sight of the five powerful samurai. '_Not only did this Ganryu guy managed to summon a full field of monsters, each with over two thousand attack points, but he also lowered all of his opponent's monsters at the same time!'_

"Samurai of the Rings…" Ganryu growled slowly lifting his hand up towards Vic. "Charge and eliminate Vic!"

The echoes of the conjoined battle cries of the five samurai filled the caves, along with their broad footsteps stomping on the stone floors.

"Negate Attack go!" Vic shouted as a powerful barrier appeared before Vic's three monsters, propelling a powerful aura that forced all five of the samurai back to Ganryu's field. "Heh…you're a little too impatient to be a duelist red…"

"…set one card face down," Ganryu growled as the card appeared behind his five glaring samurai. "Turn end."

"Heh…you think you may have this game won don't you?" Vic asked cracking his neck slightly before he drew his next card. "More than likely, that face down card is something to prevent me from having something strong out…right?"

Although it was slight, Ganryu's right eyebrow twitched…and unfortunately, Vic picked up on that. "Ha! I know I'm right! More than likely, that face down card is likely Bottomless Trap Hole!"

'…_crap…'_ Ganryu thought slapping his forehead.

"You've still got a while to go red," Vic snickered as all three of his ghosts began to scream in pain as three dark flames began to erupt from the ghosts' bodies. "Cause now…I sacrifice all three of my ghosts…"

The flames all incinerated the three ghosts, before combining into one powerful dark flame that basked the entire cavern in an eerie purple glow. Two glowing eyes appeared in the fire, sending an even deeper chill in the air than what the Dishonored Samurai – Kyu had before hand.

"W-What the hell is this thing?!?" Rex stuttered taking a few steps backwards, now leaning up against the wall.

"HA! HA! HA! HA!" Vic laughed loudly as the large pillar of ghostly flames sprouted a pair of large clawed hands that immediately shot forward, clutching all five of the samurai in their grasps. "Meet the darkest of the dark in my deck…and his nastiest ability! Say goodbye to all your monsters!"

The claw like flames incinerated all five of the samurai in a quick flash, immediately leaving Ganryu with only his useless face down card before him. Well, that and a look that never seemed to appear on his face before…

…a look of sheer terror…

"Next! To end this, I activate the spell card," Vic continued fitting the rest of his hand into his duel disk's graveyard, allowing a spell card with a soldier with red eyes screaming with many spirits escaping from his mouth. "Berserker Soul! Now... in addition to his initial attack, my ultimate creature can attack for each monster I send from the top of my deck to the graveyard!"

"T-This move…" Rex gasped sliding to the ground, a deep chill sliding down his spine…even more than the demon that stood before Vic. '_It's the same one that Weevil told me about when…when…when…'_

Vic immediately snapped off the first card, spinning it around to show Battle Scared Ghost…slipping it into his graveyard as the flames wrapped around Ganryu's body, the flames beginning to singe his skin…just like when he faced Professor Kryancelo…

"Next!" Vic shouted snapping his next card, only to spin it around to show a monster that went by the name of Ghost Alchemist, making the flames increase. "Let's see how well my luck holds up shall we?"

"T-This is…" Ganryu coughed through the flames.

//-/--//-/-/-/-/

"No! Not the duct tape!" Tony shouted before a large strip of duct tape was placed over his mouth.

"Now buzz off," Luntina sighed pushing a tied up Tony to the side while turning back to the cameras turning as a powerful flame enveloped the screen behind her. "Um…anyway, it looks like the match between the young red duelists Ganryu and Vic…the former Dark Prince wins it in a landslide."

That's when a stage hand ran up to Luntina, immediately whispering into her ear. "What? I see…This just in! The match before Genjyo Zosimos and Cleo Sol has just reached the final climax! Let's go see it shall we?"

"You really don't like Cleo, do you?" Tony asked appearing next Luntina, making the top duelist jump from her seat.

"ACK! I thought I tied you up!?!" Luntina shouted glaring daggers at Tony.

"Blame Leo!" Tony announced as the screen began to change channels. "Now to the match!"

"Hey! Wait a minute!" Luntina shouted.

/-//--/-//-//-///

"Direct attack!" Genjyo commanded as a five multicolored lights shot over his shoulders slamming into Cleo's torso.

"AAAHHH!" Cleo shouted before the many lights faded, along with the rest of her life points. (CLP: 0)

"Winner…" Alonso started lifting his arm towards a brightly smiling Genjyo. "Genjyo Zosimos, you will advance to the next round!"

"And that means…" Genjyo gushed with a large blush appearing on his face as he quickly ran towards Cleo. "I get to taste your lips!"

"…Professor Alonso…do I have to?" Cleo pleaded slumping to the floor with a pleading look on her face.

"Unfortunately…you agreed to the conditions," Alonso sighed loudly shaking his head. "And you have to keep your end of the bargain, Miss Sol."

"Fine…get it over with," Cleo moaned as Genjyo immediately placed his hand underneath her chin.

"Joy!" Genjyo announced before leaning forward to plant a deep kiss, making Cleo develop a large blood vessel on her head.

Then with a great push…followed by a definite uppercut, Genjyo was sent flying with hearts in his eyes and a gush of blood shooting from his nose. And with a great crash to the ground, Genjyo flashed his bright smile. "Even more joy!"

"I never said you could use your tongue!" Cleo snarled slamming her foot into Genjyo's ribs.

"Oh! So…this rose…oof…has thorns!" Genjyo laughed through his grunts of pain.

"…And these are the elite of the school," Alonso sighed shaking his head in disgust.

//--//---////-//-/-/

**Card Stats**

**Ghost Knight Lancer / Dark / LV. 4 / ATK: 1800 / DEF: 900 / Fiend/Effect:** When this card is destroyed as a result of battle, you may place two 'Ghost' Counters on any face up monster on the field. (A monster with a Ghost Counter on it is considered a fiend type and Dark Attribute.)

**Description:** A mysterious phantom like man wearing an armored black overcoat over his entire body. The skin that is showing his mouth, underneath his black demonic mask with a pair of glowing red eyes. In the monster's hand was a large lance that is glowing dark purple aura on it.

**Ghost Empire Medic / Dark / LV. 2 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 0 / Fiend/Effect:** By sending this card to your graveyard, you may special summon two level three or lower monsters from your deck with 'Ghost' in their names with less than 1000 attack points. (You cannot special summon Ghost Empire Medic with this effect)

**Description:** A mysterious phantom like man wearing an armored black doctor coat over his entire body. The skin that is showing his mouth, underneath his black demonic mask with a pair of glowing red eyes. In his hands is an old black medical kit.

**Ghost Shield Gardna / Dark / LV. 3 / ATK: 200 / DEF: 2000 / Fiend/Effect:** When this card is normal, flipped, or special summon, you may switch this monster to defense mode. This card is considered to have 'Ghost Knight' in its name.

**Description:** A mysterious phantom like man wearing an armored black overcoat over his entire body. The skin that is showing his mouth, underneath his black demonic mask with a pair of glowing red eyes. In the monster's arms is an extremely large shield.

**Ghost Researcher / Dark / LV. 3 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 500 / Fiend/Effect:** By tributing this face up monster, for every increment of 500 attack points on this card, you may draw one card.

**Image:** A pale ghostly scientist with balding hair wearing a tattered scientist coat.

**Ghost Summon Chain / Trap / Effect:** This card can only be activated when a monster on your side of the field is destroyed as a result of battle. Special summon one level four or lower monster from your deck to your side of the field with 'Ghost' in its name.

**Image:** A dead man being held up with multiple chains.

**Spiritual Rebound / Trap / Effect:** This card can only be activated when your opponent destroys this face down card. Remove this card from your graveyard and special summon one level three or lower monster from your graveyard with 'Ghost' in its name.

**Image:** An exorcist being attacked by many spirits

**Bushido Last Will / Trap / Effect:** When this card is in your graveyard, you remove this card to end your opponent's battle phase. Then each duelist may take one level four or lower monster from his/her deck and add them to their hands. They must show the cards and then shuffle their decks.

**Image:** a young man placing a katana at grave

**Berserker Soul / Instant Spell / Effect:** You must discard your entire hand to activate this card. When this card is activated, you can allow one face up monster on your side of the field with an ATK of 1500 points or less to attack the number of times equal to the number of monster cards discarded from the top of your deck and show to your opponent. This continues until you reach a non-Monster card.

**Image:** A soldier with red eyes screaming with many spirits escaping from his mouth

**Deck Masters**

**Dishonored Samurai: Glare of Dishonor:** For each 'Samurai' on your side of the field, lower the attack of all face up monsters on your opponent's side of the field by 200 points.

**Ghost Knight Sniper: Ghostly Assault: **Once per turn, you may discard any number of 'Ghost' monster cards from your hand. For each card discarded this way, you may inflict 500 points of damage to your opponent.

/-//-/-/--//-///-/

**Sorry! But no preview! The finalists and their matches are going to be secret and you'll all enjoy what's going to happen…**

…**but, I will leave you with this…**

/-/---//-//

RRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG! RRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG!

"Damn…I need to change that ring tone…"

'Click!'

"Yeah? Oh…nice to hear from you again!"

…

"Hmm, I see…fine, I've already got what you need to do. I'll send one of my agents on the island meet up with you with some orders…you already know who he is so it shouldn't be that hard."

"But, just to make sure that you don't miss who he is…he'll say my name…and just in case you forgot…it's…"

"…Big Boss…"


	38. Chapter 37: A Lone Duelist Known

-1_**When I first started playing Duel Monsters, I went through various deck types…**_

_**Warriors…**_

_**Spellcasters…**_

_**Machines…**_

_**I even went through various monster families, like Leo's Airknights, Van's Heroes, and even Ganryu's Samurai…**_

_**Although, I didn't use those types (and truth be told, I didn't even know that some of those monster families even existed), but when I got a hold of my Elf Deck…well, something just clicked…**_

_**A great duelist once said that sometimes the duelist chooses the cards, or the cards choose their duelist. Maybe my cards chose me, or it was the other way around…**_

_**Either way, I know that the person before me now, she seems like she was chosen by her cards. Why they chose her?**_

…_**well…I don't really know…**_

_**/--/-/--/-/-//--/--//**_

_**Chapter 37**_

_**A Lone Duelist Known**_

_**/--/-/-/--/-/-/-//**_

"…_oh great, I get you two…" Kryancelo sighed loudly appearing almost out of no where, freaking out the two girls._

"_Oh! Uh, hey there Professor Kinsman," Rena greeted with a slight bow. _

"_Prof. K, haven't seen you since the spring," Erika chuckled._

"…_just to let you know…I hate you both," Kryancelo admitted with a dull look on his face as he turned towards Rena. "You…for getting that cold hearted samurai to embarrass me!"_

"_Wait…so you're the one who got in without an entrance duel?" Erika asked blinking in confusion towards Rena._

'_And here I thought everyone forgot about that…' Rena thought to herself lowering her head even more so._

"_And you!" Kryancelo growled narrowing his eyes towards Erika. "I still haven't forgiven you for putting hair dye in the water heater last year!"_

"_Oh, come on, it was a harmless little prank," Erika giggled winking towards Kryancelo._

"…_you act like a tomboy most of the time," Kryancelo growled slapping his face with his palm. "And when you're in trouble you put on that girlish charm…that doesn't work on me!"_

"…_um…didn't we have a match to get on with?" Rena asked with a sweatdrop appearing on the side of her head._

"Right…now then," Kryancelo coughed with a slight blush to his face. "Why don't both of you just select your deck masters, and we can…"

"Not so fast Prof. K!" Erika announced raising her hand up. "This is the first round of the finals! We need to add some show, a little passion! Light the fire got this duel!"

"Um…excuse me?" Rena asked with a large question mark appearing over her head. Was it possible that this girl was more a of a showboater than Cleo?

Lifting her hand up into the air, Erika just smiled while many holographic firework explosions erupted behind her. Rena and Kryancelo just sweat dropped at the flashy holograms while Erika shot a thumbs up towards Rena. "Through out this academy and on the cold streets of Manhattan, my name has rings through the air…"

"…famous for the many pranks that everyday someone falls prey to…known as the great…the legendary Prankster! Erika Terrance!"

"Never one for being subtle, as always…" Kryancelo sighed rubbing his forehead. "Always had to go for the flashy…"

"She kinda reminds me of Cleo…" Rena laughed weakly with her eyes closed.

"Ahem! Anyway, can we please get on with the duel?" Kryancelo shouted making all of the holographic fireworks to fizzle out.

"Aw, you're no fun," Erika pouted crossing her arms. "Its no wonder why you're my favorite target."

"Well, I can see how he'd be a target," Rena giggled taking note that Kryancelo was starting to fume greatly. "But…"

"But nothing! Get the duel on already!" Kryancelo shouted slamming his foot into the ground, sending a loud echo through the caves.

"Oh you should've been here last year," Erika snickered wagging her finger, apparently she was ignoring Kryancelo even more as he began to pull the sides of his hair. "I managed to put blue hair dye into the Ra Yellow sprinkler system and managed to make all of the Ra Yellows become Ra Blues for at least two or three weeks!"

"And Prof. K…well, he was locked up in his room for three weeks trying to get all of the dye out of his clothes, hair and skin!"

With that little thought in her head, Rena couldn't help but giggle at the thought of a pure blue Kryancelo…

…Kryancelo was less thrilled with the flash back in his mind. "DAMN IT YOU TWO! GET THIS DAMN DUEL GOING ON OR I'M GOING TO DISQUALIFY BOTH OF YOU!"

"R-Right sir!" Rena and Erika shouted at the same time lifting their duel disks.

/-/-/--/-//--/-

Meanwhile…

"OH! I can't believe I'm facing against you!" Beck exclaimed with a large blush on his face as many hearts began to fly around Beck's body.

Riko was surprised at that voice…and he could only imagine what sick thing Beck was doing at the time.

…lucky for him…

"…So…Beck, I didn't think I'd be facing you so soon," Riko sighed pushing up his sunglasses with his middle finger. "I don't know whether to call it lucky or unlucky…"

"Luck has nothing to do with it, handsome!" Beck replied with hearts appearing where his eyes were. "I prefer to call it…divine intervention! We were fated to face each other here, Mr. Kamika!"

Standing at the side of the two in the cave, Weevil was completely stupefied by Beck's actions. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"What are you talking about Mr. Underwood?" Beck asked the hearts still dancing about his body with a slightly confused look on his face. "I'm perfectly fine!"

'_Maybe not so much in the head probably…_' Riko thought as he lifted up his dueling deck. "Now then…before my lunch comes up…"

"Oh! But, at least let me continue my praise of you, Mr. Kamika!" Beck pleaded as many of the hearts around his body began to crack. "It's not everyday that you get the chance to beat one of the best duelists around…"

"Ahem…in case you've forgotten, I've faced off against," Weevil coughed with a confident smile on his face.

"Yes, yes, we know you dueled against Yugi Motou and Joey Wheeler," Beck snapped with his eyes narrowed down at Weevil and the hearts shattered like fragile glass. "And we know that you lost to both of them! So get your head out of the past and your ass and let me continue with my work!"

"…ouch…" Weevil moaned lowering his head.

"That seemed a little much," Riko admitted. Not even a previous cheating sneak deserved to be treated like that.

"Eh, you gotta be firm with those who don't listen," Beck chuckled rubbing his chin. "Especially those who just love making the same mistakes over and over again…"

"…I'll have to follow your advice," Riko stated activating his duel disk. "Cause you just keep making the same mistake over and over as well!"

"Huh?!?" Beck questioned blinking a few times as tears began to form up in the corners of his eyes. "W-What'd I do?"

"…you've made me mad…" Riko replied simply.

/--/-/-///--/----//

"Deck masters…now!" Kryancelo shouted making both of the girls stiffen up like boards of wood.

"Yeesh…have a little patience will ya, Prof. K.?" Erika asked rubbing the back of her head.

"Just do it…" Kryancelo snarled, fire appearing in his eyes. "I bet Satoshi never has to deal with crap like this…"

"Didn't anyone ever tell you that its impolite to cuss in front of ladies?" Erika questioned lifting up a single card from her deck. "Oh well…not that it matters…for my deck master, I choose Pitch Black Warworlf!"

A loud howl echoed throughout the caves, increasing in volume as the dark werewolf monster leapt behind Erika, snarling and drooling as she began to pet the beast's head. "I know this guy looks a little bit rough…but at times he can be as charming as a puppy dog."

'…_I'd hate to see what kind of dog she thinks is feral…_' Rena thought slipping a card into her deck master slot. "Um, I think I'll choose, Mana Dragon for my deck master!"

In a small burst of purple light, the small aqua-purple dragon popped onto the field, floating around Rena with a childish look on its face. "And don't let my little dragon fool you, he can be a potent…uh, what's the word I'm looking for?"

"…target?" Erika suggested pulling her five card hand from the top of her deck.

"No!" Rena replied. "Its called…well, I don't know what its called, but, he's a good deck master!"

"Sure, you keep thinking that," Erika chuckled lifting her sixth card up. "And I hope you don't mind…but, I think I'll start off…" (ELP: 8000)

"Sure…don't mind me, I'm just your opponent," Rena sighed lowering her head. (RLP: 8000)

"Thanks…and now, I'll activate my Deck Master's special ability!" Erika announced as the Pitch-Black Warwolf howled loudly into the air, echoing through out the entire caves. "His special ability is known as the Cry of the Tribe! And here's how it works, I pick up cards from the top of my deck until I get a monster card…"

Immediately, Erika began to pull card after card, until he had finally pulled the fifth card off the top of her deck. Spinning the next card in her fingers, Erika revealed the monster card to be a copy of her deck master, the Pitch-Black Warwolf. "…and wouldn't you know…I get the second Warwolf. Now, by removing it, along with all the cards I had picked up, all monsters with the same attribute and type, are unaffected by your trap cards!"

"What!?! Oh come on!" Rena protested crossing her arms. "That has to be the most broken deck master I've seen so far…"

"Well, you should see what Jinzo can do," Kryancelo stated crossing his arms over his chest. "At least your traps will still work…"

'_I don't even want to know what Jinzo can do as a Deck Master…_' Rena thought as Erika lifted up one of the cards in her hand.

"Now then…I'll summon Feral Wolverine!" Erika announced slapping the card onto her duel disk, allowing a rather large dark wolverine wearing silver armor over its claws to appear on the field, snarling at Rena (1200/800).

"And I'll end my turn with that."

"Well…it's the most subtle move I've seen so far," Rena admitted slowly pulling her next card into her hand. "So I'll summon Archer Elf in attack mode!"

A mysterious breeze swept through the caves, allowing a young, semi-muscular blonde elf to walk onto the field, wearing a simple brown vest with a forest green tunic underneath. A light brown quiver was wrapped around his back and a wooden bow was in a hand as he quickly drew one of the arrows from the quiver (1300/450).

"Hmm…kind of reminds me of Link," Erika muttered rubbing her chin at the Archer Elf's appearance. "…except I doubt this guy is from Hryule…"

"You're right on that," Rena replied rubbing the back of her head with a slight blush. "He may not be a chosen of the Tri Force, but he's got his own talents, like once per turn, I can lower the attack of one face up monster on the field by four hundred points…"

"…like your Feral Wolverine!"

The Feral Wolverine howled in pain as an arrow pierced his hind leg, causing the dark beastly warrior to kneel down in pain (1200/800 - 400/0). "And, my Archer can still use his regular attack!"

Drawing three more arrows from his quiver, the Elf Archer immediately took aim and fired all three arrows simultaneously into the pain filled beastly warrior's chest. The arrows immediately shattered the beast into many pixels that flew into Erika's body. "Urk!" (ELP: 7500)

"That was thought out," Kryancelo muttered looking as the Archer Elf lowered his bow. "…but, a move like that is exactly what Erika thrives on…"

"…heh…" Erika snickered rubbing her nose. "First round goes to you, Rena…"

"Uh, thanks?" Rena replied blinking a few times. It was actually the first time someone thanked her for taking a lead. "A-Anyway, I'll set one card face down and end my turn…"

"Cool, now I can pay you back for that last move," Erika chuckled slowly taking her next card. "…although, now that I think about it…weren't you that girl who messed up Prof. K.'s room earlier this year?"

"Huh?" Rena questioned, blinking a few times…until the memory reappeared in her head. "Oh! No! No, no, no! I didn't make the mess!"

"…the records say that you did," Kryancelo pointed out with a blood vessel appearing on his head. Apparently he remembered the incident…after all, it was his classroom.

"Aw come on Prof. K., there's no way this girl could've done it," Erika stated crossing her arms. "I mean…it was the work of an amateur or two I'll admit, but just looking at her, she really doesn't have the constitution to pull off a prank like that…"

'…_her choice of words could've been better…' _Rena thought with a large droplet of sweat rolling down her head.

"How would you even know that?" Kryancelo retorted. "You weren't even there at the time!"

"Wasn't I?" Erika asked with her hand up in the air.

_-/-/--/-/-/Flashback//---/-//_

"_Yes! I'm not late!" Rena cheered to herself walking to her classroom._

_However, when she reached the room all of her classmates were standing outside the room whispering to each other. "Huh?"_

"_Hey its her…" Cleo whispered getting all of the students to turn towards Rena. _

_The hallway was filled with whispers, Rena could tell that they were all talking about her. 'What the?'_

_Meanwhile, down the hall a little, Kryancelo was walking down the hall and that's when he noticed his students standing in the hallway. "Aw what the hell is this?" The professor pushed the students aside to look into the room._

_At the sight, Kryancelo's jaw just dropped to the ground. "Oh…my…god…"_

_The room looked like it was the host to a paintball contest that had ten different teams going at it at the same time. Most of the chairs were scattered across the room. There were even multiple school supplies over the ground of the room. There was only one thing at the time that Kryancelo could do at this time…_

…_And that was to scream. "NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO….."_

…_Twenty minutes later…_

"…_.NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!"_

_Apparently, Erika was looking at her watch and stared directly at the now heavily breathing professor. "Dude! That was a full twenty minutes of screaming! I'm impressed and scared at the same time!"_

_After catching his breath, Kryancelo glared daggers at Rena. "…I thought you cleaned it yesterday…"_

"_I-I did!" Rena defended herself._

_//--/---/--/End of Flashback--//---/--/-/_

"…that was you? I thought that was a male student…" Kryancelo muttered thinking back to that day. "…but then again…you're not exactly the ideal lady…"

"Aw, who asked you," Erika huffed with a slight blush on her face.

"Well, I kinda got the same vibe too," Rena admitted receiving a glare from Erika.

"What is with today? Insult Erika day?" Erika asked flipping one of the cards she had in her hand around. "I activate the spell card, Graceful Charity! No need to explain what this little card is capable of right?"

Indeed, lifting up three cards from her hand, Erika immediately slipped two more monster cards into her graveyard. "I'll discard my Feral Wolverine and Lone Fangs…and next, I'll play another spell card, Premature Burial!"

A bright red flash of light erupted from the ground before Erika, allowing the Feral Wolverine (1200/800) to claw its way out of the ground. "Sure it may cost me eight hundred points, but it allows me to equip it to one of my monsters to summon it back from my graveyard!" (ELP: 6700)

"…so, you've already drawn him…haven't you Erika?" Kryancelo snickered, flicking a little hair from his face.

"Heh, you've got that right Prof. K., but before I bring out a blast from the past," Erika chuckled lifting another card. "I'll activate another equip spell, this one known as Bloodline's Trait, and equip it to my Wolverine!"

The large Feral Wolverine howled even louder into the air, allowing a spell card to appear behind it showing the Swamp and Lava Battleguards locking arms while punching each other. "And now…I'll sacrifice my Wolverine…for the real star of my deck!"

The large wolverine faded into the darkness…allowing a shadowed form to slowly stand up where the beast was. With a long, red scarf with black claw marks on the design, covering the fiery, thin, young man's neck, his bushy, yet spiky black hair billowed as the beastly warrior moved, with a pair of wolf ears poking out from the top of his head. Around his wrists were many bracelets with a few cloth-like streams attached to them. His hands and feet had sharp claws and his baggy gray cargo pants were ripped to show his beastly feet (1000/0 600/0).

Then with a loud howl, the beastly youth crouched down as if he was a wolf, showing the long tail that streamed out from a hole in his pants. Needless to say, at the sight of the monster, Rena's eyes were widened by the monster. "Uh…well, that's…I don't know what to say…"

"Hmm, you remember the Lone Wolf right Prof. K.?" Erika asked fitting a card into her duel disk.

"….how could I forget?" Kryancelo sighed with a blood vessel appearing on his head.

"Um…is this something I should know?" Rena asked with a few question marks popping over her head.

"Go ahead Prof. K., I can wait," Erika chuckled looking over the remaining four cards in her hand.

"…some how, I doubt this will be good," Rena muttered turning towards Kryancelo who crossed his arms.

"Its hardly likely you know why I dislike you," Kryancelo stated rubbing his chin at Rena.

Rena rolled her eyes, remembering when she and Kryancelo first met…

_/--/-//-Another Flashback-////---/-/-/_

_Come on! You've got to give me a chance!" Rena pleaded at the duel proctor's desk._

"…_Miss, please have some dignity," the sarcastic Kryancelo sighed with his street accent, he definitely looked like a street person. His shaggy black hair went past his chin, but was apparent to have blond highlights in his hair. His yellow duel academy teacher's uniform was unzipped showing off the completely black shirt and pants…with the exception of the red belt. "You were late, and our academy doesn't really tolerate tardiness…unlike our sister school, the Pacific duel academy…"_

"_But…it wasn't my fault! Can't you make an exception?" Rena asked placing her hands on the desk. "Just give me a chance to duel!"_

_Kryancelo stood up at that question and sighed loudly. "Miss…In order to become a duelist, you need to be creative, intelligent and know how to be on time… and besides, if I gave you a break, I would have to give a break to everyone else who showed up late as well…"_

_A small tear appeared in Rena's eye, but she quickly brushed it away. "…Not fair…"_

_/-/-//-/-/--/End of Another Flashback//--/--/-/_

"Ah, he gave you the same speech didn't he?" Erika laughed combing her hair with her fingers. "That really brings back the memories…"

"Huh?" Rena asked blinking a few times.

"And let me guess…Prof. Maria talked him out of that little rut he calls pride?" Erika continued with her right on guesses. "Maybe…she used her womanly persuasions?"

"That's so eerie…" Rena admitted with a surprised look on her face. "How did you know that?"

"Heh, the same exact thing happened to me last year!" Erika laughed with her hands at her sides. "But, from what I heard…there was a very different outcome…you had some guy named Ganryu Dashiben duel in your stead when you couldn't find your deck."

"Well, I guess Prof. K. had two more people he didn't like this year…"

"Wait, does that mean…?" Rena gasped as she pieced together the pieces of what Erika was getting at.

"Sadly, yes, Erika…" Kryancelo had a hard time trying to speak, it was like something inside of him was trying to continue. "…defeated me…although it wasn't my true deck…"

"Yeah, you used that fire burn deck," Erika pointed out with a smug smirk on her face.

'_Wait…if that wasn't his true deck…_' Rena thought with a question mark appearing over her head.

"Enough reminiscing! Lone Wolf!" Erika announced making the wolf like warrior's ears pick up. "Attack that Archer Elf! Final Fang Fist!"

With a loud howl, the Lone Wolf ran on all fours towards the surprised elf warrior. And with a great kick to the chin, the Archer Elf shattered in the air as the Lone Wolf snickered in a beastly manner. (RLP: 7200)

"Wait a minute," Rena gasped looking at her duel disk. "How'd I lose eight hundred points? It should've been only three hundred…"

"It would, only if my Lone Wolf didn't make you lose five hundred points whenever it destroys a monster," Erika explained as her graveyard began to glow slightly. "Oh, and I should probably point out a couple other important details. You see, thanks to my Bloodline's Trait equip spell, my Lone Wolf now gains half of the attack of the equipped monster and any effect that the monster had."

That's when the two shadows of the Feral Wolverines appeared behind the now feral Lone Wolf, making a powerful black aura appear around the beast warrior. "And here's how my Wolverines work, in addition to their initial attacks, they can attack once more for each Feral Wolverine in the graveyard…"

"And now my Lone Wolf gains that effect! Double direct attack!"

Just as the Lone Wolf pounced towards Rena, the elf duelist immediately threw her hand over her face down card. "You said attack…now you can't take it back! I activate A Hero Emerges!"

"Great…" Erika hissed as the Lone Wolf fell directly into the ground, immediately standing up with a bandage on his head. "Not bad, you're using a trap that affects you, but not my monster…"

"W-Well, it was a suggestion by one of my friends," Rena chuckled rubbing the back of her head at the thought of Van giving her the card. "A-Anyway, take your pick, and whatever monster you choose, I can special summon immediately."

"Fine…second to the right…" Erika immediately stated pointing towards the card in Rena's hand.

"…not much that I can do…but summon Mystical Elf in defense mode!" Rena announced as the elegant blue skinned elf appeared before her, praying on crouched knees (800/2000). "Try to get past her!"

"…just remember, you're the one who asked!" Erika laughed as the Lone Wolf leapt into the air towards the surprised Mystic Elf.

Spinning around, the Lone Wolf slammed its tail into the Mystical Elf's shoulder, sending her to the ground, screaming in pain. At the sight of the shattering elf, Rena's eyes widened. "Wh-what just happened?" (RLP: 6700) (ELP: 6300)

"Didn't I say that you asked for it?" Erika asked with an innocent smile on her face. "You see…my Lone Wolf has a second ability, he destroys any monster that battles…of course battle damage still applies…"

"Nasty little monster really," Kryancelo stated nodding a few times towards the chuckling Lone Wolf. "Not only does he make create damage, but he also damages the opposition as well…"

"Speaking of damaging the opposition…" Erika stated turning back to Rena as the Lone Wolf charged towards the Elf Duelist. "Direct Attack! Final Fang Fist!"

With a great spin, the wolf like warrior became a fiery blur that was about to slam into Rena, until the Mana Dragon flew in front of Rena, creating a powerful purple barrier that caused the Lone Wolf to slam into it, stopping the attack. This time, it was Erika's turn to be surprised. "…I take it was your Deck Master's doing…" (RLP: 6150)

"Yeah, Mana Barrier allows me to remove two monster cards from my graveyard when I take a direct attack," Rena sighed with ease as the Mana Dragon floated back behind her. "…and I can lower the damage by half of the removed monsters' attack points."

"Well, that's a nice defensive ability," Erika chuckled looking at the remaining three cards in her hand. "But, I think I'll just set two cards face down…and anyway, I highly doubt that that'll be able to help you in the long run, cause you'll run out of monsters eventually…"

'…_unfortunately…she's right…'_ Rena thought slowly reaching for her next card.

/--/-/---/-/-/-/-/-/

Meanwhile, on the outside of the caves and on the surface, many storm clouds began to form over the island…of course, most of the students were too engrossed with the tournament duels to realize this…

However, one particular student stood outside one of the entrances to the caves…after being escorted by Professor Raptor because of his defeat, Ganryu just leaned up against one of the nearby trees looking up in the clouding skies.

The sky was a perfect match for how he was feeling at this moment, Ganryu had already failed once before against Dias when that flat-chested girl managed to exceed past the bloody demon hunter…

…and now, he lost to that ghost wielding, freak of nature that called himself a duelist…

And now…all Ganryu had left to comfort him was the small golden pendant that he held in his hand…which had a picture of a beautiful young chestnut haired woman with a small gray haired, smiling child sitting on her lap. "…I…I suppose, it wasn't meant to be…a dishonored hero…I-I-I couldn't keep my promise…"

"Well, well, well, would ya look who it is," a familiar, yet annoying voice stated making Ganryu's eyes narrow.

Looking up from the locket (while shutting the small piece of jewelry with his thumb),. Ganryu just sighed at the sight of Miles and the Dark Rose Brigade standing before him…the leader fingering a black rose in his fingers. "…I guess that this is the one you told me about?"

"Yeah! This bastard's the one who took you and us out of the tournament!" The fat blue, Eric, stated pointing towards Ganryu.

"I'm glad I have you four to tell me this," Miles chuckled throwing the black rose into the air. "Now…I can get my revenge on this scum of a student…"

"…I wasn't the one who defeated you," Ganryu sighed, knowing it was the De Masque guy who defeated this sorry excuse of a duelist. "It was that Masky guy."

"Save your excuses!" Stanford shot out waving his fist towards Ganryu. "Its revenge time!"

"…I'm not interested in your petty revenge…" Ganryu growled shaking his head at the five duelists. "So…why don't you all just buzz off?"

"That's it! I'm going to kick you in the nuts!" Eric shouted stumbling towards Ganryu.

SMASH!

"YYYYYYYYYOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUU SSSSSSSSSSSSSSUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!" Eric shouted before falling to the ground with a large stream of blood spurting from his nose.

Ganryu simply held his fist up, slightly covered with blood that came from the now passed out Eric. "…this is why I hate people…"

Five minutes later…

"NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOO!! Not again!" Miles shouted being kicked to the chest and flung into a tree.

"…Yeesh, no matter how many times I kick idiots down…" Ganryu sighed leaning back up against the tree, his eyes closed. "They always seem to crawl back up to just get knocked back to the ground…not that I don't mind getting my anger out on a few idiots once in a while…"

"Remind me never to make you mad," a calm, bored voice stated. "…I guess I'll have to tell Big Boss about this…."

Ganryu's eyes widened at the sight of this new person, and the fact that 'his' name was mentioned clued Ganryu that he was real contact. "…I never imagined it be you…"

"Well, who else did you think it would be?"

"Still…I can't believe it was you all this time…" Ganryu replied.

"Yeah, yeah, I get the point…anyway, I find it just simply righteous to have someone on the same level to talk to now…"

"…yeah, sure, whatever," Ganryu sighed crossing his arms. "Let's just get this over with then…Luke…"

//-/--/-/-/-/-/-/

'_I…I think this combo might work…_' Rena thought looking at the newest card she had. "First, I'll summon my Berserker Elf!"

From the top of the cave, a rather brutish elf crashed onto the ground, this one a muscular dark skinned elf with long bushy blonde hair with a chiseled body covered with a ripped black overcoat and tight brown pants that billowed as the dark elf snarled at the Lone Wolf (2000/0).

"Whoa…and here I thought that most elves were calm," Erika stated as Rena lifted another card from her hand.

"Actually, there are two types of elves," Rena explained pulling another card. "Light elves, which happen to live in a more harmonized life and dark elves, who live much more rugged style. The Berserker Elf happens to be one of the Dark Elves, and being one of the more rough ones around…"

Slamming his fist into his palm, the Berserker Elf smiled a dark smile at the Lone Wolf, who just glared back. "…and I can already feel the tension in the air…"

"So? Your elf may be big and strong," Erika complimented with a smug smile. "But lets not forget that the moment you attack my Lone Wolf, that big strong man will be nothing more than a fleeting dream…"

"True…but, I activate the spell card, Double Summon!" Rena announced as a small orb of darkness appeared around the Berserker Elf. "And now…I'll summon Mallet Elf thanks to my spell's effect!"

Jumping on top of the Berserker Elf's broad shoulder, the large hammer wielding elf smirked wildly spinning the hammer in one hand (1200/900). However, the Berserker Elf narrowed his eyes at the less serious elf that was on his shoulder, making the Mallet Elf sweatdrop. "And incase you didn't notice…these two usually get on each other's nerves…"

"Ah to have the imagination of young duelists…" Kryancelo sighed loudly shaking his head. "To give your monsters personalities…although, the holograms are a nice touch."

"Oh, I see what you're going to do…" Erika stated wagging her finger at her face down cards. "And I'm already prepared for you! I activate my trap card, Fight in the Alley!"

The cave walls began to meld, forming into a dirty New York alleyway, resembling Bravo's field spell card…only a lot more narrow and riddled with more trash on the sides. The Lone Wolf just smirked as both of the elves were pushed back with the Mallet Elf standing in front of the Berserker Elf (who kinda looked pissed off). "And as long as this trap is out, both of us can only use one monster to attack each turn…puts a damper on your plan I take it?"

"Well, almost," Rena giggled lifting another card from her hand. "But, if there's one thing I've learned at this school, its that you've got to make the best of the situation."

"…you should've learned how to actually duel," Kryancelo shot out, making Rena lower her head.

"Ow…" Rena moaned shaking her head. "…I play Pot of Greed!"

The large green and blue giggling pot appeared in front of the two surprised elves, creating another two orbs to surround the two elves (1200/900 200/0). As soon as Rena held her next two cards up, she immediately threw them into her hand and pulled another one into her duel disk. "And now…I'll activate another spell card, this time, I activate the field spell, the Weeping Forest!"

A powerful rumbling shook the entire caves, creating many vines and plants to crawl all over the holographic alleyway, creating a more natural look. Kryancelo lowered his head and shook his hair from his face. "…now this is just insane…"

"My field spell, first gives both my elves another spell counter," Rena explained as two more orbs appeared around her elves, making the Mallet Elf's hammer glow (1400/900 200/0). "And, my Forest gives both of my elves an additional three hundred points!"

The Mallet Elf jumped into the air, grabbing one of the vines as his hammer grew even larger (1600/800 300/300), while the Berserker Elf roared loudly, shaking the very foundations of the transformed cave (2000/0 300/300). "And now…Berserker Elf! Attack the Lone Wolf!"

Grinning a satisfied smile, the Berserker Elf charged forward, revving his fist to throw a powerful punch at the beastly warrior. "Heh…Lone Wolf! Counter Claw!"

When the Berserker Elf fired his fist, the Lone Wolf raised his clawed hands up, catching the fist, creating a powerful shockwave that flew through the caves. Then all of a sudden, a powerful golden aura emanated from the Berserker Elf's skin, making the elf's already large muscles grow even larger (2300/300 1000/0). Erika and the Lone Wolf's eyes both widened at the Berserker Elf's newly found strength. "W-What?! Where did that come from!"

In a powerful explosion of pixels, both battling monsters destroyed each other as Rena smiled brightly. "Well, you see, when my Berserker Elf has two or more Spell Counters and he battles an opposing monster, he gains a thousand points. But, in return for that, he can't attack directly and any battle damage he inflicts is cut in half." (ELP: 5750) (RLP: 5650)

"Still, I'm lead," Erika stated snapping her fingers a few times. "Especially when I have my other trap card, Badge of Battle!"

Erika's trap card lifted up, this time showing a battle damaged soldier having a rusty badge being clipped to his uniform. Then pulling out the deck of cards from her deck, Erika fanned the cards in front of here. "Here's how my trap works. When a monster on my side of the field is destroyed, I can add it back to my hand. And all I need to do, is remove from play one monster from my deck with the same type. But here's a twist, for every four levels on the removed from play monster, I can lower the returned monster's level by one star!"

"Wow…that was kinda long," Kryancelo muttered as Erika slowly spun the card around to show, Enraged Battle Ox that was immediately placed into her pocket.

"And now…when my next turn comes around, I'll be able to summon my Lone Wolf back to the field without a tribute!" Erika announced snapping her fingers a few times.

"Oh…but I think its still my turn," Rena replied fitting another card into her duel disk, creating the card behind her smirking Mallet Elf. "And with this face down card, I'll call it a turn."

"Then allow me to bring back the star again!" Erika laughed pulling her next card into her hand, only to pull another card out and slap it onto her duel disk. "Come back out Lone Wolf!"

With a loud howl that echoed through the transformed caverns, the beastly Lone Wolf (1000/1000) reappeared on the cold floor, his hair standing on the end. "And why not outfit him with a much less stable body? I activate the equip spell, Mist Body!"

Immediately, the Lone Wolf's body slowly became almost transparent, making the beastly warrior smirk widely. "Now, he can't be destroyed as a result of battle! And now…Final Fang Fist!"

"Hold it! My Mallet Elf gains an additional spell counter cause of your equip card!" Rena announced as the Mallet Elf spun the hammer into the air (1900/1200 200/0), bringing it down on the charging Lone Wolf.

"So? I can still blast away your monster and a chunk of your life points!" Erika shouted while the Lone Wolf kicked the large hammer back, making it slam back into the Mallet Elf's body, creating a loud squishing noise. "Nice sound effects…" (ELP: 4750) (RLP: 5150)

"Although the strategy is new," Kryancelo sighed leaning up against the wall, now having a small magazine in his hands. "It sure does take a while…"

"W-Well, then allow me to speed things up!" Rena announced as her face down card bounced up into the air, this one showing a spell card depicting a battle scared forest with multiple dead elves on the ground. "Tears of the Sacred Forest activate!"

Then with a loud yelp the Mallet Elf (1200/800 300/300) landed on the ground feet first, raising his hand up to grab the large hammer that seemed to be weightless. "Now look who's back on the field!"

"How in the world did he get back here?" Erika asked with a question mark appearing over her and the Lone Wolf's heads.

"My spell can only be activated when I have my field spell out," Rena explained placing her hand on her chest. "When one or more of my Elves are destroyed by a card effect, I can special summon all of them back…however, they can't attack the turn they were summoned…"

"Heh, so since its my turn, then its just a free summon," Erika sighed looking at her hand. "…then I guess I'll just set this one card…and let you go ahead…"

"Alright…" Rena muttered slowly drawing her next card.

"You mind telling me why I'm even here Alan?" Kryancelo asked turning towards one of the cameras that was watching the match. "I mean, you've got cameras, so…"

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

While the duel was continuing, Kryancelo immediately pulled out his black cell phone. "Yeah?"

"Don't talk to the cameras!"

"Yeesh…"

Back to the duel!

"I activate the spell card, Giant Trunade!" Rena announced as a powerful windstorm swept the field, blowing away all of the spells and trap cards into the air. "Now, all spells and traps go back to our hands…"

"Before that, I activate my face down quick play spell card!" Erika shouted as the card spun upwards, this card depicting two large werewolf monsters snarling at the Lone Wolf. "A Loner's Opposition! So enjoy my gifts!"

As the wind died down and the cave returned to normal, two large werewolves (1000/1000 x2) materialized on Rena's field, standing on both sides of the slightly freaked out Mallet Elf (1200/800 400/0). "Well…I'm not sure if I want these two guys…"

"Oh, but the Beast Fang Tokens like you," Erika replied with an almost innocent look on her face. "Especially since they're willing to fight for you…"

Although a little confused with that comment, Rena just shrugged that off and took a familiar card from her hand. "Okay…anyway, right now, I'll activate my field spell once more!"

As soon as Rena slipped the card into her duel disk, the Weeping Forest reappeared all around the three in the large cavern, only this time, many trees stood tall and proud where the walls of the cave were. And once again, the Mallet Elf leapt onto one of the tree branches, the goofy smile back on his face (1600/900 500/300). "And next…I'll summon Edge Elf!"

Stepping out from behind one of the trees, was the cold, dark, Edge Elf (1700/1300 300/300), lifting the two blades up towards the Lone Wolf who seemed to welcome the challenge. "Now then, I'll have him select your Lone Wolf and move into my battle phase…"

Before Rena could continue, both of the Beast Fang Tokens leapt into the air towards the Lone Wolf, both of them howling loudly into the air. With a cold glare, the Lone Wolf jumped into the air as well, only to slam both of his feet into the two tokens, shattering them as if they were nothing. (RLP: 4150)

"Oh? Did I forget to mention that my two tokens have to attack first during your battle phase?" Erika asked, rubbing her chin slightly as Kryancelo sighed loudly. "Oh, and that they can't destroy attack position monsters in battle? I think I'd remember something like that…"

"…You don't have to mask that…" Rena sighed lowering her head for a quick second, before lifting her head up and throwing her hand towards the Edge Elf. "Uh, anyway, Edge Elf! Attack the Lone Wolf!"

Crossing both of his katanas, the Edge Elf dashed forward in a black blur that was already in front of the surprised Lone Wolf…but just as the elfin warrior was about to bring both of his swords down, the Lone Wolf slammed his fist into the elf's stomach…

…but that still didn't stop the two swords that were immediately brought down on the beastly warrior, shattering the two of them into pixels. (ELP: 3750) (RLP: 3650)

"Heh…not bad! Not bad at all!" Erika laughed as the Mallet Elf leapt from the branch he stood on, the large hammer spinning wildly in his hands. '_I guess I was wrong! This is awesome!'_

"Mallet Elf! Attack Erika directly!" Rena announced, her arm still extended towards Erika.

While still in mid-air, the smirking elf slammed the large hammer directly on top of Erika's body, thankfully it was just a hologram, otherwise, Erika would've really been crushed instead of forced to the ground. (ELP: 1650)

Kryancelo however…well, he was still too engrossed in his magazine to really care what was going on with the duel. "…hmm…yellow's now the new black? I'll never understand these fashion trends…"

"And, that's my turn," Rena stated while Erika slowly stood up, dusting off her skirt. "Um…are you okay?"

"Heh, never better!" Erika laughed out loud, snapping her next card from the top of her duel disk. Unfortunately, with the Mist Body and Fight in the Alley in her hand, Erika really couldn't use this new card…so simply tossing the card into her hand, Erika crossed her arms. "…I pass this turn…"

"Are you sure?" Rena asked a little confused, even the Mallet Elf and the Mana Dragon blinked in confusion at Erika's actions.

"Yeah, I don't have any monsters, no way to get my Lone Wolf back," Erika pointed out gesturing towards her hand. "Besides…I'm just glad that I was able to get this far in the tournament…"

"Well, alright then," Rena stated drawing her next card, but then raised her hand up. "Mallet Elf, do your stuff!"

A little hesitant, the Mallet Elf just walked up to Erika raising the hammer up into the air. All the while, Erika just smiled while the Elf raised his hammer up into the air…and then just lightly tapped Erika on the head. "…that could've been a little more dramatic…" (ELP: 0)

"S-sorry," Rena stated with an embarrassed smile as all the holograms began to disappear. "I guess my Mallet Elf doesn't like to hurt people that much…"

"And the winner…" Kryancelo yawned, not bothering to put down his magazine. "…which one of you won again?"

"Um, I did," Rena answered with a small sweat droplet on her head.

"Oh…joy," Kryancelo moaned pocketing the magazine. "…well, good for you…I guess…"

"Heh," Erika laughed slowly walking up to Rena, a small fanged smile on her face. "Now that I've lost to you…ya better not lose in this tournament."

"Yeah, I'll try to remember that…" Rena replied before Erika walked past her, heading towards where she originally came from in the caverns.

"Now then…your next opponent has already been chosen," Kryancelo sighed gesturing towards the tunnel next to him. "Just head down this tunnel and you'll run across him or her in a matter of minutes…"

"Uh, weren't you supposed to accompany us so we don't get lost?" Rena asked rubbing the side of her cheek.

"Yeesh, what am I? Your father?" Kryancelo growled shaking his head. "Fine! I'll escort you…"

'_I was just asking a simple question…'_ Rena thought folding her hands behind her back.

/-/-/--////--/-/-/

Meanwhile…

"Chaotix Tai Gars!" Riko announced as the very muscular Chaotix Tai Gars (3000/3000) delivered a powerful kick to the large bird that was made out of pure electricity. However, with how the duel was going, it was a miracle that Riko was able to get his killer monster out. '_T-These cards…I've never even heard of these…'_ (RLP: 1000)

"Hmm…just as the rumors had said," Beck sighed in joy, many hearts floating around his body. On his field were three cards, two spell cards and one trap card. "…you are an elegant and strong opponent Mr. Kamika…" (BLP: 3800)

That's when three powerful pillars of light appeared over the three cards on Beck's field as he lifted up his next card into the air. "…it's a shame that I have to end this…"

A few minutes later…

"…the winner…is Robert Becker…" Weevil announced as Riko slowly sat down at what had happened.

"Excellent!" Beck announced wagging his hips about, having even more hearts flying away from his body. "Too bad Kamika Honey!"

'…_its times like this that I'm glad I'm blind,'_ Riko thought with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head at Beck's 'Kamika Honey' comment.

"Now then…I'm sorry that we didn't have a wager," Beck pouted before skipping past Riko, his duel disk turned off, still loaded with his deck. "But, I figure that you losing would be more than enough…later Kamika Honey!"

As soon as Beck had disappeared into the darkness of the tunnels, Weevil walked over to Riko and crossed his arms. "You need a hand getting out of here?"

"…nah…I've got it covered," Riko sighed slowly standing up. '_…I guess…I guess I need a little more work…'_

-/-/--/-/---/-/-/

**Card Stats**

**Berserker Elf / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 2000 / DEF: 0 / Spellcaster/Effect:** This card cannot attack your opponent's life points directly. Any battle damage caused by this card is cut in half. Every time a spell card is activated, place one Spell Counter on this card. When this card battles a monster, by removing two Spell Counters from this card, you can increase this monster's attack by 1000 until the end phase.

**Description:** A muscular dark skinned elf with long bushy blonde hair with a chiseled body covered with a ripped black overcoat and tight brown pants.

**Weeping Forest / Field Spell / Effect:** Increase the attack and defense of all monsters with 'Elf', 'Half-Elf', or 'Celtic' in their names by 300 points. All monsters with 'Elf', 'Half-Elf' and 'Celtic' cannot be destroyed by targeting spell card effects.

**Image:** A large forest with a young elf girl crying next to a tree.

**Tears of the Sacred Forest / Quick Play Spell / Effect: **This card can only be activated when you have 'Weeping Forest' on your side of the field and a monster (or more) with 'Elf' or 'Half-Elf' on your side of the field are destroyed by a card effect. Special summon all monsters that were destroyed with 'Elf' or 'Half-Elf' in their name this turn to your side of the field (monsters special summoned by this effect cannot attack the turn this card was activated and cannot activate their effects).

**Image: **A battle scared forest with multiple dead elves on the ground.

**The Lone Wolf / Dark / LV. 5 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 1000 / Beast-Warrior/Effect: **This card cannot be special summoned. When this monster battles another monster, destroy the opposing monster. Each time this card destroys a monster, inflict 500 points of damage to your opponent. While this card is face up on the field, monsters cannot be normal, special summoned or set on your side of the field.

**Description:** A fiery, thin, young man with bushy, yet spiky black hair with a pair of wolf ears poking out from the top of his head. His mouth and neck is covered by a long red scarf with many black claw like marks on it. Around his wrists are bracelets with a few cloth-like streams appearing on it. His hands and feet have sharp claws and his baggy gray cargo pants are ripped.

**Feral Wolverine / Dark / LV. 4 / ATK: 1200 / DEF: 800 / Beast-Warrior/Effect:** In addition to a normal attack, this card can attack during the same Battle Phase as many times as the number of 'Feral Wolverine' (s) in your graveyard.**  
Description:** A large dark wolverine wearing a silver armor over its claws.

**A Loner's Opposition / Instant Spell / Effect:** Activate one of the following effects:

- Special summon two 'Beast Fang Tokens (Dark/LV. 3 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 1000 / Beast-Warrior) on your side of the field. All 'Beast Fang Tokens' must attack each turn and cannot be used as a tribute.

Special summon two 'Beast Fang Tokens (Dark/LV. 3 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 1000 / Beast-Warrior) on your opponent's side of the field. All 'Beast Fang Tokens' must attack first each turn and cannot destroy face up attack position monsters as a result of battle.

**Image:** Two large werewolf monsters snarling at the Lone Wolf.

**Bloodline's Trait / Equip Spell / Effect:** The equipped monster cannot attack or change battle position. When the equipped monster is tributed for a monster with the same attribute and type, the tribute summoned monster gains half of the equipped monster's attack and effect.

**Image:** The Swamp and Lava Battleguards locking arms

**Fight in the Alley / Continuous Trap / Effect:** As long as this card is on the field both players can only attack with one monster per turn.

**Image:** A large dirty alleyway with many gangsters surrounding the Lone Wolf


	39. Chapter 38: Faith or Fact

_**Hmm…once again I stand here before a familiar opponent. **_

_**And if you were here the last time we met, then you probably figured out that he knew something about my past…**_

…_**and when you see me, I look like the kind of person who wouldn't have these kinds of problems that a lot of people experience.**_

_**But even I have a dark past behind my charming smile…**_

…_**the pendant around Kazin's neck is proof enough…**_

_**Watch this…a piece of Childsmen past…**_

_**/-//-///-/--/-///-/**_

_**Chapter 38**_

_**Faith or Fact**_

_**//--/--//-///--/-/-///**_

"_Alright boys, I want a clean match," Maria asked wagging her finger at the two duelists. "No direct attack below the belt…but trash talking is optional!"_

"_No need to sully the ears of a beautiful teacher," Leo admitted fanning out his deck to look at his cards…_

"…_right Kazin?"_

"…_it's a cruel joke to hear those words come from your mouth," Kazin spat adjusting his glasses up._

"Do I detect a little anger?" Leo asked picking a single card from his dueling deck that he held up.

"Anger? Ha!" Kazin spat out, nearly ripping a card from his selection of cards. "Anger can't even begin to describe what I'm feeling at this very moment…nay, hatred, sorrow, anguish…and toss in a little anticipation and viola! You've got what I'm feeling!"

"Wow…and here I thought that you didn't obsess about anything," Leo stated slowly shuffling his deck back into his duel disk's deck slot.

"Just keep making jokes," Kazin snarled reaching for something around his neck, pulling out a small, silver pendant that had a red cross on it with a scar racing at its diagonal. "I'm sure she just loves the last joke you played on her…"

BA-DUM!

Leo's eyes slightly bulged, yet keeping his smile on his face, Leo grabbed his chest slightly. Shaking it off and breathing hard, Leo regained his composure. "…any chance would you be willing to listen to reason?"

"No…" Kazin flatly replied releasing the pendant and spinning one of the cards up. "…meet my deck master, Gagagigo!"

Landing on the ground, the infamous dark green reptile warrior stood up tall with a loud hissing noise echoing through the caves. Leo raised an eyebrow at the weird deck master as many feathers began to flow around his body. '_A reptile? Something tells me that he's not using her deck…'_

From the feathers, the shy Airknight Librarian appeared behind Leo, blushing at her master calling her out as his deck master. With a reassuring smile on his face towards the Librarian, Leo rubbed the top of her purple hair. "Airknight Librarian will be my deck master…"

Kazin narrowed his eyes down at the Airknight Librarian, scaring the small angel. "…again? Do your insults know no limit?"

"..." Leo was silent, and his smile gave way for a nasty scowl that seemed to make him look as demented as Kazin.

"…Duel!"

/-/-//-///--///--/--//

"Fist Bruiser Army! Attack his Ojamas!"

Nine old styled gangsters (1500/0 1800/0 x9) leapt from the cave walls, all of them readying to deliver many powerful punches at their designated targets who were beginning to panic loudly. Powered up by the powerful spell card, The A. Forces, the bruiser's muscles were almost ripping through their jackets and already ripped jeans.

"Trap card open!"

That's when a powerful vortex appeared in front of all nine of the muscular Bruisers, forcing them all skidding backwards back in front of the enraged and familiar Obelisk Blue duelist.

"Tsk, tsk, Sheldon," Klein snickered wagging his finger at the enraged Bravo, a fiery aura appearing around Bravo's body. "Haven't you heard that those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it?"

"Don't call me Sheldon!" Bravo roared loudly, making the caves rumble loudly.

As one could plainly see, Klein and Bravo had found each other quickly and due to both of their strategies being the rush style. Klein had his three Ojama brothers (0/1000 x3), the Ojamagician as his deck master and had used his Trap card, Negate Attack. And in his hand was a small hand of three cards. "Stress will only bite you in the butt…" (KLP: 5150)

"Yeah, yeah…" Bravo muttered fitting the card into his duel disk, making it appear behind his nine Fist Bruisers (3300/0 x9), while his Savage Bruiser stood beside him with a fanged smirk. "Just go you little piece of…" (BLP: 3100)

"No need for that language," Klein chuckled snapping his next card from the top of his deck. "But, there's a need for this! I activate Ojama Delta Hurricane!"

Bravo smirked wildly snapping his fingers over his face down card, making it flip upwards, and all nine of his Bruisers disappeared before the tri colored tornado crashed over his body shattering the other cards he had on his field. "Urk!"

"Now then…" Klein snickered as his three Ojamas landed in front of him, each with a large smirk on their faces. "I activate Shield and Sword!"

"Now who's not learning through the past…" Bravo asked as all three of Ojama Brothers (1000/0 x3) leapt towards Bravo.

Then with several kicks to his face, Bravo staggered backwards as his Savage Bruiser shot a dark glare at the three Ojamas. (BLP: 100)

"Why fix what's not broken?" Klein asked crossing his arms fitting another card into his duel disk.

"…you'll see…" Bravo snarled slowly standing straight up.

//--//-//-//-//--//-//--/

"I'll start off!" Kazin snarled snapping his sixth card into his hand, and a dark smirk appeared on his face. "Heh…and well, well, well, I never thought I'd draw this card so soon."

"Really? And what pray tell could this card be?" Leo asked keeping his narrowed eyes down at Kazin, somewhat scaring the Airknight Librarian now.

"You see…this deck that I use represents what I truly believe," Kazin stated lifting his duel disk up, activating the field spell card zone to open up. "Kind of ironic as you'll see in a few moments…I activate the field spell card, Test Lab!"

The ground began to rumble, allowing many different wires, machines and tubes to rise up around the two duelists, and lighting up the cave dramatically. The tubes seemed to be empty and dulled by the light.

Leo looked left and right, and then turned to the cowering Airknight Librarian. "Kazin…what is this place?"

"Behold the power of science!" Kazin laughed snapping his deck out of his deck slot. As he fanned the deck out, Kazin slowly looked through his cards, his finger tip feeling the top of the cards. "My Test Lab is the perfect example of my belief in the power of science! When it's activated, I must discard one monster card from my deck."

Tossing the card into the air, the single card shattered into multiple lights that flew into the many tubes, activating them. The lights died down, and floating in the tubes now were many small black lizards like monsters that were curled up. Leo's eyes narrowed even more as the Airknight Librarian snuck behind him, not able to take the sight of the monsters. "What are these things?"

"Oh…you'll find out," Kazin chuckled slowly tapping a card onto his duel disk, making it appear before him. "And to make sure that you find out, I activate the spell card, Field Barrier!"

"Great…" Leo muttered as a large aura appeared around all of the machines.

"And I'll end my turn," Kazin chuckled pushing his glasses up with his middle finger. "I couldn't help but notice…that your smile is gone…"

BA-DUM! BA-DUM!

Leo's eyes widened once more, there was something definitely wrong in his chest…but, what was it? Sensing his discomfort, the Airknight Librarian floated up to Leo and grabbed his arm. And with a smile appearing on his face, Leo rubbed the young angel's head once more. "Thank you for your concern…"

Sensing a cold glare, Leo slowly pulled his sixth card while keeping a smile towards the glaring Kazin. "I draw! And summon Airknight Vanguard!"

Many feathers floated through the air, allowing the pike wielding Airknight to land on the ground spinning the pike in his hands (1500/1350). "And now…attack Kazin's face down card please."

With a nod, the Vanguard flew forward stabbing the pike into the back of the card, making it turn into a small black lizard floating inside a large test tube (0/0) being stabbed by the pike before shattering.

"And since your monster appeared to have zero defense points," Leo stated as the Airknight Vanguard flew in front of Kazin, flapping his to throw several feathers into Kazin's body. "My Airknight will inflict the full damage to your life points." (KLP: 6500)

"Heh…and here I thought that angels were supposed to be calm and…and gentle," Kazin spat out stepping forward as the Airknight Vanguard flew back next to Leo.

"These angels are the guardians of the higher planes," Leo stated smiling over to the blushing Airknight Librarian. "They are known to fight to keep those who try to defeat the peace…"

Before Leo could continue, the Gagagigo ran in front of Leo, surprising the usually calm duelist.

WHAM!

"GACK!" Leo spat out as the Gagagigo re-tracked his scaled fist from Leo's stomach. (LLP: 7700)

"And now…allow me to show you Gagagigo's Master Ability," Kazin spat out rubbing his mouth as the Gagagigo slowly walked back to his side of the field. "Since Gagagigo was a fighter for justice, his special ability is known as Justified Reptilian Revenge. Since a reptile was destroyed as a result of battle, you take one hundred points of damage times the level of the destroyed monster…"

That when one of the test tubes shattered, allowing one of the larger black lizards to fall to the ground. As the beast hissed loudly, the lizard stood up tall showing it was a large black lizard-man, with large metallic limbs and blood red eyes that starred hungrily at the Airknight Librarian. The lower part of its jaw had a steel attachment with blood dribbling down his metallic chin as its long tongue slithered between its metallic teeth (1000/1000).

"Should I even ask what that atrocity is?" Leo asked still feeling the effects of the powerful punch. "And how it got here?"

"I'm still going to tell you," Kazin admitted adjusting his glasses once more. "The monster you destroyed was known as Blood Lizard – Test Subject, and when destroyed, I can special summon a Blood Lizard from my deck with a level to four or lower with a thousand attack or less…"

"The creature that I have out is known as Blood Lizard – Alpha. And he qualifies for my Test Subject's effect."

"…now I remember this monster…" Leo stated finally recovering the Gagagigo's low punch to his stomach.

"Then I assume that you fully remember then?" Kazin asked fingering the pendant that was still around his neck. "I assume you remember Lily?"

Once more, Leo turned towards the Airknight Librarian, and then with his eyes closed, Leo placed a hand on her shoulder…

//--/-/-/-/_Five Years Ago--/--//---/--//-/_

_Three years ago, back when Leo was only a child of ten years old, he was just a young man with no cares. In fact, with his school finished, Leo just sat on the balcony that was attached to his room on the second on his family's mansion. A frown appeared on Leo's face as he watched the sun rise over the mansion._

_Although he was younger, the only things that were different about Leo were his small ten year old thin body and slightly long black hair. And the exception of school, his social life wasn't all that great, and even at the school, he wasn't like the other private school kids…_

… _His room…his sanctuary, his own space…and his jail cell…_

"_Leo! Leo!"_

_Looking down from his balcony, Leo's face brightened up into a cute smile at the sight of his two first true friends. Surprisingly, the first was a thirteen year old Russell with messier sandy blonde hair with coke bottle framed glasses, wearing a dirty and small lab coat. _

_The second was a cute, young, short haired ten-year old girl wearing a simple white and blue sun dress with a book in her arms. Her eyes were covered with her dark sandy blonde hair, giving her a shy look. Around her neck was a silver pendant with a red cross on it._

"_Russell! Lily!" Leo laughed with a bright smile on his face as he waved towards the two young friends._

"_Hey, Leo, we're going to go check out that new duelist store," Russell shouted out waving to Leo. "You want to join us?_

"_S-Sure!" Leo shouted running back into his room._

_Soon, after a little walk, the three youngsters were inside one of the most hyped up duelist store, with three large plasma screens on the walls showing a young duelist with a white Obelisk blue uniform overcoat with dark blue jutting down blue hair with a large three headed cybernetic dragon charging up an attack towards a young gray haired teen in a fancy light gray suit._

_Flying in the air was a large green suited warrior with glowing armor over its body. _

_But, Leo was in awe with all the cards that seemed to line the walls, each of them gleaming with the light. "Sweet!"_

_Meanwhile…_

"_Aw come on, Lily," Russell sighed adjusting his large glasses, he and Lily were looking over the cards that were in the glass counters. "There has to be one card that you like."_

"_W-Well…" Lily stuttered turning to the side. Russell was just being a big brother figure to Lily, Russell being a few years older was already a rookie duelist with a deck of positively disgusting monsters that still seemed to show his love of science._

"_Maybe this card?" Leo asked appearing behind the two siblings._

"_ACK!" Russell and Lily shouted jumping up._

"_L-Leo! Don't do that again!" Russell shouted pushing his glasses up once more, while Lily was trying to fix her hair over her eyes once more. "How'd you do that in the first place?"_

"…_I just walked behind you two," Leo answered holding up a card to Lily. "Anyway, I found a card that Lily might like."_

_The very card that Leo had in his hand was none other than the…Airknight Librarian. A small blush appeared on Lily's face as Leo placed the card in her hands. "T-Thanks L-Leo…"_

"_Aw…isn't that cute?" Russell chuckled crossing his arms looking at a simple card. "Oh, look at this…Fire Dragon…with a full set of Chemical dragon cards…"_

_/-/---//--//-/-///-/--//-/_

"…Well, that was a blast from the past," Leo admitted shaking his head as he fitted a card into his duel disk, making it appear behind his Airknight Vanguard.

"Just you wait…" Kazin spat out, nearly ripping off his next card from the top of his dueling deck, tossing his card into his hand. "You'll be experiencing more and more memories as this duel goes on…"

"I don't know if you blocked it out intentionally…but trust me, you'll remember at the end of this duel…"

'_Especially since the experimental portable Darkness Generator is active…and even though this is only a test run, I kinda wish he would disappear after this duel. However, it appears that the subject is able to see memories projected from his mind…but I could see them too…'_

"Hey, does one of you mind explaining what I just saw?" Maria asked tilting her head slightly. More than likely, she too had seen the memory in Leo's past.

Kazin just sweatdropped at this new development and looked towards his hand. '_Okay…it affects bystanders as well. At least I can work that into the grand scheme of things…'_

"Ahem! I activate the effect of Test Lab!"

Another one of the test tubes shattered, allowing another lizard to claw onto the field, this one resembling the Blood Lizard – Beta…only without the steel attachments with pure flesh and blood (1000/1000). "Since I was able to remove Blood Lizard – Alpha from my graveyard, I can summon a Blood Lizard – Alpha token to my side of the field."

"I assume that you're going to tribute it then," Leo came up with as the Airknight Librarian cowered behind him once more.

"Wrong," Kazin simply stated. "You see, my token can't attack or be used for a tribute summon."

"…then may I ask why?" Leo asked.

"Sure…I activate another spell card," Kazin announced as a large amount of blood began to surge around his body. "Known as Blood Shield!"

As soon as the barrier of blood appeared around his body, Kazin snapped his fingers, instantly destroying the Blood Lizard – Alpha Token with a loud screech. "You see, in order to keep my blood shield active, I need to destroy a monster with Blood in its name. And my token counts."

"…so your using your monsters as cannon fodder?" Leo asked narrowing his eyes down at Kazin.

"Please…I prefer the term, tactical pawns," Kazin corrected, fitting a card into his duel disk. "My turn's over with."

"Then my draw," Leo announced doing as he said. '_I wish I could remember these Blood Lizards…but, if I know Kazin…then he's got a strategy to work with them.'_

"I set one monster face down," Leo announced as the face down card materialized on his field. "And now! Airknight Vanguard, attack his Blood Lizard – Beta!"

Flying forward, the angelic knight immediately stabbed the surprised Blood Lizard, making it hiss in pain. Then as the monster shattered backwards, the fountain around Kazin's feet spurted up, protecting the Scientific Yokai from being damaged. "That was just pathetic…my blood shield negates any battle damage that I take when I have at least one monster on the field."

"A spell version of the trap Spirit Barrier," Leo stated lifting his hand up. "Too bad you have no monsters on the field now."

"Yes…but don't forget about my deck master!" Kazin shouted as the Gagagigo leapt forward slamming his tail down into Leo's shoulder.

"…do unto others as they do unto you," Leo coughed recovering from the attack. "And I'll be sure to return that, plus interest." (LLP: 7300)

"Well, you've already used your normal summon…" Kazin replied smugly as the face down card on Leo's field flipped up to reveal many angels floating into the sky from many crying people.

"Yes, but I activate, Cry to the Heavens!" Leo announced as his Airknight Vanguard disappeared in a flurry of white feathers. "I have to return one Airknight from my field to my deck, but then, I'm allowed to special summon another from my hand immediately!"

"But that means…" Kazin gasped loudly before many more feathers erupted on the field.

When the feathers floated to the ground, a silver and yellow armored angel with a large silver feather on his helmet landed on the ground reaching for his belt that has a silver crossbow (1800/0). "Yes, that means my Airknight Brigadier can attack you directly!"

Before Kazin could say another word, many arrows were shot into his body, making him grunt and stagger backwards. "GRUGH!" (KLP: 4700)

"And, I'll end my turn with a face down card," Leo stated with the card appearing behind his Airknight.

BA-DUM! BA-DUM! BA-DUM!

"Urk!" Leo spat out, clutching his chest again. '_W-What's going on here?'_

_//--/--/-//-Three Years ago…/-/-//--////-/_

"_Well, well, well," Russell chuckled lifting up a large blue overcoat from a large box that Leo and Lily were looking into. "I guess I can take this as my acceptance into the Atlantic duel academy!"_

"_Congratulations Russell…" Lily stated with a cute smile appearing on her face._

"_Thanks sis," Russell replied rubbing the back of his head before sitting on the couch. "…that exam was a breeze though…"_

"_I'm surprised that you were able to do so well," Leo admitted lifting up the uniform overcoat. "…aren't you going to an island?"_

"_Yeah," Kazin answered quickly adjusting his smaller glasses and cleaner hair (although it was slightly). _

"_Then why would they send you an overcoat that could bake you in a matter of minutes there?" Leo asked putting the overcoat over his slightly thin body and spinning around in it a few times._

"_How should I know?" Russell retorted raising an eyebrow._

"_L-Leo that l-looks good on you," Lily complimented placing her hands on each other._

"_Yeah, now that she says it," Russell admitted rubbing his chin. "…almost as if you were destined to wear it."_

"_Aw come on, you're making me blush!" Leo laughed rubbing the back of his head before he slowly took off the Obelisk Blue Uniform overcoat._

"_Heh, hey Leo," Russell muttered pulling Leo over to the side away from Lily who was busy looking over the uniform overcoat, even putting it on as well. "Listen I need you to make me a promise…"_

_//--/--///-/-/-/-/_

"…I guess that promise wasn't kept," Kazin chuckled pulling his next card into his hand. Once more, the Test Lab began to activate, allowing a second Blood Lizard – Alpha Token (1000/1000) to appear in front of the science duelist. "And now I play the spell card, Pot of Greed!"

The large giggling pot appeared over Kazin, allowing the scientific duelist to draw his next two cards. "And now…I play the spell card, Double Cross Summon!"

Many particles warped around Kazin, slowly forming into the spell card that revealed a thief snapping away a few cards from a duelist's duel disk. Immediately a card popped out of Kazin's deck before he tossed it towards Leo. "You see…this spell card allows me summon a monster from my graveyard…and then I can special summon a monster from my hand!"

"Why would you want to help me?" Leo asked as he caught the card in his fingers to examine it.

"I help you, to help myself," Kazin stated lifting the last card in his hand up. "So please place the card on your duel disk so we can continue this duel…"

"Fine…" Leo replied placing the card on his duel disk, allowing a more live version of the Blood Lizard – Alpha to appear in front of him (500/500), hissing loudly. "What? When did this card get in the graveyard?"

"Remember, when my Test Lab was activated, I had to discard a monster card," Kazin explained taking the last card from his hand. "But if I were you, I'd worry about a few other things…like for example the monster I'm about to special summon…"

Slapping the card onto his duel disk, another one of the tubes shattered into millions of shards. Leaping on the ground, a third Blood Lizard appeared, with the black scales and red eyes as the previous few. Only this one resembled that of an iguana with a strange device implanted into its back (0/0). "…and it's known as Bomb Blood Lizard…"

"That's a unique monster," Leo admitted raising an eyebrow at the weird monster. "That and the unique way you summoned it."

"True…but then again," Kazin sighed shaking his head as his face down card shattered. "I couldn't activate my face down spell card unless I special summon a monster! Go! Blood Donor!"

Kazin's spell card reformed itself, this one showing a Blood Lizard biting into the arm of a screaming woman. "This spell card can only be activated when a monster has been special summoned to both of our fields in one turn. I select the monster with the lowest attack that was special summoned and then special summon all copies of the card to my side of the field!"

Two more tubes shattered into glass shards, allowing two more Bomb Blood Lizards (0/0 x2) to crawl next to the first one, all three of them screeching loudly. Leo somewhat grimaced, while trying to keep the smile on his face for his deck master. "I see…I think I know what your strategy is now…"

"Puh-lease!" Kazin spat out, lifting his hand up towards the middle Bomb Blood Lizard. "You couldn't see my strategy a mile away! Bomb Blood Lizard! Attack his Airknight Brigadier!"

"What?! But you'll take damage!" Leo exclaimed as the small lizard began to crawl towards the armored angel.

"No I won't," Kazin chuckled as the barrier of blood began to circulate around his body once more. "My Blood Shield will keep me from harm…too bad you don't have one of these…"

Just as Leo was about to speak, the Bomb Blood Lizard leapt into the air towards the angel's head, clamping down onto the Brigadier's helmet with its claws into the helmet. The lizard's body began pulsating wildly until a powerful explosion erupted, destroying both of the monsters in hellish fire. (LLP: 6900)

"W-What happened?" Leo stuttered before the Gagagigo appeared before him, slamming his fist into Leo's stomach once more. "URK!" (LLP: 6500)

"My Bomb Blood Lizard is more than just a name," Kazin explained as his Blood Lizard – Alpha Token shattered in order to keep the Blood Shield on the field. "When destroyed in battle, it destroys the monster that destroyed it and inflicts damage to your life points equal to the level of your monster."

"Sacrificing your monsters, treating them as experiments," Leo coughed as the Gagagigo leapt back to stand tall behind Kazin. "You sure know how to make a simple game into a massacre…"

"Oh, please…" Kazin scoffed crossing his arms to push up his glasses. "It's called strategy…Str-At-Egy! And my strategy is much better than yours, so why don't you just get on with your turn."

"..." Leo turned towards the Airknight Librarian and smiled his warmest smile. Then as Leo turned his head towards Kazin, his smiled disappeared into a dark scowl, as he drew his next card. "Very well…it would appear that I'll have to get a little more serious…"

As soon as Leo fitted the card into his hand, the Blood Lizard – Alpha turned towards him and snapped its teeth into Leo's arm. "Ack! What in the…" (LLP: 6000)

Soon, the Blood Lizard – Alpha pulled back, blood dripping from its teeth as it steadily grew bigger (500/500 500/500). "My Blood Lizard – Alpha is quite hungry…so thanks for supplying its favorite meal. When it devours five hundred points, it increases its attack and defense by five hundred points…"

"Geez…that's going to be a pain," Leo admitted with that smile still on his face. "But, I can just sacrifice it…"

"No you can't," Kazin chuckled as the Blood Lizard – Alpha laughed along with him. "His effect prevents him from being sacrificed for monsters."

"I see…" Leo muttered looking at his cards. "Then I guess I have no choice, I summon Airknight Lancer!"

Many feathers flew from behind Leo's body, forming into an older woman with dark hair tied back wearing flowing yellow and white robes with many golden wings on her back. While in her hands was a large silver lance that was aimed towards Kazin (1700/1200). "And next…I'll flip up my face down monster, go Airknight Priestess!"

In a second flurry of feathers, the pink haired Airknight appeared on the field, winking towards Kazin (0/0). "And by the way…since I flipped her up, I can special summon one Airknight from my deck, level four with fifteen hundred attack points or less."

More feathers filled the cave, allowing another Airknight to appear on the field, this one becoming a second Airknight Priestess winking at Kazin (0/0). Kazin on the other hand raised his eyebrow. "May I ask what you're planning?"

"…Priestess…I apologize," Leo stated getting a nod from both of the young angels who flew forward at the two Bomb Blood Lizards.

"Wait! What are you doing?!?" Kazin shouted before two large explosions rocked the caves, allowing his Blood Shield to arise over his field.

(LLP: 4800)

When the smoke cleared, Leo had his head lowered, he hated doing that…sacrificing his monsters. He was now no better than Kazin…

"…damn it…" Kazin spat out narrowing his eyes as the Blood Lizard – Alpha and Airknight Lancer appeared before him. "Oh…double damn it!"

With the silver lance and fangs piercing his body, Kazin shouted loudly as his own blood began to seep into the fabric of his overcoat…however, since the cave was dark, no one could see the blood. "M…my plans…" (KLP: 1000)

"Turn…" Leo started.

BA-DUM! BA-DUM! BA-DUM! BA-DUM!

"URK!" Leo spat out, kneeling forward…clutching his chest with both of his hands.

_//--/-/--////-/--//Two Years Ago///----/-//-//-_

"_Lily! Lily!" Russell shouted running through the halls of the large hospital. He had just gotten back from the academy after his first year only a few minutes ago. The news reached him at the academy, and so he was off…_

_...he had run directly from the airport, speeding as fast as his thin legs could carry him. _

_And skidding in front of the defined room, Russell slammed the door open breathing hard…only to have it taken away from him. "LILY!"_

_Running to the hospital bed, Russell's glasses covered eyes began to water up at the sight of his younger sister Lily. Connected to the many life support machines, her face bruised, and her eyes closed tight. "L-Lily…"_

"_You must be her older brother…" The doctor stated grabbing Russell's attention. _

"_Doctor…what's going on? What happened?" Russell asked rubbing the tears from his eyes. _

_With his hand on his chin, the doctor shook his head. "In order…your sister is still alive, thanks to those machines. Currently she's in a coma, and has been stabilized for at least an hour."_

"_And secondly, apparently, she and her boyfriend were enjoying a date. Unfortunately, there was a drunk driver and hit both of them. Our guess is that the girls saw the car coming and managed to push the boyfriend at the last moment."_

"_Thankfully, both of them will make it. However, both of them suffered head trauma, the girl having a lot worse with a few broken bones. The boy, he's been knocked out ever since the accident, his right arm and leg are both fractured and he's currently resting as we speak."_

"…_so…how will my sis fare?" Russell asked standing up straight to the doctor. _

"…" _The doctor was silent when he dropped something into Russell's hands, and when the young duelist looked into his hands… "…perhaps you should hold onto that…"_

_It was the silver pendant that Lily normally had around her neck…and with tears welling up in his eyes; Russell clenched his hands around the pendant. "L…Lily…" _

"_Doctor! Doctor!" A nurse shouted into the room getting both Russell and the doctor's attentions. "That other boy! That boy's awake!"_

"_What!?" The doc questioned running after the nurse._

_Alone in the room with his coma sister, Russell clenched the damaged pendant even more in his hands. "…Leo…"_

_//--/-/-/-/-///-/--/-/-/_

"…t-that happened?" Leo coughed placing his hand on the ground, trying to keep his conciseness. The Airknight Librarian knelt next to him, tears forming in her eyes at Leo's pain.

"N-Now, you know, if it wasn't for you, Lily wouldn't be in that damn coma," Kazin spat as he slowly stood up, holding his bleeding stomach. "A-And since your turn is over…"

As soon as Kazin draw, the sharp stabbing pain struck him…but as his next Blood Lizard – Alpha Token appeared before him, growling loudly (1000/1000). "N-Now…I set a card face down in defense mode…and I'll end my turn…"

"D-Dra…" Leo sputtered till something snapped.

With his eyes dilating, Leo fell face first into the ground with a loud thud. The holograms began to disappear before the Airknight Librarian broke out into tears.

As soon as the holograms disappeared, Maria ran over to Leo who seemed to fall out of conciseness. "Mr. Childsman! Leonardo!"

"H-He's unconscious," Kazin spat out a little blood getting a little dizzy headed. "And since he's not able to continue…I…I win…"

"…that's correct," Maria sighed slinging Leo over her shoulder. "I don't know what happened, but can you continue while I get him to the nurse's ward?"

"Y-yeah…" Kazin coughed turning around, trying to make it look like he was perfectly okay. The blood stain however was getting bigger and bigger with each of his steps.

Before he could get too far, Kazin collapsed to the ground, making Maria's eyes widen. "What in the world? Russell Kazin!"

/-/--//-/-/--//--//-/--/

Meanwhile, back with Bravo and Klein…

Then with several kicks to his face, Bravo staggered backwards as his Savage Bruiser shot a dark glare at the three Ojamas. (BLP: 100)

"Why fix what's not broken?" Klein asked crossing his arms fitting another card into his duel disk.

"…you'll see…" Bravo snarled slowly standing straight up, rubbing some of the blood on his face. Wait…blood? Where did that come from?

That's when all three of the Fist Bruisers reappeared on the field, all three of the theme smirking widely (1500/0 x3). At the sight of all three of the fighters, Klein's face now had a look of pure surprise on his face. "What the heck?!? Where did those things come from?!?"

"It was my trap card…" Bravo explained as the trap card reappeared, this one showing many muscular men jumping up in front of many cute girls. "Known as Intimidating Muscles, when a card that would destroy my monsters would be activated, all monsters with Bruiser in their names are removed from play."

"And then, they're all special summoned at the end of the turn that spell was activated…"

"Damn it!" Klein shouted as Bravo pulled his next card off the top of his deck.

"Pay back time little man!" Bravo laughed slapping a card onto his duel disk. "I activate the spell card, Sacrificial Greed! Now, by sending one of my face up level four Fist Bruisers to the graveyard I can draw two cards!"

A large pike stabbed through the ground, piercing the back of one of the bruisers, making him scream loudly into the air. Then as the monster shattered into pixels, Bravo snapped off his next two cards from his deck. "Oh yeah! Comeback time for calling me Sheldon!"

"But it's your real name!" Klein shouted.

"Keep talking and you'll keep pissing me off!" Bravo laughed loudly slapping one of the cards from his four card hand onto his duel disk. "I summon, Bruiser in-Training!"

A powerful flame erupted on the field, making both of the remaining Fist Bruisers kneel down as if royalty was about to appear on the field. From the flame, a young skinny teenaged man walked forward cracking his knuckles. Along with a determined look on his face, the new bruiser had a scar racing across the bridge of his nose. His wild red hair flared over his head that resembles a flame (it was even moving as if it was on fire!). On the back of his black jacket were the four suits of playing cards that were exposed as he spun on his heel once to point his fingers at Klein as if they were guns (1400/1200).

"Another bruiser? How many of those do you have in your deck?" Klein asked raising an eyebrow.

"You'd be surprised," Bravo replied spinning another card from his hand, immediately fitting it into his duel disk. "But now, I activate the equip spell, Weight Shackles!"

Lifting his arms up, the Bruiser in-Training's wrists and ankles were immediately covered with very heavy training weights (1400/1200 – 600/0). And yet even though his attack points were lowered, the Bruiser in-Training's muscles seemed to grow with each passing second.

"And what pray tell was the point of that?" Klein asked tilting his head slightly to the right.

A smirk on his face appeared on Bravo and the Bruiser in-Trainer's faces, neither of them were looking good for Klein. "Watch and learn, little man…watch and learn, little man…"

A powerful flame erupted around the Bruiser in training, making him disappear in the flames. After a few seconds, the flames dispersed into the air…

…allowing a new form to stand tall where the flame once stood. Cracking his neck, a muscular man in his early twenties with multiple scars on his face smirked wildly at Klein, but his right eye was covered up by his long fiery red hair that went past his broad shoulders. His large black overcoat had the four card suites etched into the black fabric that seemed to be impervious to the flames that kept floating around his body (2800/2400). "My Bruiser in-Training had potential…and with his potential he became one of the two heads of the bruisers…"

"His name was heard through out the underworld as the Royal Flush Bruiser…being able to conquer any enemy that stood before him."

"Urk!" Klein gulped…

…all three of his Ojamas were in attack mode, and since there were three monsters on Bravo's field…he was in trouble and his face down card was useless.

"Now then…all three Bruisers! Attack!" Bravo shouted flexing his muscles as all three of his Bruisers did the same, each of them with goofy looks on their faces.

All three of the Bruisers charged forward, acting as if they were football players, slamming their shoulders into all three Ojamas. Even when the flattened Ojamas floated away, the three Bruisers tackled into Klein, forcing him skidding backwards… (KLP: 0)

…and then, a large hand slammed into Klein's neck, immediately clenching the tiny neck and slamming Klein's small body into the nearby rocky wall as the holographic Bruisers slowly began to disappear.

"Ha, ha, ha…" Bravo chuckled lifting Klein off the ground till his feet were dangling in the air over three feet off the ground…and that distance was growing faster and faster. "Ya know what…I win…you little jerk…"

"Great…" Klein coughed, trying to not give Bravo the satisfaction of fear.

"And remember our secondary bet?" Bravo snickered lifting his fist up. "If you won…then you get all of the money I have in my wallet…"

"But…the flipside to that coin was I get to beat you up for five minutes straight!"

…Not really the smartest bet in Klein's life…especially compared with the bet he had with Ganryu when Rena was dueling against Talo a few months back.

/-/--/--/-/-//-/--/

**Card Stats**

**Blood Lizard – Alpha / Fire / LV. 3 / ATK: 500 / DEF: 500 / Reptile/Effect:** This card cannot be used for a tribute summon. During your standby phase, decrease the controller of this card's life points by 500 points. Then increase this monster's attack and defense by 500 points.

**Description:** A small black lizard with blood red eyes, and little cuts on its body.

**Blood Lizard – Beta / Fire / LV. 4 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 1000 / Reptile/Effect:** When this monster attacks another monster, after damage calculation, lower the attack and defense of the opposing monster's attack by 1000. This card cannot be destroyed by a monster with the same attack as this card as a result of battle.

**Description:** A large black lizard-man, with large metallic limbs and blood red eyes. The lower part of its jaw has a steel attachment with blood dribbling down his metallic chin.

**Blood Lizard – Test Subject / Fire / LV. 3 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 0 / Reptile/Effect:** When this card is destroyed as a result of battle, you may special summon one level four or lower 'Blood Lizard' from your deck with 1000 or less attack to your side of the field.

**Description:** A small black lizard sitting inside a large test tube.

**Bomb Blood Lizard / Fire / LV. 4 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 0 / Reptile/Effect:** When this card is destroyed by battle, destroy the monster that destroyed it. Then, inflict 100 points of damage to your opponent's life points times the level of the destroyed monster.

**Description:** A small black scaled lizard with large blood red eyes with a bomb surgically implanted into its back.

**Test Lab / Field Spell / Effect:** When this card is activated, discard one monster card from your deck. As long as this card is on the field, you may special summon one '????? Tokens' (Fire/LV.3/ ATK: 1000 / DEF: 1000) to your side of the field. The '????? Token's name is treated like the monster that was removed with this card's effect as well as its type. A '????? Token' cannot attack, or be used for a tribute summon.

**Image:** A large futuristic lab with many large tubes with dark beasts in them.

**Blood Shield / Continuous Spell / Effect:** As long as a monster(s) remain(s) on your side of the field, battle damage to the controller of this card becomes 0. During your turn, you must tribute one face up 'Blood Lizard' from your side of the field. If you do not, destroy this card during your opponent's Standby Phase.

**Image:** A Blood Lizard – Alpha cowering behind a blood drenched shield.

**Double Cross Summon / Spell / Effect:** Special summon one level four or lower monster from your graveyard to your opponent's side of the field. Special summon one level four or lower monster from your hand (The special summoned monster cannot be used for a tribute).

**Image:** A thief snapping away a few cards from a duelist's duel disk.

**Airknight Lancer / Light / LV. 4 / ATK: 1700 / DEF: 1200 / Fairy/Effect:** When this card is destroyed as a result of battle you may special summon one level four or lower monster with 1500 attack or less with 'Airknight' in its name from your deck.

**Description:** An older woman with dark hair tied back wearing flowing yellow and white robes. In her hands is a large silver lance.

**Airknight Brigadier / Light / LV. 4 / ATK: 1800 / DEF: 0 / Fairy/Effect:** When this card is destroyed and sent to the Graveyard as a result of battle, add two "Airknight" monsters from your Graveyard to your hand, except this card.

**Description:** A silver and yellow armored angel with a large silver feather on his helmet. At his belt is a silver crossbow.

**Cry to the Heavens / Trap / Effect:** Return one face up 'Airknight' monster from your side of the field to your deck. Special summon one 'Airknight' from your hand with the same level as the returned monster.

**Image:** Many people crying to a group of angels.

**Bruiser in-Training /Fire / LV. 4 / ATK: 1400 / DEF: 1200 / Warrior/Effect:** When this card is equipped with 'Weight Shackles' you may tribute this card to special summon one 'Royal Flush Bruiser' from your hand or graveyard.

**Description:** A young skinny teen with a scar racing across the bridge of his nose. His wild red hair flares over his head that resembles a flame. On the back of his black jacket are the four suits of playing cards

**Royal Flush Bruiser / Fire / LV. 8 / ATK: 2800 / DEF: 2400 / Warrior/Effect:** This card cannot be normal summoned or set. This card cannot be special summoned except by the effect of 'Bruiser in-Training'. Whenever this card destroys a monster as a result of battle, increase this monster's attack by 100 points times the level of the destroyed monster. When this monster would be destroyed or removed from play, you lower this monster's attack by 800 points to keep this card on the field.

**Description:** A muscular man in his early twenties with multiple scars on his face, but his right eye is covered up by his long fiery red hair that went past his broad shoulders. On his large black overcoat are the four card suites.

**Sacrificial Greed / Spell / Effect:** Tribute one face up monster on your side of the field. For every three stars on the sacrificed monster, draw one card from your deck.

**Image:** A Pot of Greed on top of a pike.

**Weight Shackles / Equip Spell / Effect:** The equipped monster equipped with this card loses 600 attack and defense points.

**Image:** Many weights being added onto a skinny man's frame.

**Intimidating Muscles / Counter Trap / Effect:** This card can only be activated when your opponent activates a card effect that would destroy all monsters on your side of the field. Remove all monsters on your side of the field with 'Bruiser' in their name from play until the end phase this card was activated.

**Image:** Many muscular men jumping up in front of many cute girls.


	40. Chapter 39: The Burning Hero!

…hmm…

…_**hmm…**_

…_**What can I say?**_

_**I'm embarrassed…I can honestly say that I never expected to be fighting for someone else…**_

…_**let alone a girl!**_

_**I don't even have the right words to describe what I'm feeling…I'm a guy who's at ill at ease…who only knows how to fight and duel…**_

_**How should I fight in this duel? My head is confused on this matter…**_

_**But…**_

_**Honestly… my mind…my soul…my body…all are burning and roaring loudly!**_

_**Their awesome roar is telling me to defeat this freak! I don't care if I break down in the process!**_

_**This is for you Rukia!**_

…_**I can't believe I just said that! I can feel my face burning!**_

__

_**Chapter 39**_

_**The Burning Hero!**_

__

While Leo's duel with Kazin was taking a few turns for the worse (quite literally), Van was still walking through the caves, his hat covering his eyes to keep him looking serious. 

The cavern walls he walked through were dark, save for the odd glowing fungi lined the wall. 

…but this was all pointless for Van…

He was searching…searching for that guy…

Maderas…

Thanks to Rena, Van knew of that deal that Maderas made with Rukia…as well as the small bits of Rukia and Maderas's pasts. And now…with that future that was set in stone…

Van decided to shatter the stone into several pieces…

"Oh my…would you look at the little grub…"

"Huh?" Van questioned adjusting his hat to see in front of him.

Standing in the middle of the large platform ground in the cave stood none other than the evil son-ova-gun who was Van's target…

Maderas…with a fancy duel disk that resembled that of a golden bat wing on his left arm and a cane in his other hand that was supporting him. "…I can see that the grub is hard of hearing…"

"I can hear you fine," Van growled lifting his duel disk up. "…I just didn't want to waste my breath on scum like you…"

"Oh please…" Maderas chuckled tapping his finger on the side of his cane. "…You wish I was scum…then we could both be on the same level…"

"…did you just insult yourself?" Van asked raising an eyebrow.

"…I don't really know," Maderas muttered shaking his head. "But that doesn't matter…I know who you are…"

"You do?" Van questioned with a question mark appearing over his head. "Well…then I guess you know what I'm after then…"

"Perspective as well…" Maderas snickered waving his hand towards Van. "Ya know…a couple weeks ago, I could've considered you a threat to my love relationship with my lovely Rukia."

"…are you treating her as an object?" Van snarled, tensing his muscles tightly. 

"No…but, I consider her as beautiful as the roses that I give her on a daily basis…" Maderas sighed stabbing his cane into the stony floor, while raising his duel disk up. "…quite the spunky girl she is though…"

"…I wondered what kind of person you were," Van muttered lifting his deck up in his left hand towards Maderas. "And now I know!"

"Oh? And what person am I?" Maderas cooed placing his deck into his duel disk's holster.

"…you'll know soon enough," Van replied getting read. "And the sooner we get this done, the better! I want to get out of this cave…"

"Hold it y'all!"

"Huh?" Van and Maderas questioned as Professor Hughes popped out of no where, leaning up against the side of the rock wall. "Where'd you come from?"

"What in blazes are you two young'uns blathering on about?" Hughes retorted crossing his arms. "Ya'll should be gettin' ta da dueling now. So, either ya git ta da dueling, or I'll be forced ta bust some heads!"

"Uh…sure…" Maderas sighed shaking his head. "I suppose so…although it seems like it's a little bit stupid…"

"…if its stupid…then you wouldn't mind making a wager?" Van offered waving his hand over at Maderas…

"…why not? I'm in a betting mood," Maderas admitted combing his hair back with his hand. "What'd you have in mind?"

"Great, now we've got more time to waste," Hughes moaned shaking his head slowly slumping to the ground, getting sleepier by the second.

"How about this, if I win, then you have to cancel your little marriage with Rukia," Van answered immediately a serious look on his face.

"…of course not," Maderas scoffed in response, sticking his tongue out at Van. "Why would I want to risk my rose colored married life for a grub like you?"

"…" Van was silent…although he was scum…Maderas did have a point.

"That's what I thought…" Maderas chuckled shaking his head. "…however…"

"Huh?" Van questioned raising an eyebrow.

"Maybe if you licked the bottom of my shoes," Maderas offered wagging his finger at Van. "I might be willing to consider your wager…"

Maderas slowly lifted up his foot towards Van. "Well…I'm waiting…"

"…you've got be kidding me…" Van groaned slapping his head.

"Are y'all trying ta get on Jackass?" Hughes asked scratching the side of his face. 

Meanwhile…

"Aw man…three tunnels to the right," De Masque muttered turning left and right. "Four to the left…and two in front of me…"

"Who designed these caves?!"

"Most of these caves were made by man…"

De Masque jumped up, nearly making his mask pop off of his face. Spinning around, De Masque was starring at none other than Kyo…who was currently starring at walls as well as the fungi on the wall. "But…if there's any indication, thanks to these fungi, we're currently residing in a naturally made tunnel."

"…w-what?" De Masque questioned taking a few steps backwards. "But…D-Dias!? H-how are you even here?"

"…I'm not Dias!" Kyo shouted stomping his foot into the wall. "I'm his twin brother! Kyo Swartzvauld!"

"…" De Masque's hat slowly shifted towards the right, exposing his slightly messy hair. "…brother? I don't buy that at all…"

"And why not?" Kyo sighed raising his arm over his eyes, trying to cover the tears in his eyes. "I know I look like Dias, but we're different! Come on!"

"…I change my last statement, you're not Dias," De Masque sighed adjusting his hat. 

"W-What?! Y-You do!?" Kyo shouted, tears still welling up in the corner of his eyes. "Thank you!"

"Yeah…Dias isn't girlie enough to cry over a simply trivial matter…" De Masque shot making Kyo fall to the ground face first.

"That was cold…" Kyo sniffed slowly raising his head up towards De Masque. 

"Enough of this…" De Masque growled lifting his duel disk up. "Since we met…then we'll have to duel each other…and ya know…I've actually wanted to see if I can take down Master Dias…but, you'll have to do…"

"Heh…don't think that it'll be easy to take me down," Kyo replied standing up abruptly, lifting up his duel disk against De Masque. "I was the one who taught Dias how to duel! And I think you know how good he was…"

"…yeah, you're probably just all talk!" De Masque scoffed turning his head to the side. 

"DUEL!"

"Oh, ho, ha!" Maderas laughed placing his foot on the ground. "I can't believe he actually did that…"

"Yeesh…that was just pathetic," Hughes whistled.

Keeping his hands on the ground, Van kept gagging on his tongue…he must've actually licked the bottom of Maderas's shoe. 

…Gross…

"Gak!" Van spat out rubbing his tongue on his sleeve, trying to get the taste out of his mouth. "Where the hell do you walk?!"

"Oh please," Maderas sighed shaking his head. "Where I go and what I step in is none of your concern…"

"Whatever," Van growled, keeping his tongue out. "Anyway, now that we've got that out of the way, we're going to have that little wager…"

"Nope!" Maderas chuckled turning towards the side. 

"WHAT?!" Van shouted with a large flame appearing around his body.

"I only said that I would consider your wager if you licked my boot…" Maderas stated shaking his head a few times. "Not that I would accept…"

That's when a gloved hand clamped onto Maderas's shoulder, surprising the dark duelist. Standing behind him was Hughes with a serious look on his face. "…yes you will, Mr. Fancy…"

"Get your hand off of me you dusty, old cowbo…" Maderas started only to receive a fist to his face, making him skid backwards. "URK!?"

"Professor Hughes?!" Van questioned taking a step away from Hughes who pulled back his fist. 

"You…you hit me!?" Maderas squeaked rubbing his now red face. "Do you know who I am you…"

"I know…and don't care," Hughes replied coldly, his voice deprived of his southern accent. "What I do care about…is honor among humans."

"It's because of people like you that are driving this clean world of ours is becoming sullied…treating people as nothing more as items or tools…you make me sick!"

The look that Hughes was shooting at Maderas…it could only be describe with one word…

Deadly…

"You can sue me as many times as you like after this, I'll even keep silent and accept the charges gladly…but, I swear to god, if you don't make that wager with Mr. Tenka, you'll be needing dentures at the end of the day!"

With his mouth gaping wide open, Maderas slowly stood up, spiting a little of blood from his mouth. "…you'll be hearing from my attorneys after this tournament you bastard…"

"Well, you've got to get past me first, fancy boy!" Van shouted activating his duel disk.

"It'll be a pleasure now!" Maderas snarled sliding his duel disk out.

"DUEL!"

"…'bout time…" Hughes sighed slowly sliding down to the ground next to the wall. "Y'all select yer deck masters now…"

"God, he's back into hick mode," Maderas growled holding up a single card. "And I've already got my deck master…arise Vampire Lord!"

Many bats flew from the darkness in the tunnels, forming up into the paled vampire wearing the fancy cape and tuxedo. (MLP: 8000)

"And now…E Hero Banchou!" Van announced as the gangster hero appeared to Van's side, crossing his arms. (VLP: 8000)

"Oh…and since I was forced to take this bet," Maderas sighed drawing his six cards. "I'm going first!"

"Go right ahead…" Van replied snapping the top five cards from his deck.

"Then I'll start off with a monster on the defensive," Maderas announced as the card appeared before him. "And that's all…"

"Huh? That's all?" Van asked blinking a few times.

"…you got a problem with my dueling strategy?" Maderas asked raising an eyebrow.

"I suppose not," Van replied snapping his next card off his deck. "Anyway…I summon E-Hero Sparkman!"

In a powerful jolt of electricity, the lightning themed hero appeared on the field, sparking with electricity (1600/1400).

"Oh this is perfect!" Maderas snorted turning his head to the side. "…the would-be hero using a deck of heroes…just perfect…"

"Keep laughing," Van suggested fitting another card into his duel disk. "I activate the spell card, H – Heated Heart!"

A powerful fiery aura appeared around Sparkman, making his muscles grow slightly (1600/1400 500/0). "My spell increases Sparkman's attack by five hundred points…and gives him a trample ability! Now! Sparkman! Attack his defense!"

With a great jump into the air, Sparkman created a powerful surge of red electricity in his hands, immediately throwing the orb into the face down card. As the electricity surged through the card, the card shattered to show a large turtle that had a pyramid on it for a shell (1200/1400) only to be shattered by the electricity.

The remains flew back into Maderas's body, making him grunt slightly as his life points began to decrease slightly. "Heh…thanks…" (MLP: 7300)

"…what's the matter with you?" Van asked as many more bats began to fly through the caves. "What the?!"

"That monster you destroyed…was known as Pyramid Turtle," Maderas snickered shaking his head as the bats began to clump together into a shadowed being. "And when destroyed, I can special summon one Zombie from my deck with less than two thousand defense points…"

"…and I choose Vampire Nobleman!" 

The bats all scattered, revealing a young looking vampire with spiked back black and gray hair. His dark blue nobleman vest covered up his white silk shirt while his black gloved hands had a dark blue lining on them. At his brown belt was a nobleman sword and his cloak was in the shape of a pair of black bat wings (2400/1700).

Taking a quick glance at Van, the Vampire Nobleman shook his head disapprovingly. Maderas chuckled and combed the back of his hair with his hand. "I apologize…but, I'm afraid that you'll have to defeat this piece of trash…"

"…" Van was silent as Van fitted another card into his duel disk, making it appear behind Sparkman. "…my turn is over…"

"Good…" Maderas sighed making his hand a full six once more… "Now…then…how about we make this a little bit more interesting? I activate the spell card, Foolish Burial!"

A single card shot out of Maderas's deck, into his fingers that was immediately placed into his graveyard. "This spell allows me to discard one monster card from my deck to my graveyard…excellent when I activate the spell card, Book of Life!"

The ground began to glow green, allowing a large eerie book that opened up, its pages flapping in the air. Immediately, many more bats flew from the pages, allowing Maderas to smirk wildly. "This spell allows me to special summon one zombie from my graveyard…it has another effect, but I can't use that…but anyway…arise Curse of Vampire!" 

The many bats merged together in one shadowed being, forming into a blue skinned vampire wearing dark a dark cloak over his body. Throwing his cloak up into the air, the new vampire cackled loudly as many bats flew into his cloak (2000/800). "And I'm not done! I still have my normal summon! So, why not bring out more children of the night? I summon Vampire Hunter!"

Unlike the previous two vampires, this next one just ran from the darkness of the cave until it stood next to its kin. This vampire was an older man with shaggy red hair, with his black medieval armor cracked and shattered in some places. At his side, the vampire drew a long broad sword with dark runes on it that was held up into the air (1800/1100). "Now then…let's see…I have an army of the undead and all you've got is a man in tights…"

"…if you think you're so good…then attack…" Van taunted lifting his duel disk up.

"Oh please…did you think I'd be that reckless?" Maderas chuckled lifting one of the remaining three cards in his hand into his duel disk. "I activate the spell card…Vampire's Charm!"

Maderas's spell card emerged onto the field, showing a Vampire Lady, and a young, yet cute vampire grabbing the arms of a blushing Celtic Guardian. "You see, my spell card allows me to force you from activating any spells or trap cards that affect my vampires for one turn."

Van was silent as a blood red aura appeared over the small army of vampires, granting them all large smirks on their faces. "And now…Vampire Nobleman! Lead the attack!"

With a nod, the Vampire Nobleman swiftly drew his sword and held it up in front of his face. Then in a quick second, the vampire had sliced directly through Sparkman, making the hero shatter into a powerful surge of electricity that sparked up on Van's body. "URK!" (VLP: 7200)

"…and now…since my Vampire inflicted damage to your life points, I can force you to discard the top card of your deck," Maderas chuckled as his Nobleman snapped the top card off of Van's deck…immediately placing it into his graveyard.

"I hate to tell ya, but since you destroyed Sparkman," Van shouted throwing his hand over his face down card. "I can activate my trap card!"

"Did you forget that my Vampire's Charm negates any card that destroys my vampires for one turn?" Maderas asked raising an eyebrow.

"This trap doesn't affect you," Van replied as the trap flipped up, allowing a large signal into the air that resembled the Bat Signal. "My Hero Signal allows me to special summon one Hero from my deck! So, Clayman!"

From the signal, the large clay hero appeared on the field (800/2000), kneeling down to protect itself from almost any attack. 

"…that's it? Vampire Hunter…" Maderas sighed shaking his head as his Vampire Hunter stepped in front of him. "Take care of that useless card will you?"

"What? But my Hero has more defense points," Van questioned as the Vampire Hunter leapt forward towards Clayman…his broadsword glowing blood red.

Immediately, the Vampire Hunter sliced through Clayman as if the hero was nothing more than air…shattering the hero into pixels. "…you were saying?" (MLP: 7100)

"H-How?" Van asked raising an eyebrow.

"Simple…tell me…have you ever heard of Getsu Fuhma?" Maderas asked as his Vampire Hunter leapt next to him, sheathing his broad sword.

"…the demon slayer card?" Van questioned with a few question marks appearing over his head. "Yeah…"

"Well, didn't you ever wonder why she detests demons and the undead so much?" Maderas asked crossing his arms. "Meet the Vampire Slayer…her older brother…"

"What?!" Van shouted taking a step backwards.

"Yes…you see, their family was killed by demons when they were younger," Maderas explained shaking his head. "However, they both had different views on how to kill those demons…Getsu Fuhma wanted to purify the demons with her blade, while the warrior who became the Vampire Slayer wanted them to suffer at his hands…"

"Unfortunately for them, they had arrived in a foreign country that was run by vampires…both were hired to eliminate the vampire threat. They both were glad to see each other sure enough, but, they had trouble working together…"

"Then one night, when they were about to confront the head vampire, they were cornered in the master's castle. Getsu Fuhma did notice the vampire that was sneaking up behind her, preparing to drain her of her blood. Well, her brother jumped in at the last minute, taking the bite for Getsu Fuhma…"

"Needless to say…you see what happened to him. He still has a hate for demons and the undead, so he strives to kill in the night and will continue for all eternity."

"But that still doesn't explain how he killed Clayman," Van pointed out.

"True…but, when his blood became vampire, he was unable to wield his holy sword. And thus, he had to take up a new weapon against the demons…unfortunately, this weapon had been soaked in human's blood, so if a warrior or spellcaster locks into combat with that blade, they'll be absorbed into the sword."

"But now…on with the torment," Maderas sighed as the Curse of Vampire appeared behind Van. "Do try to make do with the commoner blood…"

"What the?!" Van shouted before the Curse of Vampire immediately stuck his teeth into Van's neck, a small amount of blood spurting from his neck. "ACK!!" (VLP: 5200)

The Curse of Vampire floated back to Maderas's field, spitting out a small amount of blood from his mouth…most likely it was Van's blood. "Oh my…he must not like the taste of your blood…"

"Oh shut up…" Van coughed slowly standing up rubbing the side of his neck. "Are you done…or are you going to keep insulting me?"

"…you just have to take the least amount of fun from this don't you?" Maderas sighed fitting the card into his duel disk, leaving him with a single card to be held up in his hand. "My turn is over…"

"…then I guess I'll have to do this!" Van shouted snapping his next card into his hand. Then taking another card from his hand, Van fitted the card into his duel disk, allowing a large E to appear over his head. "I activate the spell card, E – Emergency Call! Now I can add an E-Hero to my hand!"

"Great…just another weakling…" Maderas sighed lowering his head.

"I wouldn't say that," Van stated as his selected card snapped into his hand, then from behind him a large dark shadow appeared behind him. "You see…thanks to your Vampire Nobleman's effect; E-Hero Necroshade was dropped into the graveyard!"

"T-Then that means?" Maderas gasped slightly taking a step back.

"That's right! I can summon my newest hero without tribute!" Van announced slapping his next card onto his duel disk's field. "I summon, E-Hero Flash Fist!"

A powerful flash of light lit the entire tunnel, making Maderas and his vampires lift their arms up to block the light from their eyes. When the light died down, a new hero was standing before Van…his long red cape flowing in an imaginary wind. He was a mysterious hero with messy black hair tied up with a red headband. His slim body was covered with glowing white armor with silver gauntlets and greaves. His right hand was glowing bright silver as he held it up (2400/2300).

"Grr…damn it…" Maderas spat out narrowing his eyes. "What the hell is that?"

"My newest hero…" Van explained raising his hand up in a manner that resembled Flash Fist. "And now…I activate the spell card, R – Righteous Justice! Now, say goodbye to your face down card!"

A large yellow R appeared over Van's head, immediately flying into Maderas's only face down card eradicating it. Maderas's still had his arm over his eyes. "Damn punk! Go right ahead! Even if you destroy one of my monsters, I'll still make your monster a thing of the past…"

"Flash Fist! Attack Curse of Vampire!" Van shouted not listening to Maderas.

Lifting his glowing hand up into the air, Flash Fist began to glow even brighter, and then using the light as if it was a strong burst of wind…the new hero flew forward raising its right hand ready…

…Then, the new hero appeared directly in front of the surprised Curse of Vampire. Before the vampire could react, Flash Fist grabbed the vampire's head with his right hand. The light from the hero's hand seemed to burn and paralyze the vampire in its tracks as Flash Fist began to tighten his grip.

"I'd close your eyes if I were you," Van suggested as the light began to grow brighter and brighter for each passing second.

"What?" Maderas questioned as the light grew brighter until it became unbearable, vaporizing the in pain Curse of Vampire. "W-What?!" (MLP: 6700)

"And I'm not done!" Van announced as Flash Fist cracked his fingers on his right hand a few times before turning towards the Vampire Hunter. "You see, when my Flash Fist inflicts damage to your life points, another card bites the dust!"

The light grew unbearable once more, eradicating the Vampire Hunter in the light, eliminating the hunter. "And you see, he's not battling, so your Vampire Hunter's effect doesn't apply!"

"…you'll pay for that you little scrub…" Maderas snarled throwing his arm to the side.

"Sorry, I'm outta cash," Van replied fitting two cards into his duel disk, making them appear behind his glowing monster who was throwing a punches and kicks into the air. "I guess you'll have to settle with these two cards face down instead…"

That's when the ground shattered allowing a large ivory coffin that shattered into splinters allowing the Curse of Vampire (2000/800 500/0) to step forward. "I guess you forgot about my Curse of Vampire's effect to revive itself by paying five hundred life points." (MLP: 6200)

"I'm not worried," Van replied crossing his arms.

"Commoner…" Maderas muttered nearly ripping his next card from the top of his deck. "…I summon Petite Vampire!"

A few small bats flew into the ground in front of Maderas, forming into a small girl who looked to be about eleven years old with raven colored hair wearing a small black cloak over her body. The girl smiled brightly showing a small pair of vampire like fangs in her mouth (400/400).

Needless to say, Van and Hughes sweatdropped at the sight of the cute little girl turning around a lower her head at Maderas. "…yeesh… what kind of vampire is that?"

"…I realize that," Maderas scoffed to the side, making the young vampire lower her head even further. "…but, even though she's not as cute as my Rukia…I love what she can do for me…" 

The small vampire began to cry slightly before shattering into many bats that flew into the air. "By tributing her, I can activate a regular or continuous trap card from my graveyard and treat it like a spell card. And since you sent my face down card to the graveyard, I can activate, Call of the Haunted!"

A large coffin emerged from ground, completely made of mahogany that was immediately shattered forming into the Vampire Hunter (1800/1100). "And now…Vampire Hunter! Attack his Flash Fist!"

The revived Vampire Hunter charged forward preparing to bring his sword down at the enraged hero…

CLANG!

"Trap card go! Negate Attack!" Van announced as a powerful aura appeared around Flash Fist, pushing the Vampire Hunter back. "So your attack is negated and your battle phase is done…"

"Damn it…" Maderas snapped fitting the last card in his hand into his duel disk. "Turn end…

"…how exactly did you make it to the finals?" Van asked raising an eyebrow as the Deck Master, Vampire Lord began to glow.

"Like this! I activate my Deck Master's special ability, The Night's Children!" Maderas laughed as all three of his vampires shattered into bats that flew into his hand, giving him four cards that were immediately shuffled into his deck. "Once per duel, I have to shuffle all vampires on my field into my hand and then into my deck…"

Then snapping five cards off the top of his deck, Maderas flipped the cards around showing three monsters, one spell and one trap. "Then, I draw five cards from my shuffled deck and then special summon all Vampires that are level four or lower…and guess what? All three of my monsters are level four!"

Many bats erupted from the caves, all of them forming into three different shadowed forms of darkness. "The monsters that I special summon are Horror – Vampire Nobel, Vampire Gunman, and Rosencrantz Vampire!"

The first vampire that appeared from the group of bats was a beautiful young girl wearing a large black cloak over a school uniform with violet hair (looked like a more mature version of the Petite Vampire) (1700/1000), after flicking a little hair from her eyes, the Horror – Vampire Nobel winked at Van. 

With the bats retreating once more, a suave young vampire in black nobleman clothes wielding to a rusty musket that was spun in his hands (1700/1300). 

And the third card revealed to be a male silver haired vampire wearing a blood red cloak covering up his black tuxedo and armored arms that held up a dark rose (1600/1300).

"W-Well…that's a nice little army…" Van muttered with a gulp. 

"True…" Maderas snickered fitting one of the final two cards from his hand into his duel disk. "But…without a leader, then it won't work…"

"…what's he going on about?" Van growled slowly pulling his next card into his hand. "Oh well…it's not like it'll matter! I activate the field spell card, Skyscraper!"

The entire cave began to rumble, creating many buildings to rise up from the ground, surrounding the Vampires, Flash Fist and the two duelists. "And next…I'll summon E-Hero Avian!"

In many feathers falling from the holographic sky, the feathered hero appeared next to Flash Fist raising his talon covered gloves (1000/1000). "Now then…"

"Trap card go! Threatening Roar!" Maderas shouted as a large purple beast appeared behind him, roaring loudly to make both heroes step back. "Now, you can't attack this turn…"

"…Fine, I'll end my turn with a single card face down," Van muttered as the card appeared behind his two monsters next to the other face down card. "And leave it to you…"

"Then I guess it's my move once more," Maderas chuckled slowly pulling his next card, then immediately pulling the other card from his hand. "And I'll activate the spell card, Pot of Greed! Now I can draw two more cards from my deck!"

As the large green pot appeared in front of Maderas, the Vampire Duelist immediately drew two more cards from the top of his deck. "Heh…and for my next trick, I'll set one card from my hand face down…and activate the spell card Giant Trunade! Now all spell and trap cards return to our hands!"

The large city disappeared in a mysterious tornado, making the three cards appear in Van's hand, while a single card appeared in the remaining card in Maderas's. "Heh…heh, and now, I activate the trap card that was returned to my hand. Known as Vampire's Treasure!"

Maderas's trap card reappeared on the field, this one showing a Vampire Lord holding up a silver crown with a broken cross on it. "When it's returned from the field to my hand, I can discard it and draw two new cards…"

As the Vampire duelist discarded the trap card, and pulled his next two cards…Van just raised an eyebrow as Maderas stood there, raising his eyebrows at the vampire user. '_Damn it…why can't I even get a decent field advantage?'_

"Now then…I activate the effect of my Vampire Gunman!" Maderas announced showing one of the two cards he had drawn, showing the Vampire Hunter. As soon as the card was slid into the graveyard slot, the Vampire Gunman spun his musket in the air before taking aim at the two heroes. "Now…here's how my monster's effect works. Since I discarded a zombie, your monsters lose one hundred attack points times their level…"

With a loud bang, the Vampire Gunman fired a round into the air that flew over the Heroes, exploding into a large could of dark ash that floated around the two heroes. Soon Flash Fist (2400/2300 – 700/0) and Avian (1000/1000 – 300/0) began to cough slightly, taking to their knees to grab their throats. Van just gulped at the sight of his weakened monsters. "G-Great…" 

"And now…Horror – Vampire Nobel! Attack Flash Fist!" Maderas commanded throwing his arm up.

The Vampire Nobel slowly turned around slightly, a little bit scared at the fact that she would be fighting Flash Fist. Sensing this fear, Maderas narrowed his eyes and slowly walked up to the Vampire Nobel…

SMACK!

With his hand raised up, Maderas's glare looked down at the sniveling Vampire Nobel who held her cheek. "Don't you dare disobey me! I'm the duelist and you are the duel monster!"

'_What is with this guy? And how'd he slap that hologram?'_ Van thought with a large question mark over his head.

"Now then…lets try this again shall we?" Maderas asked raising his hand up to snap his fingers. "Attack his Flash Fist now!"

Gulping slightly, the Vampire Nobel flew forward, charging dark energy in her hands that she held up prepared to slam it into Flash Fist. To counter it, Flash Fist threw his hands towards the darkness, with the powerful light charged in his fingers.

As soon as the energies met, a powerful explosion rocked the tunnels, making the foundation of the caves shake. While the explosion was dying down, the Rosencrantz Vampire appeared in front of Avian immediately stabbing the aerial hero with his metallic claws, shattering the hero. (MLP: 7600) (VLP: 4300)

"Do I dare to ask?" Van asked lowering his disk as the Rosencrantz Vampire stood in front of him.

"Even if you don't I will," Maderas snickered crossing his arms. "You see, when my Vampire Nobel destroys a monster as a result of battle, I gain two hundred life points equal to the level of the destroyed monster. And when my Rosencrantz Vampire inflicts damage, you're forced to discard on monster from your deck to the graveyard…"

"Yeah…sure," Van sighed pulling out his deck, fitting E Hero Bladedge into his graveyard slot. "You done yet?"

"Of course…" Maderas sighed as Van drew his next card. "And yet…its pointless…there's no way that you're going to stop me…"

"I activate Swords of Revealing Light!" Van announced making Maderas fall back slightly as the many swords of light began to rain down from the sky, surrounding all three of Maderas's monsters.

"U-Unbelievable!" Maderas shouted as his face down card slowly flipped up. '_There's no way a commoner like that could be that lucky!!'_

"Now you're stalled for three turns," Van sighed with relief.

"True…but my face down monster has a different story," Maderas countered with his face down monster flipped up into a small dark clayed pot with a large eye and dirty smile in its contents (700/600), laughing loudly. "My Morphing Jar! Now, both of us discard our hands and draw five new cards!"

"Fine…" Van muttered snapping five new cards off the top of his deck as did Maderas. "…I'll set one monster face down, and one card face down…your move fancy boy!"

"Heh, your insults are frugal as well," Maderas chuckled shaking his head as he slowly drew his next card. "…its too bad…cause now I'll be able to destroy you easily…I'll first set one card face down…and sacrifice both of my Vampires!"

The two remaining Vampires screamed in terror, shattering into pixels that immediately went up in flames. The flames all came together, exploding to allowing a muscular man with a large pile of smoke rising from his vampire fanged mouth. His long black hair went past his bat wing like cloak and his black tuxedo that almost made him invisible in the depths of the cave if it wasn't for the slight purple aura that enveloped his body (3100/2100). "And now…meet Vampire Spirit, the real lord of the vampires…"

"…Great…just perfect," Van sighed shaking his head. "And what pray tell can this thing do?"

"Oh…you'll just love it…you'd be surprised to see what money can do for a person's deck," Maderas chuckled as the aura around the Vampire Spirit, dripping onto the ground as if it were a drop of dew onto a small pond of water. "Once per turn, I can special summon one Zombie monster from my graveyard…so arise! Vampire Hunter!"

From the watery ground, the already familiar Vampire Hunter appeared on the field, it looked almost as if he was drained of his soul (1800/1100) as he stood up to lift his sword up. "And now…I may not be able to attack, but I can use the spell card, Ectoplasmer to do some damage…and I'll end my turn!"

As soon as the spell card hit the field, the Vampire Hunter screamed in pain as what remainder of its soul was ripped out of his body. Then with a powerful blast, the soul flew directly into Van's body, forcing him skidding backwards. (VLP: 3400)

"Soon…very soon, you'll be down to your last life points," Maderas snickered lifting his hand up to cover his mouth. "Then I'll get a sure fire marriage with Lady Rukia, and a new servant…and to boot, a law suit on Mr. Western over there…"

"Jokes on you!" Hughes shouted from his seat. "If you sue me, you'll get nothing! All the stuff I own is half broken and I've got barely any money in the bank!"

"…why does that not surprise me?" Maderas sighed not noticing that Van immediately drew his next card.

"You're not going to get a chance to get any of that!" Van shouted lifting his next card up. 

"Oh…and what makes you say that?" Maderas asked raising an eyebrow. "Look at the field, I've got a monster that overpowers some of the most indestructible monsters around. And it can special summon a monster that I can use for ammo for my Ectoplasmer to lower your life points by at least nine hundred points each turn…"

"You're not going to have another chance for that!" Van roared as the E-Hero Banchou roared loudly, slowly walking towards the field (2200/1600). "I move my Deck Master to the field!" 

"Huh!? Are you daft man?!" Maderas questioned with his widened. "If you lose your deck master you'll lose…oh, I see… you want to forfeit to me…"

"Not a chance!" Van retorted spinning a card in his hand. "I activate O – Oversoul! Now I can special summon one normal E – Hero from my graveyard, so Sparkman return!"

In a large purple O, the electric hero appeared on the field next to Banchou, sparking wildly (1600/1400). "And next, I'll flip up my face down monster, E – Hero Lone Wolf!"

A loud howl echoed through the caves as the beastly E-Hero appeared on the field where the face down card was at (1300/1200).

Maderas just smirked, combing his hair with his hand not looking worried at all. "…oh please…like that will really work. I may not know what you're planning, but you'll have to do better at trying to…"

"Just shut up!" Van shouted lifting another card up. "I can see that you're nothing more than a wannabe duelist! If you were a real duelist you would've seen this! I activate the spell card, HERO Flash!!"

Four cards shot out of Van's graveyard, floating over his head showing H – Heated Heart, E – Emergency Call, R – Righteous Justice, and O – Oversoul, all of them glowing brightly as a flame erupted on Van's deck. "This spell card can only be activated when I remove this four specific spell cards from my graveyard! Now, I can special summon E – Hero Sparkman from my deck!"

In a second burst of electricity, a second Sparkman appeared on the field, standing next to the first one (1600/1400).

"Heh…looks like someone's in need of a math lesson," Maderas laughed loudly holding his sides. "I do know what your spell can do! You can attack me directly, but I'll still have life points even if you do attack…"

"Then I'll just have to activate my Deck Master's special ability!" Van retorted throwing his hand into the air, as Banchou roared even louder into the air, sending a golden aura over the four heroes. "Known as Honor Among Heroes, I can for one turn, for each E – Hero in my graveyard, I can increase all heroes' attack points by two hundred points…"

Van's graveyard flashed, allowing transparent versions of the E – Heroes Avian, Necroshade, Bladedge, Flash Fist and Clayman, all of them empowering the four heroes on the field (2200/1600 1000/0) (1600/1400 1000/0 x2) (1300/1200 1000/0).

"Now then…" Van stated as all four of the heroes ran to surround Maderas, the golden aura even stronger than before. "Maderas…you treat people and your monsters as nothing more than tools for your own benefit…"

"…but then again…I'm wasting my breath on you. I'll let my heroes do the talking!"

All four of the E-Heroes lifted their hands up, all of them focusing the golden aura into their fists. "_These hands of ours are burning red! Their loud roar is telling us to defeat you!"_

"Wait a minute…that's from…" Maderas started before all four of the heroes leapt towards him.

SLAM!

All four of the heroes' fists slammed directly into Maderas's face, and time slowed to a crawl as the Vampire duelist was forced off of his feet. When time returned to normal, Maderas was sent flying into the nearby wall, cracking the stone wall very badly. (MLP: 0)

"Wow…don't see that often," Hughes whistled adjusting his hat as he stood up. "So…congrats Van…nicely done."

"Thanks Professor Hughes," Van replied as the holograms of the monsters disappeared.

"Please, call me Hughes, Van," Hughes replied walking over to the knocked out Maderas. "And as much as it pains me to do so, I have to get this guy to the med ward…if we're lucky he'll have some memory loss. But I'll remind him of your little wager with him…ya stud."

"Hey!" Van shouted with a large blush on his face.

RING! RING!

"Hold on," Hughes stated snapping his cell phone off of his belt. "Hello? Ah, Maria, what's going on?"

"…you're able to get reception down here?" Van asked tilting his head to the side.

"…what?! You too? I got ya, I'll be there in a minute."

"What's happening?" Van asked raising an eyebrow.

"…Leonardo Childsmen and Russell Kazin have been hurt, both require medical attention," Hughes answered bluntly throwing Maderas over his shoulder. "I gotta go git Maria some help…"

"Leonardo? Ah, the psycho!" Van shouted raising his hand up, what could've happened to Leo? "Let me give you a hand!"

"…Alright…but, ah do hafta tell ya dat if'an ya do," Hughes replied walking down one of the tunnels. "Den, you're technically forfeiting to continue in this tournament."

"To quote you sir…" Van muttered following Hughes. "Don't care…"

"Excellent choice of words," Hughes laughed.

**Card Stats**

**Vampire Nobleman / Dark / LV. 6 / ATK: 2400 / DEF: 1700 / Zombie/Effect:** When this card is destroyed and sent to the graveyard as a result of a spell or trap effect, you may special summon this card to your side of the field during the end phase. When this card inflicts battle damage, send the top card from your opponent's deck to the graveyard

**Description:** A young looking vampire man with spiked back black and gray hair. His dark blue nobleman vest covers up his white silk shirt. His black gloved hands have dark blue lining on them. At his brown belt is a nobleman sword and his cloak is in the shape of a pair of black bat wings.

**Vampire Hunter / Dark / LV. 4 / ATK: 1800 / DEF: 1100 / Zombie/Effect: **When this card battles a warrior or spellcaster monster, destroy that monster at the end of the Battle Step.

**Description: **An older man with shaggy red hair, his black medieval armor is cracked and shattered in some places. At his side is a long broad sword with dark runes on it.

**Petite Vampire / Dark / LV. 4 / ATK: 400 / DEF: 400 / Zombie/Effect:** You may tribute this face up monster (this can be used during either player's turn) to activate one normal or continuous trap card from your graveyard. The selected card's activation and its effect are considered to be as if it was a spell card.

**Description:** a small girl who looked to be about eleven years old with raven colored hair wearing a small black cloak over her body. The girl usually smiles brightly, showing a small pair of vampire like fangs in her mouth

**Horror – Vampire Nobel / Dark / LV. 4 / ATK: 1700 / DEF: 1000 / Zombie/Effect:** This card can't be destroyed as a result of battle unless the monster is a Warrior type monster. When this card destroys a monster as a result of battle, increase your life points by 200 points by the destroyed monster's level.

**Description:** A beautiful young girl wearing a large black cloak over a school uniform with violet hair.

**Vampire Gunman / Dark / LV. 4 / ATK: 1700 / DEF: 1300 / Zombie/Effect:** Once per turn, you may discard one Zombie-type monster from your hand. Lower the attack of all face up non Zombie-type monsters on the field by 100 times the level of the discarded monster. During the turn this effect is used, this monster cannot attack.

**Description:** A suave young vampire in black nobleman clothes wielding to a rusty musket.

**Rosencrantz Vampire / Dark / LV. 4 / ATK: 1600 / DEF: 1300 / Zombie/Effect:** When this card is destroyed as a result of battle, you may discard one card from your hand. If done so, this card is special summoned to your side of the field during your next stand by stage. If this card inflicts damage to your opponent's life points, your opponent must send one monster card from their deck to the graveyard.

**Description:** A male silver haired vampire wearing a blood red cloak covering up his black tuxedo and armored arms.

**Vampire Spirit / Dark / LV. 9 / ATK: 3100 / DEF: 2100 / Zombie/Effect:** This card can only be special summoned by removing two monsters with 'Vampire' in the card's name from the game from your side of the field. As long as this card remains face up on the field, by negating your normal summon per turn, you can special summon one Zombie type monster from your graveyard (this card cannot attack the turn this effect was activated). If this card is removed from the field, remove all monsters that were special summoned by this card's effect.

**Description:** A muscular man with a large pile of smoke coming from his mouth. His long black hair goes past his bat wing like cloak and his black tuxedo. Around his entire body is a slight purple aura.

**E-Hero Flash Fist / Light / LV. 7 / ATK: 2400 / DEF: 2300 / Warrior/Effect:** When this card inflicts damage to your opponent's life points, you must destroy one card on the field.

**Description:** A mysterious hero with messy black hair tied up with a red headband. His slim body is covered with glowing white armor with silver gauntlets and greaves. His right hand is glowing brightly and there's a long red cape over his body.

**E-Hero Banchou / Dark / LV. 6 / ATK: 2200 / DEF: 1600 / Warrior/Effect:** If your opponent has at least two more monsters than you do, you may normal summon this card from your hand without tribute. While this card is face up on the field or in your graveyard, this card is considered a normal monster.

**Description:** a large dark cloaked man who was wearing ripped black pants with no shirt on but had bandages wrapped over his chest and had a black overcoat hanging over his broad shoulders. The man's eyes were covered by a bulky black hat, but his long silver hair was allowed to flow freely and in his mouth he had a twig between his teeth as if it was a cigarette.

**Vampire's Charm / Instant Spell / Effect:** During the turn this card is activated, your opponent cannot activate a spell or trap card that would destroy you monsters with 'Vampire' in their name.

**Image:** The Vampire Lady and the Petite Vampire each grabbing an arm of a blushing Celtic Guardian

**Vampire's Treasure / Trap / Effect:** When this card is returned to your hand, you may discard this card from your hand to draw two cards.

**Image:** A Vampire Lord lifting up a silver crown with a broken cross on it.

**Tony:** And here we are everyone! The first round of the finals have finally come to the end!

**Luntina:** …but we're down to only six duelists…

**Tony:** Uh, interesting…to say the least….

_**The next round of the finals arise – **__**Chapter 40: Haunted Caves!**_

**Tony:** Gee…I wonder who's dueling next?


	41. Chapter 40: Haunted Caves!

With the first round of the finals over, we're looking at the remaining six duelists

_**With the first round of the finals over, we're looking at the remaining six duelists!**_

_**Wait…remaining six? That can't be right…**_

_**Oh well, I may know the rules, but you know what they say, the rules are meant to be broken…**_

_**But here's a lesser known saying, break the rules and prepare for the hammer to slam down on ya!**_

…_**okay, you called my bluff, that's just something I came up thirty seconds ago. But seriously, there's something going on with the last six duelists…I just wish I knew what the heck is going on!**_

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

_**Chapter 40**_

_**Haunted Caves!**_

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

De Masque was grinning behind his mask…not only did he have his trusty Great Phantom Thief to his right, but his field was pretty well stacked as well. And his life point counter was gleaming with a decent two thousand life points.

With his three Mask Cu Raids (500/500 x3) on his field, all three of them ready to attack directly as soon as his opponent ended his turn. And with his Robbin' Goblin, Magical Thorn and Wall of Revealing Light (having paid at least three thousand points to prevent almost any attack) on his field was pretty well set…

…but his opponent…Kyo Swartzvauld…even though he had only one thousand points, and a single face down card, still had De Masque worried.

Why?

The answer was simple; 'Kyo' was using several cards that the thief using duelist didn't even recognize. Apart from the Poker/Blackjack deck that 'Kyo' had used against Riko, this deck was incredibly different. Most of the monsters he used, including his deck master, were level two or lower and had weird effects…

…and the deck master was really weird…

…but the weirdest thing was the fact what Kyo's monsters were capable of doing.

"My draw!" Kyo announced, breaking De Masque from his trance. "Ya know…I can actually see why my brother wanted you on his team…you've got a decent mind for strategy and your personality is eccentric!"

"…thanks, but I'd rather not talk about that," De Masque replied rubbing his arm slightly. He still got nightmares every once in a while, all of them dating back to that first duel he had with Dias…

…De Masque even had the new scar on his right shoulder from when the Legendary Demon Slayer Dante had cleaved him with the Rebellion sword…and to just be dumped off into the ditch when Dias was defeated…it was hard for him to accept it.

"I can understand," Kyo sighed nodding towards De Masque. "Now then…I think its time we get this duel underway."

Spinning the card in between his two fingers, Kyo slapped his next card onto his duel disk creating a large amount of light appearing behind him. "So give it up for a personal favorite! I summon Junk Synchron!"

From the flash of light, a short warrior dressed in bulky orange armor with a pair of goggles under its tall metal orange cylinder helmet. Draped around the warrior's neck was a long white scarf that streamed backwards as the warrior landed on the ground, crossing his arms at De Masque (1300/500).

"Wait a minute…what kind of monster is that supposed to be?" De Masque questioned adjusting his hat slightly at the sight of the Junk Synchron. "You've been playing cards that I've never even heard off, and not to mention that weird strategy you've been using…"

"…hey I think its cool," Kyo replied with a superior smile on his face as he rubbed his chin slightly. "In fact, what you're seeing is the future of dueling!"

"Yeah, and what else does the future hold?" De Masque asked rolling his eyes.

"Well…" Kyo looked to his left, then to his right, up above him and below him… and with a smile Kyo leaned forward lifting his hand up to the side of his face. "…you didn't hear this about me, but there's a company that's working on a duel disk motorcycle! High speed dueling! Can't you just see it now?"

"…all I see is a stupid idea to get teenagers more speeding tickets," De Masque spat out slapping the mask of his forehead.

"Oh yeah? Give it a year; you'll be looking at those new vehicles, getting a customized motorbike to match your costume!" Kyo shouted as many circles of light appeared around near his feet.

"What the? What's all this now?" De Masque shouted before a shadowed form began to jump from the light

"Oh, that's just my Junk Synchron's special ability," Kyo explained with the shadowed monster standing behind him only to dash immediately forward. "I can special summon as one Level two or lower monster in my graveyard in defense mode. And I choose my Speed Warrior!"

The dashing monster sped towards the large wall of light, allowing its sleek, gray armor to gleam in the dulled light. The warrior's face was covered with a futuristic mask with a large deep blue visor. At the warrior's feet were large wheels that propelled the warrior on the rugged cave grounds (900/300).

Kyo's face down card flipped up, showing a Junk Synchron jumping from a card. "Next, I activate my trap, Speed Summon! When I special summon a Level three or lower monster to my field, I can summon another monster with the same level from my deck, however, this summon is considered as an additional Normal Summon!"

Lifting his duel disk up to eye level, Kyo caught the card in his fingers to slap the card onto his duel disk. "And what better than a second Speed Warrior!" With that announcement, a second Speed Warrior dashed next to the first one, both of them racing around the cave's rugged floor (900/300).

"And what's the point of this?" De Masque gulped watching the Junk Synchron leapt into the air along with one of the Speed Warriors into a bright light. "What the?"

"Now watch this! Synchro Summon!" Kyo shouted throwing his hand into the air as the light began to twist, turn and meld.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

A bright flash of light covered the large TV screen behind Tony and Luntina, making them both cover their eyes until the screen shifted showing a chibi version of Kyo laughing loudly over a knocked out chibi version of De Masque. Over the two chibi men were the words 'WINNER: KYO SWARTZVAULD' in flashing purple and black lights.

Tony only blinked a few times, turning back to the cameras. "What the hell kind of monsters were those?"

"Heh…I think that they're pretty cool," Luntina chuckled crossing her arms over her chest. "They kinda remind me of my Alchemists…"

"What? They don't have anything in common with your alchemist cards," Tony retorted, but then smiled brightly. "Anyway…we're getting off of the card subjects and back to the details of the finals! The first round is over and my dear little Rena won!"

"We're supposed to be impartial with the duels," Luntina growled lifting her fist up, showing the blood vessel that was on the back of her fist.

"Forget that!" Tony announced with many hearts appearing over his head. "I'm rooting for Rena to go all the way!"

POW!

"OW!" Tony yelped falling backwards from his seat.

"…anyway, here are our six finalists!"

The screen began to fizzle until it shattered to show a chibi version of Vic standing with his arms crossed and with many ghostly monsters floating around his body. "First, the newest transfer student making a splash, Vic Vanhemer!"

A powerful flame erupted where Vic stood, and walking from the flame…or rather, skipping was the mysterious chibi Genjyo, tipping his top hat to the screen. "…um, I guess we've got Genjyo Zosimos…weird name I know…"

A bolt of lightning struck where Genjyo was standing, sending him flying with a chibi Beck standing in the middle of the screen, blushing madly with his hips wiggling out. "…I don't know what to say about this guy…"

That's when several chibi bruisers charged forward, pushing Beck over to the side with a chibi Bravo skidding onto the screen laughing loudly. "Who names a guy like that Sheldon anyway?"

Falling from above, the chibi Bravo was crushed by countless amounts of trash, tires and metallic armor, all with a Chibi Kyo standing on top of the trash. "Huh, that's weird, but I guess Kyo Swartzvauld is a good duelist to get to the second round…"

And before the screen could change, Tony stood up, dressed with a red band around his head with a large poster with a blushing chibi Rena with the words 'I HART RENA AKIRA!' written all around her. "Rena! Rena! Rena!"

POW!

"ACK!" Tony yelped falling forward into the desk, knocking his head on the metallic desk before he stumbled to the ground.

"Ahem…yeah…so those are the final six finalists," Luntina coughed cracking her knuckles slightly. "And by the way, you might realize this, but there were originally sixteen duelists…so there should be eight finalists. Unfortunately, there were a few accidents so a couple of the duelists were disqualified. We'll be taking a short break for our sponsors to get a word in…and we'll be back with the finals!"

"And…we're clear!"

"Tony what the hell?!" Luntina shouted sending a sharp kick right into Tony's side.

"OMPHF! W-What was that for?" Tony moaned slowly crawling to get up over the desk.

"You made a poster for Rena?" Luntina growled slapping her forehead. "Can't you control your hormones for at least ten minutes?!"

"Now you know that's impossible for me!" Tony replied standing straight up, waving his arms.

"Hey you two!" The director shouted from off the cameras, getting both of Tony and Luntina's attention. "Mr. Wright would like to have a word with you."

"…Phoenix Wright is here?" Tony questioned with a few question marks popped over his head.

"No you dolt, he's talking about Alan," Luntina sighed shaking her head.

"Oh…"

A minute later, outside the makeshift studio…

"Uh, sir…" Luntina sighed, with a large sweatdrop rolling down the side of her head as she slowly raised her hand up. "W-What in the world…"

"I know! They're awesome!" Alan exclaimed rubbing his hand up and down one of the weird machines.

"Well…they're unique," Tony gulped blinking a few times in confusion. "Where in the world did these…things, come from?"

Standing up away from the weird…motorcycle devices that seemed to have duel disk attachments on them Alan just smirked widely. One of them was red with black markings, another was pure white and one was a deep blue. "Oh? These things? We got these from our sponsor, in fact in order to get some promotion for their products; I offered them to sponsor the tournament."

"In return, I got a large sum of cash for the school, and three of their prototypes of their product."

"What are you going to do with three of these…motorcycles?" Luntina guessed tilting her head to the side.

"Oh, well, I was actually going to keep one of them for myself," Alan answered tapping the back of the red and black motorcycle. "Give one to you Luntina as a graduation present, and the third…well was going to give it to the second place winner of the tournament."

"Alan, what the hell am I going do with a motorcycle?" Luntina asked as Tony walked up to the blue motorcycle, observing the device intently.

"Well, duel in it of course," Alan answered placing his left arm next to the duel disk attachment. And with a couple of clicks, Alan lifted his hand up that he had a regular Battle City Duel disk on his arm. "And it's actually known as a D-Wheel. Not only do you get to duel standing, but you can rule the streets with your monsters flying behind you!"

"What the? That's the stupidest idea I ever heard!" Luntina snapped crossing her arms, lowering her head. "Card games on motorcycles? What kind of crap is that?"

"I dunno, it sounds pretty hardcore to me," Tony stated looking into the seat of the blue motorcycle. '_I wonder if Rena would like to ride in one of these…with me driving and her arms wrapped around my chest!'_

While Tony was in his own little world, Alan shook his head and placed his hands at his hips. "Anyway, try it before you knock it."

"Thanks, but I'd rather not lose my head," Luntina sighed loudly rubbing the back of her head. "…how'd that Kyo guy know about this?"

"Oh, that's easy right there," Alan chuckled rubbing his chins. "You see, he wanted to get into the tournament, but couldn't afford to pay to get in. So, in exchange for using a new deck of cards that I wanted to be used in a test as well as giving a little promo for the contraptions…well, it's a win-win-win!"

"…I can't believe that you're the principal," Luntina growled lifting a clenched fist up. "You're using people to gain…"

"Oh please, I play by all the rules," Alan retorted wagging a finger at Luntina. "Besides, all of the money that I got for this went to the school funds…and as long as two out of the three D-Wheels go to students, no problem here…"

"For the love of…" Luntina sighed turning slightly to the side. "Tony! Get off of that!"

"What the?" Alan exclaimed turning to see Tony sitting in the white motorcycle.

"This is pretty cool," Tony muttered, being in his own little world as he pretended to rev the machine few times. "I wonder if they can make a barrel themed motorcycle..."

"Ah, he can't do anything," Alan stated lifting a small key from his pocket. "Not as long as I hold the key to the ignition. Anyway, you two need to get back to the set…I need to get down to the safe…a champ will be crowned within the hour."

"Yes sir!" Luntina replied as Tony began to make faint vroom sounds as he leaned forward on his bike.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

"And we're back!" Luntina announced with the cameras back on her and Tony (who had a few more bruises on his head). "I hope you all enjoyed that commercial…but now we're getting back to the tournament!"

"That's right, and unlike the last round when it was a randomized," Tony interrupted raising a hand up towards the screen showing the chibi versions of the final six duelists, all of them lined up with a number appearing underneath them. "These duels are going to be selected. And the last round will get a freebie round to the finals…here's hoping that these duelists will get that far."

"But now…our first round will consist of…" Tony just froze up, looking at the names that were written in front of him. "N-No…"

"If you can't read it," Luntina sighed snapping the paper away. "The first match consists of…oh, now I see…"

"Please don't announce it," Tony pleaded clasping his hands together.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Back in the caves…

With Kryancelo leading her for the last ten minutes, Rena was looking through her original deck and the side deck she had. Even though she had won her last match with Erika, Rena was still surprised she was still in the fray.

"…I assume you're worried…"

"Huh?" Rena questioned looking up to see Kryancelo walking forward, but having his head turned back to have a narrowed eye aimed at her.

"…you should be worried," Kryancelo continued turning back to the cave path in front of him. "Heck, if your last opponent wasn't that goofball, then I would've said that you got here by pure luck."

"…gee, thanks," Rena muttered lowering her head quickly making a quick exchange for her Mana Dragon for something a little bit different.

"But relax," Kryancelo coughed. "It's not like the entire world is riding on if you win this next duel…"

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

"Hey! Get off of your cell phone!" Weevil shouted back towards Beck who was talking on a strawberry pink cell phone.

"Oh, hold on," Beck muttered into the phone before lowering the cell phone. "This is a one way path, I think I can get there Prof. Underwood…so you don't have to walk me like I'm a helpless child!"

"You could've fooled me," Weevil coughed walking ahead.

As soon as Weevil had disappeared into the depths of the caverns, Beck stopped in his tracks, lifting his phone back up to his ear. "Yeah, sorry about that, I had an insect on my back. Now then, back to our plans…"

"All the Yokai members stationed all over the island correct?"

"…excellent, as soon as you see… …in the safe, begin the operation! And with the Darkness Generators set up all over the island active, we're all good!"

"And tell Lirin, the Musik Twins, Xander, and Morty that they'll have to take priority over the four generators that we have stationed at the dorms and main building. When this is over, I'll get Bravo and De Masque to guard the other two…"

"Well that's all well and good, but I've got to go…got some loser to smack down."

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

"So don't worry," Kryancelo muttered slowly walking into the next open cavern. "And besides you might get lucky again and get a goofball to duel…"

The next open area of the cave was quite drastic from the other parts of the cave….for one, the cave's walls were out further and had been cut to a finely clean sheen, allowing large strings of lights to be hung from the walls, lighting up the cavern. The floor itself was replaced with a steel linked floor that clanked with each step that Rena and Kryancelo took…

…leading to a large steel platform in the middle of the cave, where a familiar form was standing in the middle of the platform…his arms crossed in his purple uniform jacket…

Along with his dark eyes glaring down at Rena… "…great…another easy match…"

"…forget what I just said…now you can worry," Kryancelo stated taking a step to the side to allow Rena to walk in front of him.

"Thanks for the support," Rena sighed lowering her head before stepping onto the metallic platform.

"…and isn't it a surprise," The mysterious youth chuckled adjusting the bandana around his face. "You're the one who showed me around the academy…and I'm going to be the one to force you out of this academy's tournament!"

"You still have to win Mr. Vanhemer," Kryancelo pointed out shaking his head. "And besides…from what I've heard, you've had a little trouble with red students in the past…"

Vic just glared daggers at the yellow professor, and then turned towards Rena. "...that doesn't matter…the past is the past…and I'm here to live in the present and look to a new future…I'm not going to let some flat chested girl stop me…"

'_Why does everyone go there first with their insults?'_ Rena thought taking a step forward. "Um…congrats on making so far in the tournament Vic…"

"Heh…thanks, and how's your last opponent doing?" Vic asked wholeheartedly.

"What's that supposed mean?" Rena questioned turning to Kryancelo, who just shrugged back.

"Cause the only way you could get this far is if your opponents got sick of your dueling!" Vic cackled before throwing his head back to laugh loudly.

"…that joke sucks," Kryancelo stated bluntly making Vic stop laughing drastically.

"Shut up," Vic snapped lifting his duel disk up. "And enough of this crap…I'm ready to get this duel over with! I managed to beat that loser of a samurai duelist in no time flat and I'm trying to keep my appointments today…"

"Wait, samurai duelist?" Rena questioned thinking about Ganryu in her mind immediately. "H-He lost to you?"

"Does that scare you?" Vic chuckled activating his duel disk, making the life point counter light up.

While it was true that Rena had never really dueled against Ganryu, in her opinion, Ganryu was a much better duelist than she was. In terms in both strategy and confidence in skills, he was probably twice as good as Rena.

And thinking back when she and Ganryu had tagged up against Dias, it was thanks to Ganryu's skills that managed to get Rena close to defeating him… so it was all Ganryu who had won them the duel.

…and if Vic managed to defeat Ganryu, and he could go toe to toe with Leo…

"Alright you two, enough of this!" Kryancelo shouted, getting both of the duelists' attentions as he walked towards the side of the metallic platform, leaning on the steel safety bar. "Both of you select your deck masters and get on with this match!"

'…_and just like that, he's back to his mean old self…'_ Rena thought lifting her deck up to fan the cards out. Mana Dragon and Reflect Carbuncle were great deck masters thus far…but using them again…

Lifting a card up from her deck, Rena gulped wondering if her choice would work. "Um, I choose Learning Elf as my deck master!"

With many pages falling down from the cave's ceiling, allowing the Learning Elf to appear next to Rena, already buried in the book she always carried.

"Heh…what a pathetic deck master," Vic spat out lifting his deck master's card. "I'll show you a real deck master! I choose my Ghost Empire Prince!"

A ghostly mist slowly appeared around Vic's body, and slowly a ghostly person appeared behind Vic, brandishing a fancy jeweled rapier into the air. The person was dressed in a fancy black overcoat that signified his royalty, and had a black mask covering the top portion of the man's pale face…allowing his two glowing eyes to glare at Rena with pure malice. "…and even though I may dislike you…I'm still a gentleman at heart…so go right ahead and take your first turn…" (VLP: 8000)

"Um, okay…" Rena gulped slowly drawing her six cards. (RLP: 8000)

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Meanwhile…

"Bleh! I need mouthwash quickly!" Cleo spat out with her tongue sticking outwards. "I'm going to be sick!"

"Heh…I don't know," Asche chuckled raising a bottle of cherry coke into the air. "I think you two would make a cute couple, ya know…"

With her eyes narrowed Cleo just lifted her diet soda up into the air over Asche…immediately pouring the liquid over the Obelisk Blue duelist's head. "ACK! YA KNOW!"

After being defeated by their first round opponents, some of the losing finalists were brought to the school's restaurant to enjoy some drinks. Since Asche had to work even on the day of the finals, he decided to chill out since the restaurant was deemed the hang out for the losers. There was even a Television set hanging in the corner of the room to tell who was dueling that Asche had special ordered.

Of course with the drink poured over him… "Aw man! I just got my uniform dry cleaned!"

"Heh, always a fun time with you two around," Riko chuckled leaning back in his seat before slapping his forehead in exhaustion. "…kinda helps me cope with my loss…"

"Aw boo ho, cry me a river," Klein snapped placing an ice cold bottle of soda on his new black eye, with regards from Bravo's rather large fist. "At least your opponent wasn't a big brute who puts fighting expert on his resume…all with a taste to punch your lights out."

"Heh…ya gotta watch out making those deals with your opponent," Erika chuckled crossing her arms at the duelists. "That's why I didn't make sure to not make a deal with that elf girl."

"Elf Girl?" Klein gasped with his good eye opened wide. "You mean the girlie got ahead in the tournament!? Awe man! This isn't fair!"

"Eh, you should be glad that you even got it to the finals," Van stated appearing behind Klein, making the short duelist jump from his seat.

"ACK! Since when have you done that?!" Klein shouted clutching his chest.

"…since five minutes ago since I dropped Leo to the infirmary," Van answered taking a seat next to Klein.

"W-What!?" Cleo shouted jumping next to Van, lifting the Street Hero duelist up by his collar. "You're going to tell me what happened to the great Leonardo this instant!"

"C-Can't…b-breathe…" Van choked, trying to get free from the rabid fan girl's grip…but not even Van's strength was able to break Cleo's pure fandom craze.

"Miss Cleo! Miss Cleo! How's he going to tell you if he can't talk, ya know?" Asche shouted trying to pry Cleo's hand off of Van's neck…his strength wasn't enough either to stand up to a fan girl's rage.

TAP!

With a flick of her finger, Erika tapped Cleo's forehead, making the Kitsune Duelist release Van. And with a loud thud, Van knelt on the ground, trying to grasp his breath. "Tsk, tsk, is that anyway to treat a fellow student?"

"…who are you?" Cleo asked blinking a few times at Erika.

"You remember the prank last year on the Ra Yellow dorm?" Erika simply stated crossing her arms.

"I remember, ya know!" Asche announced clapping his hands together in rejoice. "You're that Erika Terrance, ya know!"

"Yeah, I do know," Erika chuckled as Asche starred at her with starry eyes.

"I love your pranks, ya know!" Asche giggled with joy lifting up a small pad of paper. "Can I get your autograph for the Otaku Club? You're number seven on our top ten list, ya know!"

"It's unusual…" Erika stated beginning to write her name on the pad of paper. "But, anything for a fan of my work!"

"Wait, wait, wait…" Cleo stated as Van slowly began to stand up. "Otaku Club? What the heck is that?"

Rubbing the autograph up against his face a few times, Asche pocketed the notepad into one of his dry pockets. "Well…you've got your admirer's club Miss Cleo, ya know…."

"So…I decided to have my own club! The Otaku Club! All made to show which lovely lady is the most attractive among the male society of the Atlantic Academy!"

"…you just copied me!" Cleo shouted throwing her arms to the side. That's when a thought appeared in Cleo's head. "Wait…what rank am I on the list?"

"Uh…well…what do you think?" Asche chuckled rubbing the back of his head with sweat rolling down the side of his head. "You're number one of course, ya know…"

"…fine…but now if you excuse me, I'm going to the infirmary," Cleo sighed skipping off. "Since I'm not going to find out from that Slacker…I'm going to find out myself!"

As soon as Cleo skipped out of the restaurant, Van slowly stood up rubbing his throat. "Damn…what's up with that girl?"

"…so, is she really number one on the list?" Klein asked jabbing Asche in the ribs a few times.

Asche lowered his head, moaning loudly as he slapped his forehead. "…dear lord no…she's number four. But if she found out, I'd be skinned alive!"

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

"I'll summon Cursed Half-Elf!" Rena announced placing the card onto her duel disk.

Jumping from the dark ceiling of the cave, the dark cloaked elf landed on the ground with a large tuft of white on his sharp black hair (1600/1400), glaring at Vic. "A-and I'll set one card face down…and end my turn…"

"Aw…" Vic chuckled snapping a card from the top of his deck. "What's the matter? Starting to get scared?"

"Good!"

With the ghostly mist reappearing around Vic's body, a large armored ghostly dog appeared on the field, covered with pitch black fur and glowing red eyes. With a loud snarl the hound lowered its head with its hair standing up straight (800/1200). "…and let the scare fest begin! Especially with Hell Hound Ghost clambering onto the field."

And with a single face down card appearing behind the ghost hound…Vic crossed his arms. "And I'll let the flows of fear glide through your veins…"

"Um…okay," Rena muttered blinking a few times at the sight of the weak monster standing in front of Vic. Ghosts were never something that Rena liked, but these were duel monster cards so they couldn't be that bad…

…right?

'…_hopefully…'_ Shaking some of the doubt from her head, Rena carefully placed her next card onto her duel disk. "I summon Thoroughbred Elf in attack mode!"

Leaping over her shoulder, the fighter elf slammed his feet into the ground, raising his fists up ready to face anything heading his way (1800/1500).

"Hmm…an elf deck?" Vic stated raising an eyebrow. "…certainly one of the more interesting deck types I've faced in the last year…tell me, does your deck rely on luck?"

"Um…no?" Rena answered scratching the back of her head. "Wait…Thoroughbred Elf! Attack that ghost…if you can!"

Dashing forward, the fighter elf spun on his foot to deliver a powerful roundhouse kick into the ghostly hound's face, sending the dead dog flying over Vic's head. When the Hell Hound slammed into the dark ceiling, the ghost shattered into many pixels. (VLP: 7000)

"Heh…I've seen some decent moves in my career," Vic stated cracking his neck a few times lifting his right arm into the air. "But that…that was the worst I've ever seen!"

With a snap of his raised fingers, many dog like spirits began to fly from Vic's graveyard, all of them flying towards Rena till they passed right through her body, giving her a deep chill through her spine. "W-What happened?" (RLP: 7200)

Pulling his deck out of the card holster, Vic just lifted his cards up as he fanned them in front of his face. "A number of things my naïve girl…the first is my deck master. Known as the Cursed Spirits, each time you destroy a ghost monster as a result of battle, you take three hundred points of damage…"

Lifting a card from his deck and placing his hand into his pocket, Vic quickly shuffled the deck of duel monster cards back into his duel disk. Then placing the selected card onto his duel disk, another Hell Hound Ghost barked onto the field, whipping its devil tail left and right a few times. "Next, my Hell Hound Ghost inflicts five hundred points of damage to you when destroy it in battle and then calls out another when he bites the dust!"

"Interesting strategy, but it cost you more life points than her," Kryancelo pointed out crossing his arms.

"Shut up…" Vic growled with a blood vessel appearing on the side of his head. "The only question now is…are you going to attack again?"

"Um…no…" Rena replied allowing Vic to snap off his next card from the top of his deck.

"Good! At least you've got more sense than some of the duelists I've met!" Vic announced throwing his hand over his face down card. "And now, it's time for me to show off my skills! I activate my face down card, Cursed Command!"

As Vic's face down card began to lift face up, the Hell Hound Ghost roared loudly in pain before shattering into many spirits. With the hound gone, Vic's trap was exposed, showing a Ghostly Knight Swordsman charging blinding into an army of warriors. "This trap works like Icarus Attack…only for ghosts though…"

"Um…I've never heard of Icarus Attack," Rena admitted as the many ghosts began to fly around her two elves.

"Then you're in for a nasty surprise," Vic chuckled snapping his fingers. "By destroying one ghost on my side of the field, two of your cards are instantly destroyed! And I'll blow away your two monsters!"

"WHAT!?" Rena shouted before the many spirits flew into the two elves, making them roar in pain before the shattered into many pixels.

"Yep…and now…I summon Ghost Knight Blade Chain!" Vic cackled loudly into the air as he slapped his next card onto his duel disk, making many spirits erupt from his back…

…only to crash in front of Vic, forming into one of the ghastly Ghost Knights appeared in front of the haunted duelist, this one brandishing two long rusted chains that were wrapped around his arms, ending in two long hooked blades (1700/850). "And with no monsters…Attack her directly!"

Spinning the chains in his hands at a fast rate, before throwing them towards Rena ready to slice right through her…

"Not so fast! I activate my trap card!" Rena announced lifting her hand up, allowing the face down card to flip face up. "And since your monster seems to like chains, I'll use Shadow Spell to bind your monster!"

The ground shattered, allowing several glowing chains to wrap around the Ghostly monster, making it drop its own chains to the ground (1700/850 – 700/0). Vic however just shook his head. "Heh…and at least your comments are at least related to the duel…"

A face down card appeared behind the restrained Ghost Knight. "Turn end…"

"Then it's my turn!" Rena announced, gaining a little bit of confidence with her next card."And I'll summon Berserker Elf!"

Crashing onto the ground, the large dark skinned slowly stood up, cracking his knuckles a few times in an attempt to intimidate Vic (2000/0)…

…unfortunately, it didn't seem to be the case…

"Heh…you think a brute like that would scare me?" Vic asked cocking his head to the side. "I had a pawn earlier this year who reminds me a lot of that guy…"

"…too bad he betrayed me too when I lost my standing…"

"Um, well, I don't know what to say," Rena muttered getting a shrug from her muscular elf. "So…I'll just go into my attack!"

"Ha! Like I'll let you get me that easily!" Vic shouted snapping his hand up into the air. "I activate my face down instant spell card! Royal Painting of the Past!"

Instead of flipping face up, Vic's face down card just shattered into pixels that flew behind Vic's body. Immediately, the pixels reformatted themselves into what appeared to be a fancy yet worn out painting of a beautiful, yet ghostly young woman wearing a beautiful red dress. "You see…I've actually faced an elf deck once before, and I know what your Berserker Elf is capable of…"

That's when the Ghost Knight Blade Chain shattered into many spirits, forcing the chains to fall to the ground. With his opponent gone, the Berserker Elf just stood where he was, blinking in confusion. "…and what he's not allowed to do…and my spell makes me tribute a monster with Ghost in its title and in two turns I can do something special…"

"But more importantly, now your Elf on steroids is not allowed to attack me directly!"

"…you're right," Rena sighed fitting another card into her duel disk, noticing that there was a large glowing orb of energy floating around his Berserker Elf. "…s-so, I'll set one card face down and end my turn…"

"Tsk, tsk," Vic sighed wagging his finger at Rena. "Getting worried? That's weird…I would've figured you'd have a lot of confidence…or at least have a stinging tongue…"

"Huh? Do I really seem like that kind of person?" Rena asked with a dulled look on her face.

"Nah, it's just my experience that I've seen a few duelists with those traits," Vic answered snapping off his next card. "Anyway, it's still my turn and I'll activate the spell card, Ancient Empire Tactics!"

The spell card materialized in front of Vic's body, this one showing many Ghost Knights clutching their heads in pain. "This card will be a real pain for you…literally…but before that, I summon Ghost Empire Medic!"

This next ghost slowly began to rise up from the ground, this one being a small man wearing a dark mask with red eyes over the top part of his face. Covering his small frame was a slightly armored black lab coat, and in the sickly man's hands was a large black first aid kit (0/0).

"A monster with zero attack points?" Rena questioned raising an eyebrow at the weird cackling monster.

"Heh…appearances are nothing!" Vic laughed out lifting his head up. "Now then…since you're a red, I'll explain my Ancient Empire Tactics…when a Ghost is destroyed as a result of battle or tributed, you lose five hundred life points."

And with a snap of his fingers, Vic made the Ghost Empire Medic shatter into several ghostly blue flames. "Like now for example! You see, my Empire Medic allows me to tribute him to summon two Ghosts from my deck with one thousand attack points or less…"

The many ghostly flames flew away from Vic's field, flying directly at Rena, wrapping around her body before dispersing. (RLP: 6700)

"And now…to resolve the effect I special summon Ghost Alchemist and Ghost Researcher!"

That's when two more ghostly figures crawled out from the ground; the first one was a mysterious phantom like woman wearing a slightly armored black over coat over her entire body. On her shoulders, gloves, and back are multiple transmutation circles that glowed red like her eyes behind the demonic mask that covered the top of her head (500/250).

The second figure was a pale ghostly scientist with balding hair wearing a tattered scientist coat as well as a black mask over his eyes (1000/500).

"And now, I activate my two monsters' effects!" Vic laughed loudly as both of his monsters shattered into ghostly flames. "By tributing them, I gain a few special effects…and don't forget, my Ancient Empire Tactics kicks in!"

The flames all flew towards Rena's feet, making the Elf wielding duelist jump back to dodge the flames as they began to lower her life points. "T-That seems to be getting a little old…" (RLP: 5700)

"Heh, so what? It may be a little slow, but it works for me!" Vic shouted as a flame appeared on the top of his deck. "Especially since my combo isn't done…not by a long shot! You see, my Researcher allows me to draw two cards from my deck…"

As soon as Vic snapped off the next two cards from his deck, two large flames appeared in front of Vic. When the flames subsided, the two Hell Hound Ghosts appeared in front of Vic, trying to break free from the chains that were now wrapped around their body (800/1200 + 300/0 x2). "And my Alchemist allows me to special summon two level three or lower ghost monsters from my graveyard with a thousand attack points or less…"

"But how'd your monsters get stronger?" Rena questioned blinking a few times as the Berserker Elf chuckled while cracking his knuckles.

"I would think it was a given," Vic chuckled lifting his duel disk up, showing that there was the Ghost Knight Blade Chain. "You were there when I dueled that smiling freak; my Blade Chain increases the attack of all Ghost Knights by three hundred points…"

"But your Hounds don't have Ghost Knight in their name!" Rena protested throwing her arms to the side.

"…unless my Hell Hounds have the effect to be treated as Ghost Knights in their effects," Vic countered raising his hand up. "And I'll end my turn…"

'…_does he expect me to attack?'_ Rena thought drawing her next card. "Go Graceful Charity!"

Floating down from the air was a beautiful angel, reaching for Rena's deck to pull three cards off her deck. Then handing to of the cards in Rena's hand, the elf duelist handed the angel two cards. "Next, I activate the spell card, L – Life Force! This allows me to special summon one level four or lower Elf monster from my graveyard! And I choose Saint Elf Swordsman!"

The holy elf appeared on the field, drawing his large cross like sword into the air. The elf's serious eyes narrowed down at the sight of the two Hell Hounds (1500/1200).

…clearly, Vic was not impressed…

"Ha! Nice try!" Vic spat out, crossing his arms as he adjusted his bandana around his mouth. "If you think you can beat me like that, then you won't stand a ghost of…"

"No! Don't say that clichéd line!" Kryancelo interrupted waving his arms in the air. "I'm not letting this duel turn clichéd!"

"…I think it's already too late," Rena muttered lifting another card up. "A-Anyway, I'll continue by summoning Sylvarant Elf!"

A new bright light appeared over Rena's head, forming into a new elf warrior who leapt onto the field, crouching down when he landed on the ground. Slowly the new elf stood up, allowing his light blonde hair to flow over his pointed elf ears and glowing green eyes. Around his skinny neck was a short black scarf, over a purple tunic that went up to his chest, dark purple pants with yellow crosses on them, and black gloves that reach up to his shoulders. At the back of his black belt, was a sheathe to a large, dagger like sword that the warrior drew (1000/1000).

"…Great…at first I deal with Clay dolls, then damn ninjas, next a bunch of angels," Vic spat out shaking his head. "…and now, a bunch of fairy tale creatures with pointed ears…typical…"

"Uh, I'm almost afraid to ask," Rena gulped rubbing the back of her head. "But…are you always this…um, dark?"

"…" Vic just looked up into the darkness with a dulled look in his eyes, almost as if he was reminiscing about something…

**0-0-0-0-0-0 Vic's Memories 0-0-0-0-0-0**

"_We will…With me winning!" Vic roared nearly ripping his next card off his deck. At the sight of the card, a wicked smile appeared on his face. "Oh boy…now you're in trouble…I activate my spell card…Darkest Sacrifice!"_

_The spell card appeared in front of Vic, the card depicting a beautiful young woman tied to two poles as a dark flame erupted behind her. Two powerful dark flames engulfed the two lords of the Dark World, Silva and Goldd, making them disappear in the flames and then formed into one huge dark flame. "This ritual spell will create a powerful demon that cannot be matched…of course for something like this I need to offer monsters whose level is combined to ten or more!"_

_The dark flame began to recede allowing a new monster to step from the flame, with each step a large demon with the head of horned horse's skull roared loudly. Under its bone like armor were its large muscles and organs pulsating every few seconds. The monster stood at least twenty feet tall and has a long tail (3500/3000) that slammed on the ground next to Vic. "Meet the master of my deck…Hades Excelion!" _

"_Chaotix Tai Gyoku Gars! Strike down that demon who feeds on the sadness of Vic! Free him of this sadness and rid this world of this demon!" _

"_No! Wait!" Vic shouted covering his eyes from the blinding light. "I-I can't lose!"_

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

_In a quick instant, Vic was slammed directly into by the Kaiser of Agility sending him to the ground._

_Then just as Vic was getting up, multiple bullets were fired directly into his arms. Courtesy of the Kaiser of Defense (1100/3000)._

_Vic tried to speak, but then two swords that belonged to the Kaiser of Offense (1000/500) stabbed right through his legs. And the pain didn't stop there; the powerful chain whip from the Kaiser of Illusion (800/1400) was wrapped around his neck and pulled him directly to the ground._

_And just as Vic was about to sit up, the Kaiser of Wisdom (1200/2100) appeared before him. Vic closed his eyes waiting for what this monster was going to do to him._

_Nothing happened. _

_Just as Vic opened his eyes, the Kaiser of Wisdom bonked him on the head with what appeared to be…_

"…_A flute?" Vic questioned as the holograms disappeared (ViLP: 0)_

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

"…that doesn't matter…" Vic replied with those thoughts roaming about in his head. "Just get your move over with…"

"Uh, sure…" Rena stated shaking her head before her Berserker Elf roared loudly into the air, his skin turning gold and his muscles growing (2000/0 + 1000/0). "…and now, by removing the two spell counters on his card, my Berserker Elf gains a thousand attack points!"

"Attack the Hell Hound Ghost, Berserker Fist!"

With a quick charge forward, the muscular elf slammed its large fist into the first Hell Hound, shattering the ghostly dog into a flurry of spiritual flames. "…and here I thought that you were smarter than to charge in…Combo Attack! With my deck master's ability, my Hell Hound's effect, and my Ancient Empire Tactics, you lose more life points and I gain another Hell Hound!" (VLP: 6050)

As the third Hell Hound howled into the air (800/1200 + 300/0), the spiritual flames flew past Rena's body, sending a ghostly chill to run down her spine as her life point counter began to drop drastically. (RLP: 4400)

"T-That's not going to stop me!" Rena shouted as her Saint Elf Swordsman and Sylvarant Elf stepped in front of her, both of them raising their swords up. "Y-You see both of my elves have a special ability, since he's battling a dark monster he gains half of the opposing monster's attack to his own!"

"And my Sylvarant Elf has the same ability; however he doesn't have to face a certain element! Now my elves! Attack the remaining two Hell Hounds! Blades of Light! And Sylvarant Slasher!"

In two blurs, the two elves slashed right through the two Hell Hounds. As the remains of the Hell Hounds scattered into flames, Vic just cackled loudly. "Ha! Don't you learn from your mistakes?" (VLP: 4550)

As before, many ghostly flames began to rain down upon Rena's body, making the elf user flinch as the flames were raised quite high while her life points dropped quite low. (RLP: 1800)

"A-Actually…with you running out of monsters and your hand down to a couple of cards," Rena stated fitting another card of hers into her duel disk, making it appear behind her three elves. "I…I doubt that you can summon anything that my elves can't handle…"

Silent, Vic just drew his next card. That's when the large portrait of the ghostly woman appeared behind Vic, shattering into many flames. "You'd think that yes…but thanks to my Royal Painting of the Past, I can now draw two more cards!"

Watching Vic pull his next two cards, Rena began to rub her bare arms and breathed slightly to see that her breath was visible.

"…now then…" Vic stated lifting one of the cards he just drew up. "I activate a spell card, and it's a fan favorite! Spell card, Ghost Brigade!"

Holding his duel disk up, Vic showed that three cards popped out of his duel disk graveyard. All three of the cards were held up to show the Hell Hound Ghost cards, and were promptly slipped into Vic jacket pocket. "First…I need to remove three Ghost Knights from my graveyard…and remember, my Hell Hounds are considered to be Ghost Knights…"

Then taking his hands, Vic immediately reached for the back of his dark bandana tied around his face. "This next part…heh, its just adds a little to the drama…"

Untying the back of his bandana, Vic allowed the cloth to float to the ground exposing the bottom portion of his face…

…and at the sight of it, Rena and Kryancelo took a step back…

Vic's face was thinned out, showing the blood vessels that were running through his face…wait no…instead; the veins were actually cracks in his skin that seemed to run all the way up to the bottom of his eyes. The cracks seemed to spider web over the scar he had racing down his eye.

"Talk about dry skin," Kryancelo muttered turning away from the duel.

"Shut up! It's not dry skin!" Vic roared with the cracks on his face webbing out slightly, sending a few flakes of his skin to fall to the ground as if they were nothing more than clay…showing that there was fresh skin underneath. "…okay…so maybe it kinda is…"

"That's disgusting," Rena spat out shaking her head.

"Get off my case," Vic growled before taking a few deep breaths…then one large breath that made his chest puff up slightly. "And…watch!"

Then, slowly releasing his breath, a ghostly mist flowed out of Vic's mouth as well. The mist began to split off into three different clouds…that were beginning to form into three different spirits, each of them with heads that resembled Vic's, each of them cackling loudly (0/0 x3).

"…that's not really helping prove that you're not disgusting," Rena admitted with a large sweatdrop rolling down the side of her head.

"Did I say that I wasn't disgusting?" Vic asked crossing his arms. "I'd do anything win and continue with my goals…you're just another stepping stone to the top…"

"And with my Ghost Tokens…I'm going to make sure that happens…"

All three of the Ghost Tokens laughed loudly before shattering into many ghostly blue flames that erupted into three pillars. "Cause I sacrifice all three of them!"

The pillars of flame all merged into one large column of ghostly fire, warping wildly lighting the cave's walls with an eerie dark light. Two glowing eyes appeared in the fire, sending an even deeper chill down Rena's spine.

"…to summon, Mao, Ghost Master of the Void!"

The flames dispersed, showing a ghostly young man standing in front of Vic, his right arm lifted up at a ninety degree angle. The flames still floated around the ghost young man, lighting his large spiky white hair and his fogged up glasses. Around his neck was a large red scarf that seems to be forming into two large claws at the end of the fabric. And underneath that, the young man was wearing a pitch black jumpsuit with white shorts that showed his thin physique…

…and bring his hand down the ghostly youth clenched his fist, creating a powerful ghostly flame around his fist (1000/1000).

"…okay…that's actually pretty cool," Rena admitted rubbing the back of her head.

"But his stats stink!" Kryancelo shouted from the sideline.

"He's not an attacker!" Vic roared throwing his arm to the side. "He's an overlord! He removes the competition like me!"

With a nod, Mao lifted his hands up, sending many spiritual beings flowing from his finger tips, all of them streaming around all three of Rena's struggling elves. The spirits began to wrap up around the elves before making all three of the elves disappear in thin air.

"Well…that's not good…" Rena muttered before blushing slightly. "But, Mao's still cool!"

"…first time I've had my opponent gush over one of my monsters," Vic admitted scratching some of the cracked skin off. "…then again…I used to use very ugly monsters…"

Then shaking his head, Vic coughed slightly. "Um, anyway, Mao has the ability to remove all monsters on your side of the field when he's special summoned. Then all monsters that were removed from play are shuffled and place them face down in your removed from play pile. Then during your next standby phase you can special summon the top monster that was removed from play…"

Lifting his hand up, Mao just smirked summoning the deadly spirits around his hand. "…but before that, I attack! Spiritual Pressure!"

With an evil genius smirk, Mao launched the deadly spirits from his hand, all of them flying around Rena's body as they began to squeeze her arms and neck. Slowly, Mao returned the spirits to his hand, almost draining her of all of her life points. (RLP: 800)

"And next…I'll end my turn…" Vic chuckled crossing his arms. "Just to remind you, you'll lose life points thanks to my spell and my deck master…just enough to drain you of all of your life points! So, even if you do attack, I'll still win!"

"…I guess you weren't known as the Prince of Dark Wolf for nothing," Kryancelo admitted getting both of the duelists' attentions.

"No duh, old man," Vic spat out turning his head over to the side, his tongue sticking out of his mouth slightly. "In fact, if it wasn't for a bunch of idiots, I wouldn't even be here. I'd be the Kaiser of the Pacific Academy!"

"But no…I'm forced to transfer because of that old bastard, Kurro Legendz! And if it wasn't for that damn blue haired, ninja loving, freak of nature, I wouldn't have gotten involved with Legendz!"

"…you just love placing the blame on people, don't you?" Rena asked innocently.

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Vic roared, sending a large amount of cracked skin from his face to fall from the ground.

"…I think I'm going to be sick…" Kryancelo moaned turning around to lean over the side of the rail.

"Um, I'll just draw…" Rena stated slowly drawing her next card, and then with wide eyes, the Sylvarant Elf appeared in front of Rena, slightly freaked out…

…must've seen something that must've spooked the elf…

"Now…why don't you just surrender?" Vic suggested shrugging his shoulders. "Spare yourself of some embarrassment…"

"…um, no thanks," Rena replied as her Learning Elf snapped her book shut. "Instead, I'll activate my Deck Master's ability; I think it's called, Ancient Knowledge."

Opening the book once more, the Learning Elf allowed several pages to fly out of her book, floating around Rena. "Now…for each elf or half-elf in my graveyard I can draw one card! And there are three elf monsters in my graveyard, so I can draw three cards!"

"I'll go out on a limb here and guess that one of those was discarded for your Graceful Charity," Vic stated while Rena drew three cards from the top of her deck.

"Yeah…" Rena replied with a slight smile on her face at the sight of the cards. "Now, I'll activate my face down spell…E – Eternal Magic!"

A large green 'E' appeared over the Sylvarant Elf, allowing a large forest green aura to flow over the elf. "This spell card allows me to destroy spell and trap cards equal to the number of Elf monsters on the field…and since I've got one, you lose your Ancient Empire Tactics!"

The green aura appeared around the Ancient Empire Tactics spell, crushing the spell card immediately…Vic's eyes widened slightly at the sight of his spell card disappearing. "Urk!"

"Now, I'm safe…to do this!" Rena announced lifting three cards up from her hand and immediately sliding them into her duel disk. "I discard Boomerang Elf, Magical Swords Elf, and Mercenary Half-Elf!"

"What are you up to?" Vic questioned raising an eyebrow as three lights appeared behind Rena.

The three lights all merged into one, immediately shattering to allow a large dark blue, three headed dragon to float behind Rena. Covering each of the three heads, were white masks with sharp blue slashes for eyes. With a loud roar, the large dragon slammed its feet into the steel platform (4200/0).

"W-W-W-WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!" Vic shouted taking a few steps backwards as did Mao.

"Montague Dragon!" Rena announced as the large dragon roared loudly, making the cave begin to shake. "He can only be special summoned by sending three monster cards from my hand to the graveyard, and his attack is three hundred points times the combined levels of the discarded monsters!"

"Heh…looks like the girl got the best of you," Kryancelo chuckled shaking his head. "Right, Prince of Dark World? You're nothing more than a flake…"

"Great…you didn't want to be clichéd," Vic growled slapping his forehead with a loud smack. "And now…you're making a play on my face…"

"You kinda forgot something," Rena pointed out as the Sylvarant Elf leapt forward, his dagger like sword drawn out.

"Huh?" Vic questioned before Mao was sliced right through his stomach, shattering the demonic youth's body in two. "URK!?" (VLP: 4050)

"And now…" Rena started lifting her hand up. "Montague Dragon!" (RLP: 500)

"NO! I refuse to accept this!" Vic shouted glaring directly at Rena. "I refused to lose to that alchemic shorty! I refuse to lose to that blue haired ninja freak! And I refuse to lose to another drop out!"

"Too bad," Rena giggled turning slightly to the side as the Montague Dragon reeled his three heads back, all three of them charging a powerful blast in their mouths. "…well…I hate to do this to you Vic…but…"

Before Rena could finish, the Montague Dragon fired the three powerful blasts that erupted from all three of its mouths. The blasts crashed directly into Vic's body, sending the ghostly duelist skidding backwards onto the steel grating that he had taken to get into the dueling area as his life points began to drop at a fast rate. (VLP: 0)

Vic's defeated scream echoed through the cave as the holograms had disappeared into thin air. And with his body streaming with holographic steam…Vic knelt down to the ground, his head lowered down in shame. "…n-no…w-why…?"

"And the winner…surprisingly, is Miss Akira," Kryancelo yawned as Rena sweatdropped at the professor's weird behavior.

"…I thought you had confidence in me?" Rena sighed lowering her head slightly.

"…I do now, you managed to defeat Scaly," Kryancelo muttered raising a cell phone. "Now, I'm calling someone down here to get the former prince…"

"That won't be necessary…" A new voice stated getting Rena and Kryancelo's attention.

Standing behind the drained Vic stood a mysterious man, his bare arms crossed over a black vest with white furred trim on it. And although it was dim in the cavern, Rena was able to see the man's greased back green and black hair, as well as his shark toothed smile on his sharp face.

"Who the hell are you?" Kryancelo asked bluntly raising an eyebrow at the green and black haired man.

"Oh…I'm a referee," the man answered placing a hand on Vic's shoulder, making the young man's eyes widen. "Alan was worried, so he sent me down here to help get rid of a few students when they lose…oh, I mean escort them out of the caves so they don't get lost…."

"I plan on getting Mr. Vanhemer out of here so you can take Miss Akira to wait for the next match…Congrats little girl!"

"Um…thanks?" Rena replied, there was something wrong with this guy…she just couldn't tell what it was though…

…the man displayed an aura that was something cold as ice and yet as stuffy as a room filled with smoke…

"Okay then…but, now don't take this the wrong way," Kryancelo muttered walking in front of Rena, still in a lazy mood. "But…I don't recall seeing you here before…what's your name?"

"Even if you got it," the green and black haired man replied lifting Vic by the back of his collar. "It wouldn't help ya…I signed up with my nickname…"

"And what's your nickname?" Rena asked blinking a few times.

"Oh…you don't want to know my name…" the mysterious man replied popping a small stick of gum in his mouth. "…oh, okay, you talked me into it. My name's Big Boss!"

"…that's a weird name…" Kryancelo chuckled rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"This coming from a guy named Kryancelo?" Big Boss retorted before blowing a large bubble with his gum.

"He got you there," Rena stated.

"Shut up and let's get out of here," Kryancelo growled with a large blood vessel appearing on the side of his head.

As soon as Kryancelo and Rena took the third path that was attached to the steel platform, Vic glared at Big Boss with pure hate in his eyes. "…what you doing here you grease monkey?"

"…yeesh, now is that anyway to say hello to a former boss's boss?" Big Boss asked shrugging his shoulders at Vic.

"…you'll have to forgive me if I refuse to put mind slave on my resume," Vic replied rolling his eyes as he crossed his arms. "Now what the hell do you want with me?"

"I got a little proposition for ya," Big Boss chuckled combing back his hair with his hands. Taking advantage of the fact that Vic lost, this was a perfect chance…

"…one I know that you can't refuse…"

"I refuse," Vic replied dully walking past Big Boss.

It took a few seconds for that to register with Big Boss's mind. "…wait…damn…"

POW!

"ACK!"

"…it's always a pain to use mind tricks on this bastard…"

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Hell Hound Ghost / Dark / LV. 3 / ATK: 800 / DEF: 1200 / Fiend/Effect:** This card is considered to have 'Ghost Knight' in its name. When this card is destroyed as a result of battle, you may inflict 500 points of damage to your opponent's life points. Then you may special summon one 'Hell Hound Ghost' from your deck.

**Description:** a large armored ghostly dog covered with pitch black fur and glowing red eyes

**Ghost Empire Medic / Dark / LV. 2 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 0 / Fiend/Effect:** This card cannot be special summoned. By sending this card to your graveyard, you may special summon two level three or lower monsters from your deck with 'Ghost' in their names with less than 1000 attack points. (You cannot special summon Ghost Empire Medic with this effect)

**Description:** A mysterious phantom like man wearing an armored black doctor coat over his entire body. The skin that is showing his mouth, underneath his black demonic mask with a pair of glowing red eyes. In his hands is an old black medical kit.

**Ghost Researcher / Dark / LV. 3 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 500 / Fiend/Effect:** By tributing this face up monster, for every increment of 500 attack points on this card, you may draw one card.

**Image:** A pale ghostly scientist with balding hair wearing a tattered scientist coat.

**Ghost Alchemist / Dark / LV. 3 / ATK: 500 / DEF: 250 / Fiend/Effect:** By tributing this face up monster on your side of the field, you may special summon two monsters from your graveyard with 1000 or less attack to your side of the field. (Those monsters cannot be used as a tribute.)

**Description:** A mysterious phantom like woman wearing a slightly armored black over coat over her entire body. Covering her face is a demonic mask with a pair of glowing red eyes with pale skin underneath. On her shoulders, gloves, and back are multiple transmutation circles.

**Mao, Ghost Master of the Void / Dark / LV. 10 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 1000 / Fiend/Effect:** This card cannot be normal summoned or set. This card can only be special summoned by offering three Dark Fiend monsters on your side of the field. When this card is summoned this way, remove all monsters on your opponent's side of the field and shuffle them face down. During each of your opponent's standby phases, special summon the top removed monster by this card's effect to your opponent's side of the field in face up defense mode until all the monsters that were removed from play with this card's effect are special summoned.

**Description:** A young ghostly man with large spiky white hair wearing fogged up glasses that cover his eyes. Around his neck is a large red scarf that seems to be large claws at the end of the fabric. And underneath that, the young man is wearing a pitch black jumpsuit with white shorts.

**Royal Painting of the Past / Instant Spell / Effect:** Tribute one monster on your side of the field with 'Ghost' on your side of the field. In two turns, you may draw two cards from your deck during your main phase.

**Image:** A painting of a beautiful, yet ghostly young woman wearing a beautiful red dress.

**Cursed Command / Trap / Effect:** Tribute one monster on the field with 'Ghost' in its name or a monster that has a 'Ghost Counter' on it. Destroy two face up cards on the field.

**Image:** The Ghost Knight Swordsman charging blindly into a large army of warriors

**Mercenary Half-Elf / Dark / LV. 4 / ATK: 1500 / DEF: 1200 / Warrior/Effect:** Once per turn, by paying 500 life points, you may return one face up card on the field back to its owner's hand. This card cannot attack during the turn this effect is used.

**Description:** A young white haired half elf wearing more modern clothing, consisting of a black overcoat and gray pants. On his back is a long steel sword.

**Sylvarant Elf Swordsman / Dark / LV. 4 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 1000 / Warrior/Effect:** This card cannot be special summoned from your hand or deck. When this monster attacks, it gains additional ATK, during damage calculation only, equal to half the ATK of the attack target.

**Description:** A young man with light blonde hair (with his pointed elf ears poking from the side) and glowing green eyes, wearing a short black scarf, a purple tunic that goes up to his chest, dark purple pants with yellow crosses on them, and black gloves that reach up to his shoulders. At the back of his black belt, is a sheathe to a large, dagger like sword.

**E – Eternal Magic / Spell / Effect:** For each monster on your side of the field with 'Elf' or 'Half-Elf' in it's name, remove from play one spell or trap card on your opponent's side of the field.

**Image:** A green 'E' with many vines wrapped around it.

**L – Life Force / Instant Spell / Effect:** Special summon one level four or lower monster from your graveyard with 'Elf', 'Half-Elf', or 'Celtic' in its name to your side of the field.

**Image:** A red 'L' with a red aura around it.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Tony:** Rena! Rena! She's our gal! If she can do it…

**Luntina:** Shut up! We've got another two matches!

**Tony:** I don't care! Rena can win this tournament easily!

**Luntina:** Are you sure? The next two duelists are pretty impressive…especially with their strange strategies…

**Enemies from the future and the present collide! Who will win? Next time in Duelist Twilight – **_**Chapter 41: Speed to Finish**_

**Tony:** …I don't know if I want either of those guys to win…


	42. Chapter 41: Speed to the Finish

Ya know, I'm getting tired of people mistaking me for my brother…

_**Ya know, I'm getting tired of people mistaking me for my brother…**_

…_**big difference in us! We have different personalities, different tastes, and different shoe sizes! Anyway, I may look like him, but if one more person mistakes me for my brother…**_

…_**what?**_

…_**DAMN IT!**_

_**But, besides me taking my vengeance, I do have other good news. Like one, my brother Dias is actually getting better, and is expected to make a full recovery within the month. I can't wait…**_

…_**I'm happy that my brother caught a lucky break…and it was because he had decided to be evil (ironic if you ask me).**_

_**But, there is one thing I need to do, and that includes me finding the one who had defeated Dias. When I met my brother in the hospital he was sent to (I'll have to thank Alan Wright again for that), he told me to do him a favor…and I'll plan on keeping that favor…**_

_**Even if I have to face the gods head on! **_

…_**also, in case you're wondering, I'm keeping the deck of cards that Alan gave me…I may be a nice guy…but that won't stop me from improving my dueling skills.**_

_**Later!**_

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

_**Chapter 41**_

_**Speed to the Finish**_

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

The darkness of the caves seemed to entice Kyo as his steps echoed through the caves' hallowed passageways. With each step he took, Kyo knew that he was getting closer and closer to accomplishing his reason for being on the island.

He had no idea if his goal would be finished within the hour…or if it would be completed in the week…

Kyo was only sure of one thing…that his goal would be completed…he'd make sure of that.

Unfortunately, he had other problems to deal with first…and those problems were heading closer and closer to Kyo as he stepped forward into the lit up cavern in front of him…

…basking in the light of the surprisingly bright cave, Kyo had to raise his hand up to block the light in his eyes for a few seconds. Eventually, Kyo lowered his arm, and was amazed with what he was seeing.

Standing on a steel linked grating, Kyo's eyes followed it towards the large steel platform that seemed to be lined with several types of jewels that glimmered in the lights that dangled over the arena. And as the echoes of his footsteps filled the air, Kyo snapped out the deck of cards that Alan had given him and began to shuffle the cards…

…not much to do, since he was the only one standing in the cavern and no one to talk to…

"HEY! Get off of your cell phone!"

"This is a one way path, I think I can get there Prof. Underwood…so you don't have to walk me like I'm a helpless child!"

Kyo's head snapped up, seeing Weevil slowly walking into arena adjusting his yellow glasses. "…you could've fooled me…"

It took Weevil a few seconds to see that he wasn't alone in the arena…however when he notice Kyo, the former Insect Duelist just walked towards the middle of the platform, standing right in front of Kyo. "…oh, you must be one of the invited duelists…"

"In a sense," Kyo answered snapping his deck into his duel disk, activating the machine.

"…how I envy you," Weevil muttered lowering his head slightly, allowing his hair to fall over his glasses. "…you're still young and you can make a name for yourself…"

"…yeah, well, as long as I don't cheat, I don't think I'll have to worry about my career," Kyo replied crossing his arms while to rub his forehead.

"I hate it when people take shots at me," Weevil moaned lowering his head even more.

"That's what you get," Kyo sighed shaking his head at Weevil. "I'm not going to preach to you about right or wrong, but you deserved it…"

"HIYA! EVERYONE!"

From the girlie entrance, Kyo and Weevil looked up to see Beck skipping into the arena, the cell phone he had used spinning on the cord he had hung over his wrist. "It's great to be here at the Duelist Academy Rush for the Treasure Finals!"

"…you've got to be pulling my leg…" Kyo muttered with a sickened look on his face.

"I wish I was," Weevil moaned lowering his head. But, there was another reason Weevil was disgusted with Beck, other than his girlie manner. And that was the fact that his dueling was…what was a good way of putting it…

…monstrous…

"…hmm…a dark figure," Beck muttered rubbing his chin towards Kyo, his eyes scanning over the other Swartzvauld brother. "Sharp hair…a chilling glare…skip the fashion sense and you've got the makings of a decent opponent!"

"What's wrong with my sense of fashion?" Kyo asked looking down slightly lifting an eyebrow.

"Oh please…black and white is so last month," Beck stated waving his hand towards Kyo playfully. "Yellow and army green is in!"

"…can we just get this duel started already?" Kyo muttered with his right eye twitching slightly.

"Fine," Beck sighed lifting his left arm up, snapping his duel disk on, making it glow a bright blue and yellow. "Be a spoilsport!"

"Now then," Weevil sighed shaking his head slightly, finding himself a little recovered from Beck's weird attitude. "Both of you get your deck masters ready!"

"Fine by me little man," Beck chuckled already lifting a single card up in between his fingers. "I already chosen my deck master before I knew who my opponent was…I choose Arch Avatar!"

From the side of the cave, many jewels erupted from the side, shattering to allow an older, experienced man wearing a large white cloak to land on the steel grating next to Beck. As the old man stood up, the black head piece in the shape of a wolf seemed to gleam, exposing that it was made of a jewel itself. The tribal clothing seemed to dangle off of his tanned body as he crossed his arms.

"…what the?" Kyo stated raising an eyebrow at the weird tribal monster.

"Oh, you don't know about the history of this monster?" Beck chuckled shuffling his deck. "This card was actually based on an ancient leader of an ancient group dedicated to a select three of deities…or as his name suggests Arch creatures…"

"Arch?" Kyo stated raising an eyebrow. "I've actually heard of this card of yours…"

"Oh?" Beck gasped trying to fake surprise.

"Yeah, that card appeared last year in that major tournament," Kyo stated crossing his arms, holding a card in his right hand. "…even though I didn't see the card before, from the statements of the winner of that tournament explained that an Arch Avatar was needed to summon three very strong and broken monsters…"

"I don't remember who the winner was, but I remember that he was a short guy with a bad temper…although his strategy was interesting to say the least…"

"Hmm…someone's done their homework," Beck whistled with a few hearts popping off of his body.

"Please don't do that…" Kyo requested lifting his card up, placing it into the deck master slot on his duel disk. "Anyway…since you introduced your deck master…I think its time I introduce mine! Go! Roadrunner!"

A bright light began to engulf Kyo's duel disk, only for a few seconds to pass, allowing the light to leap off of his duel disk. Weevil, Beck, and the Arch Avatar followed the light as it continued to speed around the steel platform, the light dripping off of its pink feathered body.

The pink blur speed around the arena, leaping until it was now resting on top of Kyo's shoulder, revealing that it was a small pink bird with large eyes, wearing a pair of blue boots and a few feathers sticking on top of the bird's head.

…

"HA! HA! HA!" Beck laughed loudly, holding onto his sides. Weevil himself tried to contain himself, but couldn't hold back his snickers at the sight of the small deck master.

And with a sigh, the Roadrunner lowered its head in despair…it didn't really like being treated as such a pathetic deck master. That's when Kyo rubbed the top of the bird's head, surprising the bird deck master slightly. "Relax…don't take their laughs so seriously…and you two, don't think that my deck master is a laughing matter!"

"Oh please!" Beck gasped for his breath, wiping the makings of his tears from the corners of his eyes. "I…I may not be the authority on deck masters, but come on! What are you going to show us? Is Wile E. Coyote in your deck somewhere? Meep Meep!"

"Make all the jokes you want," Kyo stated snapping his duel disk on, making it glow a deep red. "But we'll soon see if you'll be able to back them up in the end!" (KLP: 8000)

"Oh, I'll be sure to hold you to that…" Beck replied pulling off the top five cards from his deck. (BLP: 8000)

"Duelists ready?" Weevil snorted, adjusting his glasses as he looked towards Beck and then towards Kyo. "Then…"

"DUEL!"

"My draw Swartzvauld!" Beck shouted snapping a sixth card from his deck.

Then with a slap of the newly drawn card onto his duel disk, Beck smirked as the cave around the trio of duelists beginning to rumble loudly. "And what a draw! I summon Duos, Brothers in Arms!"

With a loud rumble the ceiling began to crumble, allowing several rocks and two creatures to fall to the steel floored arena. As the rocks shattered on impact the two creatures stepped forward into the light. Both of them large purple lion like beasts wearing Japanese samurai armor, one wearing blue armor and the other wearing red armor, and then with a pair of roars, the two beasts lowered to the ground, ready to pounce. (1000/1000)

"Did you just summon two monsters?" Weevil asked raising an eyebrow at Beck's weird monsters.

"Did you hear me declare another summon?" Beck retorted wagging his finger. "No, no I did not. These two brothers are actually one in the same…and since I've brought them out, I'll end my turn…"

"What?" Kyo questioned blinking a few times at the weird monsters. "That's your opening turn?"

"Yes…why?" Beck asked with a question mark appearing over his head. "Should I have tried something a little better?"

"Well…I was just…" Kyo caught himself and shook his head slightly. "Forget it…draw!"

Snapping his next card into his hand, Kyo looked at the card slightly before lifting another card from his hand up. "And to start off, I'll activate the spell card Reinforcement of the Army! Allowing me to take one level four or lower warrior monster from my deck…and add it to my hand!"

A card simply shot out of Kyo's deck and into his hand, making him spin it in his fingers to show that it was a level two monster. "But, I'll just get a monster with half of that level!"

"Namely, my Speed Warrior!"

Calling out the monster's name, the machine covered warrior leapt from the cave wall behind Kyo, skidding on the steel arena to keep moving. The monster's visor glowed as he kept his sights on the two weird creatures (900/300).

"Hmm? Why would you summon a weaker monster?" Beck questioned turning his head left and right, watching as the Speed Warrior began to roll faster and faster on the field.

"Just because something looks weak…" Kyo started snapping his arm to the side. "Doesn't mean that it is! Appearances aren't everything! Speed Warrior! Show him!"

With a nod from the fast warrior, the Speed Warrior immediately turned towards the Duos brothers. His attack score increasing dramatically as he got closer and closer to the beastly brothers (900/300 + 900/0), his body glowing a bright sky blue.

"Sonic Edge!"

Before the two beastly brothers could react, the glowing Speed Warrior leapt forward, landing on his hands to slam his powerful wheeled feet directly into the Duos Brothers' faces. Both of the two beastly brothers flew towards both sides of the cavern as the sonic wind slammed into Beck's duel disk. "W-What happened?" (BLP: 7200)

"During the turn he's summoned," Kyo started to explain as the Speed Warrior skidded back in front of him, crossing his arms over his armored chest. "My Speed Warrior can double his attack points before the end phase."

BAM! BAM!

With the pair of slamming noises echoing through the caves, Kyo's eyes widened, seeing both of the Duos, Brothers in Arms were clawed into the cave's walls…both of them growling at the Speed Warrior. "Huh? Why are they still around?"

"Oh, and here I thought that you were an expert with brothers," Beck clicked his tongue behind his teeth a few times, shaking his head as both of the Duos Brothers landed in front of him…both of them standing at least five feet away from each other (500/500 x2). "You see, you're not the only one with an effect. When my Duos gets destroyed in battle, I can special summon two Armed Brother Tokens to my side of the field."

That's when a small chanting noise began to murmur through the cave, no one seemed to notice that a small white orb appeared at the Arch Avatar's chest…slowly grasping at it with his hands…

'_I see…he wanted me to do that…'_ Kyo thought, looking over the rest of his cards. "I'll end…with a face down card."

"Heh…don't forget what you said," Beck pointed out, gesturing towards the Speed Warrior whose glowing aura began to disappear (1800/300 – 900/0). "Now your little speed demon is back to his original attack…"

And with a quick snap, Beck slowly looked at his next card. "…making him easy pickings for this! I release my two Armed Brother Tokens…"

As those words passed his lips, Beck's two Armed Brother Tokens seemed to melt into pure water. The water slowly swept upwards into the air, forming into a large orb of pure water…that kept growing, and growing with each passing second.

With his eyes widening, Beck raised his hand up towards the orb of water. "…to Advance Summon…"

"_**Leviathan, Roaring Seas Deity!**_"

The orb shattered into several bursts of water that rained over the three duelists, making then cover themselves from the pure water. Kyo covered his cards and duel disk, trying to make sure that they wouldn't get ruined. '_What the? Is this actual water? How in the world…_'

"What's going on here?!" Weevil shouted looking left and right when the water had covered the top of the platform and over the jewels that had lined the ground near the bottom of the platform. And yet the water level seemed to continue to rise, reaching up to his mid shin level. "W-Why am I actually getting wet here? Wait…"

While Weevil was having a panic attack, Kyo was more concerned with something related to actual game play. "Where's your monster?"

"Oh…don't you worry about that…" Beck snickered as the water surged behind him, allowing a large serpentine creature to leap from the water.

In the split seconds that the creature was above the water, Kyo took a step back at the sight of a thirty foot long aqua scaled sea serpent, its large fins flapping near its mouth and its purple underbelly (2200/2000). Then the serpent dived back into the water, presumably circling the circular steel platform swiftly…

"What the hell was that thing?" Kyo questioned turning back to see the Leviathan's underwater shadow stream behind him.

"Did you not hear me shout out its name?" Beck asked shaking his head slightly. "What you're seeing is the deity of the seas…my Leviathan…but you've got bigger things to worry about!"

"Leviathan!" A torrent of water erupted from behind Beck, allowing the Leviathan to rise up from the water, roaring loudly into the air. "Destroy that rust bucket of a warrior! Torrential Surge Blast!"

Opening its large finned mouth, the Leviathan began to reel its head back.

"Not so fast! Trap card go!" Kyo shouted as a small surge of water erupted in front of the Speed Warrior. "Scrap-Iron Scarecrow!"

From the water a make-shifted scarecrow stood up in front of the Speed Warrior, dressed with a rusty helmet and a few golf clubs. "This trap card activates when you declare an attack. I can negate the attack!"

The Leviathan snapped its head forward, firing a powerful surge of water that crashed into the make-shift scarecrow, protecting both Kyo and his Speed Warrior.

"Heh…you got lucky once," Beck snickered fitting two of his cards into his duel disk, making them along with his Leviathan to disappear under the water. "…but it won't happen again…"

"We'll see about that," Kyo replied snapping another card from his deck. "I activate the effect of my Deck Master! Go, Speedy Comeback!"

"…could that get any more clichéd?" Beck asked raising an eyebrow.

Ignoring that line, Kyo raised his hand up, making his Speed Warrior disappear into thin air. "Here's how my deck master's ability works! Once per turn, I can take one level four or lower monster from my field and return it to my hand. Then, I can summon another monster from my hand with the same level and summon it!"

"And since he definitely fits the bill…why not summon Speed Warrior again?"

This time, with the water dashing behind him, the Speed Warrior skidded off of the water covered arena and began to dash on the circular cave walls (900/300).

"And what was the point of that?" Beck asked watching the Speed Warrior glow sky blue again (900/300 + 900/0), increasing his speed.

"Simple, most of the monsters in my deck need to be summoned to use their effects," Kyo explained throwing his arm out towards the ceiling. "And since Speed Warrior was summoned again, his attack points double!"

"Now then…Speed Warrior attack the Leviathan!"

"Heh…are you up to?" Beck questioned as the Leviathan began to surface and chase the Speed Warrior, catching up with the fast warrior slowly. "No matter…Leviathan! How about some fast food!"

Leaping from the water, the Roaring Seas Deity opened its large mouth, ready to snap down on the Speed Warrior…

"Quick Play spell card go!" Kyo shouted slipping another card from his hand into his duel disk. "Rush Recklessly!"

The sky blue aura around the Speed Warrior immediately turned a powerful red (1800/300 + 700/0), and with a powerful leap, the Speed Warrior slammed its wheeled foot directly into the side of the Leviathan's head, sending the serpent flying. "How about some sushi for a snack instead!"

Beck's eyes narrowed down as his Leviathan shattered into large spurts of water that crashed into the large pool of water at his feet. "Do you have any idea what you've done?" (BLP: 6900)

"Do you have any idea what you've done?" Kyo replied with his Speed Warrior landing right in front of him.

"That's not funny…" Beck growled.

"That's not funny…" Kyo continued waving his arms like an idiot.

"Stop it! This is serious," Beck snarled, losing his cool.

"A loser says what?" Kyo muttered cocking an eyebrow.

"What?" Beck questioned blinking a few times.

"Exactly," Kyo chuckled wagging a finger at Beck.

"DAAARRGGGHHH!" Beck screamed towards the side, realizing that he fell for the oldest trick in the book…not noticing that another orb of light appeared in the Arch Avatar's hands.

"…I could've enjoyed a nice fish stick lunch," Kyo muttered to himself, crossing his arms with a sigh following. "…but I had to get paired to duel this guy…sometimes I wonder why I do the things I do…"

"Okay…okay…okay…" Beck took a few deep breaths, taking off his bandana to wipe the water from his face. "I'm calm…I'm cool…I'm paying one thousand life points right now…" (BLP: 5900)

"Why exactly are you doing that?" Kyo asked as Beck drew his next card.

With an insidious smirk appearing on his face, the water began to surge upwards, crashing back into a large orb of water…then when the orb shattered, the Leviathan dove under the water with a loud roar erupting from its large webbed mouth (2200/2000).

"H-How the heck did that…?" Kyo shouted taking a splashing step backwards.

"He used that monster in his last duel," Weevil stated getting Kyo to turn towards him, seeing that Weevil was lowering his head towards the wet arena platform. "…its has the ability to revive itself at the cost of a thousand life points and its attack for the turn…"

"Thanks for the tutorial," Beck sighed tapping his forehead a few times. "Yes, being the deity of water, Leviathan has the unique ability to reform itself with the cost of my very life force…even so…he doesn't have the strength of the gods themselves to make his natural abilities perfect."

"Gods?" Kyo questioned raising an eyebrow.

"Oh please…it's too early for that," Beck sighed snapping his fingers up into the air. "But, not too early for this! I activate my trap card, Powerless Chanting!"

Beck's face down card flipped up, this one exposing a large altar with a ruined and moss covered statue of Leviathan, Roaring Seas Deity. "People say that the gods are all powerful…but, without us, they wouldn't be able to do anything…"

"…gods again? What're you getting at?" Kyo questioned once more, he wasn't a very religious person, but still…

"Why should that matter?" Beck retorted as the Leviathan leapt into the air from the water behind him. "Especially with my trap card's effect! You've outlived your usefulness my Leviathan!"

With a painful roar, the Leviathan shattered into a large amount of simmering water that rained over the field, splashing slight into the water that was used to summon the creature only minutes ago. The rain seemed to be more a drizzle, one that began to soothe at the very touch of the water.

"That seemed a little harsh," Kyo stated looking towards his now glowing disk. (KLP: 9100)

"Heh…I don't have to explain myself to you," Beck replied, his own duel disk glowing brightly. "If we're play things to the gods, then these deities are the same to me…and especially with my trap card's effect! First, it destroys a Deity monster, and increases both of our life points by half of the monster's original attack." (BLP: 7000)

That's when two splashes of water erupted from the sides, allowing Duos, Brothers in Arms (1000/1000), to crash onto the ground. Both of the purple haired beasts shaking the water off of their wet fur, roaring in disgruntle manners. "…and for a little follow up bonus, I can special summon a monster from my graveyard that has less than half of the amount of life points we gained. And Duos works great for me…"

"Not a bad strategy…a little barbaric," Kyo muttered turning towards his normal Speed Warrior (900/300).

"From you…I'll take that as a compliment," Beck giggled snapping a card towards the side. "And now…I'll sacrifice my Brothers in Arms…"

Both of the beastly brothers roared in pain, this time erupting into several flames that seemed to dance on the waters. Soon, the water began to boil and steam upwards.

"Man! What is up with this duel?!" Weevil shouted taking his fogged up glasses off to wipe them clean.

All the flames leapt into the air, clashing into a large orb of fire that crashed into the platform, steaming the water off of the metal, drying the platform immediately. The flames began to reform, transforming into a roaring beastly man, with a lion like face with black horns and wearing tribal arm bands with fiery red hair erupting from the back of his head, wrists and ankles (2000/1700).

"…to summon…_**Ifrit, Hell Fire Deity!**_"

"…is this a duel or Tokyo Game Show 08?" Kyo asked with a slight snicker escaping his lips.

"Make all the jokes you like," Beck snickered crossing his arms over his chest. "Especially when I activate the instant spell card, Inferno Reckless Calling!"

"…Inferno Reckless Calling?" Weevil restated blinking a few times.

"An interesting spell card to be sure," Beck sighed lifting his hand to his deck. "It can only be activated when I tribute summon a monster. First, I select one monster your side of the field, and since you only to have one, you get to add all three copies of your Speed Warrior to your hand."

"And you're being generous because…" Kyo stated as two cards popped out of his deck and into his hand.

"…because I get to add three monsters from my deck to my hand," Beck replied as three cards snapped out of his deck, and he immediately lifted them up to show three of the same cards. "However, this has some restrictions. One would have to be, that they all have to have the same level, Attribute and Type, the second is that they must be normal monsters…and to top it off, I can't summon them this turn."

"Then how pray tell is that going to help you?" Kyo asked shuffling his hand of cards.

"If you give me a chance I'll tell ya," Beck snapped fitting all three off the cards he just got from his spell into his duel disk's graveyard. "You see, the three monsters I selected were my Hinotama Souls, and by discarding all three of them, Ifrit gains five hundred attack points per card!"

"And since he discarded three monsters…" Weevil gasped as Ifrit slammed its arms into the steel platform, creating dents in the metal as the flames on its body erupted into a towering inferno (2000/1700 + 1500/0).

"That's right! And now…use those attack points and send that Speed Warrior directly to the scrapyard!" Beck shouted as Ifrit dug his hands into the steel platform. "Hellfire Bombardment!"

Then, from the steel platform the large Hellfire Deity pulled out a large orb of surging flames. And with a powerful leap, the Hell Fire Deity threw the surging orb of flames towards the Speed Warrior.

"Scrap-Iron Scarecrow! Activate!" Kyo shouted throwing his hand up as the makeshift scarecrow reappeared in front of the Speed Warrior, taking the attack.

"What?! How did that thing get back here?!" Beck shouted as Ifrit crashed back in front of him, snarling that its attack was deflected by pure trash.

"You didn't give me a chance to finish explaining the full effects of my scarecrow," Kyo stated as a face down card appeared right behind his Speed Warrior. "Instead of going to the graveyard, it gets set down on the field instead. Of course, when it uses that effect, I can't activate again that turn."

"Urgh…I see…" Beck muttered looking at his remaining two card hand…then just crossed his arms. "Anyway…I'll end my turn, and by the way, my monster keeps the same attack points he has until the end of your turn…"

"Good to know," Kyo replied snapping off his next card. "Anyway, I'll set one monster on the defensive, and switch Speed Warrior to defense mode as well. And to end my turn…I'll set one card face down."

With the two cards appearing in front of Kyo, Beck just shook his head. Mostly for the quick move that Kyo had, and the other was the fact that he was practically sweating bullets thanks to his Hell Fire Deity. "Whoo…then it's my turn again cutie…"

"…did you just call me cutie?" Kyo asked as Beck drew his next card.

"…and what a turn it'll be," Beck continued on ignoring Kyo's question. "Cause I'll summon…"

The ground began to rumble once more…and from the ceiling above, the many rocks began to fall just like with the Duos, Brothers in Arms monsters' appearances. Only this time, an extremely large, dark skinned man with bulging muscles and wearing a dark brown loincloth and a fanged toothed necklace landed on the platform next to Ifrit (3500/1700 – 1500/0). On the top of the man's head, was overflowing white hair that graced his shoulders (2000/0).

"_**Titan, Crashing Earth Deity!**_"

"Oh boy…" Kyo gulped slightly, his eyes widened at the sight of the two powerhouse monsters in front of him.

"Hmm…now I'm wondering…" Beck chuckled rubbing his chin, his eyes shifting between his two monsters a few times. "Which monster should I attack with first? Titan? Or Ifrit?"

"I'd prefer if you didn't attack with either," Kyo suggested rubbing the back of his head.

"Nah…that won't work," Beck muttered, before snapping his fingers into the air. "I got it! Titan! Lead the attack!"

With a quick nod, Titan slammed his hands into the steel platform, grunting as he began rip the steel as if it were made of paper. "And I should probably let you know that Titan has the ability to strike down every monster on your side of the field in one felt swoop!"

"Not if Scrap-Iron Scarecrow has anything to say about it!" Kyo shouted as the make shift scarecrow appear right in front of the Crashing Earth Deity, scaring the large monster to release the steel arena.

And as soon as the Scrap-Iron Scarecrow fell backwards into its face down card form, Ifrit leapt into the air. "Ha! You fell for it! You see…I was hoping you'd stop Titan's attack! And now Ifrit, rip that Speed Warrior to shreds!"

Kyo just stepped backwards as Ifrit crashed in front of the crouching Speed Warrior, and with a quick slash of its black claws, the Hell Fire Deity sliced the Speed Warrior into several pixels. Then, taking a step towards Kyo, Ifrit snorted a large cloud of soot from its nose. "URGH! What the hell?!" (KLP: 7400)

"Looks like someone needs to familiarize themselves with the trample ability," Beck chuckled as the Hell Fire Deity stomped back to his field. "Especially since you seem to like low leveled monsters…"

"Don't mock the weak," Kyo snapped narrowing his eyes at Beck.

"Yeah, yeah," Beck sighed fitting another card into his duel disk, making it appear behind his two Deities. "I guess the saying is true in your case…a cute face with a dumb mind behind it…"

"Damn it stop doing that!" Kyo shouted snapping off of his deck another card.

Slowly lifting the card up to his face, Kyo's mouth slowly curved into a small smirk before he began to mutter to himself. "…so…You've come…"

"I activate the spell card, Graceful Charity!"

With three more draws from his deck, Kyo lifted his hand up, fitting two of the cards into his graveyard. "I have to thank you for adding those two Speed Warriors into my hand…now I discard both of them!"

"Heh, you criticized me for ridding my monsters," Beck snickered as Kyo lifted another card from his hand towards the side, lifting the card up towards Beck. "Huh?"

"Unlike you, I'll respect any card that works for me," Kyo stated slapping the card he held up. "Like this next one! I summon the Tuner Monster, Junk Synchron!"

In a bright flash that lit up the entire cave, the orange armored warrior landed on the ground, crossing his arms at the sight of the two Deities (1300/500).

However…

"…heh…heh…BWAHAHAHAHAHA!" Beck laughed hysterically holding his sides with tears erupting from his eyes once more. "Y-You think that, heh, that living trash can…can defeat my deities?"

"Since you seem to enjoy negative comments about gods," Kyo stated as a large circle of light appeared in front of the Junk Synchron. "I've got one for you…"

"…the bigger they are, the harder they fall."

"Oh please, that's not even a God reference," Beck spat out with his tongue sticking out. "And unless you've got Double Summon in your hand…"

"…then I can't summon something with enough kick to beat your monster?" Kyo finished as a familiar form began to crouch up from the circle of light. "Wrong! First, thanks to Junk Synchron's special ability, I can special summon one level two or lower monster from my graveyard in defense mode. Unfortunately, whatever monster I special summon has its effect removed…"

The light died down at the knees of the cross armed Speed Warrior (900/300), its card appearing horizontal under it.

"Then what was the point of bringing that back?" Beck asked looking down at the face down cards he had left. "The only thing I can see the use in that is it being a target for either of my monsters…"

"How about you let me continue my turn?" Kyo snapped back throwing his hand over his newest face down card. "I activate the trap card, Angel Lift!"

The trap card lifted up, this one showing a Skull Servant being lifted from the ground by two cherubs into the air. In front of the trap card, a small twister wrapped around in the air, allowing a second Speed Warrior to leap onto the steel platform (900/300).

"This is starting to get repetitive," Beck sighed loudly shaking his head. "I'll assume that your trap card special summons a monster from your graveyard…"

Kyo just nodded back to Beck.

"I see…"

"But, what was the point in summoning all of those monsters?" Weevil asked adjusting his glasses slightly. "None of them can even put a dent into Beck's monsters…"

"Alone…" Kyo stated with a smile on his face.

"What was that?" Beck questioned lifting a hand up to his ear to listen intently.

"Alone my monster may not seem like much," Kyo reiterated throwing his hand into the air. "But together, my monsters have the ability to form something stronger!"

"Junk Synchron! Synchro Summon with the Speed Warrior!"

"Synchro Summon?!" Beck questioned blinking a few times.

Leaping into the air, the Junk Synchron revealed a pull chord at his side. And with a swift tug, the Junk Synchron revved up the old engine that was on its back, roaring the engine to life. Then disappearing into a large flash of light, the Junk Synchron transformed into three green rings that wrapped around the standing Speed Warrior. "The clustering stars will awake a new power…"

As the rings began to glow around the Speed Warrior's armor, the warrior leapt into the air. The armor soon turned into a transparent version of it, with several lights appearing in its body. "Become the path to the light!"

Then a powerful burst of light erupted in the middle of the air, blinding both Beck and Weevil while Kyo lifted his hand into the air. "Now then…Come forth!"

The light shattered into a tall slim warrior landing on the ground, this one covered with light blue armor that had a pair of white wings on his shoulders. Like the Junk Synchron before it, this monster had an engine on its back as well as a long white scarf around its neck. And its right arm was larger than the left and had brass knuckles covering its fingers (2300/1300). "Junk Warrior!"

"H-How did you summon that?!" Beck questioned with his eyes widening.

"Didn't you hear me?" Kyo retorted as the Junk Warrior slowly floated down in front of him, raising his brass knuckled fist up. "It's Synchro Summoning! And since I Synchro summoned him, Junk Warrior's effect kicks in! For every level two or lower monster on the field, my Junk Warrior gains attack points equal to the attack of them all!"

"And I still have my defending Speed Warrior!"

With a nod of its oval head, the Junk Warrior's attack began to climb slowly, giving it an aura that seemed to make Beck break out in a cold sweat (2300/1300 + 900/0).

"Urk!?" Beck coughed out as his two Deities stepped back slightly.

"And I'm not done!" Kyo shouted lifting another card up from his hand. "I activate the continuous spell card, Domino!"

"Domino?" Beck questioned as the spell card appeared on the field, showing a few armored monsters getting crushed by several dominos.

"Right, but I'll get to that in a second," Kyo stated pumping his fist a few times into the air. "But for now…Junk Warrior!"

At the call of his name, the Junk Warrior leapt into the air ready to lift his brass knuckled fist up. "Attack Titan! Scrap Fist!"

And leaping from the ceiling, Junk Warrior spun around with a powerful blue aura surging around his body. And just as he slammed his fist into the Crashing Earth Deity, the aura shifted into a large surging fist, shattering Titan into several pixels that flew directly into Beck. "URK!" (BLP: 5700)

"And now, for the effect of Domino!" Kyo shouted reaching for his set card on his duel disk. "When a monster on your side of the field is destroyed as a result battle and is sent to the graveyard, I can send my face down Shield Warrior to the graveyard…"

With a second spin, the Junk Warrior slammed his fist directly into Ifrit's face sending it streaming into the side wall with a loud crunching noise. "…And I can destroy another monster on your side of the field, like your Ifrit!"

"Grr…you're starting to become less and less cute…" Beck snarled as two more orbs appeared in the Arch Avatar's hands. "But…now I activate my trap card! Go! Devastating Sacrifice!"

Two large spotlights erupted from both sides of Beck, both of them revealing Titan and Ifrit being bound by several chains of light. "You're not the only one with trap cards to use on your monsters! And this one can only be activated when you destroy two or more monsters on my field during the battle phase. Now, I just remove the two monsters that were destroyed…"

The two deity monsters roared loudly, before shattering loudly into several blood red petals that flowed over the cave's walls. "And now…I can summon a monster from my deck with a level lower than the removed monsters' combined levels…however, I can't exceed over level eight…and in return, you can draw two cards from your deck…"

"Great…" Kyo moaned snapping off the two cards from his deck.

"And now…Arise!" Beck shouted as all of the blood red petals began to cluster over his head.

A loud neigh echoed through the caves' sanctum, scattering the petals as a large beautiful six legged horse clomped onto the steal platform. Mounting atop of the beautiful stead was an older man with a battle scared face, wearing black armor and an eye patch over his left eye…exposing his glowing red right eye that seemed to glare down at both the Junk Warrior and Kyo.

"_**Odin, Deity of War!**_" (2000/2000)

"…how many deities do you have in your deck?" Kyo asked fitting a card into his duel disk, making it appear next to his set Scrap-Iron Scarecrow card.

"Oh trust me…" Beck snickered nearly ripping off his next card. "You haven't even seen the big guns yet! All you've seen are the minors of the Deities! But Odin will give you a taste of a high class deity!"

"Then bring him on!" Kyo challenged stomping his foot into the ground.

"Oh, you'd like that wouldn't you?" Beck asked lifting a card up from his hand, fitting it into his duel disk to allow a large cloud of light to flash over both of the duelists, reflecting in the many jewels that lined the walls. "But I'm smarter than that…and to prove that, I'll activate the spell card, Card of Sanctity, now both of us draw till we hold six cards…"

"But since I have a low card hand, I benefit more from it!"

"No need to explain the rules to me," Kyo stated snapping cards from his deck till he held six as did Beck.

"Oh, I just had to be sure…" Beck playfully stated fanning his hand towards Kyo. "Now, I think I'll activate an old favorite…Heavy Storm! So all spells and trap cards on the field get blasted off of the field and you lose your defending Speed Warrior as well!"

The wind echoed through caves, whipping around the arena to shatter all of the face down cards and the defending Speed Warrior into pixels. "And now…I'll activate the equip spell, Deity's Soul!"

With a loud battle cry, the Deity of War erupted with a bloody aura in his hands, forming into a powerful lance (2000/2000 + 500/500). "And now…Odin, strike down that Junk Warrior!"

"What!?" Kyo yelped as the beautiful stead neighed loudly into the air. "But even with that equip spell, Odin's not nearly strong enough…"

"That's why I have his special ability!" Beck laughed with his tongue sticking out. "You see, when my Deity of War attacks a monster, he gains attack points equal to half of the opposing monster's attack points!"

"And that means…" Kyo gulped looking down at his duel disk.

The bloody aura erupted from the lance, allowing Odin to roar loudly into the air (2500/2500 + 1600/0). "Now, Odin, send that Junk Warrior to the scrapyard!"

Charging forward with his stead clomping on the steel platform, Odin spun the lance over his head, ready to stab directly into the Junk Warrior.

"Not so fast! I activate the effect of my Shield Warrior!" Kyo shouted as a bright blue aura erupted around the Junk Warrior. "By removing him from play, I can make it so my Junk Warrior can't be destroyed as a result of one battle!"

"True…but I'm willing to bet that your little warrior doesn't negate the battle damage!" Beck countered before Odin rammed the lance into the Junk Warrior's chest, sending the futuristic warrior flying backwards into Kyo, both of them falling to the ground along with the Road Runner. (KLP: 6300)

"I-Is that all you've got?" Kyo asked, wiping his mouth as he and the Junk Warrior slowly stood up.

"You wish!" Beck laughed sticking his tongue out. "Now, here comes the effect of my Deity's Soul equip card! Since the equipped monster battled a monster and inflicted damage to your life points, I can drain your life points even more…equal to half of the original attack of Odin!"

"So kiss away another thousand points of damage!"

Before Kyo could reply, a bloody aura surged around his body, making him take a knee and grab his choked neck. (KLP: 5300)

"And now…I'll set one monster face down," Beck snickered with the face down monster appearing next to Odin. "And one set card…my turn's over with…"

"…and I'm ending this duel!" Kyo shouted snapping his next card…

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

"Aw man…I think I'm lost…" Bravo sighed leaning up against the rock wall in the cave. While the two other duels were going on, he was actually wandering in the caves with a lighter in his hands…

…not that it really helped…

"Damn it, this is what I get for buying that map," Beck muttered slamming his fist into the wall a few times.

"If you're lost, maybe I could help…"

Snapping his head to the side, Bravo saw the faint outline of a top hat wearing short man (compared to him, everyone was short) walking closer and closer, slowing exposing his features thanks to the lighter that Bravo held up showing…

"…huh? Who are you?" Beck asked raising an eyebrow at Genjyo who was standing before him.

Taking off his top hat and bowing slightly, Genjyo immediately stood up to toss the hat back onto his head. "Greetings, I am Genjyo Zosimos…a gentleman at heart with a duelist soul trapped in my small body…"

"Yeah, and I'm supposed to care because…" Bravo trailed off moving his hand in a circular manner.

"Oh my…and here I thought Beck told you not to engage me," Genjyo sighed cracking his hand on the arm that he had his duel disk on. "Oh well…I could use some more entertainment…"

"Beck? You know the boss?" Bravo asked blinking a few times.

"Quite so you Happy Days' reject," Genjyo replied adjusting his glasses with his palm. "…anyway, as much as I would like to tell you, I would think that even you would know that your boss gave you some specific orders…"

"Um…no?" Bravo stated with a dulled look on his face.

"What? Yes he did…" Genjyo snapped with his hat falling down to cover his eyes.

"Uh, hold on," Bravo muttered reaching into his pocket to pull out an old fashioned cell phone. "I'll make a phone call…"

"…typical…" Genjyo sighed…

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

"…Junk Warrior! Attack Odin now!"

With a powerful spin, the Junk Warrior slammed his fist directly into the Deity of War's face, sending the warrior streaming off of his horse and into the wall behind Beck. With a loud crash the stone wall began to crumble as Odin fell of the wall and plummeted into the water.

Beck was just growling loudly with his eyes narrowed down at Kyo. (BLP: 5000)

"And that's my turn…" Kyo stated crossing his arms with the Junk Warrior floating back to his side of the field.

"Damn it! I shouldn't be having this hard of a time dealing with you!" Beck shouted pulling his hair from under his bandana.

"Well, you're dealing with a professional here…" Kyo sighed shaking his head. "And besides…I don't know why you're here, but, I've got a mission to fulfill and I'm going to finish it even if you…"

'_FLYING IN THE SKY! Takaku habatake oozora o dokomademo! SHINING FINGER! Kagayaku hikari ga!_'

"What the hell is that?" Weevil stated as he, Kyo and Junk Warrior turned their heads left and right.

"Oh! Sorry, that's my cell!" Beck laughed slightly lifting up his strawberry pink cell phone that continued ringing the Japanese song. "…excuse me while I answer this will you?"

A large sweat drop began to roll down the side of Kyo's head as Beck snapped off his girlie phone to flip it open. "…I didn't even know that this cave could get reception…"

"Yello?" Beck asked in the phone with a large smile on his face. "Oh! How'd you get this number? I see…damn it Xander, I thought I told you to burn that paper…"

"Is this guy married to his cell phone?" Weevil sighed adjusting his glasses slightly. "I may have been a cheater, but at least I didn't answer a cell phone during a duel…"

"…you didn't strike me as a person to have enough money to have a cell phone…" Kyo yawned slightly as the Junk Warrior threw a few punches into the air a few times to pass the time while Beck was yakking on his cell phone.

"I'll have you know that I did have a cell phone!" Weevil snapped. "I…I just didn't have enough time to have a plan…"

"…alright, look, that might be seven good recipes for a crock-pot but that has nothing to do with what we were talking about," Beck sighed slapping his forehead with his cell phone. "All you need to do is let him win with you surrendering and…I know you think you can go all the way, but if you disobey my orders I'll be forced to cut off that diving board you call hair! And don't forget that I'm going send you a few extra orders to get done…"

CLICK!!

"May I ask what that was about?" Kyo stated raising an eyebrow.

"…nope!" Beck replied wagging his finger. "I guy needs to have a secret or two! Anyway, I believe it is my turn…"

Slowly Beck smirked at the sight of his card… "…and as much as I would like to continue this…its time for the end of the duel…"

"What?" Kyo questioned.

"I'll start by activating the spell card, Guide of the Fates!" Beck announced fitting the spell card along with another one into his graveyard slot. "And here's how the spell card works, by discarding my Fenrir, Howling Wind Deity, I can now summon Idol Statue Tokens times two to my field!"

Two statues fell from the ceiling, crashing onto the steel platform, both of them showing two statues of wolves howling towards the cave ceiling (500/500). "And next…I'll sacrifice my two tokens, and face down Unending Sacrifice to summon…"

In many scattering stars, the two statues and the face down monster flew up into the air, encircling the air, crashing into each other to become smaller and in larger numbers.

Then with a pull of an unknown force, the glittering stars crashed into each other, forming into a large, muscular monster with large wings…and with a flap of those wings, the glittering fragments flew into the air exposing the monster's silver and black scaled muscular body. And even though it had a human shaped body, the creature was more dragon than man with the sharp armored head that roared loudly into the air, causing the very foundations to rock.

"_**Bahamut, Neo Dragon Deity!**_" (3400/2250)

"…okay, are all of your cards based off of…" Kyo started blinking a few times before narrowing his eyes down at Beck.

"Enough! I've had enough of you!" Beck roared before lifting a card up from his hand to slip it into his duel disk. "I'll send your Junk Warrior and your life points to the junkyard! Especially since I'm activating the equip spell card…Megamorph!"

With the spell card appearing behind the Neo Dragon Deity, the very dragon began to grow larger and larger until it was almost crushed into the small cave…and with it slamming its head into the ceiling, Bahamut snarled loudly. (3400/2250 + 3400/0)

'_Damn it!_' Kyo cursed in his head at the sight of the very powerful dragon. He didn't expect to see that extremely powerful monster.

"And now…I activate the Deck Master's special ability of my Arch Avatar!" Beck continued as the five dark orbs flew from the Avatar's hands, wrapping around Bahamut's long neck. "Meet the Revengeful Souls!"

"Huh? But how is that supposed to defeat…" Kyo started before Bahamut snapped its large fanged mouth wide open.

"Bahamut! Neo Crimson Flame!"

With a powerful roar, the Neo Dragon Deity fired a very powerful, blood red flame that crashed into the Junk Warrior, eradicating the Synchro monster into nothing. But the flames didn't stop there, they crashed directly into Kyo's body, making his eyes widen and cough up a small amount of blood.

The force sent the Swartzvauld duelist flying back from the cave entrance where he had come in through…his duel disk beeping downwards immediately as the flames slowly began to die down. (KLP: 0)

And with his large Neo Dragon Deity snickering, Beck shook his head with a large sigh. "In addition to the attack my monster destroys your monster…my Arch Avatar places counters on one monster that I select equal to the monster cards that you destroyed. Then when my monster with the counters on it destroys another, you lose five hundred points for each counter…"

Snapping the duel disk off, Bahamut disappeared into a dark aura that wisped into air as Beck slowly strolled towards a quivering Weevil. "…of course, during the end phase a monster attacks with those counters on it, its destroyed and then I take one thousand points of damage for each counter…but since this duel is already done with…"

"It doesn't matter…and I think you have a job to do you little bug freak…"

"Uh…um…right! W-Winner, R-Robert B-B-Becker…" Weevil stuttered raising his hand up to Beck.

"…thanks little man," Beck giggled rubbing the top of Weevil's head before walking past him to go deeper into the cave…

…his hand wrapped around his girlie cell phone…

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

A few minutes later…with Vic defeated, Kryancelo began to lead Rena down deeper in the caves…the only sounds their footsteps echoing through the hallowed caves…

"Hey, hey, hey!"

"Huh?" Rena and Kryancelo questioned as a very large muscular figure slowly began to approach the two.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry, but I can't let you go any further…"

"Who is that?" Rena asked raising her hand up over her eyes to try to get a better look at the muscular man.

"It's…" Kryancelo stated raising an eyebrow as the large man slowly came into the light, activating a large duel disk

"…Sheldon Boomer?"

"DAMN IT! IT'S BRAVO!"

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**Card Stats**

**Junk Synchron / Dark / LV. 3 / ATK: 1300 / DEF: 500 / Warrior-Tuner/Effect:** When this card is successfully Normal Summoned, you can Special Summon 1 Level 2 or lower monster from your Graveyard in face up Defense Mode. Any Effects of an Effect monster special summoned by this effect are negated.

**Description:** short warrior dressed in bulky orange armor with a pair of goggles under its tall metal orange cylinder helmet. Draped around the warrior's neck was a long white scarf

**Speed Warrior / Wind / LV. 2 / ATK: 900 / DEF: 300 / Warrior/Effect:** This can only be activated during the Battle Phase of the turn in which this card is successfully summoned. Double this card's original attack power until the end phase.

**Description:** A sleek, gray armor to gleam in the dulled light. The warrior's face was covered with a futuristic mask with a large deep blue visor. At the warrior's feet are large wheels

**Shield Warrior / Earth / LV. 3 / ATK: 800 / DEF: 1600 / Warrior/Effect:** This effect can only be activated during Damage Calculation. By removing this card in your graveyard from play, the monster you control cannot be destroyed by that battle.

**Description:** A large blue armored warrior with a large blue shield on its left arm.

**Junk Warrior / Dark / LV. 5 / ATK: 2300 / DEF: 1300 / Warrior-Synchro/Effect:** When this card is Synchro Summoned, this card's attack power is increased by the total amount of the attack power of all Level 2 or lower monsters face up on your side of the field.

**Description:** a tall slim warrior landing on the ground, this one covered with light blue armor that had a pair of white wings on his shoulders. With an engine on its back as well as a long white scarf around its neck, and its right arm was larger than the left and had brass knuckles covering its fingers

**Domino / Continuous Spell / Effect:** When a monster your opponent controls is destroyed in battle and sent to the graveyard, send one monster you control to the Graveyard to destroy 1 monster your opponent controls.

**Image:** Several monsters being crushed by several dominos

**Angel Lift / Continuous Trap / Effect:** Select one monster with a level 2 or lower in your graveyard and Special summon it in attack mode. Once this card is no longer on the field, destroy that monster. When that monster is removed from the field, destroy this card.

**Image:** A Skull Servant being lifted up from the ground by two cherubs

**Scrap-Iron Scarecrow / Normal Trap / Effect:** You can activate this card when your opponent declares an attack. Negate the attack. After Activation, instead of sending this card to the graveyard, you can place it in the set position on your side of the field. You cannot activate this card during the turn you used this effect.

**Image:** A large junky scarecrow made up of several random pieces of junk.

_The proceeding cards are all cards that have been released in Japan, names and effects are subject to change._

**Leviathan, Roaring Seas Deity / Water / LV. 7 / ATK: 2200 / DEF: 2000 / Aqua/Effect:** When this card is destroyed, you can pay 1000 Life Points to Special Summon this card to your side of the field during your next stand by phase. During the turn this card's effect was activated, this card cannot attack.

**Description: **A thirty foot long aqua scale sea serpent with a few fins on the sides of its mouth and near its purple underbelly.

**Ifrit, Hell Fire Deity / Fire / LV. 6 / ATK: 2000 / DEF: 1700 / Pyro/Effect: **During battle between attacking monsters you control and a Defense Position monster whose DEF is lower than the ATK of the attacking monster, inflict the difference as Battle Damage to your opponent's Life Points. By discarding 1 Pyro-Type monster from your hand, increase the ATK strength of this card by 500 points until the end of your opponent's turn.

**Description:** A human shaped demon with a beast like face with black horns and wearing tribal arm bands with fiery red hair.

**Duos, Brothers in Arms / Earth / LV. 3 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 1000 / Beast-Warrior/Effect:** When this card is destroyed as a result of battle, you may special summon two 'Armed Brother Tokens' (Earth/LV.3/ATK:1000/DEF:1000/Beast-Warrior) to your side of the field.

**Description:** A pair of purple haired beasts wearing red and blue Japanese armor.

**Odin, Deity of War / Dark / LV. 8 / ATK: 2000 / DEF: 2000 / Warrior/Effect:** When this card attacks a monster, increase the ATK strength of this card by half of the ATK strength of the attacked monster during damage calculation only.

**Description:** A man with long white hair and a white beard. He has an eye patch over his left eye. He wears white pants, brown boots and a brown tunic. His mount, is a large beautiful six legged horse.

**Titan, Crashing Earth Deity / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 2000 / DEF: 0 / Beast-Warrior:** This card may attack all of your opponent's monsters (this card cannot attack your opponent's life points directly if this is done). At the end of your battle phase this card attacked, switch this monster to defense mode.

**Description:** An extremely large, dark skinned man with bulging muscles and wearing a dark brown loincloth and a fanged toothed necklace. On the top of his head, is overflowing white hair.

**Inferno Reckless Calling / Instant Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you tribute summon a monster. Select one face up monster on your opponent's side of the field. Your opponent adds all monsters with the same name as the selected monster. After that, you may add up to three Normal monster cards from your deck with the same Attribute and Type as the monster you tribute summoned. The cards you add to your hand with this card's effect cannot be summoned during the turn this card was activated.

**Image:** Several flames erupting from a large grave

**Powerless Chanting / Instant Spell / Effect:** Destroy one face up 'Deity' monster on the field. Increase all players' life points equal to half of the destroyed monster's original attack points. Then, you may special summon one level three or lower monster from your graveyard with an attack strength less than the amount of life points your opponent gained.

**Image:** Several cloaked figures walking away from a decaying statue.

**Devastating Sacrifice / Trap / Effect:** This card can only be activated when two level four or higher monsters on your side of the field were destroyed during the battle phase. Remove both monsters from play. You may special summon one level eight or lower monster from your deck to your side of the field. During your second Standby Phase after this card was activated, remove the special summoned monster from play.

**Image:** A Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl being lifted by their arms up in the air by orbs of light with a Blue Eyes White Dragon roaring behind it.

**Guide of the Fates / Spell / Effect:** By discarding one monster with 'Deity' in its name from your hand, you may special summon two 'Idol Statue Tokens' (Earth / LV. 3 / ATK: 500 / DEF: 500 / Rock) on your side of the field.

**Image:** Many of the statues around an alter coming to lift.

**Unending Sacrifice / Earth / LV. 1 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 0 / Fiend/Effect:** If this card is sent to the graveyard by the effect of 'Unfaltering Worship Alter', by skipping your draw phase, you may add this card to your hand.

**Description:** A dark shadow with multiple silver slits in it.

**Bahamut, Neo Dragon Deity / Dark / LV. 9 / ATK: 3400 / DEF: 2250 / Dragon/Effect:** This card can only be advance summoned by releasing three monsters. This card can attack all monsters your opponent controls once each. This card cannot attack your opponent directly. When this card destroys a monster as a result of battle, inflict 500 points of damage to your opponent's Life Points.

**Description:** A silver and black dragon with extremely large wings that can cover its body easily.

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**Beck:** Marvelous! Simply marvelous!

**?-?-?-?-?-?:** Quite true…now our ideals will finally be fulfilled…

**Beck:** And no one can stop us now!

_**Next time – **__**Chapter 42: Twilight **_

**Beck:** What a fabulous title!

**?-?-?-?-?-?:** Does it really matter to you to sound so much like a girl?


	43. Chapter 42: Twilight

_**For too long…**_

…_**for far too long…**_

_**Our world has always been at war…the war of man V.S. man, the war of man VS nature, the war of nature V.S. nature…**_

…_**I've grown sick of it…**_

_**If you think about it, in the basic sense, all confrontation stems from the same basic principle.**_

_**Good versus Evil…**_

_**Light versus Darkness…**_

…_**and I've still grown sick of it…**_

_**It's all just a matter of opinion…whether you agree with one side or the other, than there is no real justice in this world of ours…**_

_**It's unfair…**_

…_**this justice…**_

…_**and I've become sick of it…**_

_**If darkness and light are the reasons people seek for self gratification and for their own self justice…**_

_**Then there is only one answer to this little problem…**_

_**Eliminate the darkness…eliminate the light…create a balance…the balance known as Twilight…simple no?**_

_**And as for those who stand in my way…**_

…_**I've grown disgusted with them…**_

…_**I am…I am…I am…Eternity Angelo…**_

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

_**Chapter 42**_

_**Twilight**_

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

In the caves, Rena and Kryancelo just stood there in the tunnels, watching as Bravo slowly began to walk closer and closer towards them, his duel disk glowing brightly with its light.

Taking a step forward, Kryancelo lifted his arm up. "Sheldon Boomer, why are you still down here?"

"Huh?" Bravo questioned, a small blood vessel popping on the side of his head from his real name being called out. "I think it was obvious…I'm the girlie's next opponent in the finals…"

"No you're not," Kryancelo stated lifting up his cell phone. "I got a call during the final turns of Miss Akira's last match…you surrendered to Genjyo Zosimos…"

"So…what's your point?" Bravo asked lifting five cards up.

"You're out of this tournament! You should've been escorted out of the caves!" Kryancelo shouted pointing towards Bravo who began to slide the cards onto his duel disk one at a time.

"Sorry to disappoint…" Bravo snickered as five lights began to appear behind him, forming into his three Fist Bruisers and two Savage Bruisers who each cracked their knuckles loudly. "…but as of right now, the tournament is over with!"

"Oh, and what are you going to do with those?" Kryancelo questioned with a smug look on his face.

"Um, Professor Kryancelo," Rena started noticing that one of the bruisers managed to kick a rock over to the side…holograms don't do that…

"Not now!" Kryancelo snapped before taking a few steps towards Bravo. "And as for you…you're going straight…"

"Quick! Tackle him!" Bravo shouted as five bruisers nodded in agreement, and then leapt into the air towards Kryancelo.

"Oh please, holograms won't…" Kryancelo stated shaking his head…

BAM!

All five of the bruisers jumped on top of Kryancelo, tackling him to the ground with a sickening crack echoing through the caves. At the sound of the crack, Rena and Bravo both shuddered with a chill rolling down their spines. "OH GOD! MY BACK!"

"Ow…" Rena shuddered trying to look away, still keeping an eye at the sight.

"Oh jeez guys, I said tackle him," Bravo moaned slapping his forehead with an echoing smack. "Not to paralyze him from the waist down…"

"I'm not paralyzed!" Kryancelo shouted from under the pile of bruisers. "Just get these freaks off of me!"

"Nope, sorry professor dude," Bravo laughed. "But I gotta keep you preoccupied while I escort the little lady here out of here…"

"When I get out of this…" Kryancelo growled loudly as Bravo walked closer and closer to Rena, not really noticing that she was activating her own duel disk.

"But you won't," Bravo laughed keeping his head to the side to laugh at Kryancelo, not noticing that four lights appeared in front of Rena. "Now if you excuse me…I've got an escort to…"

"OFMPH!"

Bravo had walked into something, something big…something breathing…something that pushed him back easily to the ground. As the Bruiser Duelist looked up, his eyes widened at the sight that was before him.

There stood Rena, her duel disk lighting up the cave as well, four cards slapped on her duel disk. And in front of her stood the Berserker Elf, the Saint Elf Swordsman, the Edge Elf, and the Sylvarant Elf Swordsman…all of them with annoyed looks on their faces directed directly towards Bravo. "W-What the?"

"I guess it worked," Rena chuckled tapping the top of her head.

"Um…wait…" Bravo questioned blinking at the four elf monsters getting closer and closer towards him. "How'd you do that?"

"Well, I just figured if you could summon real monsters," Rena stated looking at her duel disk. "Then, it would just make sense that I could do the same…and since all of your monsters are occupied with keeping Kryancelo down…I think that you know what that means."

"Um…mercy?" Bravo gulped, just realizing that his little plan just backfired on him.

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

Meanwhile in the infirmary, Leo was sitting up in his bed, casually flipping the pages in the red bordered book. In the hour when the last two duels had occurred, Leo had recovered quite nicely…all he had was a few bruises and cuts, it was the mental distress that got him.

But he wasn't really worried about himself, rather, Leo was more concerned with the fact that Kazin…no, rather Russell, was in the bed next to him, completely knocked out with several bandages covering his body. And he was preoccupied with thoughts about Lily…

…and yet it hurt slightly as he remembered her. "…Ugh…"

"Heh…looks like the almighty have fallen…"

A snap cracked in Leo's mind, pulling him away from his book to the side, seeing the two familiar people who had appeared in the infirmary immediately. "…well, well, well, Big Boss and…Vic?"

Indeed, it was Big Boss with Vic standing behind him…his eyes dulled completely with the scar like cracks racing on his face webbing slightly. But, there was another person, this one a cloaked young man, strands of his braided, gray hair popping out from underneath his hood, standing quietly behind the two familiar people.

And popping a small bubble of gum, Big Boss smirked at Leo with his shark like teeth. "Heh, you got that right…I'd like you to meet one of my newest employees..."

"An employee?" Leo questioned with a slight smile on his face.

"Yeah, an employee is a person who is hired to perform a service subject to the control of an employer," Big Boss explained wagging his finger. "And both the employer and the employee must consent to the creation of an employment relationship…"

"Um…Big Boss, I know what an employee is," Leo stated with a bead of sweat rolling down the side of his head. "I was referring to the fact that you refer to your minions as employees."

"Oh…" Big Boss muttered, scratching the back of his head. "Ahem! A-Anyway…it would be safe to assume that you know what's going on…"

"The only thing I'm aware of," Leo replied lifting his book back up to his face. "Is the fact that there's something going on…and it has something to do with Kazin over here…"

"Ah yes…the young genius…" Big Boss mused shaking his head at the sight of the knocked out scientific duelist. "I think I've actually got someone who could use a young mind like his in my organization…"

"…you realize that I'm not going to allow you to do that," Leo stated flipping another page of his book.

"Ya know, it'd seem more threatening if you weren't smiling…" Big Boss pointed out, lifting one of his fingers to count on. "…or reading a book…or were currently in the infirmary…"

"I'm only in here because of head trauma," Leo remarked still with a smile on his face. "I'm more than capable of getting up and fighting…"

"Just relax," Big Boss chuckled lifting his hands up into the air, waving them slightly. "You see…I didn't come here to recruit or threaten you…rather, I'm here to give you a helping hand…"

"…hmm? And here I thought that you were just greedy…" Leo commented making Vic snicker slightly as Big Boss stumbled slightly.

"Urk! W-Well, even I can be generous at times…" Big Boss coughed with a slight blush on his face. "…anyway, I think you'll listen to what I have to say…"

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

"Hey there, Principal Alan!" Beck laughed as he skipped into the final cavern from one of the tunnels.

Like the previous two caverns, there was a steel platform that allowed safe passage into the darkness covered floors of the cavern. However, the cavern walls were all steel plated, glimmering with the lights that had been placed into the ceiling. And with Alan standing before it, a large steel safe that had seemed to be as tall as the ceiling, being placed on top of a peninsular stone floor that had connected to the steel platforms.

"…oh great…looks like the first finalist has appeared," Alan sighed shaking his head. "And its one of the more…uh, what's a polite way to describe you?"

"Hmm…how about…" Beck stated rubbing his chin a few times. "Marvelous? Fabulous? Something ending in a 'lous'?"

"…forget it," Alan groaned slapping his forehead. "Let's just wait for your opponent…"

A dark breeze echoed through the caves, breaking the silence as Beck moved his eyes left and right, watching the caverns. "So…um…"

"_As our planet turns and floats,_

_We greet each starlit night,_

_Like time taking its course,_

_Through dawning and twilight…"_

As the poetic tune began to echo through the caverns, Alan and Beck turned their heads left and right, looking at the many entrances where the voice continued ringing through the air.

"_Uncongealed consciousness flows_

_Through gulfs and voids in space,_

_As our needs to seek the truth_

_Grows life's pains, joys, and grace…"_

That's when the voice started to get more and more focused near the entrance directly across from where Beck stood, and slowly…a familiar figure began to step from the caves…

"_To the farthest star we move_

_In a pattern supreme and divine._

_The pulses in One Heart --_

_Splendid excess of a Mind."_

…his gray skin shinning in the light with his dark hair covered with a fancy top hat…Genjyo slowly stepped onto the steel grating, a smile plastered on his face, and his glasses glaring the light to keep his eyes hidden. "…such a lovely piece, the Emerald Pattern…"

"I'll go out on a limb here and guess that you're the other finalist…" Alan sighed slapping his forehead in disgust. "Just perfect…and I was hoping to get a normal match…but no…we get Mr. Congeniality and Fancy Pants McGee…great!"

"Oh, there's no need to be so coy Prof. Alan!" Beck giggled wiggling his hips slightly, making both Genjyo and Alan shudder in fear. "Just because I'm fabtabulous, and he's a fancy man, that doesn't mean that this duel won't be interesting!"

"I didn't say that it wouldn't be interesting," Alan growled with a blood vessel appearing on the side of his head. "I just said that it wouldn't be normal…you have anything to say Mr. Zosimos?"

"…all I can really say…" Genjyo muttered lifting his duel disk up into the air, the device beginning to hum to life. "…is, let's duel Becker!"

"Oh, way original!" Beck sighed activating his own duel disk, with a single card in his hand. "And its deck master time!"

In a bright flash, the Arch Avatar reappeared behind Beck, crossing his arms at the fact that he was brought out once more. "And why not bring out my winner…Arch Avatar!" (BLP: 8000)

"…Hmm…I see," Genjyo muttered fanning out his deck of cards, looking at all the green bordered cards in front of him…save for one card that was added specifically for this little tournament so that he could use the deck master system…

…as soon as the tournament would end, the card would go back into the side deck. "I select my Golden Homunculus as my deck master!"

The ground began to shake violently, and a golden light erupted from the dark abyss that was under the two duelists…suddenly, a large, golden stone man began to stand up from behind Genjyo. The creature's height was an easy twenty-five feet tall with a loud roar.

"Yikes, can anyone say King Midas here?" Beck chuckled slowly pulling five cards from the top of his deck.

"Make all the lame jokes you like," Genjyo replied snapping off five cards from his deck, not bothering to look at them for one reason or another. "It still won't affect the end result…"

"Then you won't mind if I go first then!" Beck laughed loudly snapping a sixth card with a large dark smile on his face.

"Go right ahead," Genjyo sighed crossing his arms.

"And for my move…" Beck stated lifting his hand up into the air, immediately waving it over his duel disk…

WHAP!

Alan's eyes widened…Beck's hand had landed on top of his own deck of cards, signifying that the Deity wielding duelist had surrendered, even before the first card had even turned. "Wha…what?"

"…I surrender…" Beck moaned as the two deck masters began to fade from view, slowly Beck took a knee towards Genjyo who was busy adjusting his glasses to have the light cover them once more. "I cannot…I simply cannot face his aura!"

"What the hell is this supposed to be?!" Alan shouted throwing his arm to the side slamming his hand onto the safe. "This is the finals of the tournament and…and…and…"

"And I won…" Genjyo replied appearing directly in front of Alan, making the principal jump slightly. "…and according to the rules that you had implemented, there is no rule for an opponent to surrender…since my victory is still here, you have no choice but to open this safe…"

Genjyo was right, Alan didn't have a choice in the matter…if he didn't, Alan would lose his well earned trust with his students, and this entire tournament would've just been a waste of time. So, spinning on his heel to face the safe, Alan slowly raised his hand up towards the code reader…

…of course, Alan was more miffed about the fact that he couldn't do the speech that he had written if the duel was dramatic. So as he inputted the number, Alan couldn't help but mumble under his breath about a waste and how there was no way in hell that Beck would get one of those experimental D-Wheels.

Then, with the last number inputted into the reader, Alan stepped backwards as the doors to the safe began to open up, light flooding from the inside the safe. Genjyo could only smile as the light reflected off his glasses, and Beck's eyes widened at the sight of the contents inside the safe. Alan sighed as he took a step to the side. "…as per the rules…you get one item of anything in the safe…but, only one…"

Genjyo only smiled as he pushed up his glasses with his palm. "…it's perfect…"

Lining the walls of the cave were several cards, weird machines, and even books upon books stacked on top of each other. Several jewels were on the ground, almost the size of a person's fist…but those were slowly kicked to the side as Genjyo took step after step into the safe…

"_In monolithic modernity, we suffer post imperial malice_," Genjyo stated heading towards a small glass container, his right hand lifted up, glowing with a slightly purple and gold aura that began to crawl up his arm to his body. "_Having drunk from the chalice, of perpetual prevarication…and become lost in a sea of mediocrity…_"

Getting closer and closer to the glass container, the same gold and purple aura that was radiating from Genjyo's body began to pulse from the glass container as Genjyo continued to speak his poem. "_…adrift in aimless sensibility, searching for a cure…_"

And as soon as Genjyo's hand touched the glass container, the purple and gold aura erupted from his body, sending Alan and Beck skidding back a few feet. "_…Now in our alchemy, in the light of darkness where shade and shadow become transposed…_"

Slowly…very slowly, Genjyo's hair began to change from a dark gray, in to a bright silver sheen that began to grow longer and longer with each passing second that he had his hand on the glass container. "_Tears of glass, fall like serpent rain, from a shattered sky._"

"_Dissolving particles of a crest fallen star,_" Genjyo chuckled as his side burns began to grow even faster, now resting on his shoulders while the back of his hair began to wrap up into an extremely long tail. "_In a crucible of crystal canyons. Bubbling, fizzing, neon circuitry!_"

The glass shattered into millions of shards, unleashing the source of the purple and gold aura…a large jewel that resembled that of a diamond with the exception of the flowing purple and gold colors inside of it, and with several spikes erupting from its body, Genjyo slowly lifted the jewel up…

…as the aura erupting around Genjyo's body as if it was magma erupting from a volcano. "_Transmuting our baseness into gold! Sins no longer hidden behind passionless clouds emerge to watch the playing of karmic snakes and ladders, ivory tumbling to find you out…_"

"What's going on here?!" Alan shouted trying to keep his footing on the steel ground.

The force of the aura was too much for him to stand for much longer, but from where Alan was standing…he could see that Genjyo's clothes were starting to melt and reform into an old styled black tuxedo with a frilly white corset in the front. His hands covered by a pair of fancy white gloves while a regular sized top hat covered the top of his silver haired head. "_Gathered now in the halls of the ring giver, we wait for the tokens of broken fortune…_"

And slowly, as 'Genjyo' turned around, the weird duelist had his hand covering his face, the aura seemingly more focused on his face. Then, as he lowered his hand, Genjyo's face was now covered with a mask…one half white and the other half black with two cleared eyes. The mouth of the mask was carved to look like a face of joy… "_…to accompany us to journeys end…_"

"Wh-What the?" Alan questioned as 'Genjyo' lifted his hand up towards him.

"Ya got any last words Principal Alan?" Beck snickered crawling away from Alan.

"_Ultima Thule, Where we can reflect on our fabulous disaster…_" Genjyo…no, Eternity Angelo rhymed with the aura growing more and more violent in his free hand, being fed by the weird jewel.

Then, the aura fired directly at Alan, his eyes widening before the aura crashed into him, sending him flying through the tunnels with him screaming. "IIIIIIIIIIIII NNNNNNEEEEEEEVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRR SSSSSSSSSSAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWW FFFFFFFFFFFFFRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNCCCCCCCCEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

And with Alan flying through tunnels, Eternity Angelo lifted the jewel into the air, the aura surging upwards into the air. "_Then dream some more and perhaps...map the metaphysical in the parliament of the sun!_"

The aura began to flow like water crashing through a broken damn, filling the cavern and flowing into the tunnels as laughter began to echo through the aura filled caves…

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

WHAM!

BAM!

"URGH! Is…Is that all you got?!" Bravo shouted rubbing his right eye that was now black and blue, the uniform slightly ripped, and his hair a total mess.

All four of Rena's elves looked at each other, blinking in confusion at Bravo's tenacity. And as they turned around to get another order from Rena, the elf duelist just shrugged her shoulders. "Um…I don't know what to say…I would've figured he would've just gotten his bruisers to fight back…"

But he didn't, nope, Bravo tried fighting all four of the elves at the same time, and it looked like for a few seconds he actually had the edge on the four. Or at least until the Berserker Elf shook himself from the stupor that Bravo had given him by actually fighting back…that's when Bravo started to get his backside handed to him.

"Hey, how about you stop fighting him," Kryancelo suggested trying to crawl his way out. "And how about you start kicking these damn Monsters off of me!"

"Oh, um, sorry about that Professor," Rena giggled with a blush creeping on her face.

SPLISH! SPLOSH!

"Huh? What was that?" Bravo questioned turning around to see the darkness of the cave. A sound began flow through the caves…it almost sounded like water…

"That's not good," Rena stated slowly taking a few step backwards.

The sound began to get louder and more watery until finally the large powerful gold and purple aura surged through the cave as if it were a tidal wave. Bravo's eyes widened and his mouth gaped open just as the aura wave crashed down on top of him, coursing towards the paralyzed Rena and the completely annoyed Kryancelo. "Typical…simply typical!"

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

"Uh…"

"Hmm? Looks like you're awake…"

With her eyes fluttering open, Rena immediately sat up, rubbing the back of her head slightly. As she looked up, Rena noticed that the sky was a bright orange, almost as if it was dusk…

…but that wasn't possible…Rena knew that it was only a little bit after noon…

"Hey," the voice stated getting Rena's attention, showing Kryancelo was sitting on a rock nearby, crossing his arms while keeping his eyes fixated on the sky.

"P-Professor Kryancelo?" Rena questioned slowly standing up. "What happened?"

"Hell if I know," Kryancelo replied cracking his neck a few times, making Rena cringe a few times. "What I want to know is, why didn't you help me when Bravo's bruisers tackled me?"

"Uh, well," Rena chuckled sheepishly. "Um…hey! Where is Bravo?"

With a shake of his head, Kryancelo merely gestured towards a tree…which Bravo's head had pierced into it, while his arms tried to free his head. "HELP! LET ME OUT OF HERE! THERE'S WORMS!"

"How in the world…" Rena started with a question mark appearing over her head.

"Whatever pushed us out of the cave," Kryancelo stated walking past Rena to lean up against the tree that Bravo was trapped in. And with a smile, Kryancelo tap it a few times to make Bravo wig out slightly. "…managed to push Bravo into the tree…not that I'm really complaining mind you…heh, kinda funny really…"

"So, uh…is my watch slow today?" Rena asked lifting her wrist up to show her watch. "Or…what's up with the sky?"

"No clue…" Kryancelo stated crossing his arms slightly. "…ya see, I just woke up a few minutes…but, I've actually seen something that makes me think twice about my college days…"

"What are you talking about?" Rena questioned with a large sweatdrop on her head.

"Uh, just look towards the academy and you'll see…" Kryancelo sighed massaging his temples, while pointing over the horizon from the forested area.

Blinking a few times, Rena's eyes trailed down towards the main academy's main building…or at least where it once stood. The familiar landscape told Rena that the location was right, but the building was extremely different…standing tall, piercing the twilight sky was a large clock tower, the plating on it resembling pure gold thanks to the light.

The clock tower resembled that of the Big Ben clock tower that Rena had seen in books, only the hands on the clock's face were melded into a strange shape, resembling the heads of a pair of lions. The hands began to tick, but they ticked counter-clockwise.

"A-Amazing…" Rena gasped taking a step backwards from the sight of the tower.

"Yeah…but, last time I checked, this island wasn't near London," Kryancelo stated walking next to Rena, his arms crossed as he looked towards the ground. "…and I'm pretty sure that over there isn't normal either…"

Rena looked through the trees, and there was a duel going on…featuring two duelists, one was a duelist that Rena recalled…wait, was his name Yards? No, it was Miles Murphy, the Dark Rose duelist, raising his duel disk up…the life point counter reading twenty-five hundred points.

Meanwhile, standing in front of him was a large purple armored demon lifting up two jagged blades (1900/1500). Next to the armored demon, was a large gray skinned orc, known as the Giant Orc (2200/0), and the final monster was a large demon with bone like armor, the Great Maju Garzett (4900/0)…

While standing across the many demonic monsters of Miles's, was another duelist, this one a fancy purple haired young man wearing slightly revealing purple clothes, his creative duel disk lit up showing a full eight thousand points. On his field before him was only three face down horizontal cards, as well as another face down card…and yet this character didn't seemed worried at all…

But, the duel was only one of the things that caught Rena's attention…rather; the center of interest was the large satellite machine that glowed like the twilight sky overhead.

"…it's quite unfortunate really," The purple haired young man sighed snapping off a card from his duel disk. "You've got quite the interesting personality…"

"Don't taunt me!" Miles shouted throwing his arm into the air. "You're going to see what the Dark Rose duelist can really do! As soon as you end your turn, I'll make sure that your little tricks are over with you freak!"

"Please, you're ruining this lovely twilight," the purple haired young man stated turning his head up towards the machine. "…and I thought we already had proper introductions…you Miles Murphy and me as the Artist formally known as Morty…"

"I'm getting tired of hearing that!" Miles snapped looking down at his emptied hands. "Now, get on with your turn!"

"…oh my, did upset him?" Morty asked rubbing his chin with a worried look on his face. "I certainly didn't want to do that…especially since I have to take this man's soul…"

"Uh, who are you talking to?" Miles asked making Morty's eyes widen slightly at the fact that his external monologue was heard by his opponent.

"OH! I did it again didn't I?" Morty squealed shaking his head. "My apologies! I have a tendency to do that…but anyway…don't you think that its time we end this duel?"

"And how do you plan to do that?" Miles snickered eyeing all three of his monsters. "I've got my Archfiend Soldier, Giant Orc and my Great Maju Garzett on the front lines…all of them ready to tear through those weird monsters you call art!"

"Simple…instead of making them go offensive," Morty snickered snapping his fingers, making the vertical face down card to flip upwards, showing several swordsman floating into the air. "I'll make them go defensive, with my Zero Gravity trap card! So all of your monsters get to take a knee!"

"Urk!" Miles yelped as all three of his demons crouched down, all three of them kneeling in front of him.

"And now…I sacrifice all three of my monsters…" Morty continued as all three of his face down monsters shattered into the air, only to fall into the ground.

Then, the ground began to surge slightly, turning into pure sand that immediately warped and hardened into what appeared to be an extremely large clay serpentine dragon with glowing blue eyes and blue wings that flared up like extremely hot flames. At his shoulders and legs are four masks, each of them displaying a different emotion, and with a loud roar, the dragon made all three of the demons fall backwards (3200/3200).

"…and as much as I detest this card," Morty sighed lifting the last card in his hand into his duel disk. "I'll activate the spell card, Fairy Meteor Crush…now, any monster I attack with my dragon cause damage to your life points, no matter which mode it's in…"

"N-No…" Morty gulped taking a step back as the large clay dragon began to create a powerful blue flame in its mouth.

Rena covered her eyes as the powerful flame erupted from the clay dragon's mouth, crashing into the ground. A loud scream echoed through the air…and then was immediately silenced…

"…he's gone…" Kryancelo stated making Rena jump slightly from him appearing behind her.

"Ack!" Rena yelped slightly.

"Hmm?" Morty muttered to himself, watching the sparkling particles rise into the air for a few seconds before he turned towards the woods. "Is someone there?"

"Crud!" Kryancelo growled, grabbing Rena's arm to drag the elf duelist farther into the woods. From what he just saw, there was no way that he could allow another student to fall to that purple freak.

Slowly, Morty stepped into the woods, his duel disk lifted up and his hand armed with five cards, ready to slap onto the duel disk. With his eyes shifting left and right, Morty kept his wits about him…

SNAP!

At the sound of the snap, Morty slapped all five cards onto his duel disk, making two Clay Spear Soldiers and three Clay Sword Soldiers to appear in front of him, all of the Clay Warriors charging to attack whatever was out in the woods.

"OW! MY ASS!"

"Huh?" Morty questioned following where his Clay Soldiers went…and at the sight, Morty couldn't help but snort, only to break out into laughter. "O-Oh my! B-Bravo?!"

"OW!" Bravo shouted from his tree covered head, his backside being pierced by the five blades of the Clay Warriors. "What the hell!? Who's messing with my ass out there?!"

"How in the world did you get in there?" Morty asked with all five of his Clay Soldiers disappearing into the air.

"DOES THAT MATTER!?" Bravo roared from the tree, trying to push his head out. "GET ME OUTTA HERE! THERE'S WORMS!!"

"…wait, why would worms be in a tree?" Morty questioned rubbing his chin.

"GET ME OUT OF HERE!!"

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

Inside the clockwork of the large clock tower, Eternity Angelo stepped in front of the glass clock face, watching at the hands slowly ticked. "…I feel like another poem…"

"_**Where am I cries the Traveler**_

_**And what has happened to me?**_

_**Eagle feathers on the ground**_

_**Eagle feathers on the ground**_

_**The fire on the mountain**_

_**Where did my journey go**_

_**Is the mountain easy**_

_**Can I make the top**_

_**Green valley, where are you**_

_**And where am I to go**_

_**No shelter, no refuge**_

_**I'm on the road again**_

_**Oh, the road is rough and rocky,**_

_**The hills are steep and wide**_

_**Valleys there are many**_

_**With plenty of places to hide**_

_**We are all climbing the mountain**_

_**There is nowhere else to go**_

_**For when we leave the valley**_

_**We're on the road again.**__"_

"…Sir…what exactly are those poems supposed to mean?" Beck asked blinking in confusion at his master's weird choice of poems.

"Oh, this is a first," Eternity Angelo admitted, caressing the weird jewel in his free hand. "You're actually taking an interest in my choice of famous poetry…and I'm surprised you didn't see the connection…"

"…and if you couldn't, I'll just say that those poems mirror my deck…"

"Uh, okay, anyway!" Beck announced pumping his fist into the air with many hearts floating around his body. "We finally got the Twilight Emerald! So we must be getting close to the goals correct?"

"True…oh, so true…" Eternity Angelo chuckled, turning around to walk past Beck. "So tell me Beck…how is the harvest going along?"

"Heh, I thought you never ask, my masked mystery man!" Beck squealed spinning around a little bit. "In the last hour we've managed to get the crystal…I've been getting reports from the Yokai saying that they've managed to defeat several of the students, and from outside the Twilight Barrier…its growing larger with each duelist being defeated…"

"And the latest we've gotten was from the Artist formally known as Morty, he called saying that he's defeated five duelists who called themselves the Dark Rose Brigade…he also found Bravo…"

"Oh, then I assume that he managed to take those two duelists down then…" Eternity Angelo muttered crossing his arms. "The ones that were in the cave before we took the Twilight Emerald, correct?"

"…uh, well, ya see…" Beck stated tapping his fingers together slightly. "Um…well, unfortunately…Bravo's head was in a tree at the time and he didn't know where those two went to…"

"What?! How in the…" Eternity Angelo started, only to realize what Beck had said. "Wait…what? How'd Bravo get his head in a tree?"

"When Morty asked him, he said that Bravo didn't want to talk about it," Beck replied rubbing the back of his head. "But…you'll get a kick out of this, he had worms in his hair…"

"O-kay…anyway," Eternity Angelo coughed adjusting his mask slightly. "We need to know if the people on that list have been taken down…we must make sure that they don't do anything!"

"Don't worry sir! We've got our five aces up our sleeves," Beck announced throwing his hand into the air with a wink. "No matter what, we'll be able to win this!"

"…you're starting to sound like a cheerleader now…" Eternity Angelo sighed shaking his head.

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

"GET ME OUT OF HERE!!"

"Hmm…what happened up there?" Alan asked blinking, slowly closing the large wooden door over his head.

"Ow…" Rena moaned rubbing her back. "Where are we?"

"Oh, my back…" Kryancelo cried out with tears in his eyes.

"You two are seeing one of the several entrances of the underground tunnels," Alan stated walking down the stairs while his activated duel disk kept the tunnel lit up. "I was trying to find a way out, but when I saw you guys running here…well, you fell in and I saw that big guy with the bad haircut get his ass stabbed…"

"…I figured that this is a little too weird…so, we're going another way…"

"Help me!" Kryancelo snapped getting Rena and Alan to sweatdrop immediately at the call of the fallen teacher…

…a few minutes later, with Kryancelo slung over Alan's shoulder, the principal of the school led Rena further and further into the cavern, leading her somewhere. "So…uh, Mr. Wright?"

"Please, Miss Akira, I prefer it when my students call me by my first name," Alan interrupted taking a turn into the caves.

"Um…okay…so, do you know what's going on?" Rena continued with sweatdrop rolling down her head.

"I think we should wait until we can get to a safe location," Alan replied stopping slightly to get his bearings.

"Damn it…can you two please be quiet!?" Kryancelo growled narrowing his eyes at the two.

"Oh, sorry!" Alan chuckled reaching into his pocket to pull out a picture. "Perhaps a picture of my little brother Bradley will cheer you up?"

"…are you daft?" Kryancelo asked.

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

A few minutes passed, and suddenly, the ground next to the Slifer Red Cafeteria slowly began to recede backwards, allowing Alan's gray haired head to pop out from the tunnels' entrance. "Hmm…clear to the left…clear to the right…Okay…This'll be good you two!"

"Keep it down you idiot!" Kryancelo growled slowly stepping up with Rena behind him. "Anyway…now what are we going to do?"

"Simple…we'll make a fort out of the cafeteria here!" Alan laughed, slowly pulling the entrance to the caves closed. "That way we'll be able to defend ourselves…that and I'm kinda hungry…"

"Great…thinking with his stomach," Kryancelo sighed shaking his head towards Rena. "We're all doomed…"

"…super…" Rena muttered lowering her head.

When the three were at the doors of the cafeteria, Alan tried opening the door…unsuccessfully for some odd reason. "Hmm…that's weird…"

Once again, Alan tried to open the doors to the cafeteria, and once again, found himself to unsuccessful in opening the doors…leaving him even more puzzled than before. So he decided to knock on the doors a couple of times. "Hey! Is anyone in there?!"

"Will you shut up?" Kryancelo growled slapping Alan in the back of his head. "One of those idiots might be near by…and who knows what will happen…"

"I have to agree with Professor Kryancelo," Rena stated looking left and right. "Maybe if we hurry, we can hide in my dorm hut…"

CLICK!

"Huh?" Rena, Kryancelo and Alan questioned at the same time turning towards the doors that were slowly opening…

…to reveal Van standing in the door way, his face slightly cut and bruised. "Rena! Professor grump! Freaky principal dude!"

"Van!?" Rena yelped.

"…professor grump?" Kryancelo growled.

"Sweet nickname!" Alan laughed slightly.

"Come on you three! Get in here quick!" Van stated turning his head left and right.

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

Within the Red Cafeteria, the windows boarded up with tables and with the doors being blocked with the large furniture that usually lined within the cafeteria. Alan whistled slightly with his thumb to his forehead. "Wow…nice use of school property Hughes…"

"Thank ya kindly sir!" Hughes laughed leaning up against on of the walls with his arms crossed.

"Oh man…" Kryancelo groaned holding his back before he began to lay down. "…my back is killing me…"

"Uh, hang in there sir," Rena comforted rubbing her arm before turning towards Van. "So…what are you doing in here Van?"

"…I guess we had the same ideas that you guys had," Van replied gesturing with his hand towards the walls and floors.

Leaning and sitting all around the cafeteria were several students, all of them from different dorms, each of them with a duel disk on their arms. Some of the students were sleeping, others biting their nails in fear, and a lot of them looking through their cards…

"Water! I got water here, ya know!"

"Asche?" Rena questioned watching as Asche held out water bottles to everyone near by.

"Yeah, and he's not the only one here," Van continued turning around.

Indeed he was right, Rena was able to see quite a few familiar faces in the cafeteria. Sleeping in the corner was none other than Klein, a bandage under his eye for some reason.

Near the center of the room was Riko, his legs crossed and as well as his arms…making it look like he was in deep meditation. And standing behind him was Luntina, sipping on one of the water bottles that she more than likely gotten from Asche…

"RENA!"

Rena eep'd slightly as Tony appeared behind her, wrapping his arms around her in a large hug, a large blush erupting onto Rena's face. "OH! I knew that you'd be okay! Pretty, a good duelist, creative and very, very lucky!"

"U-Um Tony, it's g-good to see you again!" Rena squeaked slightly, trying to get out of Tony's hug.

"So, Hughes, what's the current status of the island?" Alan asked rubbing the back of his head. "And what the heck is going on?"

"Hmm…well, with the footage we go from the cameras before hand," Hughes explained adjusting his hat slightly. "We could piece together that all hell broke loose when that freaky masked dude took that jewel. And ever since that aura erupted from the ground, a lot of cloaked duelists came out of no where, challenging duelists who were in the scope of the aura…"

"…and when the opposing duelist didn't even have a duel disk, the cloaked duelists just summoned monsters attacking the unarmed duelists. And the end result…well, you're not going to believe it, but…"

"Let me guess," Kryancelo interrupted getting both Alan and Hughes's attentions towards the floor where Kryancelo was relaxing. "They shattered like glasses, floating up into the air of the aura, disappearing after a few feet. Correct me if I'm wrong."

"How do you know this?" Hughes asked with a blank look on his face.

"Me and Rena saw it happen," Kryancelo moaned, slowly standing up, keeping his hand to his back. "There was this weird purple obsessed guy wiping the floor with some Dark Rose duelist in front of this large, weird glowing satellite …and when he lost, he shattered like glass…"

"Well you're right, but you forgot one thing," Hughes stated crossing his arms. "You see, whenever one of the duelists was defeated or were attacked and shattered, the glass pieces made the aura grow larger and larger…"

"I see…" Alan muttered rubbing his chin. "…so, are these all of the duelists that have survived?"

"We're not sure," Hughes answered shaking his head. "Since the first duelist was shattered, a large panic erupted in the student body…although, looking at the size of this aura…there might not be that many duelists left out there…"

"Damn it…what in the world are we going to do?" Alan cursed under his breath shaking his head.

"If I may, I have a suggestion," Leo suggested appearing right in the middle of the group of three adults.

It took a few seconds, but then the realization finally hit…

"ARGH!" Everyone screamed (with the exception of Riko, who was confused why everyone was screaming) with Leo appearing suddenly.

"C-Childsmen!?" Kryancelo shouted, his eyes widening. "W-Where the hell did you come from?"

"The back door was unlocked," Leo stated gesturing towards the kitchen with a large scroll of paper.

"What?" Hughes questioned blinking in a few times. "Great…Hey Kryancelo, give me a hand to push the fridge in front of the door."

"What?! Why me?" Kryancelo shouted.

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

Leo slowly unfurled the scroll on one of the few tables that wasn't boarded on the windows, with Luntina, Tony, Riko and Alan standing around it looking down on the map. The map was a sky view drawn version of the Atlantic Duel Academy, six satellite drawings marked on the map with a different color, and the Clock Tower recently drawn in. "What we've got here is a map of the academy…"

"Man, that's a good drawing of the island," Tony admitted blinking a few times at the interesting drawing. "You draw this Leo?"

"This isn't the time or the place Tony," Luntina sighed angrily crossing her arms. "Leo, what exactly are we looking at here? And I don't mean the map…"

"Actually, this map was made by one of my acquaintances," Leo answered as Luntina lifted her fist up, showing the large blood vessel appearing on the back of her fist.

WHAM!

"OW!" Tony yelped holding his head. "What the hell did I do to deserve that?!"

"You asked the question to get him off topic," Luntina scoffed to the side, while Tony threw his arms up into the air in anger. "Anyway Leo, what's this plan you've got?"

"Glad you asked Mistress Kaisaris," Leo continued wagging his finger into the air. "Take notice, as soon as the aura appeared, these satellites appeared along with the clock tower. Logic would dictate that they are important to this aura…"

"Logic? What is this logic you speak of?" Alan asked with a few question marks popping up around his head.

"I've got a book you can borrow after this whole ordeal," Leo stated pointing towards one of the satellites. "But rather, at the sight of these satellites, it would run true that they could be the causes of the aura…"

"That would make sense," Luntina muttered crossing her arms again.

"Hold up, but the aura didn't appear until Genjyo snatched that weird jewel," Alan pointed out lifting his hand out with his finger pointed outwards towards Leo. "So…Objection!"

"…since when did you become an attorney Mr. Wright?" Tony questioned.

"Getting back to the situation at hand," Luntina ignored the last few comments lifting the map up from the table. "Even if the satellites were important or not, they are the only things we can really do something about. But, how are we even supposed to take them out?"

"We shut them down," Leo answered with his smile turning slightly a little bit more devious. "According from the source where I got this map, at each of the satellites, at least one or two duelists are stationed there to protect the satellites…and since monsters seem to become real here…"

"We just need to smash them!" Tony interjected!

"That's a broad term…but correct," Leo stated with a nod towards Tony. "But our main concern should be with the clock tower…but if we can take down the satellites, there's a chance that we can make our enemy weaker…"

"Good plan…" Alan scoffed looking at the students, his face turning serious. "But, there are a few kinks in that little plan…for one, we're still not sure about these satellites, they're just a theory. Secondly, take a look at the locations of the satellites, half of them are on the other side of the island…going there would be suicide for anyone trying to get to them…"

"Sure we could take the tunnels…but it was pure luck that I, Kryancelo and Miss Akira didn't get caught. I'm willing to bet now there are those weird duelists roaming down there now."

"And thirdly, who are we going to get to take down these satellites? From what I'm seeing here, only three adults are here, and as principal of this academy, I need to look after the well-being of my students."

Leo, Tony and Luntina all had blank looks on their face. It wasn't often that Alan had serious and valid opinions on serious situations, but when he did, he really made them count down to the smallest detail.

"…that may be sir," Riko stated, breaking the silence, adjusting his sunglasses. "But given the situation, what choice do we have? I've been trying my cell phone to get a hold of Sen., but I can't even get a signal…so this barrier might be messing with certain signals…"

"…so we're alone…"

"…good point Riko," Alan sighed lowering his head. "But still…"

"Alan, you don't have to worry about our well beings," Luntina said, placing a hand onto Alan's shoulder. "We can handle ourselves so you don't…"

"That's not the point!" Alan snapped. "If any more of you get 'shattered', my ass is going to be handed to me by hundreds upon hundreds of lawyers!"

"…well, he's back to normal," Luntina sighed removing her hand as she sulked over. "But like Riko said…this is basically our only option…"

"And we'll have to take it…"

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

Meanwhile…

"…you're foolish to challenge me you little piece of crap," Big Boss sighed snapping his fingers as a powerful explosion rocked the field that he was standing at.

"ARGH!" one of the Cloaked Yokai members screamed before his body shattered like glass that flowed into the air.

"…and I thought my strategy was scary," Vic muttered with the large shadow disappearing behind Big Boss.

"…you haven't seen anything yet…" the clocked person who's hair rolled out from under the hood. "All you saw was a little portion of his dueling deck."

"Whatever," Vic scoffed shaking his head.

"Hmm…what a shame, I was hoping for a challenge here," Big Boss sighed in disgust, deactivating the duel disk he had borrowed, snapping out his deck, and lifting it up to Vic. "Thanks for letting me borrow it…"

"Yeah, whatever," Vic growled snatching his duel disk from Big Boss. "So, what the heck did you want me for?"

"Well…you know," Big Boss chuckled turning towards the clock tower with his arms crossed. "You're my newest employee, and I'd like you to meet a couple of my newer employees…just say my name, and they'll tell you what to do…"

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**Rena:** Ya know, if our lives weren't in danger, that clock tower would be quite beautiful in the twilight…

**Leo:** True…but we've got other things to concern ourselves with…

**Klein:** Yeah! I gotta find Koji! So I'm with you guys!

**Van, Luntina, Riko, Asche and Tony:** Count us in too!

_**With the curtain of twilight drawn over the island, will Leo's plan work? Or will Eternity Angelo's Yokai win?**_

_**Find out next time on Duelist Twilight! **__**Chapter 43: Twilight Part 1: Of Dragons, Alchemy and Thorns**_

**Kryancelo:** …we're all doomed aren't we?

**Alan:** Good thing you're going with them.

**Kryancelo:** WHAT!?


	44. Chapter 43: Dragons, Alchemy and Thorns

_**Ya know…if I'm correct, this is the first time I'm doing one of these…about time if you ask me.**_

_**I'm the number one student duelist on the Atlantic Duelist Academy, at first; a lot of people didn't want me to become Kaiser…why? **_

_**Because I changed the title to Kaisaris…and if you don't realize what it means, it the female equivalence to Kaiser…**_

_**That's right, ever since the academies around the world first came into our world; all the top students for each non-private academy were guys. **_

_**Some people might think that might be sexist…But I don't…the Kaisers aren't determined by their gender, where they come from, or by the size of their wallet…**_

_**No…they are chosen by their skills and knowledge! I am proof of that! I worked hard to get where I am in this academy! I respect my two comrades, Tony and Riko…I've experienced their dueling spirits and their strategies first hand…**_

_**I'll let you in on a few secrets that first years wouldn't know…I never faced the previous Kaiser in a duel…but I saw him duel once…he ran a Vanilla Deck, something that's not really common…Students last year called him the King of Commons, mainly because he found a use for cards that the masses deemed useless…he managed to inspire several duelists…**_

_**Apparently he failed with the previous year's second best duelist…he went by the name Shield of the Flames. As you can expect from his name, he ran a powerful burn deck that could even burn the opponent from the graveyard. He didn't really have much respect for his cards, usually tossing out the cards he didn't need anymore…**_

…_**and that brings me to the third best duelist from last year…she's was merely a second year student like I was last year. And even though we're the same age, I looked up to here in the beginning of the year…unlike her, I was stationed in the yellow dorm when I first got here…she was in blue since her first year…**_

_**But unlike several other students, she earned her place in the blue dorms, and if you asked several students, she did it with style and grace. Her nickname was known as the Rose of the Academy…**_

_**Although, for some reason, the Rose withered slightly in the previous year in the ranking…since well, Tony's the third best duelist around now…**_

_**And here I am, talking about the last top three duelists of the previous year…especially with what's been going on in the last twenty-four hours…**_

_**Why?**_

_**Simple…I was just reminded about the good times of last year…it might be my opponent that I'm facing…the one I'm facing…she was almost considered an apprentice to the third best duelist…**_

_**A Rose always has thorns…**_

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

_**Chapter 43**_

_**Twilight Part 1**_

_**Of Dragons, Alchemy and Thorns**_

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

"_Good plan…" Alan scoffed looking at the students, his face turning serious. "But, there are a few kinks in that little plan…for one, we're still not sure about these satellites, they're just a theory. Secondly, take a look at the locations of the satellites, half of them are on the other side of the island…going there would be suicide for anyone trying to get to them…"_

"_Sure we could take the tunnels…but it was pure luck that I, Kryancelo and Miss Akira didn't get caught. I'm willing to bet now there are those weird duelists roaming down there now."_

"_And thirdly, who are we going to get to take down these satellites? From what I'm seeing here, only three adults are here, and as principal of this academy, I need to look after the well-being of my students."_

_Leo, Tony and Luntina all had blank looks on their face. It wasn't often that Alan had serious and valid opinions on serious situations, but when he did, he really made them count down to the smallest detail._

"…_that may be sir," Riko stated, breaking the silence, adjusting his sunglasses. "But given the situation, what choice do we have? I've been trying my cell phone to get a hold of Sen., but I can't even get a signal…so this barrier might be messing with certain signals…"_

"…_so we're alone…"_

"…_good point Riko," Alan sighed lowering his head. "But still…"_

"_Alan, you don't have to worry about our well beings," Luntina said, placing a hand onto Alan's shoulder. "We can handle ourselves so you don't…"_

"_That's not the point!" Alan snapped. "If any more of you get 'shattered', my ass is going to be handed to me by hundreds upon hundreds of lawyers!"_

"…_well, he's back to normal," Luntina sighed removing her hand as she sulked over. "But like Riko said…this is basically our only option…"_

"_And we'll have to take it…"_

A few hours passed since the small discussion between the four blue students and Alan, many of the students in the cafeteria were asleep with the exception of a few of them…

…while Alan, Kryancelo and Hughes stood in the kitchen, looking out one of the windows that were slightly boarded up. "Hmm…damn twilight, I can't tell what time it is…"

"Its time for you to get a watch," Hughes joked crossing his arms over his chest, while allowing his hat to cover his eyes.

"…forgive me for losing it in the caves when I got attacked by that aura," Alan retorted waving his arms in the air. "I was preoccupied with trying to keep alive…"

"That's enough you two," Kryancelo snapped making both Alan and Hughes stop talking and turn towards him. "…that's better…now, we've got bigger problems to worry about…like for example, that plan that Leo suggested."

"Yeah…you're right," Alan muttered rubbing his chin slightly. "Personally, I'm crisscrossed on this manner…we don't really have much of choice on getting out of this situation. But, if we go along with it, we run the risk of putting the duelists in danger."

"I assume that you're referring the fact that since there are only three of us," Kryancelo stated turning his head towards the door, seeing a few of the students leaning up against the walls asleep. "That we're going to have to recruit the students we have here…and since you don't have a duel disk, Alan…"

"Yeah, that means I'm about as useful as a stick in a DVD production factory," Alan replied.

"…a stick in a DVD production factory?" Hughes reiterated with a few question marks appearing over his head. "…it seems to me that you're a few DVDs short of a collection, if you know what I mean…"

"That's a creative way of putting it…" Kryancelo stated blinking a few times.

"…Anyway…there's the fact of the distance between the satellites," Alan continued, trying to forget the comments that his two teachers stated. "…if those weird cloaked duelists are still out there, it'll be like running out into the desert without a map or water…"

"Well we can't stay here forever," Kryancelo growled slamming his fist onto the wall next to him. "Maybe if we got to the school, there could be a chance that we could connect to the outside world…but we've tried the phones in the cafeteria…no dice."

"…I kinda want to bring up something," Hughes stated adjusting his hat with his finger. "Like how that Leo kid had gotten that information…seems a little too convenient if ya were to ask me…"

"What are you suggesting, Hughes?" Kryancelo retorted.

"…I'm just saying that we might be dealing with an infestation," Hughes replied narrowing his eyes. "For all we know, we could be running into a trap that was devised by the enemy…and we could fall for it just like that!" Hughes snapped his fingers to show his seriousness. "…so we need to tread lightly here…"

"Here, here, but still, we can't really start suspecting our students now can we?" Alan growled shaking his head.

"You forget, some of our students are part of the robed freaks out there," Hughes countered narrowing his eyes at Alan. "We have no clue if the missing students out there aren't those freaks! Heck, there might be more in here than we're aware of!"

POW!

"URK!" Hughes muttered in pain, falling backwards rubbing his bruised chin.

Alan slowly lowered his fist, his eyes glaring down at Hughes. It was amazing for what panic in the right situation can do to a person, it make them paranoid or turn them back to their natural instincts. "Get a hold of yourself Hughes! Don't be losing your head!"

"…great, a fist fight," Kryancelo sighed slapping his forehead. "Just what the situation needs…"

A few minutes and bandages later…

"Damn…you could've told me that you took boxing lessons over the summer," Hughes moaned rubbing his bruised face.

"Hey! You've got your orange belt in Tae Kwon Do," Alan retorted crossing his arms. "I need a way to fight back…"

"Yeah, great story," Kryancelo groaned shaking his head. "But back to the subject at hand…"

"…during that little spat, I think I have an idea," Alan sighed rubbing his black eye. "Kryancelo, remind me…do you know where we have those storage areas?"

"Uh, I think there about a mile from here," Kryancelo answered thinking deeply about the subject. "Why do you ask?"

"Heh…well…let's just say that I think I've got a plan to cover our bases," Alan replied with a smirk appearing on his bruised face.

"…I hate that smirk…" Kryancelo admitted lowering his head down. "We're all doomed aren't we?!"

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

The clock tower struck twelve, and yet no sound echoed through the air, rather only turns of the gears sounded through the hallowed chambers of the tower…but still…the rusted sounds didn't bother him as he looked out the stained glass windows…

…the breeze that graced his long locks of silver hair blew them back past his shoulders…the breeze…how he longed to feel that breeze on his skin…but that wasn't possible, not for him…

"Eternity Angelo…"

With his name called, Eternity Angelo turned from the window adjusting his top hat slightly to see Beck standing behind him, his arms crossed over his chest and a smirk plastered on his face. "Howdy there Masked Honey!"

"…Beck…how many times do I have to tell you," Eternity Angelo growled, his eyes narrowing behind his mask. "To knock it off with that damn persona and nickname that you seem obsessed with giving me…"

"Aw, don't be like that Angie," Beck pouted wagging his body around with a few hearts popping off of his body. "I've got great news for you! We've cleared out the school, as well as the blue dorms…all the students that were hiding out in there are now a part of the Twilight Aura…"

"Most excellent," Eternity Angelo sighed returning to the window, watching the light colored ground with several cloaked persons walking across it. "Then, have the Yokai members searching the grounds relax for a few hours, and those waiting in the wings guard the tower's entrance. We'll continue the search for the rest of the student body tomorrow…"

"You got it Eternity Angelo," Beck replied with a seductive wink shot towards Eternity Angelo, making the fancy clothed evil genius shudder in pain. "But…why don't we just turn this to our favor and get the remainder of the students while they nap?"

"You don't get the chasing game do you Beck?" Eternity Angelo sighed shaking his head at the window. "We are the chasers and the students are the chased…in a sense, it is good to be the chaser…but the chased have the advantage in that little game…"

"…the chased can lead the chasers anywhere they deem fit, tiring the chaser. The only reason we managed to get this far was because we had the element of surprise. The chased has room to breath while the chaser has his mind become a slave to impatience…right now; the remaining students are the chased while the Yokai are the chasers…"

"And unless we can instill more chaos…we'll have to play our moves carefully…"

"Hmm…I didn't know that you were a tactical strategist," Beck admitted with a sweatdrop rolling down his head.

"I'm not, it's just something that a great strategist himself said," Eternity Angelo replied adjusting his hat to cover his mask's eyes. "Now then, there's one final thing that I need to make sure is done, then you can leave…"

"Oh goodie! It's finally going to happen isn't it?" Beck asked slowly undoing his shirt, and when Eternity Angelo threw his hand up to his side.

"Don't get ahead of yourself Beck," Eternity Angelo coughed, knowing full well what Beck was getting at. "First off…don't you try that crap with me or I won't hesitate to strike you down in an instant…"

And with a snap of his gloved fingers, Eternity Angelo spun on his heel to glare at Beck, making the Deity wielder take a step back. "…secondly, keep the duelists that I specified at the generators…we can't have anyone mess with those six generators…"

"…as you wish sir…" Beck groaned in disappointment as he slowly dragged his heels out of the room.

And as soon as he was gone, Eternity Angelo crossed his arms at the sight of the outside. "…soon…soon this world will be all set…"

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

"Why am I doing this again?" Kryancelo asked slowly crawling on the along the wall behind the slightly large bushes with eight other duelist students following him in the same fashion trying their hardest not to be seen…

…not the best since they were wearing the bright uniform colors…

"Well, last time I checked," Luntina hissed under her breath, glaring daggers at Kryancelo. "We were roped into this little goose chase..."

"Not that I'm not complaining here," Tony muttered inching slightly closer to Rena, making the red duelist's face a little bit redder. "But, what exactly are we looking for?"

"And how'd we get wrap up into this?" Rena asked turning back to see Riko, Van, Klein, Leo and Asche wondering the same thing.

Depending their ranks, recent dueling statistics, personal reasons, and overall skills, Alan had decided to make a tough choice to send students since he and Hughes had to stay at the cafeteria (or the main base of the rebellion as Alan had dubbed it), he decided to send the best group he could muster on short notice…

…their current goal, for some reason, was to get to the storage facilities…once they did, Kryancelo would give them their next mission…although, it was pretty easy to tell what was going to happen once they did get there…

"Get down!" Klein yelped making everyone jump down into the bushes just as two cloaked Yokai members began to turn the corner of the building they were up against.

"…you actually bought a Votswagon Bug?" The smaller of the two Yokai members snickered loudly, waving the dark duel disk on his arm in the air.

"Shut up," The bulky Yokai replied, hitting the smaller Yokai in the shoulder. "That wasn't the joke."

"Then what was?" The smaller Yokai retorted crossing his arms. "Was it the fact that you got a passion pink color?"

"No! The fact is I went to visit my friend Martine in it once," the larger Yokai stated as everyone hiding in the bushes sweatdropped from the conversation at the two stationed in front of them. "He lives in the hood, so I don't get out…I wanted to show the Bug off to him, so I call him from the car…"

"Then I hear, 'Hola' from behind me, and when I turn to look I see a bunch of those smack talking gangsters sitting at the opposite corner. So I go 'Yo, what's up guys? How's it going?'"

"Hey how'd you get in there, esse?"

"Heheheheh ha!" The smaller Yokai was doubled over in laughter, getting Kryancelo to stand up slightly, an annoyed look on his face as he quietly walked over to the two from behind...raising his hands up around both of the two Yokai's heads, undetected until…

BAM!

"URK!"

"GRURG!"

With their heads slammed together, the two Yokai slumped to the ground head first with two loud crashes to the ground while Kryancelo clapped his hands of dust slightly. "Okay…now that we've got those two knuckleheads out of the way…let's hurry shall we?"

"…I forgot that Prof. K can be scary at times," Van muttered with a freaked out look on his face.

"No kidding," Klein replied.

A few minutes later…

"And here we are," Kryancelo stated walking up to the side door to the large storage area, its steel framing glistening in the twilight.

"Huh…how come I never noticed this before?" Rena muttered blinking a few times at the building.

"Many students don't know of this place," Riko explained while Kryancelo began to search his pockets for the keys to the door, cursing under his breath when he couldn't find them in the first few seconds. "…normally, these storage houses were created for have special vehicles, confiscated duel disks, as well as a few illegal materials that are brought to the proper authorities with in a week they are confiscated…but what's the point in coming here?"

CLICK!

"There we go!" Kryancelo announced in a whisper pushing the door open, waving his arm towards the entrance. "Now hurry up! We don't have that much time before another pair of idiots show up!"

There was no need to tell the group twice, and as soon as the last of them were in the warehouse, Kryancelo closed the door behind them.

"Hey! Turn on the light!"

"Give me a minute; I'm trying to find the switch!"

"ACK! Who's hand was that?!"

"Tony!"

WHAM!

"OW! WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR?!"

"Heh, heh, heh…"

POW!

"OUCH! Who did that?!"

"Me…"

"Me, who?"

"Will you all shut up!?"

And with a flick of the nearby switch, the lights came to life inside the dark warehouse, showing that Tony and Klein now were sporting bruises and Rena's face was extremely red.

However, everyone else was more preoccupied with the large cloth covered forms that stood in the warehouse. About four forms stood in front of the students and teacher, and Kryancelo was heading right for the large cloaked form, reaching up for the cloak. "Huh…I wonder if this is what Alan wanted us to get to…"

"Well…what is it?" Leo asked crossing his arms watching with a smile still on his face.

With a quick nod, Kryancelo threw the cloak into the air, sending it flying over the many duelists' heads as many looks of surprise appeared on their faces…

…But a dark smirk appeared on Kryancelo's face as he slowly began to cackle quietly, allowing it to grow eventually into a sinister laugh. "Excellent! Excellent! I always wondered where Alan hid this! And now I know!"

"…it would be safe to assume that you know what that thing is…right?" Leo questioned, even he had a puzzled look on his face as he looked at the weird, gunmetal colored vehicle.

"You got that right fancy boy!" Kryancelo laughed reaching into the collar of his shirt, pulling out a key that was attached to a chain necklace. "And here I thought I'd never get to use this key again!"

"Okay…now, I think I have a clue what Alan was getting at when he sent us here," Luntina sighed pulling the tarp up on one of the other large objects. And when she was met with the sight of the blue sheen on the metal, Luntina slapped her forehead in disgust. "…now I'm sure…"

"Sweet! I call shotgun!" Van announced throwing his arm into the air.

"Dibs on the red one!" Tony laughed jumping to the other tarp covered vehicles, pulling it off to look at the red sheen. "…care to go on a ride with me, Rena?"

"Uh…w-well…" Rena replied with a blush on her face.

"Shut up all of ya!" Kryancelo snapped twirling the keychain with his finger. "Now…since we've got transportation, its time for the next part of the plan…so we'll have to have someone run distraction…"

"Distraction?" Klein muttered blinking a few times.

"Yeah…but who?" Riko stated rubbing his chin slightly. "It would have to be someone strong…someone who can take a lot of damage and still get up…"

"And it would have to be someone who wasn't that bright in the first place," Van added making everyone turn slightly towards a certain person.

"…so that we can use him without him realizing it…" Klein snickered.

That's when it hit him, that everyone was starring at him…and with a confused look on his face, Asche rubbed the back of his head. "Hey…everyone's looking at me, ya know…"

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

Being a Yokai wasn't all that cracked up to be, even if you did ascend to some of the higher rankings of the organization. Sure the pay was decent enough, but since they were a 'private' organization, the only benefits were the ones that you earned.

In the Yokai, many of the members would act as scouts or representatives when dealing with other organizations, since and mostly because Beck was a younger man than a majority of the Yokai…Otherwise, Yokai would do tasks that would be expected of an organization as evil as the Yokai…

…of course, since there were several Yokai members on the island that floated in the Atlantic, a majority of them would run the guard position. Some time had passed since Beck had passed on the orders from Eternity Angelo to the Yokai members, so many of the Yokai were resting in the shadows…

But there were two Yokai who got the short end of the stick, being forced to guard the entrance of the Clock Tower. Both of them had the hoods of their cloaks lowered, the first one wearing a pair of glasses with maroon colored hair, the red long locks shifting slightly as he turned towards the slightly orange haired man. "Hey…"

"Yeah?" The orange haired man muttered turning his eyes back to the maroon haired Yokai.

"You ever wonder why we're here?"

"It's one of life's great mysteries isn't it? Why are we here? Are we the product of some cosmic coincidence? Or is there really a god? I don't know man, but it keeps me up at night…"

…the crickets chirped as a familiar blue student slowly walked up to the two weird haired Yokai members, turning left and right at the two. "Hey, what's up, ya know?"

"What? I meant why are we here on this island?" The maroon haired Yokai replied pushing his glasses up slightly. "Defending the entrance to this clock tower?"

"Oh, uh, yeah…" The orange haired stuttered, turning slightly to the side, while he rubbed the back of his head.

"What was all that stuff about god?

"Uh, never mind…"

"…ya wanna talk about it?"

"No…don't worry about it…"

"Yohoo, ya know!"

"Anyway, why the heck are we even here? We're just dueling against a bunch of snot nosed punks…"

"What's up with that anyway? I mean, I signed up with the Yokai to get ahead on the black market, next think I know, Beck goes all lovey-dovey, and I'm here making some snot nosed duelists shatter like glass…"

"Talk about a waste of resources…if we're going to do this, we should at least get some of those pro-league duelists down. Maybe snatch their cards and sell them on the side…"

"No duh…that's why we should be put in charge…maybe then we wouldn't have causalities of our top Yokai like Russell Kazin."

"Ah, you heard that too? I heard he was trying out the Shadow Generators in that duel, ended up taking a load of Mental and Physical distress during it."

"Hello, ya know."

"What's up with the Shadow Generators anyway? I thought this was the Twilight Realm or something?"

"Eh, I heard that the Shadow Generators are only half the reason why this aura is here. Or, to be more specific, half of those generators that are set up on the island are Shadow Generators, don't quote me on this, but the other half are Light Generators…"

"What the…? What the hell? That sounds like some clichéd plot from a bad anime or video game!"

"Screw this, ya know," Asche growled activating his duel disk, snapping off a few cards off the top of his deck.

"Hey, I'm not the guy who came up with this idea," The Maroon haired Yokai sighed shaking his head. "If it was up to me, I would brainwash the students, making an army of duelists that would take over the world."

"…what? Where the hell did you get that idea?" The orange haired Yokai took a step away from the other guard. Some how, the two guards Yokai didn't notice as a large silver armored three headed dragon appeared in the twilight sky, floating over the ground before slamming its large tail in the ground…

…amazingly, the two Yokai didn't seem to notice the Cyber End Dragon that was behind Asche. "I think it's a good idea."

"What the hell is up with these guys?" Asche muttered as a sweatdrop appeared on the side of his head, as well as the three heads of the Cyber End Dragon. "HEY! LOOK AT ME! YA KNOW!"

"You're always saying that," the orange haired Yokai retorted crossing his arms. "Remember when we were in New York? You said that it would be a good idea to charge into that club…well, I charged in, guns ablaze…

"Only to find that you ran off! I got my ass kicked all the way to next Wednesday!"

"That's not what happened at all!"

Asche turned back and forth at the two Yokai, his sweatdrop disappearing into the large blood vessel that throbbed a few times. "Okay, ya know…CYBER END DRAGON! JUST BLAST THEM, YA KNOW! TRIDENT STRIDER BLAST!"

With three loud roars finally catching their attentions, the two Yokai turned around to see the Cyber End Dragon charging three powerful blasts of electrified energy in its three mouths. "HOLY CRAP!"

"THAT CAME OUT OF NO WHERE!!"

"I've been standing here for five minutes, ya know!" Asche roared as the Cyber End Dragon snapped their heads forward, firing the three blasts of electricity that erupted on the ground next to the two Yokai.

"SON OF BITCH!"

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

"Quick! Someone's attacking the tower!"

"I know! I told you that!"

As soon as the several cloaked Yokai members ran on the sidewalk towards the Clock Tower, the Alchemic Kaisaris stepped from the trees a sigh escaping from her mouth as she turned towards the clock tower…

…with several explosions and roars rocking through the air, Luntina sweatdropped at the sight of the rampaging Cyber End Dragon in front of the Clock Tower. Watching from several miles, the Kaisaris was glad that she wasn't the distraction…

"Hey! Hurry up!"

…but she wasn't too thrilled that Klein was with her at the time. So, with a loud sigh Luntina slowly followed the short Ojama Duelist. "…why are you here again?"

"Heh, I would've figured you know," Klein laughed sticking his tongue out at Luntina, as he spun on his heels to walk backwards. "Since we're heading in the general direction, at least for a little, it might as well make the trip interesting with conversation…"

"Fine little man," Luntina sighed crossing her arms as she slowly followed Klein. "…then what did you want to talk about then?"

"Uh, now that you're looking at me," Klein muttered crossing his arms. Apparently he really wasn't prepared for Luntina to talk back. "Why exactly are we even doing this?"

"What? Why are you asking me?" Luntina retorted, keeping an eye out for the Yokai members. "When we were looking for students to help out, you volunteered didn't you? I'm here because Alan made me…"

"Er…yeah, I did, didn't I?" Klein muttered rubbing the back of his head. "…yeah…"

"Although…" Luntina started raising an eyebrow at the short duelist. "I didn't think that you're the kind of person who'd volunteer for something this dangerous…"

"Well…I've got my reasons," Klein replied, his eyes trailing towards the side. "…this was…this was the only way I could find him…"

"Him?" Luntina questioned, trying not to picture the worst situation.

"Koji…my little brother," Klein grumbled under his breath.

"Oh…" Luntina stated, placing her hand on her chest. For some reason, Luntina had an idea for what Klein was going through. Not personally, but Mustang had informed her once that one of the duelists that Luntina wanted to face had a similar problem…in fact, the reason why he even joined the Pacific Academy was to find his younger sibling…

…it was a sound story, and since he used Alchemists…there was no reason why Luntina didn't want to meet this guy…

After that little conversation, the two remained silent, listening to the chirps of the many crickets that hid in the grass lining the sidewalk.

A few minutes later…

"Whoa, I knew that they'd be big," Klein muttered looking at the large satellite from the bushes, watching that the device was pulsating with life with a gold and purple light that was pouring from the satellite. "…but that's ridiculous…completely ridiculous…"

"Hmm…ya know, I'd figure that they'd have a few guards around here," Luntina admitted turning left and right, seeing that only the long blades of grass were all that were standing next to the large machine. "…it seems almost too easy…"

"Easy, smeasy," Klein chuckled with his tongue sticking out slightly. "This is our chance!" Then snapping three cards from the top of his deck, Klein slipped them onto his duel disk, creating three powerful orbs of light to appear in front of the three. "We'll blast that scrapheap in one shot!"

The three orbs of light shattered like glass, allowing the X-Head Cannon, Y-Dragon Head, and Z-Metal Tank to crash onto the ground in front Klein who had jumped behind all three of the machines. "Now then! X! Y! Z! Fuse together into…"

Electricity began to surge through the three machines, bringing them together into the large three colored machine that sparked to life. "…XYZ Dragon Cannon! And blast that machine to bits!"

"…that's so going to blow our cover…" Luntina sighed loudly…too bad the complaint was deafened by the powerful machine charging the two powerful cannons on its shoulders.

The with a powerful surge of energy, the XYZ Dragon Cannon fired the powerful blast towards the machine, the air snapping as the blast charged right through it.

"Go! Rose Wall!"

Just before the blast could strike the machine, a twister of purple rose petals flew from the ground, wrapping around the machine. Klein and Luntina's eyes widened as the rose petals slowly floated to the ground, uncovering that the machine was unscathed by the powerful blast…

"Oh, oh, oh, oh!"

With the rose petals landing on the ground, a familiar bubblegum pink haired girl stepped from behind the satellite machine, her fancy duel disk activated with a card slipped into the duel disk slot. "To draw out the rats…you need to place bait…you didn't think that only monsters were real in this realm did you?"

"Hey! You're that sexy girl during that one scam!" Klein howled with some drool dripping from his mouth, staring at the dark skinned beauty with an altered sexy Obelisk Blue uniform.

"Down boy, heel," Luntina sighed stepping from out of the bushes and in front of Klein, placing her hand on Klein's head, tossing him back slightly. "How long has it been Lirin? A few months? A year?"

"Almost Luntina," Lirin chuckled waving her arm in the air while she shook her head at the Kaisaris. "Sometimes I wish it was longer…"

"Wow…how do you two hotties know each other?" Klein chuckled getting back on his feet with an insidious smile on his face at thinking of all the possible reasons how the two knew each other…

WHAM!

"URK!" Klein moaned loudly as he fell backwards thanks to Luntina's fist, his XYZ – Dragon Cannon sweatdropped at the sight of its duelist knocked out for one of his rare perverted moments. Not wanting to see anymore, the XYZ – Dragon Cannon disappeared as Luntina lowered her fist.

"Heh, heh, still violent as usual," Lirin sighed shaking her head. "And here I thought that XYZ – Dragon Cannon was your doing…"

"Nope, that was before I got my new deck," Luntina replied crossing her arms as Klein slowly stood up.

"Ow…my brain…" Klein moaned rubbing the new bruise on his head. "What'd you do that for?"

"I sensed perverted thoughts," Luntina stated bluntly making Klein throw his arms into the air before Luntina turned towards Lirin. "…and as for you, I knew you did low things Lirin…but joining these people who are attacking us? That's just scum material…"

"Our group does have a name you know," Lirin scoffed throwing her arms down. "We're the Yokai, one of the greatest evil organizations known to man…"

"Then why the heck are you all here on this island?" Klein asked.

"What?" Lirin retorted with a few question marks appearing over her head.

"If this organization is as infamous as you claim," Klein continued with a smirk appearing on his face. "Then why would they spend their time with a school, taking down all their students…the only reason why I can think of an organization to do that would have to claim the island as their base…"

"And even then, it would be better to operate behind the scenes, using the school as a front as to not draw attention to the organization…"

A quiet breeze swept through the field, making Lirin and Luntina sweatdrop at the vast knowledge of evil organization lingo that was presented to them by the small duelist. And with a shake of her head, Luntina looked down at Klein. "…I guess there was a lot of information of evil organizations in that small body of yours…"

"Well, not to brag," Klein chuckled wagging his finger up. "But I was once a part of an evil organization beforehand…"

WHAM!

"OW!" Klein shouted falling backwards thanks to Luntina's fist again, only to jump back to his feet to glare daggers at the Kaisaris. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!?"

"Being a part of an evil organization is nothing to be proud of," Luntina sighed shaking her head. "I'm looking at both of you…"

"Hey, don't knock it till you try it," Lirin replied winking at Klein. "Am I right, or am I right little guy?"

"Oh, yeah!" Klein announced not noticing that Luntina raised her fist up again.

POW!

"URK!" Klein moaned falling face first into the ground.

"Shut up," Luntina growled cracking her knuckles a few times before activating her duel disk. "And as for you Lirin…it's time we settle this, and I'm guessing you know how we're going to do it too…"

"Yahoo! Catfight!" Klein cheered making a quick recovery from the newest bruise.

"What? No!'" Luntina growled throwing another punch towards Klein…

…only to have the short duelist bend backwards to dodge the fist. And standing up straight once more, Klein crossed his arms slightly. "Mud wrestling?"

"Damn it! No!" Luntina snarled trying to grab Klein.

However, the Ojama duelist just slid to the side, nimbly sidestepping to the side to have Luntina miss him. "Um…okay, how about a Macramé Owl contest?"

"For the last ti…" Luntina started only realizing what Klein had said; even Lirin blinked a few times at the weird suggestion.

"What?" Klein stated shrugging his shoulders.

"…anyway," Luntina coughed slightly turning back to Lirin. "We're dueling!"

"About time!" Lirin shouted throwing her duel disk armed wrist up, snapping in the newly shuffled deck of duel monster cards. "About time we're going to settle this!"

"…aw, man," Klein groaned kicking one of the rocks near his feet. "And here I was hoping to see a Macramé Owl…later you gals, I'm going to other satellite thing nearby…if I can't get women entertainment or a Macramé Owl, then destruction is my only choice for entertainment!"

Luntina and Lirin couldn't help but stare at Klein as he marched off away from the two…

"Wrong way little man!" Luntina shouted making Klein fall face first due to embarrassment.

"Urk! I-I knew that!" Klein roared running in the other direction.

"…interesting choice in men you have Luntina," Lirin giggled crossing her arms.

"And what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Luntina snarled, shifting her glare towards Lirin.

"Heh, I'm just saying," Lirin taunted with a sly look appearing on her face as she slowly snapped off the top of her deck of cards. "First there was that amnesia guy from the Pacific Academy…and now that shorty…I'll admit that the first one was quite cute…but…"

"For the last time! Neither of them are my boyfriend!" Luntina growled waving her arms into the air. "Mustang's too much of a flirter, and I barely know that little runt! He's just annoying!"

"…but then again, you always went after the guys who liked pushing your buttons," Lirin joked with a wag of her finger.

"Oh that's it…" Luntina snarled, her eyes narrowing with anger as she snapped off the top five cards from her deck. "I'm going to kill you dead!" (LULP: 8000)

"…was that your little duelist cry?" Lirin asked raising an eyebrow. "I would've figured you'd have something a little more elegant…" (LILP: 8000)

"Yeah, keep talking," Luntina growled closing her eyes not to look at her opponent.

"And since you technically challenged me," Lirin cooed pulling the sixth card off the top of her deck. "I'll go first!"

"Go right ahead," Luntina moaned tapping her foot on the ground a few times.

"Ah, you should relax while you have the chance Luntina," Lirin warned slapping a card onto her duel disk, making the set card appear before her. "You might as well enjoy the duel…"

"…why? Cause it'll be my last?" Luntina finished waving her hand up into the air.

"I not that clichéd," Lirin replied fitting another card into her duel disk. "But, enough of the pleasantries, for my turn, I'll set one monster face down as well as a face down spell or trap card…and as for what I was saying before you interrupted me…"

"You might as well enjoy the duel, cause you'll be seeing a lot of familiar faces…"

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Luntina retorted pulling her next card. "Draw!"

"I summon Rogue Alchemist!"

Materializing in front of Luntina was one of the alchemists that she used, only this one had grayish brown hair wearing a brown jacket and roughed up blue jeans. This alchemist…he didn't really have the same aura as the other alchemists had…

…in fact, it wasn't for the large sword that he was able to lift up with only one hand, this alchemist looked pretty useless (1900/1000).

"And now, Rogue Alchemist! Attack that face down monster!"

Snapping his sword to the side, the Rogue Alchemist seemed to make his sword click loudly, snapping two star like blades sliding out of the sword. And with a powerful slash, the two blade stars went fly towards the face down monster that slowly began to appear in a flurry of rose petals…

CLANK! CLANG!

…only to have two vines snap them back towards Luntina, striking the Alchemic Duelist into leg! "A-AH!" The pain was real! She could feel the cut, even if it was slightly minor. "Great…" (LULP: 7900)

"Nice try," Lirin sighed shaking her head. "But, you're going to have to do better than that…"

Luntina rolled her eyes at the sight of what had stopped the Rogue Alchemist's attack, crouching before Lirin was a beautiful burgundy skinned young woman wearing a matching bodice dress on her body. Even weirder than the skin color was the fact that the young woman had a burgundy rose blossom on her head instead of hair (900/2000). "…especially if you want to get past Rose Maiden Burgundy…but your dull alchemist won't make a dent on her beauty…"

"I guess you were right," Luntina sighed shaking her head fitting a single card into her duel disk, making it appear behind the mopping Rogue Alchemist who was drawing transmutation circles in the ground with his finger. "That monster does bring back some memories…but just because you have her deck…that doesn't mean you can use it just as well!"

"Turn end…"

"Not so fast!" Lirin announced snapping her fingers over her face down card, making it flip up, showing a young woman dancing in shining rain. "I activate my trap card, Solemn Wishes. Now, every time I draw a card, I gain five hundred life points."

"Great, just what I need," Luntina growled as Lirin drew her next card, allowing a large amount off light to rain onto Lirin's body. (LILP: 8500)

"Oh, now don't be that way," Lirin said waving her newly drawn card in the air. "Tell you what…this dreary Twilight Realm isn't the best place for us to battle Luntina…so why don't we change the scenery?"

"What?" Luntina questioned, blinking a few times as Lirin lifted up her duel disk, creating a powerful rain of rose petals to fall from the sky.

All of a sudden the rain of petals became a storm, transforming the grassy ground into a beautiful and vast field of roses of red, white and yellow colors, and replacing the twilight sky was a bright blue sky that was graced with white clouds. "I activate the field spell card, Rose Garden!"

"Just peachy…" Luntina sighed watching that the Rogue Alchemist was a little surprised at the scenery changed drastically…

…however, the Shadow Generator satellite remained standing behind Lirin, humming loudly. "Hnn…I was expecting this damn eyesore to disappear along with the dreary landscape…oh well…"

"I'll admit that it is an eyesore…" Luntina agreed with a nod. "What's up with the satellite anyway?"

"For your information," Lirin sighed shaking her head as she looked at the satellite. "This big hunk of scrap iron is known as a Shadow Generator…and what your little boyfriend is heading to, if I'm right, he's heading towards one of the Light Generators…"

"Shadow? Light?" Luntina questioned raising an eyebrow. "What exactly are they for?"

"Hell if I know," Lirin replied crossing her arms. "But if I had to guess…it's probably to make this weird aura that enveloped this island…"

"…wait, why are we chatting like good old pals?" Lirin shook her head, lifting another card from her hand. "We should continue this! I summon Rose Maiden Cerise!"

Many petals from the Rose Garden flew up into the air, allowing another plant-like woman to rise up from the flowers. This one with pink skin, wearing a matching cocktail dress that flowed on her skinny body, and like Burgundy, Cerise's hair was replaced with a pink rose blossom (1300/1100). "And, I think I'll end my turn with that right there…oh wait, might as well give you a surprise…I'll set one card face down."

"If that's the way you want it! Draw!" Luntina announced lifting her next card up. "And now! I summon Alchemist Swordsman!"

Skidding on the rose garden to stand next to the surprised Rouge Alchemist was another sword wielding alchemist, this one a slightly younger man this one with fiery red hair that was combed over his right eye. And under his light armor, the young man's red shirt flapped as he drew the large metallic sword that was strapped to his back (1500/1000).

"…nice looking monster…too bad I gotta do…" Lirin chuckled lifting her duel disk up to press one of the buttons on the machine. "THIS!"

Erupting from the ground around the two Alchemist's feet were several vines that erupted from the ground, all of them covered with thorns that immediately wrapped around the two alchemists, dragging them to the ground growling loudly. "Meet my trap card, Thorn's Vines! You see, when I have two plant type monsters on the field, and you summon a monster. All monsters on your side of the field are changed to defense mode."

"…and then there's the other half of the card," Luntina growled as the cards on her duel disk began to shift to a horizontal position. "If I turn either of those monsters to attack mode, they're automatically destroyed right?'

"You're still as perceptive as usual…" Lirin sighed crossing her arms. "That or you've got a decent memory…too bad you didn't see that move coming…"

"Your memory must be fading," Luntina chuckled slightly wagging a finger at Lirin. "…or did you forget that I was made the Kaisaris?"

"Heh, don't try your bluffs here Luntina," Lirin replied. "You know as well as I do that your title was just earned to spread equality among the academies…you're nothing more than a poster girl."

"Ya know…I was going to go easy on you Lirin," Luntina growled clenching her fist tightly. "But now, I think I'm going to have to break a promise that I made!"

"A promise?" Lirin questioned raising an eyebrow at the word.

"Yeah…a concept that you might have trouble comprehending," Luntina replied as a powerful green transmutation circle appeared underneath both of the pinned down Alchemists. "You see…I promised myself and my friend Mustang that until I could meet up with him, I said that I wouldn't use the full power of my Alchemists!"

"F-Full power?" Lirin gulped as the transmutation made the two alchemists disappear in a bright green light.

"You see, alchemy in layman terms is the science of breaking down and reforming matter," Luntina announced reaching for her fusion deck, lifting up a single card. "And my Alchemists are the best example of this…especially when they're on the field! By removing two or more, I can Alchemic Summon a new monster from the fusion deck!"

The many thorn covered vines shattered like glass as a tall man made completely of green light stood up, making Lirin step backwards. Slowly, the light began to die off the man's body, forming into a brown haired man wearing a combination of the previous two alchemists' clothes with the addition of a large blue belt that was wrapped around his waist. With a large smirk, the young man reached behind his belt towards the large sheathe that was strapped to it, drawing the large sword with his right hand while in his left hand was a large windmill like blade (2200/1500).

"And by Alchemic Fusing my Rouge and Swordsman, I get the Alchemist is Arms! And since I've gotten rid of both of my monsters at the same time, your trap is no longer in effect!"

"Urk!" Lirin wasn't expecting this development, the fact that the alchemists could fuse by themselves like the X-Y-Z cards.

"Now then, first off, I'm getting rid of that defense!" Luntina announced throwing her arm out towards the panicking Burgundy. "Alchemist in Arms…why don't you choose which weapon to attack with?"

With a sadistic grin, the Alchemist in Arms stabbed his sword into the Rose Garden's ground. Then with a powerful jump on top of the sword, the Alchemist spun around, reeling the windmill blade in his left hand, throwing the large blade across the rose covered ground. Before Burgundy could even get a chance to scream, the windmill buzzed right through her waist, making her shatter into several rose petals that flew back into Lirin's body. "W-What the?!" (LILP: 8300)

"Alchemic Fused monsters have pretty interesting abilities," Luntina explained as the Alchemist of Arms landed on the ground reaching for his sword that was implanted into the ground. "My Alchemist in Arms has a piercing ability…and he can attack twice!"

"What?!" Lirin shouted taking a step back as Cerise did the same as she watched the remainder of the rose petals that were once Burgundy fall to the ground.

"And now, Alchemist in Arms, its time we pulled some weeds!" Luntina commanded giving the Alchemist in Arms another reason to have a sadistic smile plastered on his face as he lifted the sword up with one hand towards Cerise. "Attack!"

Running forward, the Alchemist in Arms lifted the broadsword up in the air, ready to slice the Rose Maiden in two. Then as the Alchemic Warrior brought down the weapon, a large portrait appeared in front of Cerise, pushing the Rose Maiden from the attack…

…only to get the slice right down the middle of the frame and picture, shattering it into several rose petals. "Urk! Sorry, but the spell card that I discarded, Rose Portrait, allows me to special summon a Portrait Token (500/500), and it intercepts any attack…"

"Don't forget!" Luntina snapped as the Alchemist in Arms leapt backwards, just in time to grab the spinning windmill blades with his left hand to stop the weapon in mid-air. "You take damage still thanks to the trample ability of my Alchemist!"

And with the petals flowing backwards, Lirin growled slightly with her duel disk lifted up. "I-It was worth it!" (LILP: 6600)

"I hope so," Luntina replied fitting another card into her duel disk, making it appear behind her other face down card. "So to end this turn, I'll set one card face down…"

"And…it goes back to me!" Lirin announced pulling the next card from her deck, summoning a large amount of light rain to fall from the sky down onto her duel disk. "I trust you remember that I have my Solemn Wishes out, so my life points increase…" (LILP: 7100)

"Such an old trick," Luntina sighed with a smug look appearing on her face.

"Then let's try something new," Lirin snickered as two rose petals appeared around Cerise's body, making her take a bow. "During each of my stand by phases, my Rose Garden places a Rose Counter on all plant monsters…but Cerise doubles that, so my rose maiden gains two Rose Counters!"

"And Solemn Wishes maybe old, but it's going to help me even more," Lirin lifted up the card she just drew, allowing a large green and blue grinning pot to appear on the field, cackling loudly. "Cause I play Pot of Greed! And since you're Kaisaris, it's a given that you know what this card can do!"

"…ya know, I'm getting tired of people pointing out that since I'm Kaisaris," Luntina muttered crossing her arms as light engulfed Lirin as she snapped two more cards from her deck. "…that I know what every card can do." (LILP: 7600)

"Oh, cry me a river," Lirin replied tossing the two cards into her hand. "It'll just help my beautiful flowers blossom! But maybe this a bouquet of roses will help? Or to be better put, Rose Bouquet!"

Many roses flew from the ground, slowly falling around Lirin's body, making her pull out the deck from the duel disk slot. "This spell card allows me to add one level four or lower plant type monster from my deck to my hand…"

"So it's like Reinforcement of the Army, but for weeds," Luntina pieced together as Lirin threw her arms at her sides.

"Hey! My Rose Maidens aren't weeds!" Lirin snapped lifting the card of her choice up. "And to prove it, I'll summon Rose Maiden – Goldenrod!"

With the previous Rose Maidens, the next one rose up from the Rose Garden in a flurry of rose petals. This rose maiden however, had dark yellow skin with a matching colored gown on her petite body, as well as having a yellow rose blossom growing from her head rather than hair (1000/500). "And next, I'll activate another spell card, Rose Nurturing!"

As Lirin's spell card appeared in front of her, showing the picture of a woman watering bushes in the morning sun, Lirin revealed a monster card in her hand only to place it into her duel disk's graveyard. "First, I discard my level seven Regenerating Rose card from my hand, and then I add seven Rose Counters to one of my face up monsters…like Goldenrod!"

That's when seven rose petals scattered from Lirin's duel disk, all of them floating around her body as she giggled slightly. "And now, Goldenrod! Attack Alchemist in Arms!"

"What!?" Luntina shouted as the Alchemist in Arms raised an eyebrow…only to have several vines wrap around his body, pulling him to the ground (2200/1500 – 2100/2100). "Huh!?"

"Looks like someone forgot about Cerise's special ability," Lirin giggled wagging her finger at Luntina as Goldenrod charged forward, her hands becoming vines that whipped forward. "When one of my plant monsters battles an opponent's monsters with Rose Counters on it, I lower that monster's attack points by three hundred points for each Rose Counter! And since there were seven counters…"

The vine wrapped around the Alchemist in Arms, making him scream in pain before he was crushed into pixels. And as her life points began to lower, Luntina threw her arm up. "Nice trick! But don't think I'm going to fall to the count! I activate my trap card, Dark Transmutation!" (LULP: 7000)

That's when a large pitch black transmutation circle erupted onto the Rose Garden, allowing the Rouge Alchemist to leap onto the field, only to crouch down with his arms crossed over his chest (1900/1000). "This trap can only be activated when an Alchemist on my side of the field is destroyed as a result of battle. I can now special summon one level four Alchemist from my removed from play pile!"

"So? Cerise! Strike down that excuse of a monster!" Lirin shouted as many vines appeared around the surprised Rouge Alchemist, pulling him under the many flowers. "Heh…that was a waste of time…so I'll set a card face down…"

As the final card in her hand was fitted into her duel disk, Lirin crossed her arms over her chest. "And end my turn…"

"…and here I thought that this duel would be boring…" Luntina replied snapping the top card from her deck. Truth be told, it was harder than she first thought… '_If I can remember correctly, the rose monster needs only to battle to lower my monster's attack…so if I want to destroy that advantage, I would need to summon a monster with nineteen hundred attack points or more this turn…'_

'_Shouldn't be a problem for this guy!'_

"I summon Strong Arm Alchemist!"

Several rose petals flew up into the air, allowing the sparkling muscular alchemist to slam onto the ground, performing a dazzling strong man pose (2000/1000). "Now then, Strong Arm Alchemist! Attack Cerise! Sure he'll lose six hundred points, but he'll have more than enough to take down that weed!"

Charging forward, the Strong Arm Alchemist pulled his arm back, ready to slam his fist directly into the smirking Cerise's face…

WHAM!

…only to be stopped by a barrier of rose petals that surprised both Luntina and the Strong Arm Alchemist. "You're starting to slip up Luntina! I activate my trap card, Rose Wall! And once per turn, I can negate one of your attacks and place a Rose Counter on your monster!"

As the Strong Arm Alchemist was forced back, Luntina noticed that there was a single rose petal floating around the large muscular alchemist. "…and?"

"Heh…" Lirin sighed as the wall of rose petals fell to the ground, showing a smirking look on her face. "Oh, you'll just have to see what happens next my former Kaisaris…"

"Turn end then," Luntina growled as the Strong Arm Alchemist looked back at his duelist, a shocked look appearing on his chiseled face.

"That's what I thought…" Lirin sighed pulling her next card up with Solemn Wishes activating once more. "Hmm…What to do…so many choices." (LILP: 8100)

"You've only got one choice," Luntina growled as the number of Rose Counters increased on both of the Rose Maidens, Cerise with four and Goldenrod with nine. "…and if you're going to do something, then do it!"

"Easy on the anger Kaisaris," Lirin warned waving the last card in her hand towards Luntina. "You'll get wrinkles rather easily if you do…but if you wish, then Goldenrod…why don't you just attack and destroy that Strong Arm Alchemist?"

With a loud giggle, the Rose Maiden Goldenrod lifted her arms up, turning them into several vines that shot directly towards the weakened Strong Arm Alchemist (2000/1000 – 2700/2700).

"Trap card go! Philosopher's Tactics!" Luntina announced as the Strong Arm Alchemist shattered into several red sparks that flew into the air, forcing Goldenrod to step back from the flames. "You see, I need to remove one Alchemist from play to use this trap, but it ends your battle phase."

A small beep echoed through the air as a single card popped out of out of Luntina's deck. "And as an added bonus, I get a level four or lower Alchemist to replace the one I just removed from play."

"Good for you…" Lirin sighed shaking her head as she fitted the last card into her hand. "But as for me, I'll set one card face down and end my turn…"

"…reminds me of old times," Luntina chuckled pulling another card from her deck.

"Of what? Me kicking you around the dueling arena?" Lirin asked with a smirk plastering her face.

"In a sense, but no," Luntina replied spinning the card that she got from her trap card to face towards Lirin. "I summon the Flame Alchemist!"

"What!? NO!" Lirin shouted as a powerful flame erupted from the center of the Rose Garden, making both of the Rose Maidens shriek in terror.

SNAP!

The flames whipped around, streaming forward to crash into the many roses on the ground and then into roses that floated over the air. And in the middle of it all was the dark haired alchemist with his hand up in the air (1600/1400). And with the flames residing the field, the entire area was returned to normal…

…well, as normal with the Twilit sky and Shadow Generator humming loudly in the background.

"W-What have you done!?" Lirin snarled, barring her teeth at Luntina and her alchemist.

"I think it's obvious," Luntina joked as the Flame Alchemist winked at the Rose Maidens and Lirin. "I just turned this duel all around…"

"Damn it! Why?" Lirin shouted pulling her pink hair slightly.

"Perhaps you should save your little swear off until after I finish my turn," Luntina advised as a bright red transmutation circle erupted on the ground near the Flame Alchemist's feet. "I activate the equip spell, Crimson Angel! Now by paying six hundred life points, I can equip this card to a monster that was removed from play to special summon it back to my field!" (LULP: 6400)

Erupting from the light was none other than the tall, Strong Arm Alchemist appeared crossing his arms before he struck another manly pose…making the Flame Alchemist take a few steps back away from his fellow alchemist. "So Strong Arm Alchemist, you're back on the field!"

"Don't tell me…" Lirin gulped taking a few steps back, as a large and powerful transmutation circle surged around the two alchemists.

"Yep!" Luntina announced throwing her arm into the air as both of the alchemists were engulfed in powerful bursts of red light. "Flame Alchemist! Strong Arm Alchemist!"

"Alchemic Fuse!"

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

"Damn it…" Klein mumbled looking left and right, trying to figure out where he was and where the next generator was located. Apparently he found himself in the forest that was a mile or two away from where Luntina was having her duel.

"AAAH!"

"HARFE!"

"Huh?" Klein questioned hearing a pair of screams echoing through the air. Then with a shake of his head, Klein began to charge towards the source of the scream, running through the trees, dodging branches and leaping over the trees.

And just as he reached the opening, he was met with a large blood red aura-like-dome that had several eyes and mouths on it. "Holy…" Klein felt a chill creep up his back as the grabbed his arms. "…w-what the hell is that?"

That's when the aura shattered like glass, flowing into the air along with other glass like shards…merging into the large twilight aura. "Whoa…"

As the last of the blood red aura-like-dome shattered, Klein lowered his head to see someone standing in front of a large satellite generator that was glowing bright white…

…the person turned around, allowing his cloak to flow over his body and the gray braided strands of hair that fell from the hood of his cloak. "Hello…ya little cockroach…"

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Card Stats**

**Rose Maiden Cerise**

EARTH/Plant – Effect/ 4/ 1300/ 1100

If you have Rose Garden on the field, during your Standby Phase, place 2 Rose Counters on all Plant-Type monsters instead of 1. When 1 of your Plant-Type monsters with Rose Counter(s) battles with 1 of your opponent's monsters, the ATK and DEF of your opponent's monster is decreased by 300 points for each Rose Counter on your monster. (During the Damage Step only.)

**Description:** A woman with pink skin and a cocktail dress of the same color. A pink rose blossom grows from her scalp instead of hair.

**Rose Maiden Goldenrod**

EARTH/Plant – Effect/ 3/ 1000/ 500

If you have Rose Garden on the field, remove all Rose Counters from this card to increase the ATK of 1 of your Plant-Type monsters by 1000 points.

**Description:** A woman with dark yellow skin and a gown of the same color, with a corsage on her left wrist. A yellow rose blossom grows from her scalp instead of hair.

**Rose Maiden Burgundy**

EARTH/Plant/ 4/ 900/ 2000

This mysterious beauty is no push over. Her appearance is not so easily tarnished by battle.

**Description:** A woman with burgundy skin and a bodice. A burgundy rose blossom grows from her scalp instead of hair.

**Rose Garden**

SPELL/Field

During the controller's Standby Phase, place 1 Rose Counter on all Plant-Type monsters on the field.

**Description:** A vast meadow of roses, each of a different color—red, white, pink, yellow. The sky overhead is blue with white clouds breezing by.

**Rose Bouquet**

SPELL/Normal

Move 1 Level 4 lower Plant-Type monster from your deck to your hand.

**Description:** A bouquet of red roses—tied with a red ribbon—resting on a table. A card accompanies it.

**Rose Nurturing**

SPELL/Normal

Discard 1 monster to the Graveyard. Add a number of Rose Counters on 1 of your Plant-Type monsters on your field equal to the Level of the discarded monster.

**Description:** A woman—her face is not seen—is watering her rose bushes in the morning sun.

Rose Portrait

SPELL/Normal

You can discard this card to the Graveyard during either player's turn. When you do this, Special Summon 1 Portrait Token (EARTH/Plant/Star 1/ATK 500/DEF 500) on your field. Your opponent cannot attack any other monster on your field except the Portrait Token.

**Description:** A watercolor painting of Rose Maiden Rouge crossing a bridge over a winding river.

**Rose Wall**

TRAP/Continuous

When your opponent attacks 1 of your Plant-Type monster, negate the attack and place 1 Rose Counter on the attack target. This effect can only be used once per turn.

**Description:** Rose Maiden Violet has her arms half-raised, with a twister of purple rose petals surrounding her.

_The preceding cards were made by Kaitoh Kouji/Seeker/Tobi. All creativity belongs to him and I thank him for allowing me to use this cards._

**Alchemist Swordsman / Fire / LV. 4 / ATK: 1500 / DEF: 1000 / Warrior/Effect:** When this card battles another monster, you may remove up to three cards from the top of your deck from play. For each card removed with this effect, increase the attack of this card by 300 until the end of the turn this effect was used.

**Description:** A young man with fiery red hair combed over one eye. His red shirt and black pants are covered with slight armor and a large red sword is strapped to his back with many chains.

**Rouge Alchemist / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 1900 / DEF: 1000 / Warrior:** A young man who actually failed his state alchemist license exam. As a result, he practices alchemy on his weapons hoping to become a famous alchemist.

**Description:** A young grayish brown haired man wearing a brown jacket over a white baggy shirt. Around his blue pants is a small belt connected to a large sheathe and sword.

**Dark Transmutation / Trap / Effect:** This card can only be activated when a monster with 'Alchemist' in its name is destroyed and sent to the graveyard by battle. Special summon one removed from play level four or lower 'Alchemist' to your side of the field.

**Image:** A dark beast jumping from a dark blue transmutation circle.

**Philosopher's Tactics** **/ Trap / Effect**: Remove 1 monster on your field with "Alchemist" in its name to end your opponent's battle phase. Add one level 4 or lower monster with "Alchemist" in its name from your deck, to your hand.

**Image:** A red aura surrounding the Gunner Alchemist.

**Crimson Angel / Equip Spell / Effect:** Pay 600 life points. Special summon one monster with 'Alchemist' in its name from your graveyard or removed from play pile and equip it with this card (ignoring all summoning conditions). If this card is destroyed, remove the equipped monster from play.

**Image:** A beautiful young girl in a red aura with a pair of beautiful white wings on her back.

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

**Leo:** Oh my, I wonder why we're not going to see the rest of this duel?

**?-?-?-?-?:** Don't ask me, I'm just a villain…although it was quite majestic…

**Leo:** I most heartedly agree!

_**Uh…With the duels to take down the generators, a most interesting duel appears…one between some of the more eccentric characters that have ever graced the island! Next time – **__**Chapter 44: Twilight Part 2 – Of Heaven and Earth**_

**?-?-?-?-?:** This is most fun I've had in ages!

**Leo:** If our lives weren't on the line…I'd agree wholeheartedly. smile


	45. Chapter 44: Of Heaven and Earth

…_**people say I'm weird…**_

…_**I wouldn't say that they're wrong, but I don't think that I'm that weird…**_

_**Appearing out of no where, smiling almost all the time and never really letting people's comments get to me…yeah, that doesn't sound weird to me at all!**_

_**Now if you want to talk about weird, I've got a few examples…**_

_**I've seen a man take a cannon ball to the stomach…**_

…_**I witnessed as the world's largest ball of string breaking down a wall and going into oncoming traffic…**_

…_**and I've also seen a disco man jump dance in broad daylight…only to get tackled by several police officers.**_

_**And yet…none of that really compares with what I'm seeing right now. If people think I'm weird, then this guy must be crazy…**_

…_**although, I don't really have much time to talk about this, the plan needs to be completed as soon as possible…So we need to rush this…**_

…_**and don't forget! Smile! **_

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

_**Chapter 44**_

_**Twilight Part 2 **_

_**Of Heaven and Earth**_

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

"CYBER END DRAGON! ATTACK AGAIN, YA KNOW!"

With three loud roars erupting in the twilit air, the Cyber End Dragon fired three blasts crashing into the ground, skyrocketing several screaming Yokai members into the air.

Luckily, the orange haired and maroon haired Yokai were hiding on the side of the clock tower, watching as several of their fellow Yokai members spinning past them. Lowering his duel disk down, the Maroon Haired man looked over the corner. "This is insane! Whose idea was this in the first place?!"

"I got a better question," The orange haired Yokai threw his arm into the air. "How is it that we're in an international gang…and yet, we don't have a single gun to our names?! You'd think that we'd have at least one gun for situations like this!"

"Once again," Maroon retorted turning around from the situation as a powerful explosion rocked the ground. "I have to say that this is because of Beck's ruling system once more…"

"What?! How can you be a gang member without a gun these days?" Orange shouted before several other Yokai members ran past them, their cloaks partially engulfed in blue flames.

"Hey here's an idea," Maroon stated standing up straight. "How about we run away before our brains are blasted out?"

"Hmm…good idea," Orange muttered nodding his head a few times. "So, when are we going to run?"

"We'll count to three and go," Maroon replied keeping his eyes on the explosions that continued to rock the ground.

"Sounds good!" Orange chuckled only to rub his chin. "Um, are we going on three, or after three?"

"What?"

"Or, are we going before three, when we go on four, or just when we get to two?"

"It's on three!"

KA-BOOM!

"FORGET IT! LET'S RUN!"

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Watching the whole conversation between the two Yokai members through a large screen-like aura, Eternity Angelo couldn't help but shake his head in agreement…and if his face wasn't covered by the mask, the jovial look on his face would've been exposed.

However, craning his head back, Eternity Angelo would have his face twist into a combination of confusion and anger. "They actually bring up a good point Beck…why don't you ever let your Yokai agents carry firearms?"

"Please, do you take me for a barbarian?" Beck huffed crossing his arms. "I'm too sophisticated for those kinds of methods to gain what I need."

It was true, Beck was known for his terrible control in the underworld…but for his strategies and knowledge of how to manipulate the law to his advantage. In fact, it was because of that he was able to become head of the Yokai.

And sure, since he became the head of the Yokai, he did eliminate the need for guns to be used in his organization. Beck preferred the non-violent forms of settling differences (save for hand to hand combat, since the only honorable way to fight was to fight with your bare hands if you were to ask Beck). Hence why he had stock in several companies and granting debts to people…

…and even if situations did rise that violence was needed, Beck had Kazin's know-how and inventions adding a little edge to the handicap that Yokai gave to other organized crime syndicates…

"By the way," Eternity Angelo muttered craning his head up and down a few times, noticing the new clothes that were hanging off of his minion's body. "…since when did you change your clothes?"

"About five minutes ago," Beck stated rubbing the top of his new black bandana, before spinning on his heel to have the tails of his silver overcoat whip about in the air. "I'm rather shy when I change clothes…so I learned how to change in less than two minutes…"

"…whatever…" Adjusting his hat to cover his eyes, Eternity Angelo turned over to the side, seeing the very Cyber End Dragon that was causing the chaos outside the stained glassed window reeling all three of its heads back, ready to unleash another powerful trio of blue electrified energy blasts.

Then with a powerful blue explosion rising over the ground below, the echo boomed through the hallowed halls of the clock tower, making Eternity Angelo's hair and loose clothes billow from the last blast of air. "…Beck…tell me…how come none of our Yokai have dealt with this insect?"

"I would suspect that," Beck replied heading towards the window, his duel disk activating. "Because the dragon is larger than it usually is, it was probably fused with Power Bond. Every Yokai duelist who's not currently guarding the Generators probably doesn't have a means to destroy the monster…and I wouldn't be surprised if whoever's controlling has a few ways to defend the monster…"

"…it's sad really." Spinning his hat over his head, Eternity Angelo gestured out the window. "Do these fools take us as amateurs?"

"I know…I'll deal with this idiot here," Beck stated pushing the window open lifting three cards from his hand up, sliding all three of them into his duel disk. "Then I'll let all the guards at the Generators know that they're going to get some visitors…"

"…it might be a little late for that," Eternity Angelo sighed crossing his arms.

"Oh well…then we'll just have to play the cards we're dealt with!" Beck laughed before jumping out into the twilight air, his duel disk glowing a bright light. "And the cards that are dealt with activate now! I activate Ties to the End!"

A single orb of light emerged from Beck's chest, floating around his body as he began fall towards the Cyber End Dragon. "Then comes Universal Road!"

At the sound of Beck's voice echoing through the air, all three heads of the Cyber End Dragon turned towards the Yokai leader with a second orb of light materializing around his body, all three of them preparing to attack. "And the piece de resistance! Cosmos Fate!"

For a split second, a third orb of light poured out of Beck's body, only to crash back into his body along with the other two orbs. Instantly his entire body erupted into a powerful black energy, warping his body's physical shape…

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Meanwhile, as Beck's dark form was about to confront the Cyber End Dragon, near the edge of the island two students walked through the forest…

"Leo…are you sure that we're going the right way?"

Turning around with a smile on his face, Leo tilted his head to the side as he crossed his arms over his chest at Rena. "Ah, Rena, do not worry…as soon as we get out of the forest it will only be a skip and a hop to the satellite."

Bending over to catch her breath for a few seconds, Rena stood up straight wiping some sweat that had gotten on her brow. "So…does that mean that you actually know where we're going?"

Leo smiled. "Hmmm…"

Rena walked up closer, her hopes up high awaiting the answer…

With an innocent smile… "…nope!"

Rena almost fell face first and groaned. "…I should've known better…"

"Shouldn't you know me better than that?" Leo chuckled but suddenly silenced as his eyes turned left and right as he noticed something, his eyebrows narrowing slightly.

"Is something wrong Leo?" Rena asked, taking note of his slightly altered expression.

Replying with a smile, Leo crossed his arms, "Never mind, onward and upwards shall we?" And with a spin on his heel, the noble duelist began to walk ahead.

"Hey! Wait for me!" Rena followed behind him…

…not noticing the shadow slowly creeping down from one of the tree branches…

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Ganryu dragged himself through the fancy clock tower entrance, thanks to the exuberant distraction outside that had caused the Yokai to riot in the fields. He quickly reached the inside halls and saw a fancy hallway filled with fancy statue that consisted of duel monsters he had seen before. With his cold eyes turning towards each of the statues as he passed them, Ganryu stopped at the fancy doors at the end of the hall, one door was ebony, and the other ivory…

And as he lifted his hand up…

"Hmm…was it wise to come in alone Dashiben?"

The voice was familiar, so Ganryu didn't even turn his head back. "…Luke, I thought I told you that I work better alone…" Crossing his arms, Ganryu kept his back to the Jewel Duelists that walked up to lean against one of the statues. "If you wanted to help, you should've made another distraction…"

"…true…but, that sounded more like grunt work," Luke chuckled adjusting his bowl hair to cover his eyes. "…and I'm an agent…you're technically a grunt still…"

"What makes you think that rank matters to me?" Ganryu growled placing his hand on the ebony door. "…besides…who better to go in first than the stronger of the two of us…"

"Hmm…you think that since you managed to beat me once," Luke snickered slamming his palm on the ivory door, glaring daggers at Ganryu. "You're all that…the cream of the crop…and the list goes on and on…"

"…we can discuss the finer points and insult each other," Ganryu muttered slowly pulling the door, allowing a brilliant twilight to pour into the hallway. "But we've got other things to deal with…"

And as the door opened, a loud explosion rocked the hallway, making both former academy students to stand still watching as pieces of dust and debris to fall from the ceiling, some of the statues to fall, and dirt to flow in from the entrance to the hall. Luke rubbed the back of his head with a small smirk on his face. "…huh…wonder what's going on out there…"

"Who cares?" Ganryu retorted walking through the doors with his hands in his pockets/

Shrugging, Luke followed the cold-hearted duelist. "…touché…"

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Back in the forest, two Duel Academy students' turned their eyes towards the clock tower…the rampaging Cyber End Dragon had disappeared, replaced with a silver smoke that lofted into the twilight air…

The brown haired girl with red bangs, Rena, just gaped at the smoke. "Whoa…"

Leo focused at the smoke for awhile, a smile on his face as he nodded slightly. "…perhaps its time we continue…"

"Leo…does this mean…" Rena started turning to the noble duelist.

"If you're referring to Asche…" Leo smiled a little brighter at the elf duelist, turning towards the nearby downhill in the forest that the two were near. "…don't worry…remember, even though he did lose to me, Asche and I have had a few table top duels, and from what you've seen when we dueled with duel disks…you only saw half of his deck."

"But, enough of that…we should go…"

"Good idea." Rena commented

"WAIT!" A pair of loud voices shattered the eerie silence of the forest.

Rena and even Leo jumped slightly as they heard those familiar voices. They slowly inched their heads, almost making that creepy creaking sound towards the noise.

Standing out from behind the tree was a small man with glaring eyes behind the yellow beetle styled glasses and tire glare. And behind him was a taller man, his wild brown hair curling from under his red cap.

Rena blinked. "W-What? Professor Underwood? Professor Raptor?"

"You two just disappeared," Leo complimented clapping his hands a few times. "Bravo…not bad for rookies."

Weevil crossed his arms, his forehead vein pulsing a few times. "Don't patronize me! What in the heck are you two doing here?!"

"That's rude," Leo chuckled, feigning a pained look on his face.

"SHUT YOUR YAP!" Rex shouted.

Rolling his eyes, Leo smiled with a mutter leaving his lips. "…that's even ruder…"

"Now, then you two shouldn't be here," Weevil growled pushing up his glasses.

"And you two should?" Rena questioned raising her duel disk up. "You two don't even have a duel disk…I mean; people are shattering like glass and…"

"Heh, like that matters," Rex chuckled slamming his fist up against his chest a few times. "Leave it to the professionals!"

"…do you two know any?" Leo innocently (yeah right) asked making both of the Professors fall face first into the ground.

Rena just swayed while holding her arms up. "…that was harsh Leo…and that was from you?!"

After a few minutes of explanation, Rex and Weevil had a firm grip on the situation. And with an insidious smirk on his face, Weevil placed his arms over his chest. "I see…So there are others here then…"

"Aw man and I was hoping all this mumbo jumbo crap was over with," Rex sighed slapping his forehead. His mind was currently filled with memories of a certain green seal that seemed to have a similar effect on people, just the thought of that time sent shivers up Rex's spine.

"…hmmm…" Leo's eyes were fixated at the forest behind the two professors…they couldn't have been what he had sensed before. It was familiar, almost like the time he had faced against Renji, similar, yet different….

…and yet it still called him… "…you guys…"

"Huh?" Rena questioned raising an eyebrow at the noble duelist. "Leo?"

"…perhaps if the two professors are here," Leo stated with a smile on his face. "Then there's a good chance that other students and professors are out here…"

"Well, you two are the only ones we've seen so far," Rex commented. "Although…I could've sworn I saw another student…an Obelisk Blue girl…"

"Rex, Rex, Rex, you need to control your hormones once in a while…" Weevil snickered placing his hands on his hips. "Now you're starting to see imaginary girls…heh…"

"Weevil, knock it off, it's not the time," Rex growled, lowering his head to hide his blush.

"…I'm surprised that Alan made you guys into teachers," Rena commented with a sweat droplet rolling down the side of her head.

Crossing his arms, Leo moved his eyes towards the trees once more. '_…there it is again…_' A bright smile appeared on his face as Leo turned towards the three red dressed people. "…as much as I would like to discuss the finer points of Alan's decisions, we're kinda on a schedule…"

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Meanwhile…

"Damn…d-damn it…why is there always stairs?" Luke huffed, doubled over trying to catch his breath.

When Ganryu and Luke had entered from the hall, they found several flights of stairs that spiraled all the way into a darkness that was too far for the human eye to see the ceiling. And since it looked like there wasn't an elevator…

"…Why are you complaining?" Ganryu growled shaking his head at the tired out monk duelist. "You're the one who wanted to come in here instead of me…"

"Shut…up…" Luke panted standing up. He was used to rigorous training before, but stairs were never something that he was never a fan of. "Ugh…how much longer do these stairs go?"

"Why are you asking me?" Ganryu retorted turning away from the monk duelist. "If you're curious, ask the stairs themselves…I'm getting that damn rock…"

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

_With this island engulfed in the twilight, I have to wonder to myself…why this island would be transported into this weird realm. What purpose did it serve? And although beautiful, my soul cries out. Will I ever see the sun? Should my eyes never again know the joy of being graced with the moon's awe inspiring light?_

_As I sit on this Generator, basking myself in the weird light, I notice the colors of the trees, seeing them billow in the graceful breeze. This strange world may give me the chills down my spine…but I have to admit that it is a wondrous wor…_

Lifting the purple quill pen, the purple haired writer had his eyes trailing towards the forest, noticing a few crows flying from the forest, diving onto the large satellite part of the generator. With a smile, the Artist formally known as Morty looked at all three of the crows, all three of them made of clay. "Ah…if all three of you are here, then that means…"

Standing up on the large device, Morty placed his quill pen on the edge of the generator, crossing his arms. "…oh joy, more people to enjoy my company."

A few minutes later…

Walking from the forest, Rena couldn't help but have a question mark appear over her head as she looked at the generator. "Uh, Leo…how exactly are we going to shut this down?"

"Hmm…I didn't really think that far," Leo admitted with a fancy smile on his face.

With three loud crashes to the ground, Leo smirked a little more deviously at Rena, Weevil and Rex who all had crashed face first into the ground. Lifting her head up, Rena rolled her eyes at Leo's smirk. "…I should've known better…"

"Too true…" Leo chuckled turning towards the generator. "So, we'll just have to get creative…"

"How to shut down the Twilight Generator?" Leaping from behind the satellite part of the generator, the artistic duelist landed on the ground before the four member of the academy, his purple porcupine styled hair moving in front of his face.

"Whoa…anyone got a guess to what this guy's favorite color is?" Rex commented eyeing the purple obsessed teen's attire.

After dangling a purple rose in his hands, the Artist formally known as Morty tossed the rose into the ground at the four duelists' feet. "Hmm…I would have to guess that my favorite color would have to be…yellow!"

"Y-Yellow?" Weevil stuttered scanning Morty up and down a few times. "Shouldn't it be purple?"

"Hmm…well, I was actually thinking about changing my main color," Morty admitted pulling his hair a few times. "Of course, it'll take a while to get my purple hair to yellow, but…it's a pain to let go of my original hair color…"

"Man…if it's not just the weird personalities," Rex growled slapping his forehead. "It's the weird hair…"

"Heh, purple's rather weird," Weevil chuckled pushing up his glasses. "What a freak…"

Rena's eyes rolled slightly, "…you two shouldn't be talking..."

"Now then," Morty smiled almost like Leo, clapping his hands together to show that he had a duel disk. "If I'm correct, you four are here to shut down this generator…right?"

"Quite so," Leo smiled back.

Even though the two were smiling, there was a chilling aura that had erupted through the air between the two smiling duelists. Rena, Rex and Weevil shivered from the tension in the air.

"Rena?"

"AH!" Rena jumped slightly from the call of her name.

Leo didn't look at Rena, rather he kept his gaze at Morty, and a smile kept on his face. "…sorry to trouble you…but can you and professors continue to the next generator? I'd like to handle our purple induced friend here alone…"

"Uh…which way was it again?" Rena asked with a question mark appearing over her head.

"Oh, it's that way," Morty answered lifting his arm up towards the forest behind the current Generator. "Just keep going straight and I'm sure that you'll find it…"

"Oh, and we're supposed to trust you?" Rex interjected crossing his arms.

"Oh please Mr. Raptor," Morty sighed tapping his foot to the ground a few times. "While it may be true that I'm a part of an evil organization, that does not cancel my own moral values…And I make it a personal goal not to deceive anyone, friend or foe…"

"Uh, how do you know my name?" Rex asked blinking a few times.

"I have my ways," Morty replied reaching into his pocket to pull out a few blue backed cards. Flipping through the cards a few times, Morty held up two cards that had both Rex and Weevil's pictures on them. "…like the duelist trading cards! You two are a common sight in the packs…"

"Ugh, even in card form we're at the bottom of the barrel," Weevil groaned.

"Not that this isn't a stirring conversation," Leo interrupted lifting the arm that was armed with his duel disk towards the area that Morty had gestured towards a few minutes ago. "But Mr. Violet here is correct…as he called them the next 'Twilight Generator' is in that direction…"

That when Morty…er, the Artist Formally known as Morty, made another purple rose appear in his fingers. And with a toss behind him, the rose pierced the dirt behind the Artist formally known as Morty. "…and even if you have to worry about the other cloaked people…don't. Thanks to that disturbance at the cloak tower, all available Yokai members were called to aid in eliminating the annoyance as it's called…"

"Yokai?" Rena questioned.

After a little more explanation, Rena, along with Rex and Weevil had left to get to the next generator. Leaving Leo and Morty to stand across from each other, and making a third rose appear in his hands, Morty lifted the flower to his nose. "Not to sound rude…but about time they left."

"I can see that you know how this is going to turn out as well," Leo replied crossing his arms while keeping his smile on his face.

"Too true…" Morty spun the rose in his fingers to the side, making it disappear in the same speed as Leo was capable of. "…anyway, the chances of this escalating are staggering, and getting others involved…well, let's just say, I'd rather not have my conscious even heavier than it is now…"

"…then why exactly are you doing this then?" Leo commented rubbing his chin.

"Ah…well, isn't that the million dollar question?" Morty sighed shaking his hair. "As much as I would like to quit, I have my reasons…I'll assume you probably never heard what happened here a few months ago with that weird blood red moon…"

"…actually…" Leo remembered his duel with Renji during that time…whatever happened to him? But rather than dwelling on that question, Leo was able to keep his promise to Renji, keeping Kimatori safe…he could only hope that during this time, that she was safe with Rukia. "…I remember dueling that night. Perhaps, you would know him, his name was Renji…"

"I knew that there was something else to you…" Morty chuckled with a smile that matched Leo's. "You are correct, Renji told me that he had chosen an Obelisk Blue…although, and I didn't think he would lose. No offense or anything."

"None taken," Leo replied.

"Thank you," Morty sighed with relief brushing a cold sweat droplet from the side of his head. "Back to the matter at hand, I realized when I was with Dias, I considered my fellow duelists, as my friends. And well…"

"…I'm willing to guess that a few of them joined up in whatever's causing this," Leo interrupted raising his hand up to get Morty's attention. "And you probably thought that you had to keep them out of trouble…correct?"

"Precisely," Morty congratulated wagging his finger. "A stupid reason I realize…but that's how I roll…"

"Hmm…not at all," Leo commented lifting his duel disk. "I can relate in fact…although, my friend slapped me for doing something stupid to make up for her…"

"Marvelous!" Morty announced clapping his hands together, that's when it hit him, making the Artist formally known as Morty to slap his forehead. "Oh! I just realize! We never got to introduce ourselves!"

"Quite true," Leo snickered shaking his head. "Leonardo Childsman…but, I prefer Leo for short."

"Ah, like the constellation?" Morty questioned with a large smirk appearing on his face.

"…never really thought about it like that…" Leo admitted rubbing his chin.

Pumping his arm in the air, Morty smirked loudly. "Ah well, at least you've got an interesting name. All I've got is the Artist Formally known as Morty…hard to put that on a name tag."

"Sorry I can't relate," Leo chuckled lifting up his dueling deck of cards. "But now then…shall we?"

"Very well," Morty sighed lifting up his (of course) purple duel disk, showing the deck was already in the deck holster. "I had hoped that you'd say that…"

Uncrossing his arms, Leo lifted up the five cards he had drawn from his duel disk. "What can I say? I try my best to get people to have a decent opinion about me." (LLP: 8000)

"You shouldn't worry about how people see you," Morty advised tugging on the top sixth card from his deck with a spin in his fingers. "It'll turn your hair gray…" (MLP: 8000)

"Heh, personally, I think I'd look more mature with gray hair," Leo admitted pulling a small amount of his hair, his hair had grown since the beginning of the year, he'd have to get a trim when he got back home…wait, that wasn't the time to think about this! "Ahem, how'd you know that we were coming if you don't mind me asking? You see, I try to get the surprise of everyone…"

Placing one of the six cards onto his duel disk, Morty smiled as the card crawled out from under the ground. "Oh, that? Well, if you like to surprise people, I'd like to have a few surprises for my own. Like this face down monster and my turn ends…"

"Hmm…well, if that's the case, then I'll have my own surprise," Leo replied lifting one card up, allowing two fancy silver swords to rain down on both sides of Leo. "I activate the spell card, Cost Down! By discarding my Airknight Troubadour from my hand, I can lower the level of monsters in my hand by two."

Leo threw his card of choice in front of him, causing a powerful explosion of feathers forming into a large blue and golden angelic knight, with the legs of that of a horse raising a sword into the air (1900/1400). "So Airknight Parshath comes to the field without any trouble!"

"Oh, that is a surprise," Morty chuckled tapping his foot on the ground a few times, before kicking up a small rock that bounced on the ground a few times. "A high level monster on the first turn…bravo…"

"And just wait," Leo stated with the Airknight Parshath running forward. "Here comes another surprise, my Airknight's attack!"

Galloping on the hard ground, the Airknight Parshath charged forward, stabbing the powerful sword into the face down monster, making it flip up into a broken clay crow that cawed loudly (300/200) before shattering into several clay fragments. "And thanks to Parshath's effect," Leo smiled throwing his fist up into the air. "You take piercing damage…and I draw one card…"

Just as Leo was about to place his hand on the top card of his deck, a loud buzzing sound caused him to pull his hand back, empty, his smile now transformed into a confused curl on his face. "Huh?"

"I've still got a few more surprises up my sleeve!" Morty snickered snapping his deck out of his duel disk, lifting the cards up before fanning them in front of his face. "That monster you just killed was one of them, known as Clay Tengu. And like a few more surprises you'll be seeing, he negates all damage to both players." (MLP: 8000)

Then pulling a card up, Morty flipped the card around showing a clay samurai being placed into his hand. "And when my crow shatters on the floor, I can take a clay monster from my deck…"

"Clay?" Leo muttered to himself lifting his hand up to his mouth.

"That's right, and thanks to my little crow," Morty fanned himself with the six cards he now held. "I've got double the options you have currently…"

"…then I'll have to lower that a little bit more," Leo sighed with a card materializing behind the Airknight. "That's that."

With a fancy snap, Morty held the seventh card up into the air before he rubbed his chin. "I have to admit…that monster is a wondrous work of art!"

"You…you kinda lost me," Leo admitted rubbing the back of his head with a question mark appearing over his head…still with a smile on his face.

"What I mean is, you've got an angelic monster right there!" Morty squeaked clapping his hands together, his eyes flaring like stars into the air. "The colors on the armor…those graceful wings…and that glimmering sword…it's an artist's grace!"

"I suppose that's why you're called the Artist Formally Known as Morty," Leo chuckled crossing his arms.

"That's right!" Morty announced throwing his card onto his duel disk, making the ground turn into shifting sand. The sand began to build up into a skinny samurai whose skin and armor was made entirely out of clay, lifting up a pair of jagged daggers in each of his hands. The monster's face was as stiff as a mask, a look of indifference etched into it (1000/0). "And here's one of my favorite artworks, rise up Clay Assassin!"

"Another Clay? I'm starting to see a trend here," Leo muttered with a smirk appearing on his face.

"Heh…how very perceptive," Tapping the side of his nose, Morty lifted up the rest of his six card hand. "What you're seeing is a tribute of the Clay Empire, only in card form."

"Hundreds upon hundreds of years ago, before the story of history was written down there was an emperor of an ancient dynasty whose name was lost to the sands of time. The people of the dynasty were happy with how the emperor ran their empire, their country was at peace and trade was good…"

"…but nothing's perfect in our imperfect world, the emperor was young and reckless…in fact, if it wasn't thanks to his advisors, he would've just gone to war with any of the other nearby nations just to get some excitement in his life."

"Day in and day out, he would be stuck in the same rut over and over again. He couldn't take it anymore! So, as an imperial order to his people, the emperor commended that an artist would make the empire more exciting looking…"

Throwing his hand to the side, Morty lifted his duel disk arm up. "But the rest is for later! Right now we've got the duel to think of! Clay Assassin! Attack the angel!"

Like sand blurring in the wind, the Clay Assassin flew directly in front of the Airknight, its two daggers ready to stab directly into the angel's chest. But in a blur, the Airknight sliced the assassin in two thanks to the glowing blade. "I don't know what you're up to…but my Airknight isn't going anywhere with a monster with that kind of attack…"

Morty flicked some of his hair out of his line of sight, slowly lifting his eyelids to have a suave look float towards the noble duelist. "Are you sure? You should take another look at your artistic monster…"

Trailing his eyes over, Leo's eyes widened at the sight of the two crooked daggers plunged into the Airknight's chest before he fell forward into the ground, shattering into millions of feathers. And yet, Leo's face was still wearing the smile. "…I take it your assassin has the ability to destroy whatever monster it battles correct?"

"Hmm…you're much calmer than I thought you'd be," Morty admitted blinking a few times.

"Well, if you noticed, I've still got my feathers here," Leo stated snapping his fingers over the face down card, making it flip up to show a small angelic girl shattering into millions of feathers. "And to be more specific, they're the Sol Feathers! And when an Airknight is destroyed as a result of battle I can pick up the top card of my deck…"

Flipping the top card up, more feathers began tot rain down from the sky, allowing a young, cute, blonde haired angelic girl wearing a light pink robe to hover over the ground, a bow in her hands that she aimed towards Morty (500/1500). "And if that card is a monster, I can summon it immediately, and my Airknight Archer was able to come on out."

"Angels? Hah, that's ironic," Morty muttered lifting a card up from his hand fitting it into his duel disk.

"How do you figure that?" Leo asked looking around, the ground shattering into sand that blew in the breeze. And yet, the trees and Generator didn't seem affected by the sand.

"…when I tell more of the story, you'll find out," Morty answered pulling his deck out, fanning the many cards in front of his face, immediately snapping one up. "Anyway, since you special summoned a monster, I can activate the spell card, Demise of the Land! Since you special summoned a monster, now my real masterpiece will grace your sights!"

Holding his hand out, Morty's fingers snapped, the loud sound erupting through the air before the sand at the two duelists' feet erupted upwards like a geyser into the air. The sand twisted and turned, melding around the two. The nearby trees being sucked into the sand while the Twilight Generator stood untouched.

Soon the sand had solidified into an amazingly monumental Edo-styled castle around Leo and Morty, many clay samurai statues building themselves up, lifting up hundreds of different weapons that gleamed into the light. "So tell me…what do you think about the Clay Masterpiece Castle, Leo?"

"My, it has a certain charm to it…" Leo admitted kneeling down to put his hand into the sand, slightly surprised that he was able to grab the sand, allowing it to fall from his fingers like water flowing downwards. "…I wonder what surprises you've got in this place…"

"Patient is a virtue," Morty chuckled fitting a card into his duel disk, making the sand pouring off of the card as it lifted from under the ground. "…too bad I've already summoned this turn, so I'll set one card face down, and turn it over to you…"

Snapping the top card from his deck, Leo's eyes moved left and right, looking at the walls of sand around him. '_…this structure is impressive…but what secrets does this castle hold?'_

"Only one way to find out!" Several feathers flew from the sandy ground, forming into the Airknight Lancer, spinning the silver lance in her hands above her head (1700/1200). "Airknight Lancer and Archer! Attack Morty directly!"

The Airknight Lancer flew forward, the lance pulled back ready to slice right through Morty when all of a sudden a large wall of sand erupted in front of the artistic duelist, making the angle fly backwards slightly. "Huh?"

"Behold! A tribute to an awesome anime!" Morty laughed as the sand around him began to form into a large castle, blocking Leo's sight of the artistic duelist. "Nah, I'm just kidding, I activate the trap card, Fortress of Sand!"

"Fortress of Sand? That's a card I didn't hear about…" Leo muttered as his two female angels floated to his sides.

"Well, I'm not surprised about that," Morty shouted from behind the sand castle. "It's an old card that people don't really think about using. You see when my trap is activated; it gains three thousand life points. And if you attack me directly the life points get drained from the card instead…"

"Then I'll just have to drain them!" Leo announced throwing his hand up towards the castle with the Airknight Archer pulling back on an arrow out of pure light on the bow. "Airknight Archer! Attack!"

Unleashing the arrow, the Airknight's attack pierced through the sand, blowing some of the sand into the Clay Masterpiece Castle around it, showing some of Morty's violet hair. "Continue to take down that castle, Airknight Lancer!"

With a quick slice, the Angelic lancer caused the side of the castle to reveal Morty standing waving towards Leo with a smile on his face. "Hello there! Nice job taking down more than half of my castle!" (MLP: 8000) (CoSLP: 800)

A set card appeared underneath the two angels, allowing Leo to cross his arms over his chest in silence. "Your castle isn't the only thing that I need to take down…you and the Twilight Generator shall be no more…"

"Aw, that's a big promise there," Morty chuckled pulling a card up in front of him. "You think you can back that up?"

"…honestly, I don't know," Leo admitted placing his hand on his face, allowing his eyes to peer through the fingers. "But, for my friends…well, I'll be willing to try…"

"Hmm…I wonder…" Morty began rubbing his chin with a devious smile appearing on his face. "When I dueled for Dias, I had to face a young man who was smitten with a girl that was with him…and this duel is turning somewhat like that, albeit save for the kidnapping part to get him to duel, but it makes me think still…"

"...is she your girlfriend?"

That got Leo a little surprised…only to have the noble duelist rub his chin to himself. "Hmm…an interesting concept, Rena and I dating? Sorry, but she and I are just friends."

"Oh sure that's what the last guy said," Morty chuckled holding up the next card up in his fingers. "I activate the spell card, Sculptor of the Clay!"

Two piles of sand began to build up, forming into the Clay Tengu (300/200) crouching close to the ground. "You see…this spell has a tale behind it…remember when I was talking about that emperor of that great nation? Well, he had another reason for seeking several artists to liven up the land.

"The young emperor had fallen in love with a young dancing girl he saw on the streets. He wanted her to love him as he had fallen in love with her. The emperor could've ordered her to become his bride, but although he was young he knew that he had to gain the lovely dancer's love.

"So, finally after many artists, the emperor found himself a clay sculptor that would erect statues all over the country, all of them as a tribute to the dancer's beauty, hoping to acquire her love…"

"This spell represents the clay sculptor, and due to its effect, if you have monsters out and I don't, I can special summon one level four or lower Clay monster from my graveyard. And Clay Tengu is a perfect example."

"And let me guess…you're planning on performing a sacrifice?" Leo asked before the Clay Tengu shattered into several feathers and clay shards.

"Bingo!" Morty laughed tossing a card onto his duel disk, allowing the sand to build up immediately into the air. Slowly the sand began to meld into a larger clay samurai, this one with a spiked helm and two fans in each of its hands. When the clay samurai landed on the ground, several grains of sand flew into the air around it (2300/2300 + 100/100). "And the monster I call upon is the Clay General of Flames! And in case you're wondering, the general gained one hundred attack points thanks to the Castle. Every time a clay monster is destroyed or sent to the graveyard, my castle gains a counter, and for every counter, all clay monsters gain one hundred attack and defense points!"

"That's not a bad field card…" Leo muttered rubbing his chin slightly. "Too bad your clay monster can't inflict damage…"

"Oh, now that's just the soldiers," Morty pointed out wagging a finger towards Leo. "My General's a different story! He just protects me from damage!"

"If that's the case," Leo stated crossing his arms. "Then it's still your move."

"Hmm…you seem pretty confident…" Morty chuckled throwing his hand up towards his Clay General who began to wave the two fans in his hands. "So we'll have to test that confidence! Clay General of Flames, show his Airknight Archer why you've got your title!"

Placing the fans in front of his torso, the Clay General summoned a powerful burst of flames that flew towards the surprised Airknight Archer, burning her until all that was left were several singed feathers. (LLP: 6100)

"I bet you wish you had a shield," Morty chuckled as the Clay General raised both of the fans at his masked face.

"Who says I didn't?" Leo questioned snapping his fingers over his face down, causing it flip face up to form into several talismans that flew over the air, wrapping around the Clay General of Flames. "I activate the trap card, Last Gift!"

Morty's eyes widened as the many talismans slapped onto the Clay General's body, and in the blink of an eye, the Clay General shattered into several clay shards. "My trap card can only be activated when a Light Fairy type monster is destroyed as a result of battle. It destroys the monster that did the destruction, and then I can special summon a monster with a level less than the destroyed Fairy type monster from my deck…"

Several feathers erupted from the ground, flying up until they began to form into a crouching Airknight Librarian (550/1700), lifting the book to her face as a blush crept to her face stealing a glace at Leo.

And yet, Morty couldn't help but smirk back with his eyes closed. "Oh my…looks like you're quite the lady killer…all I've seen are lovely ladies on your side of the field, and all I've got…" Slowly more sand began to form up in front of the Clay Artist duelist, building up into two smaller versions of the Clay General of Flames, only with spears instead of fans (1500/1500 + 200/200 x2). "…are my two Clay Grunt Tokens! And I'm going to use one of them! Charge the lancer!"

Before Leo could react, the Clay Grunt charged towards the Airknight Lancer, and stabbing at the angelic warrior, missing. Then with a powerful slam of the lance's blade, the Airknight Lancer smirked…

BOOM!

The Clay Grunt token had exploded into a large hell fire that engulfed the Airknight Lancer, shattering her. And with another clay monster destroyed, the remaining Clay Grunt began to grow (1700/1700 + 100/100) thanks to the Clay Masterpiece Castle. "It's the best of both worlds, your monster went down, and I've got a stronger monster…"

"And I get another monster myself," Leo announced fanning out his deck. "Since my Airknight Lancer was destroyed in battle, I can special summon another Airknight to take her place, as long as the monster that takes her place has fifteen hundred attack points or less…"

Tossing the card, a bright light exploded over the field, forming into the large shield wielding Airknight Shield (1000/1500). "And this guy counts!"

"Hmm…if that's what you're going for," Morty stated as the second Clay Grunt slammed its spear into the sandy ground, skidding its feet forward. "Then I'll have my second Clay Grunt attack…of course, I too have a soft spot for the ladies so Mr. Shield, sorry to do this, but you'll have to go!"

Blinking in confusion, the Airknight Shield yelped loudly as the spear stabbed through the shield, directly into the angel's heart. "Too bad it was in defense mode…anyway, I'll set one card face down."

'…_damn…its like he's go a perfect tempo to his dueling strategy, its offense and defense capabilities are impressive even though it looks like most of his monsters can't inflict damage. _' Leo raised an eyebrow as he drew his next card. '_…but, that doesn't mean it doesn't have its flaws…and thank to what he just said…_'

"Airknight Librarian, I'm moving you to attack mode." The book smart Airknight looked up from her book with a loud gasp, in response, Leo just nodded towards her. That nod held the courage to make the Airknight Librarian to stand up to attack mode.

"Hmm, if you're going to treat girls like this," Morty muttered shaking his head, his eyes slinking towards the Clay Grunt token. "Then I can see how you and that girl in red couldn't be an item…"

"Still going on with that?" Leo asked turning a card around in his hand. "As I've said, Rena and I are just friends, just like the bond between me and my Airknight Librarian. There's a trust between us and this next card proves it!" The holographic card appeared in front of Leo, making the Librarian to blush wildly at the picture, showing a handsome dark haired man hugging a young girl in his arms. "Kindness of the Seraph activates, so we both select one face up monster on each of our fields…and since we've only got one each…"

A powerful white aura wrapped around both of the two monsters on the field, making the Airknight Librarian to smile brightly (1800/1700) while making the Clay Grunt take a knee in pain…even though its face was devoid of emotion (550/1800). "Our monsters' attack points switch!"

"Huh!?" Morty was genuinely surprised with that last move.

"And now…" Leo smiled bright snapping his finger towards his more confident Airknight Librarian. "Its time we fought back! Airknight Librarian! Attack with Pages of the Seraph!"

Throwing the book into the air, the Airknight Librarian began to chant before many of the pages flew from the book, slicing right through the Clay Grunt's body. (MLP: 6750)

"I'm amazed," Morty admitted as the book fell back into the smiling Airknight's hands. "…How'd you know that my tokens didn't hold the same ability to negate damage? Not a lot of people can guess that on the first try…"

"You slipped up," Leo answered raising his hand up to his Airknight. "Or it was more of a slip of the tongue really; you said that it was too bad that my Airknight Shield was in defense mode. If your tokens held the same ability to negate damage, then it wouldn't have mattered which mode my monsters were in…"

"I guess you're not in blue for nothing," Morty chuckled placing a hand to his chin. "So I'll applaud you on that deductive ability."

"Too kind," Leo bowed down getting a weird look from his Airknight Librarian.

"Heh…too bad that you can't really accept your own feelings," Morty sighed looking at his newly drawn card.

"Pardon me?" Leo asked his eyebrow cocked up at Morty.

"…and thus, the clay sculptor had commissioned to create the statues for the country," Morty continued on with his story, ignoring Leo's question. "Day in, and day out the sculptor created beautiful clay statues in the shape of dragons, turtles, tigers, birds and almost any beautiful animal that was ever seen by the eyes of man…"

"I'm pretty sure no one has seen an actual dragon before," Leo pointed out rubbing the side of his head, trying to keep up his smile.

Morty continued flipping the newly drawn card around, showing the Pot of Greed spell card. And with a snap of his two new cards, Morty sighed. "…but inside the sculptor's soul was nothing but an empty shell…sure he was being compensated for his work, but with no real purpose…an artist might as well care less…"

"…but that all changed when a certain girl entered into his life…a certain dancer that he met in the streets. When his eyes met hers, he sculpted her beauty into one of his creations…" The sand began to build up once more, this time melding into a beautiful woman made entirely out of clay, a beautiful pink kimono around her voluptuous body (800/0 +400/400). "Known as the Clay Maiden, he had won the heart of the beautiful dancing girl…Clay Maiden! I know I don't normally say this, but could you please attack?"

Slowly spinning around, the Clay Maiden began to dance towards the surprised Airknight Librarian (550/1700), immediately slapping the bookworm Airknight to the ground. With a sniffle, the Airknight Librarian disappeared into an orb of light. "And unfortunately, as I hate to see her go, my Airknight allows us both to draw two cards from our decks."

"Generosity is hard to find now-a-days," Morty sighed as both duelists pulled off the top two cards of their respective decks. "Although, I find it a little sad that we had to see the lovely young lady disappear…"

"…if you don't mind me asking," Leo interjected raising his hand up. "What were you talking about accepting my feelings?"

"Oh, well, I was asked that question a few times," Morty smirked with his arms crossed over his chest. "And I usually counter it with the phrase…I am an artist, and you know how eccentric we tend to be…but I feel you deserve a more proper answer Mr. Childsman…"

Flicking some hair out of his eyes, Morty slipped another card into his duel disk, making it appear on the opposite side of his ruined Fortress of Sand. "…if you would recall your duel with Renji, I don't suppose you noticed a weird belt around his waist…"

"Actually, it was the first thing I noticed about him," Leo answered thinking back to his and Renji's duel; the belt seemed to have some unique effect on the Mercenary Duelist.

"…I can see that you're perceptive," Morty complimented tapping his forehead a few times. "Well, when Dias was selecting his team of duelists, he didn't do it randomly. All six of us had unique abilities that had something to do with the shadows, rather it was the ability to control the shadows themselves like Antonio and Black Tiger…er, De Masque, I mean. Or they had strength to control a shadow artifact to their full potential, like Renji or Xander, of course, everyone was able to wield one, but they were exceptional."

"And then there were the few that had unique talents to begin with, like Saika and me. You see, Saika was some kinda of ninja or something like that; I didn't really pay attention since she was with us for only like two weeks…but me! Oh, I had the ability that far outweighed her skills."

"I have the unique ability to detect a person's nervousness and tension. From there, I can piece together a person's source of tension. Rather its when their lying, or as I find more entertaining, when they try to deny their feelings for another…"

"But! I've rambled on long enough for this turn…please go on with yours."

Leo stopped for a second, although he still didn't consider it…was there a chance that he had some feelings for Rena that extended past of friendship? The reasoning behind Leo's choice to join the academy could've been the cause…

…since the incident involving the Kazin family, Leo became someone who didn't really want to meet new people (even if he didn't remember what exactly what had happened). But when he had heard of an academy for the United States, Leo had grown up, deciding to meet new people…

And as if some twist of fate, the first person to actually greet him, not as a student but as a duelist was Rena.

'_W-What am I thinking?_' Leo thought shaking his head. Rena was a friend! Besides, Leo had other things to worry about at the moment. "…Playing mind games won't help Morty! I activate Graceful Charity!"

Floating down from the sky, a beautiful angel lofted down in front of Leo, pulling three cards from the top of Leo's deck. As soon as she handed them to Leo, the Angelic Duelist looked over the cards, the angel placing a hand on her hip. "Oh, of course, I need to give you two cards, not a problem."

Lifting two monster cards, to the young angel, Leo nodded as the angel disappeared, only for him to raise another card from his hand. "And with my hand replenished, I use the ritual spell card, Machine Angel Ritual! By sending my level seven Grand Airknight –Third Class to my graveyard I can summon a Cyber Angel from my hand!"

As Leo fitted the card into his graveyard, a powerful surge of energy began to course through the Clay Masterpiece Castle, turning the entire clay castle into pure steel. Morty took a stand back at the sight of the natural castle turning into pure steal. "…normally I'm all for constructive criticism when it comes to my art…but this is too much!"

"Don't worry, I prefer not to keep it like this," Leo stated slapping his next card onto his duel disk. "Especially since I'm special summoning Cyber Angel Idaten!"

Light reflected from the steal covered sand, concentrating on a single point in front of Leo. Brighter and brighter the concentrated light began geyser upwards, focusing into the young muscular Cyber Angel, her muscles pumping as she slammed her feet into the ground (1600/2000). A powerful blue aura appeared around the young angel, allowing a soft blue light to pop from Leo's graveyard. "And thanks to my lovely angel's effect, I can add one spell card from my graveyard to my hand…and I'm thinking of getting Graceful Charity!"

Once again, the young angel floated down in front of Leo, pulling three cards from the top of his deck, giving them into his hand. And without delay, Leo handed the young angel another pair of cards, allowing her to slip into the graveyard slot. "And now, Cyber Angel Idaten! Attack the Clay Maiden!"

Flinging herself into the air, the rough Angel slammed her foot directly into the Clay Maiden's torso, shattering the clay monster with a glass like crash echoing through the clay halls of the Clay Masterpiece Castle. However, Morty just smirked as he fitted the Clay Maiden card into his graveyard. "Unfortunately, my Clay Maiden negates the damage if you remember."

"Of course," Leo replied as his Cyber Angel landed back in front of him, crossing her arms.

"And with my maiden's demise, you have just started a chain reaction," Morty announced as his face down card flipped upwards showing hundreds of Clay Soldiers charged towards a large golden dragon. "First, I activate my Calling an Army trap card, so I can special summon a level six or lower clay monster from my deck…"

Lightning struck from the top of Clay Masterpiece Castle, crashing in front of Morty to cause a large amount of clay to fly up into the air, being pulled into the electricity. "…and what better than the Clay General of Thunder!" The clay fell to the ground, revealing a large clay soldier colored with a black paint. Unlike other clay soldiers, this one had six thin arms that each held onto a chained theme weapon. Its yellow mask on its clay face was etched with a look of anger (2200/2200 + 500/500).

That's when two more piles of sand began to shift upwards, forming into the two large piles that solidified into two more Clay Maidens (500/500 + 500/500 x2). "And let's not forget about my Clay Maiden's ability as well! Now thanks to it, I can special summon two Clay Maiden Tokens to my field in defense mode."

"You seem to have all your bases covered," Leo replied shaking his head. "…turn end…"

"Ending your turn?" Morty questioned lifting another card from his deck. '_…most excellent…_' One of the Clay Maiden tokens shattered into several broken shards of clay that were immediately engulfed into several spikes of ice. "I sacrifice one of my Clay Maiden Tokens to summon Clay General of Ice!"

The ice exploded into a small clay soldier with multiple spikes emerging from his shoulders, shins and in his hands were two crystal daggers that spun in his clay fingers. And is face was covered with a look of envy on the yellow clay mask (1900/1900 + 500/500). "And if you think he's impressive, just wait! I activate the spell card Double Summon!"

A large mountain of sand erupted around the remaining Clay Maiden, engulfing her completely. Slowly the sand began to twist and turn, shifting into a large bulky clay soldier with large dark brown clay armor draped over its body. Armed on its back were multiple lances and pikes each with a black flag tied to them. Its yellow mask on its clay face has a look of laughter etched into it (2100/2100 + 500/500). "…my spell makes it so I can summon again this turn, so I'm able to tribute my other maiden to summon the Clay General of Mountain! And since it's odd not to have the full set…I activate my trap card, Call of the Haunted!"

The sand exploded upwards, forming into the first Clay General, the Clay General of Flames (2300/2300 + 500/500) rose from the ground with his fans spinning in his hands. "And now my army of all four generals has finally arrived!"

"…which brings me back to my story, when the clay sculptor created the Clay Maiden statue, the dancer had fallen in love with him. In fact, the two were planning to elope in their love…"

"But as you can imagine, the emperor didn't take too kindly to that news…Hence he commanded all four of his most trusted generals to apprehend this artist under the ruse of high treason. When the clay sculptor was pulled away from his lover, he vowed that if his life was taken, the country would fall…"

"…of course he was considered crazy, and was put to death. Time slowly passed since the artist was killed…and disappearances began to erupt over the country, plaguing its citizens with the mystery. Even all four of the generals went missing…"

"And what you're seeing is the result of all four of them!"

Leo's eyes widened as he turned his head towards all four of the Clay Generals. "…their bodies were absorbed into the clay?"

"Actually, to be more specific," Morty thought out loud to himself rubbing his chin. "Their souls were trapped into the clay bodies, making them capture more and more of the citizens to suffer at the same fate they had…And you're going to face the same fate as your fellow students! Clay General of Ice! Attack Idaten!"

Leaping into the air, the icy Clay General spun in the air, sending hundreds and hundreds of ice daggers into the air, all of them streaming into the surprised Cyber Angel's body. With a loud scream, the Cyber Angel shattered into several shards. (LLP: 5900)

Just as the Clay General of Ice landed on the ground, the Icy General stepped back to allow the other three to step forward, lifting their weapons into the air. "And now! Clay Generals of Flame, Thunder and Mountain! Attack him directly!"

Leo lifted his arms up as a large burst of sand erupted from the ground, a powerful explosion of flames and jolt of electricity surged through his body. Creating a powerful eruption of energy and sand around the angelic duelist, making him yell in pain before the sand wrapped around the angelic duelist.

With a shake of his head, Morty and his four Clay Generals lowered their heads in respect. "I apologize, Leo…but this was for the beauty of Twilight…"

…

"…and I hate to disappoint you…but I rather not disappoint my friends…"

Morty's eyes widened as the sand fell down, showing that Leo's body was covered in cuts, burns and his hair was slightly static…but he was still standing with his duel disk up. (LLP: 3875)

"Whoa…points for dramatic flare," Morty whistled getting a look from all four of his Clay Generals. "What? Oh, I guess I'm supposed to ask, how in the world did you survive?"

"Remember my Airknight Shield?" Leo gasped holding up two cards, he was still a little weak from his duel with Kazin previously, and with those direct attacks, he was barely able to keep his balance. "W-Well, thanks to my Airknight Shield, by removing it from play, I can cut all damage in half for one turn…but since I removed two of them from play, the damage was cut four times…"

"But when did you get a second one in the graveyard?" Morty asked with a question mark appearing over his head, only to have it shatter when the answer dawned upon him. "Wait! It got in there during one of the times you played Graceful Charity!"

"R-Right," Leo smiled as he snapped off the next card. Looking at the card out of the corner of his eye, the noble duelist took a deep breath and straightened his legs with a loud sigh. "…Morty…I can understand where you're coming from, when you want to help protect your friends…"

"Thank you," Morty took a bow towards his opponent, as did all four of his generals.

"…heck, if I was in your position, I'd probably do the same," Leo chuckled looking at the four cards he held in his hand. "But still…joining an evil organization, hurting several people in the process…"

Lifting a card up into the air, a bright light had erupted over the two duelists' heads, making Morty and these four generals lift their hands up into the air to block the light from stinging their eyes. "…that is unforgivable! I activate the spell card Angelic Choir! By removing Cyber Angel Idaten, Grand Airknight – Third Class, and Grand Airknight – Second Class, I can special summon three Airknight Archer Tokens to my side of the field!"

A storm of white feathers rained down from the sky, allowing three angelic Angels to float to the ground, all three of them rising up bows of light (1000/1000 x3). "And since I've got three monsters on the field, I sacrifice all three of them!"

The three Archers shattered into countless feathers that flew into the air, all of them melding together into a young golden haired angelic man with gold and silver armor with a fancy rapier next to his long silver robes. As the angelic man landed on the sandy ground, the angel smiled brightly as if he himself was Leo (3100/2300). "And allow me to introduce the Grand Airknight – First Class in attack mode!"

"Quiet impressive, especially with his artistic style," Morty whistled, still slightly blinded by the light moments ago. "But let's remember the scores here…I've got my army here, and if you plan on destroying anyone of them, they'll only get stronger with the Clay Masterpiece Castle out…"

"Then I'll have to cut your army down to size," Leo announced lifting one of the final two cards in his hand up. "I activate the spell card, Dimension Fusion! By paying two thousand life points, we both can summon as many of out removed from play monster cards! But I noticed that you don't have any removed from play!" (LLP: 1875)

Four large vortexes erupted on both sides of the Grand Airknight – First Class, all of them erupting into the Grand Airknight – Third Class (2400/2100) and Grand Airknight – Second Class (2700/2100), both standing tall with their respective weapons held high. All the while, the remaining two vortexes shattered into the Airknight Shield (1000/1500) and Cyber Angel Idaten (1600/2000), both of them kneeling down with their arms crossed. "And since Idaten was special summon, I can take back a spell card from my graveyard!"

"Urk…" Morty gulped loudly with his four Generals stepped back.

"Grand Airknight – First Class! Attack the Clay General of Flames!" Leo commanded as the celestial monster flew forward, slicing the large clay soldier into several shards. However, due to the general's ability, Morty's life points remained intact all the while, the three other Clay Generals began to grow (2400/2400 + 100/100) (2700/2700 + 100/100) (2600/2600 + 100/100), along with the two Clay Grunt Tokens (1500/1500 + 600/600 x2). "Just what I was hoping for! Grand Airknight – Third Class! Attack the Clay Grunt Token!"

The beautiful young angelic woman flew over towards the first Clay Grunt, slamming the large shield directly into the clay soldier's head, shattering the fragile warrior into many shards that flew back into Morty's body. "URK!!" (MLP: 6450)

Once again all of the clay monsters began to grow thanks to the Clay Masterpiece Castle (2600/2600) (2900/2900) (2800/2800) (2200/2200). "And don't think I'm done! Grand Airknight – Second Class! Take out he second Clay Grunt!"

The short red haired angel flew forward, slamming the blade of his broad sword directly through the smaller Clay Grunt, turning the warrior into pure sand that began to build up into the three remaining Generals (2700/2700) (3000/3000) (2900/2900). (MLP: 5950)

"Turn end…"

Regaining some of his composure, Morty slowly snapped his next card off the top of deck, looking at the Grand Airknight – First Class. "A pretty good defense you've got there Leo…"

Raising his eyebrows slightly, Leo looked towards his Grand Airknight.

"Yes, I know all about your Airknight's protective ability," Morty chuckled as all three of his Clay Generals shattered into several shards that flew into the air. "But…we'll see if the protector can protect himself! The final chapter of my story…you see, before his execution, the Clay Sculptor managed to create one final clay statue with his own hands. A small clay dragon that had absorbed his own very soul…"

"…however, his soul was asleep for a long time, and until he was awoken by the four generals, his soul remained in that state, dreading the emperor…"

The shards began to form together, melding, shifting, transforming until the clay had reformed itself into an extremely large clay dragon with glowing blue eyes and blue wings. At his shoulders and legs are four masks, each of them displaying a different emotion…happiness, rage, sadness, and envy. With a loud roar the dragon slammed its tail into the sandy ground (3400/3400 + 1000/1000), growing stronger and larger thanks to the Clay Masterpiece Castle. "Until finally he became a dragon of his own artwork, claiming to destroy the one who took his life and the love of it…forming into the Clay Dragon – Seiryu!"

That's when four cards flipped out of Morty's graveyard, all four of them the four Clay Generals. "…and thanks to his four loyal servants, his dragon form would only grow stronger! In game terms, by removing as many Clay Generals from the graveyard as possible, my dragon gains four very unique abilities!"

A powerful erupted from behind Morty, showing the Clay General of Flames, raising its hands into the air. "With the General of Flames, when my dragon destroys a monster as a result of battle, he gains four hundred attack and defense points!"

The chilling breeze echoed through the hallowed halls of the Clay Masterpiece Castle, allowing the Clay General of Ice throwing its elbows at the dragon. "…the ice man makes it so you can't chain trap cards to my dragon's attack…"

Lightning struck over the dragon's head, showing the multi-armed Clay General of Thunder's spinning all of the weapons in his hands. "Thunder grants the dragon to negate all monster effects he destroys…"

A mountain of sand erupted into the air, the Clay General of Mountain standing atop of the mountain. "And last but certainly not least, thanks to the General of Mountain, when my dragon destroys a monster, you get a Clay Dragon token…"

"Seiryu! Attack the Grand Airknight – First Class!"

Roaring loudly, Seiryu unleashed a powerful white flame that crashed into the surprised Gran Airknight, eradicating the angel until the only thing left of the angel was a few floating feathers into the wind. (LLP: 575)

"Urk…" Now even Leo was sweating slightly, his smile slowly fading as well as his life points.

"And now, enjoy the gift!" Morty announced as the sand began to wrap around into a small clay dragon statue in front of Leo (500/500 + 1000/1000) as Seiryu roared loudly into the air, its body slowly growing larger (4400/4400 + 400/400). "And don't forget, my dragon becomes stronger itself!"

Taking a knee with his life points lowering, Leo lifted his head up, keeping his smile still on his face. "…m-maybe so…but, your dragon isn't invincible, now is it?"

"Maybe…but let's look shall we?" Morty replied raising his hand up towards all around him. "First there's my Castle, with ten counters, even the weakest monster in my deck can strike a devastating blow…then there's my dragon, who by himself would have over the attack of the famous Blue Eyes White Dragon…and lets not forget about my Fortress of Sand, even though it has eight hundred life points, it'll still protect me if you manage to get past my dragon, and I'll be able to cut right back at ya."

"T-Then…" Leo slowly stood up, his legs weak and his breathing labored, drawing his next card. He wasn't going to fall here; he had so much left to do. "…let's test your theory! Draw!"

The snap of the card drew Leo to crane his head up, keeping his eyes focused to the card. '_…you've come…thank you…_' Spinning the card in his fingers, Leo fitted the card into his hand, pulling a familiar card. "I activate the ritual spell card, Machine Angel Ritual!"

Once more, the entire castle was transformed into a steel version of itself, wrapping around the Clay Dragon and Cyber Angel Idaten…absorbing the two into the light that floated around Leo. "Thanks for the token…because without it, I wouldn't be able to use this!"

The light landed onto the ground, shattering like glass to rise up into a young, six armed, blue skinned woman wearing gold and orange armor that resembled that of a Tantric priestess garbs. In each of the woman's hands was a shinning weapon that seemed to gleam in the twilight (2700/2400) as they spun in the air. "Allow me to introduce…_**Cyber Angel Dakini!**_"

"Hmm…not as good as your other angels, but still creative," Morty muttered rubbing his chin a few times. "So, what's that card in your hand? Brave Attack?"

"Nah, I wouldn't use a card like that," Leo admitted crossing his arms. "I respect my angels more than that…besides, I'm willing to bet like your Generals, Seiryu negates damage done to you, so it wouldn't be that productive to sacrifice all of my monsters."

"Right on the nose," Morty chuckled tapping his nose as a bright blue aura began to flare up around the third Cyber Angel. "Uh…what's your angel doing?"

"Oh, it's her special ability," Leo admitted turning to the side slightly.

Cracking sounds began to echo through the air, snapping with several shards of clay falling to the ground. Morty shot his head upwards, his eyes widening as Seiryu roared in pain. Cracks racing up and down the dragon's body, causing one of the dragon's arms to fall to the ground with a loud crash next to Morty's body. "S-Seiryu!?"

Then in an explosion of clay and light, the Clay Dragon was nothing more than sandy dust in the air that sprinkled over the Clay Masterpiece Castle. With his masterpiece destroyed, Morty fell to his knees, his eyes widened with shock as he turned towards Leo. "W-What happened?"

"Dakini has the ability to destroy one monster when she's special summoned," Leo explained as the Airknight Shield slowly stood up, its shield transforming into an armored gauntlet. "Now I switch Airknight Shield to attack mode…"

Morty slowly began to chuckle, only to throw his head back in a loud laughter with a slap to his forehead. "Heh! Ha, ha, ha! This is it huh? Well, I never thought that I'd go out like this!"

Leo turned his eyes slightly to the side, he had heard that people did often go slightly insane when their end was approaching them…but this was the first time he was seeing it personally. And even so, he didn't know for sure if that was the case, Morty was already a wild card… "But then again, I suppose this is to be expected…Leo…before you attack, may I finish my tale?"

With a nod, Leo closed his eyes with a soft smile. "Go right ahead Artist Formally Known as Morty…"

"…thanks…" Slowly standing up, dusting off his sleeves, Morty smiled as he continued on with the story. "With the country in ruins, the emperor deceased from the countless attacks, the clay sculptor went to search for the love of his life. But, unfortunately, he could never find her. She was swept up in all of the fighting; her soul was also trapped inside a clay prison, devoid of emotion, devoid of memories…devoid of life as it were. In his revenge, the clay sculptor had lost everything dear to him, his form, and his love…all of it gone."

"The Emperor tried to use someone else's work to win the heart of love…and the clay sculptor had become bitter in his revenge. Because of these two men, the country disappeared into the sands of time…never to be seen again…"

"An interesting story," Leo admitted crossing his arms. "And the timing of the cards was rather well…"

"You are too kind," Morty stated lifting his hand up, slowly sliding it over the top of his deck. With a loud slap, Morty slammed his hand on top of his deck of cards, causing the large Clay Masterpiece Castle to fall to the ground, turning into pure sand around the two duelists with trees and debris falling to the ground. "Leo…thank you for the proper last duel…" (MLP: Forfeit)

"What? You're surrendering?" Leo questioned as the sand disappeared, revealing the Twilight Generator behind Morty.

Slowly, another cracking sound echoed through the air, drawing Leo's attention to Morty's legs that began to create hairline cracks, racing up his clothes and body. "…I'd lose either way…anyway, Leo, remember to be true to yourself and hopefully, we'll see each other again…"

With a loud shatter, Morty broke like fragile glass, his broken remains floating upwards as Leo watched the pieces disappear into the twilight sky. Closing his eyes, Leo lowered his head in respect for the clay duelist. "…Morty…perhaps, one day, we would've been friends…"

Turning his head to the side, Leo raised an eyebrow at the Twilight Generator, a few question marks popping over his head. "…uh…how exactly am I supposed to turn this thing off anyway?" Scratching the back of his head, Leo noticed that his four monsters were still standing to his side, each of them with their arms crossed at the fact that none of them could attack. "…hmm…"

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Card Stats**

**Cyber Angel Dakini / Light / LV. 8 / ATK: 2700 / DEF: 2400 / Fairy/Ritual/Effect:** This card can only be Ritual Summoned with the Ritual Spell card 'Machine Angel Ritual'. When this card is Special Summoned, your opponent selects 1 monster they control and destroy it. During battle between this attacking card and a Defense Position monster who's DEF is lower than the ATK of this card, inflict the difference as battle damage to your opponent's life points.

**Description:** A young, six armed, blue skinned woman wearing gold and orange armor that resembled that of a Tantric priestess garbs. In each of the woman's hands was a shinning weapon

_This card was first used by Asuka/Alexis in episode 60 of Yugioh GX_

**Fortress of Sand / Continuous Trap / Effect:** When this card is activated, assign 3,000 Life Points to this card. If you are attacked directly, negate the damage to your Life Points and deduct the same amount of Life Points from this card. When this card's Life Points reach zero, destroy this card.

**Image:** A large Sand Castle

_This card was first used by Little Yugi in the Yugioh R manga series._

**Grand Airknight – First Class / Light / LV. 9 / ATK: 3100 / DEF: 2300 / Fairy/Effect:** This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned except by send three "Airknight" monsters you control to the graveyard. No other "Airknight" monsters on your side of the field can be selected as attack targets as long as this card remains on the field. Once per turn, during your Main Phase, you can discard 1 card from your hand and Special Summon one "Airknight" monster from your Graveyard to the field.

**Description:** A young golden haired angelic man with gold and silver armor with a fancy rapier next to his long silver robes.

**Sol Feathers / Trap / Effect:** This card can only be activated when a monster with 'Airknight' in its name is destroyed. Pick up the top card of your deck. If the picked up card is a monster card, you may special summon the monster (fulfilling summoning conditions), if it is not, send the picked up card to the bottom of your deck.

**Image:** A young woman shattering in millions of feathers.

Clay General of Ice / Earth / LV: 6 / ATK: 1900 / DEF: 1900 / Rock/Effect: Negate all battle damage involving this card that is done to you. Each time a token monster is destroyed while this card is in your graveyard, you may destroy one spell or trap card on the field.

**Description:** A small clay soldier with multiple spikes emerging from his shoulders shins and in his hands are two crystal daggers.

**Clay General of Thunder / Earth / LV. 6 / ATK: 2200 / DEF: 2200 / Rock/Effect:** Negate all battle damage involving this card that is done to you. Each time a token monster is destroyed while this card is in your graveyard, inflict 500 points of damage to your opponent's life points.

**Description:** A large clay soldier colored with a black paint. Unlike other clay soldiers, this one had six thin arms that each hold onto a chained theme weapon. Its yellow mask on its clay face is a look of anger.

**Clay General of Mountain / Earth / LV. 6 / ATK: 2100 / DEF: 2100 / Rock/Effect:** Negate all battle damage involving this card that is done to you. Each time a token monster is destroyed while this card is in your graveyard, draw one card per token.

**Description:** A large bulky clay soldier with large dark brown clay armor, on its back multiple lances and pikes each with a black flag tied to them. Its yellow mask on its clay face is a look of laughter.

**Clay Maiden / Earth / LV. 3 / ATK: 800 / DEF: 0 / Rock/Effect:** Negate all battle damage involving this card. When this card is sent to the graveyard, you may special summon two Clay Maiden Tokens (Earth / LV: 1 / ATK: 500 / DEF: 500 / Rock) on your side of the field.

**Description:** A beautiful clay woman wearing a beautiful kimono.

**Clay Assassin / Earth / LV. 3 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 0 / Rock/Effect:** Negate all battle damage involving this card. When this card is involved in battle, after the damage step, destroy the card that battled this monster.

**Description:** A clay samurai holding onto a pair of jagged daggers.

**Clay Tengu / Earth / LV. 3 / ATK: 300 / DEF: 200 / Rock/Effect:** Negate all battle damage involving this card. When this card is destroyed as a result of battle, you may add one level four or lower 'Clay' monster from your deck to your hand.

**Description:** A clay crow demon that's more crow, several feathers flowing from its clay wings.

**Clay Dragon – Seiryu / Earth / LV. 10 / ATK: 3200 / DEF: 3200 / Rock/Effect:** This card cannot be special summoned. This card can only be tribute summoned or set by offering three monsters. Negate all battle damage involving this card that is done to you. When this card is flipped or tribute summoned, you may remove all monsters in your graveyard with 'Clay General' in their names from your graveyard. Depending on the monsters that were removed this card gains the following effects:

Clay General of Flames: When this monster destroys a monster as a result of battle, increase the attack and defense of this card by 400 points.

Clay General of Ice: Each time this monster attacks, your opponent cannot activate trap cards.

Clay General of Thunder: Negate the effects of a monster destroyed by this card as a result of battle.

Clay General of Mountain: When this card destroys a monster as a result of battle, special summon one 'Clay Dragon Token' (Earth / LV. 3 / ATK: 500 / DEF: 500 / Rock) on your opponent's side of the field in attack mode. 'Clay Dragon Tokens' cannot be used for tributes.

**Description:** An extremely large clay dragon with glowing blue eyes and blue wings. At his shoulders and legs are four masks, each of them displaying a different emotion.

**Sculptor of the Clay / Instant Spell / Effect: **This card can only be activated when you have no monsters on your side of the field. You may special summon one level four or lower monster with 'Clay' from your graveyard in defense mode. Monsters special summoned with this card's effect are removed from play at the end of the turn this card was activated.

**Image: **A Japanese sculptor working on multiple small clay soldiers.

**Calling an Army / Trap / Effect:** When a monster on your side of the field is destroyed as a result of battle, you may special summon one level six or lower monster from your deck with 'Clay' to your side of the field.

**Image:** A large amount of Clay Soldiers running towards a large golden dragon

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Riko:** Gargh!

**Van:** AAAHH!

**Kryancelo:** HEH! HEH! HEHE! AWESOME!

**Bravo:** …holy…

_**Uh…I'm kinda star struck on this one…so uh, we'll have to improvise here… Next time in the Twilight Arc – **__**Chapter 45: Twilight Part 3 – Eye of the Beholder**_

**Bravo:** Uh…I don't know what to say…this is kinda makes me feel like the bad guy…

**Van:** You ARE the bad guy!

**Vyser Dragoon:** And by the way, why exactly didn't I get any reviews last chapter? Honestly, I'm willing to listen so please tell me if there's something I'm doing wrong, or if I insulted you guys.


	46. Chapter 45: Eye of the Beholder

_**The dark…**_

…_**pretty much everyone has at least once been afraid of the darkness. Mainly the darkness is so much more than just the absence of light.**_

_**It is the mystery that plagues people in the darkness. The unknown claws at people's fears, tugging on their consciousness…**_

…_**it's a pain to me really…I've grown accustomed to the darkness, it doesn't scare me…but rather, it embraces me…**_

_**The light…**_

_**I guess I'm afraid of it…if I'm afraid of whether I'll see it or not…**_

…_**I don't know…**_

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

_**Chapter 45**_

_**Twilight Part 3**_

_**Eye of the Beholder**_

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

"Ah…ah…whooo!"

"Damn man, you really need to work out…we just ran five miles."

"Shut…up…oooohhh…"

With their escape from the raged attacks of the Cyber End Dragon, the two Yokai, Orange and Maroon, found themselves standing in one of the few open fields of the island. Orange was doubled over while Maroon shook his head. "I swear, if I ever meet the guy who assigned us together, I'm going to kill him…"

"…I'll…help too…" Orange panted slowly standing up, sweat rolled down the side of his head.

That's when Maroon snapped his head to the side. "Huh?"

"What's up?" Orange asked.

"Don't you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"That music."

"What music?"

"It's that polka kind of music…"

"Polka?"

"Hey, it's getting louder…"

"I have no idea what you're getting at…"

"Look, its coming over the hill!"

Now both Orange and Maroon turned their heads towards the nearby hill, now the music was starting to fill the air with its festive tunes. "…now I hear it…but what's with that music?"

"YEEHAW!"

"VAN! WHAT'S GOING ON!?"

"YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW!"

Two sweat droplets rolled down both Yokai's head as a loud engine roar accompanied the festive Polka music. It didn't take long for the two to find out what the cause of the music and engine roar was, because a large, gunmetal gray jeep flew over the hill, the music blaring from the vehicle.

And driving the jeep was none other than Kryancelo with a large demented smile on his face while Riko and Van held onto their seats as they screamed for their lives.

Maroon and Orange's eyes widened as the vehicle flew towards them, giving the two only a few seconds to jump out of the way when the jeep crashed into the ground. "HOLY CRAP!"

"YOOHOOO!" Kryancelo hollered not noticing that he almost struck two pedestrians with his mad driving.

As the vehicle drove off into the distance, the polka music leaving with it, Maroon turned towards his fellow Yokai. "…I told you I heard polka music!"

"Yeesh, do you want a medal or something?"

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

BOOM!

"Argh!" Asche was thrown backwards, his spinning body leaving skid marks on the ground. "D-Damn it…ya know…"

Dropping from the sky, a shadowed form landed on the ground. The shadows receded with Beck standing in front of the now bruised up Asche. "Heh…what's the matter? Where's that confidence you had when you were blasting away my grunts, muscle man?"

"D-Damn you," Asche growled slowly standing up, clawing five cards from his duel disk. "If…if I'm going down…"

"Oh please," Beck interrupted wagging his finger, if there was something that Beck actually hated; it was clichéd lines by stupid people. "If you say 'I'm taking you with me,' I'm going to kill you faster than you can say uncle!"

Looking at the cards he had pulled, Asche's face sulked very noticeably. From what he had just seen of Beck's abilities, Asche was pretty sure that nothing he had could defend him against the terrors in Beck's deck. "Urk…ya know…"

"I'm going to enjoy this," Beck chuckled; slowly the Yokai leader stepped towards Asche, his body glowing with a dark light once more. "It's been a while since I last ripped someone to shreds…I wonder how you'll turn out…"

POP!

"Huh?" Beck questioned tilting his head at a small cloud of red smoke that erupted onto the ground between him and Asche.

The smoke dispersed into the air, revealing a small cute red fox that sat on the ground with a cute look in his eyes that locked into Beck's. At first, Beck didn't seem to be affected by the fox…but the dark light began to disperse into the air, calming down as Beck's eyes themselves became starry eyed. "AWWW! WHAT A CUTIE!"

Asche sweatdropped when Beck wrapped his arms around the small fox's body, almost crushing the fox in his small, yet strong arms. And yet…there was something that caught Asche's eyes even more than Beck's actions…

…it was the fact that the fox had two small wagging tails… '_It…it couldn't be, ya know?'_

"Now! Kitsune Fireworks!"

In a second cloud of red smoke, Beck blinked in confusion as he noticed that he was no longer had his arms wrapped around the small fox…but rather a large Japanese styled firework that had its fuse lit. "Oh…bugger!"

BOOOOOM!!

In a brilliant explosion of red flares, Beck went flying into the air at the clock tower, his scream echoing through the air loudly. The sweatdrop grew on Asche's head, "…man, what a girlie scream…ya know…"

"I hope that wasn't a shot that girls are weak, Asche," A familiar snotty voice scolded from behind Asche.

Tears streamed down the sides of his face as Asche used whatever strength he had to stand up towards the owner of the voice. He knew exactly who it was, but he couldn't believe it! "M…Miss Cleo?!"

And there she was, standing in all her glory with her duel disk activated was none other than Cleo Sol, her hair and extra long skirt blowing in the wind (she must've used a wind type field spell). "Who else would save you?"

"You…you…" the tears were now spilling down Asche's face before he ran towards Cleo, his arms stretched outwards. "You do care about me, Miss Cleo! Ya know!"

WHAM!

Asche flew backwards, his face now really bruise thanks to Cleo's fist. "Urk! Ya know!"

"Don't get so comfortable with me!" Cleo protested crossing her arms at the slightly dazed Asche. "I only did that because you seem to be in need of help that is all."

"Oh…" Asche felt like he was just stabbed in the heart.

"Anyway, we better get out of here," Cleo stated, her eyes drawn to the smoking Beck who landed on the ground next to the clock tower. "I didn't expect him to hug the kitsune firework, so that bought us a little more time before Mr. High and Mighty Rainbow gets back up."

"Uh, right, ya know!" Asche announced.

"Quiet!" Cleo snapped.

As the Obelisk Blue Duo ran off towards the main academy building, a familiar dark haired teen slowly stepped from behind the trees. His face smeared with a demonic grin. "Well, well, well, what do we have here?"

_**0-0-0-0-0-0**_

"Nah, no good…damn it."

Despite the fact that earlier he had his head caught in a tree, Bravo was more than willing to get back to his job of being a guardsmen for one of the Twilight Generators. Of course, it was just that, recently, since he became a Yokai last year, Bravo was seeing nothing pain in the job…

…both physical and financially…

And since no one was around to threaten the generator, and that the relieve for guards wasn't going to be coming any time soon, Bravo had managed to sneak off to snag a laptop from the main building with a wireless connection. "Aw come on, no one's hiring? This has got to bad luck!"

The site that Bravo was currently on was an exclusive site that managed to get him on the Yokai payroll in the first place, known as henchmen dot com. The site was actually made by a mob boss a few years back as a joke, however, the number of hits on the site was quite staggering, thus creating a new business, the distribution of much needed henchmen, from jobs as simple as delivery boys to the crucial hit men to many different 'employers'.

However, for Bravo's resume credentials had him listed as a type B henchmen, or a muscleman type. That usually meant that he was good for body guard, bruiser, bouncer, etc. Toss in the fact that he was a duelist…well, that just made things a little bit more complicated.

Beep!

"Huh?" Bravo stated looking at the screen of the laptop, a new job had just opened up for type A through type F henchmen. And last time he checked, type B was in that group, so without a moment's hesitation, Bravo clicked on the job ad.

Scrolling through the details of the job listing, Bravo couldn't help but smile at the details. Apparently, the ad was put up by some guy who went by the name of Kinjou Chouno who was looking for three assistants to help him run an elite group of duel hunters (there wasn't a description of what that was about).

The pay was good…

The hours were flexible…

Room and board were also provided…

Bravo would have to be a complete moron to not click the 'Send Resume' button at the bottom of the screen. So with a loud click, a loud swooshing sound blared from the computer's speakers, signifying that Bravo's resume was just sent through the net. "Most excellent!"

It never hurts to have a back up plan when it comes to jobs…

Before Bravo could continue with his train of thought, something caught his ears…some kind of music of some sort that he had heard somewhere before. "…kinda sounds like polka music…"

The music was getting louder with each passing second, and pushing the laptop to the side of the generator. Something or someone was coming, and Bravo knew that he had to do. So just as he stood up tall, Bravo's eyes widened at the sight of whatever was coming towards him at an alarming rate.

"PROF. K! STOP THIS CRAZY THING!"

Almost flying off of the top of the hill in front of him, Bravo's eyes widened at the sight of the large jeep that was heading right at him with three people riding in it. Jumping to the side at the last minute, Bravo managed to dodge the fly jeep just as it crashed into the side of the large Twilight Generator with a loud boom.

However, the generator was only dented by the force, the jeep on the other hand was damaged with Van and Riko rolling on the ground, barely undamaged.

Bravo in the midst of all this, well, he was in need of a dry pair of boxers…

Slowly Riko stood up, brushing his clothes off with a worried look on his face and his hair a complete mess. "Van! What just happened!?"

"Um, well, let's just say that our job," Van coughed a few times trying to make sure that his equipment wasn't damaged in the crash. "…just got a little bit harder and a little bit easier, at the same time."

"And Professor Kryancelo?" Riko questioned turning his head at the sound of the cackling flames that slowly began to wrap around the jeep.

"I have no clue, and frankly I could care less!" Van snapped slamming his foot into the ground a few times. And who could blame him?

Kryancelo's driving should've been illegal!

"Really, you could care less if I lived or died, eh?" Kryancelo asked appearing behind Van, putting the red duelist into a nasty headlock. "I knew I should've wrung your neck at the entrance exams you little runt!"

"ACK! S-SOMEONE HELP!" Van shouted out.

Bravo was struck with confusion, it was somewhat weird that he failed within the first thirty seconds of the sight of intruders…and yet, there was nothing he could've done to stop it. Well, he could've stayed where he was and make a blood Bravo sandwich, but he wasn't willing to do that.

Instead, Bravo was left with one option left. He didn't know if the machine would work after taking that jeep to it, and Bravo was pretty sure that the jeep would probably explode if it wasn't taken care of.

So, activating his duel disk, Bravo snapped off three cards from his deck to slide them onto the monster card zones. "Come on out, Fist Bruisers!" In three flashes of light, the three muscular bruisers appeared before him, all of them cracking their knuckles as Bravo held up two more cards. "Pull that jeep away from the generator before it blows it kingdom come!"

All three of the Fist Bruisers saluted before they clambered to the jeep. Just as the three slammed their hands into the safe sides of the jeep, Bravo slapped two more cards onto his duel disk, creating two Savage Bruisers to appear before him. "And as for you two, grab those two wrestling idiots!"

A few minutes later…

The jeep was moved by the now relaxing Fist Bruisers while the Savage Bruisers held a bruised up Kryancelo and Van. Bravo was feeling pretty good about how he managed to capture two people immediately. But, it felt like he was forgetting something. "Heh, I'm sure it's nothing…now then, what am I going to do with you?"

"How about you let them go?"

Bravo turned his head to the side, seeing Riko standing tall with his arms crossed. This wasn't something to impress Bravo. "Oh…I forgot about you. Sorry about that," Bravo snapped his fingers into the air, getting all three of the Fist Bruisers to surround Riko, "Fist Bruisers, rough up fancy boy here a little bit!"

With a calm look on his face, Riko didn't move as all three of the Fist Bruisers leapt at him. And as the three were about to slam their fists into Riko's body, the Chaotix duelist merely crouched down to the ground at the last second, getting all three of the bruisers to slam into each other's faces.

The force shattered all three of the Fist Bruisers back into the air, making Bravo's jaw drop at how easily his three monsters were defeated. "W-What?!"

"Your monsters are too loud," Riko explained, as he adjusted his glasses. With his eyesight rather limited, Riko was able to have his other senses had heightened, hearing wasn't an exception. The very footsteps and battle cries of the Fist Bruisers had tipped off Riko that they were attacking from all sides, and allowing him to think what the best option was to deal with the three monsters…

…having them all destroy each other was just instinct. "Now, I'm going to ask you again to let them go. So how about you do that while you still can?"

"Heh, yeah right, and what are you going to do if I don't?" Bravo asked crossing his arms at the blind duelist. Of course, Bravo wasn't aware that Riko was blind, but he could see that Riko was quite small compared to Bravo. "In case you didn't notice, I'm at least twice your size!"

"Oh, so you are," Riko chuckled with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head. "T-Then how about this, you and me will duel right here, right now?"

"Hmm…" Bravo was interested to see what would happen when someone lost a duel with the Twilight Generators on. From what he heard, there were a few duelists that shattered like glass, or melted into water, or even crack like clay. He wanted to see that at least once. "Heh, fine by me, whatever you say, shades!"

"…shades?" Riko questioned, that was quite the unique name he received, but it was better than a few of the other names he got. "Err…whatever, I prefer to be called Riko…"

"I know ya, I was one of the finalists in the tournament a day ago," Bravo replied shuffling his deck, oddly though, the two Savage Bruisers didn't disappear. Unfortunately for Van and Kryancelo, the two Bruisers didn't release their hold on them either. "And you should know my name as well, its Bravo!"

"…I don't remember anyone with that name in the tournament roster," Riko admitted pulling out the dueling deck he had in his deck holster. He may have failed in the tournament, but he wasn't going to lose at a crucial time like this. If he had to…

…he'd be forced to remove the limit…

"…that's because…my name was listed as the one on my birth certificate," Bravo growled not wanting to be called by his name. "So, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to be known as Bravo."

"If that's what you want," Riko replied snapping his deck into the duel disk, activating the device.

"Then…let's duel!"

Fanning the cards out in front of him, Bravo held up the six cards he drew easily, "Ya know, I've actually heard that you're the second best duelist around at this academy." (BLP: 8000)

"And yet you still accept my challenge," Riko replied slowly reaching for his deck until he pulled five cards from his deck. "I think that you're either brave, or just reckless." (RLP: 8000)

"This coming from the guy who crashed into the Twilight Generator," Bravo retorted wagging his finger at Riko while Bravo lifted up one of the six cards he held.

"…that bad driving was by Prof. Kryancelo," Riko corrected.

"Whatever, it's duel time!" Bravo shouted, spinning one of the cards in his fingers till he slapped it onto his duel disk. "And what better way than to summon Bruiser Brass Knuckles in attack mode!"

Leaping from the ruins of the flaming jeep, a skinny muscled man with a combed back 80's styled hair cut wearing a black leather jacket with black leather pants landed on the ground rather softly. On his fists, a pair of brass knuckles covered his fists that were lifted up into the air (1800/1000).

"Hmm…must be a strong monster from the way you announce it," Riko thought, once again, he'd have to guess what the attack strength was for the card, since he'd never heard of the card until just a few seconds ago.

Bravo lifted his hand up towards his newest bruiser, who was combing back his hair when some of it came uncurled. "Of course, with an eighteen hundred beat stick, hell ya he's strong!"

"Then, are you going to continue?" Riko asked crossing his arms.

"Heh, of course, I'll set one card face down," Bravo replied as the set card appeared behind his Bruiser. "And then I'll leave it to you, shades!"

"I thought I asked you not to call me that," Riko asked with a slap to his forehead before he drew from his deck.

"Sorry shades, but thems are the breaks," Bravo chuckled, truth be told, he wanted to call someone else a name that they hated since he hated his name.

"The breaks?" Riko stated feeling his cards slightly until he smirked slightly, he had already drawn it. "I'll give you a few breaks, starting with a spell card, Ultimate Summoning! Now by sending the top five cards from my deck to the graveyard, I can normal summon a level eight or lower monster from my hand this turn!"

"Heh, I've got that card in my deck," Bravo admitted crossing his arms. "But whatever monster you summon won't last long!"

"Are you sure about that?" Riko asked lifting a card up from his hand. "I take it you don't know about my strategy then…"

"What's there to know?" Bravo retorted, personally, if he wasn't actually facing the Kaiser or Kaisaris, he could really care less about anyone's strategy. With the exception of Klein's of course, he'd have to team up with Xander sometime and take down that cursed little midget.

"Then allow me to explain!" Riko stated slapping the card onto his duel disk. "I summon Chaotix Tai Gars in attack mode!"

In a bright flash of light, kid sized warrior leapt onto the field, his blue armor almost falling off of his body as he lifted his fingers up in the peace sign (500/500).

…Bravo was in tears, tears of laughter at the sight of the small monster. "Bwa ha ha ha ha! Awe, thanks man, I really needed the laugh today! I've been having nothing but bad luck and I needed a reason to smile! Heh, ha, ha, bwa!"

"I assure you, its no laughing matter," Riko replied adjusting his sunglasses, before he fitted two cards into his duel disk. "I'll set two cards face down, and that's all from me."

"Man, that was fast, heh," Bravo chuckled, still thinking that Riko was still playing a small joke on the bruiser duelist. "Oh man, that was good. But, all good things must come to an end. First, I'll activate the spell card Foolish Burial! Allowing me to discard one monster from my graveyard, and since I don't have my field spell out, I'll send my Fanged Bruiser to the graveyard instead!"

"Fanged…Bruiser?" Riko questioned as Bravo fitted the card into his duel disk's graveyard slot, a beep filling the air.

"Heh, looks like someone's behind the times here," Bravo mocked holding up another card from his hand. "Anyway, I activate the spell card, Call the Gang!" Bravo's spell card flashed in front of him, revealing a muscular man shouting out to several other gang members. The card glowed green for a few seconds before the aura floated over Bravo's duel disk. "By paying one thousand life points, I can special summon a Bruiser from my graveyard!"

"And since there's only one in there…"

The spell card shattered into several shards to allow a rather small bruiser to appear on the field with wild blue hair spiking out into several directions. Covering the young bruiser's body was a slightly torn red jacket with extra long sleeves with many chains and belts wrapped around his body, giving the monster's attire that of an appearance of a straightjacket (1000/200).

"And now, I activate the effect of my Fanged Bruiser!" Bravo announced as two cards popped out of his deck. "When my monster is special summoned from the graveyard I can now special summon the other two Fanged Bruisers from my deck!" (BLP: 7000)

In two similar flashes of light, two more Fanged Bruisers appeared next to the original, all three of them cackling loudly into the air at the sight of the trio of monsters finally being together (1000/200 x2).

"That doesn't sound too good," Riko grimaced at the prospect of facing four monsters at once, he had to admit, this Bravo's rush strategy was faster than normal strategies.

"Now then…first things first!" Bravo shouted as the first Fanged Bruiser skidded directly in front of the surprised Chaotix Tai Gars. "Fanged Bruiser! Show that wimp of a monster how you got your name!"

With a sadistic smirk appearing on its face, the Fanged Bruiser revealed the many sharp rows of teeth he had lining his mouth. The smirk made the Chaotix Tai Gars step backwards before the Fanged Bruiser delivered a powerful kick to the holy warrior's head, knocking him back into the air before he shattered into several shards.

The shards flew back into Riko's body, making the blind duelist flinch in pain. "Urk!? W-what the?!" (RLP: 7500)

"And now my other Bruisers…" Bravo stated as all three of his other Bruisers appeared all around Riko, all of them cracking their knuckles loudly. "Go crazy!"

"This won't end well…" Riko gulped before all three of the bruisers leapt over him, covering the blind duelist as well as the three Bruisers in a large dust cloud of smoke that had many punching and kicking sounds coming from it.

A few minutes later, the smoke disappeared leaving a very bruised up Riko on the ground with the three Bruisers leaping back to Bravo's field. "Urk…I was right…" (RLP: 3700)

"Heh, that was actually funny to watch," Bravo admitted with another loud snicker escaping from his lips. Bravo was still oblivious to the fact that Riko was blind…

…and actually Riko was liking the fact that he was being treated by a real person and not blind. Although, Riko had a feeling that Bravo didn't know that he was blind. "I'm sure that it was…"

Fitting another card into his duel disk, the set card appeared behind his three Bruisers. "Heh, I'll set one card, and end my turn, shades!"

The ground began to recede at Riko's feet, allowing a more muscular Chaotix Tai Gars to leap onto the field, his face a little more serious as well as his pose (500/500 + 500/500). This made Bravo step back slightly at the sight of the more powerful monster. "W-What the?! Where'd he come from?!"

"Don't you know the rule of monsters?" Riko asked crossing his arms over his chest. "Any high level monster with a low attack has a powerful effect. Chaotix Tai Gars revives itself at the end of the turn it was destroyed as a result of battle with five hundred attack and defense points added to it's printed score!"

"Heh, nice ability," Bravo admitted as he lifted up his duel disk, showing the four monsters he had laid out on his disk. "But, with my strategy, before you even get a chance to get him up to a decent level of power, I'll have already won this."

That was true, no matter how Riko thought about it, what Bravo said was true. And the remaining two cards in Riko's hand wouldn't help out. He'd have to be at his best in order to pull this off…that mean only on thing.

'…_but…will I be able to…?'_

He had no choice…

Slowly, Riko grabbed the sunglasses that sat on his face, only to throw them into the air. Bravo blinked a few times at the bandages that covered Riko's eyes. "Whoa…that's some fashion statement there, shades."

"Its not a fashion statement," Riko corrected slipping the bandages in his fingers, only to throw the bandages into the air, the breeze sent the bandages flying into the air. Riko's eyelids twitched slightly, as if he was afraid of something. "…but, in order for me to win, I need to discard it to realize my potential…"

Time seemed to stand still as Riko cracked his eyes open, only to squint because of the bright light of the Twilight Realm. "Ugh…too bright," Bright? That was a concept that he'd have to get used to again…

But when the glare died down, Riko's golden eyes blinked a few times in confusion until they began shifting around to see the many trees, the grassy hills, the twilight sky, and even Bravo's team of monsters. "…man, I didn't expect people to have such bad haircuts when I opened my eyes…"

"Hey! I don't have a bad haircut!" Bravo shouted as he slammed his foot into the ground.

"Oh, you're the duelist?" Riko asked blinking a few times, he'd never thought he'd see a person who looked so much like the monster cards themselves. But then again, Riko thought that he'd never be able to see again. "Sorry, I'm just getting used to this…"

Instead of draw, Riko held up his hand, snatching the sunglasses that he had thrown only moments ago. As he fitted them on his face, the Chaotix Tai Gars duelist couldn't help but smirk. "Heh, now I can just wear these things just for fun now…finally."

"You weren't wearing them for fun before?" Bravo inquired with his head tilted to the side. "That's just weird."

"…and you don't seem to understand," Riko replied looking at his hand. "Now then, since my Chaotix Tai Gars revived itself, I can't draw this turn…but that's why I have my face down card, go! Reckless Greed!"

Two cards popped off the top of Riko's deck and into his hand, "My trap allows me to draw twice as long as I skip my next two draw phases." As he looked at the cards, Riko couldn't help but smile at the sight of artwork of the cards, they were so beautiful that they almost brought tears to his eyes. "…I activate the spell card, Pump Up! Now my Chaotix Tai Gars' strength doubles immediately!"

Snapping his arms to the side, the now stronger Chaotix Tai Gars roared loudly into the air with his muscles bulging into his armor (1000/1000 + 1000/0). "Chaotix Tai Gars! Attack his Bruiser Brass Knuckles!"

In a blue and red blur, the holy warrior slammed his foot directly into the surprised bruiser's neck, sending the bruiser streaming into the sky. At the sight of his monster streaming into the air, Bravo's jaw dropped slightly as his life point counter began to drop slightly. "Da wha…?" (BLP: 6800)

"And to end my turn, I'll set one card face down," Riko stated as his Chaotix Tai Gars landed on his feet, cracking his neck a few times as his strength went back to normal. "Your move, muscle man."

"Damn it!" Bravo snapped pulling his next card from his deck. '_He made a good move on that part. Now if I want to get rid of that monster, I'd have to suicide with one of my Fanged Bruisers…but I've got a way around that!'_

"I activate the spell card, Graceful Charity! Now, I can draw…" Bravo announced, reaching for his cards.

"There's no need to explain it to me," Riko retorted turning eyes left and right for a few times as he noticed that a few people were gone. "I am the second best duelist around here, but thanks anyway."

"Heh, fine," Bravo stated pulling his next three cards from the deck. And a few seconds later, the Bruiser Duelist slipped two other cards into his graveyard. "I discard my Fist Bruiser and my Spare Resources!"

"Now, its time to use my key card! I activate the field spell card," Bravo's duel disk field slot slowly slid open, allowing him to fit the next card into the slot. "Go! Bruisers Battleground!"

Suddenly, the entire ground began to rumble, making the three Fang Bruisers jump high into the air as several buildings began to erupt from the ground, surprising the Chaotix Tai Gars. Soon, the buildings finally finished rising from the ground, giving off several shadows with the Fanged Bruisers hanging off the fire escapes. "And here's the best…uh…are you okay?"

With stars streaming from his eyes, Riko looked all over the holographic city walls, making Bravo sweatdrop. "Yes! Do you have any idea how long it's been since I last saw a city?"

"Heh, this island is rather small I'll admit," Bravo stated looking through the alleyway to see the sea that was partially caught in the twilight barrier. "So I guess it's common that you'd be homesick…"

"Nah, nothing like that," Riko replied crossing his arms. "I'm talking about seeing the buildings themselves for a long, long time."

"Man, you just keep getting weirder and weirder," Bravo admitted snapping his hand over his face down card, making it flip up immediately. "Luckily, I'm going to knock some sense into your head! And it all starts with my trap card, Call of the Haunted so I can special summon the Fist Bruiser that I discarded!"

Leaping from the shadows of the alleyway was the rough looking gangster with the weird hairstyle with his smile as poisonous as a cobra (1500/0). Then from fire escapes, two more Fist Bruisers landed on the ground with their fists lifted up (1500/0 x2) ready to fight. "And since he was special summoned, I can special summon two Bruiser Grunt Tokens!"

Smirking at the sight of the many monsters that were either on the streets or on the fire escapes, Riko couldn't help but cross his arms. "I'll go out on a limb here and guess that all six of your monsters are here because of your field spell…right?"

"Correct, but don't worry," Bravo replied as two of his Fanged Bruisers leapt into the air until they spun around into a pair of red blurs that crashed into each other. "Cause I'll sacrifice two of my Fanged Bruisers to summon…"

As soon as Bravo slapped the card onto the duel disk, the red blur crashed into the ground. The blur shattered like glass, allowing a rather fancy and large muscled man with long blonde hair that was streamed backwards. With a black leather jacket covering his muscular body, the newest muscle man flexed his muscles, causing his many chains and a crown on the back of his jacket to be exposed (2000/2000). "Boss Bruiser King!"

"This may seem ironic," Riko stated tilting his head to the side. "But, that's rather weak for a two tribute monster…"

"You're right," Bravo stated before his Boss Bruiser King roared loudly into the air, its muscles growing larger and larger with each passing second (2000/2000 + 1000/0). "But for each Bruiser on the field, my Boss gains two hundred attack points! And now, we're ending this duel right here, right now!"

"Boss Bruiser King! Attack that Ch…that thing with Boss Rush Punch and Fanged Bruiser, Fist Bruiser, and Bruiser Grunt Tokens! Finish him off!"

With a loud whistle with his lips and fingers, the Boss Bruiser King called all four of the other bruisers behind him. In a matter of seconds, the five bruisers all charged forward, before leaping into the air at the Chaotix Tai Gars and his duelist.

"Trap card go!"

All five of the bruisers landed into Riko and the Chaotix Tai Gars, creating a large cloud of smoke and trash erupted over the many men, sounds of punching and yelps of pain echoed through the alleyway.

But soon, Bravo's laughter began to echo through it as well, his victory was assured, and then it was clear sailing from here…

"Hmm…don't you think it's a little early for this to end?"

Bravo's laughter was immediately halted, making the bruiser duelist tilt his head to look at the cloud of dust and debris that his five Bruisers were leaping from the cloud of dust. As the cloud lowered to the ground, Riko's form was slowly appearing, his body in a meditative stance. (RLP: 3700)

"W-What?!" Bravo questioned as his monsters' jaws dropped to the ground. "How the heck did you do that?"

"Even though I can see," Riko admitted with his head lowered down trying to keep his meditative stance. "I still remember the calm that I managed to acquire in my time in the darkness. How the mind can overcome any kind of pain the body, its simply amazing really."

"You…you mean you deflected all of my attacks with your mind?!" Bravo gasped taking a step back, earning himself a collected embarrassed sigh from all of his bruisers.

With a loud crack from his neck, Riko stood up again with his face down card flipping up to show the Chaotix Tai Gars meditating within a large aura like barrier. "Heh, that would be something, but I don't have the ability to do that, muscle man. But I do have my trap card, True State of Mind, which negates all damage done to me during the turn it's activated."

"Heh, fine by me," Bravo sneered fitting another card into his duel disk. "I'll set a card face down…and end my turn…"

Before Riko could even reach for his deck, the Chaotix Tai Gars reappeared on the field with his muscles grown even bigger than the last time and his hair grown out as well (1000/1000 + 500/500). It had been too long since the last time Riko managed to lay his eyes on his favorite monster, he'd almost forgotten what the Chaotix Tai Gars looked like…

…but this wasn't the time to reminisce about the past. Riko snapped his fingers over his face down card, making it arise. "I activate the trap card, Jar of Greed! Now I can draw a new card from my deck to replace my draw!"

Riko snapped his next card off the top of his deck, bringing it to his eyes before he held it before him. "And my draw is faithful, so I can draw two new cards from my deck!"

Flipping two more cards from the top of his deck, Riko looked at the cards intently before tossing them with the other two cards. "Would you look at that? My deck's loving me today, I activate the continuous spell card Cards of Safe Return! Now, whenever a monster is special summoned successfully, I can draw an additional card from my deck!"

'_Dammit! How the hell is he pulling this off!?_' Bravo thought as his Bruisers all struck a muscular pose, ready to fight. '_Its like he's a different person since he pulled them bandages off of his head, almost as if they were a restraint to his full potential or something…well, this is going to hurt…badly…'_

"Now then!" Riko announced as the Chaotix Tai Gars snapped into a martial art stance, with his left arm glowing. "Chaotix Tai Gars! Attack the Fist Bruiser!"

"What?! But they'll suicide with each other!" Bravo shouted.

"Exactly!"

The Chaotix Tai Gars threw his left hand outwards, sending a chain whip of golden energy flying pass the rest of the Bruisers, only to wrap itself around the waist of the Fist Bruiser. Then with a powerful pull, the Chaotix Tai Gars flung the Fist Bruiser towards him, readying his fist…

WHAM!

Both monsters collided their fists into each others' faces, shattering them both into several pixels. Now, Bravo wasn't stupid, or at least not so stupid to not realize a monster's effect after it was demonstrated twice… "Damn it…you're going to special summon that monster again aren't you?"

"Yes, but there was another purpose," Riko explained as he fitted two cards into his duel disk, making them appear over both sides of his Card of Safe Return. "Look at your Boss Bruiser King."

With the loss of one of his followers, the Boss Bruiser King was brought to tears as did the other three bruisers (3000/2000 – 200/0). One thing about gang bruisers, they care deeply for their comrades, especially the ones that have fallen in battle. "And I'll end my turn, which you know what will happen!"

The ground erupted, releasing a more rugged Chaotix Tai Gars, the armor now clinging to stay on his body and his hair tied back into a small tail (1500/1500 + 500/500). And thanks to his spell card, Riko drew his next card from his deck.

"Heh…that little whelp doesn't scare me!" Bravo retorted nearly ripping his next card from his duel disk. At the sight of the card, Bravo spun the card in his fingers to show it to Riko. "Especially now that I've drawn this! I activate the spell card, Ganging Up!"

The Fanged Bruiser, and the two Bruiser Grunt Tokens leapt behind the now stone faced Boss Bruiser King, roaring loudly with their fists pumped behind their leader. "Now, watch as the power of the gang makes my Boss Bruiser King stronger! For each other Bruiser on the field, my Boss Bruiser King gains three hundred attack points!"

Roaring loudly with the pride of his gang behind him, the Boss Bruiser King slammed his fist into the wall next to him, sending cracks that swept over the side of the building (2800/2000 + 900/0). "And now…Boss Bruiser King! Take that fancy boy! Boss Rush Punch!"

Charging forward, the Boss Bruiser King revved his fist back, only to throw it towards the strong Chaotix Tai Gars. However, just as the large fist was about to collide with the Chaotix Tai Gars's face, the holy warrior ducked down to surprise the rather large foe. Before the Boss Bruiser King could react, the Chaotix Tai Gars slammed his foot directly into the bruiser's stomach, sending him spiraling backwards…

…directly into Bravo!

A loud boom echoed through the holographic alleyway as dust and trash flew into the air. Tossing his Boss Bruiser King off of his body, Bravo shot a glare at his once-blind opponent. "What the heck did your monster just do to me!?"

"Did you really think that you're the first person to try a rush strategy against me?" Riko asked tilting his head to the side as the Chaotix Tai Gars lowered his foot to the ground. "I've had hundreds, if not thousands of people try the same thing since I run only one monster on the field at a time. So, I decided enough was enough and made my deck into an Anti-Rush deck!"

"A-Anti-Rush?" Bravo repeated as his looked to his deck, his deck was nothing more than a rush strategy!

"Of course, I prefer to have it called the One Man Army deck," Riko replied showing his now flipped up face down card, revealing a trap card that had a ragged young man fist fighting in a large crowd of men. "And when you run such a deck, it's important to have cards that run with it! Like my trap card, Against the Odds! When you declare an attack against a monster on my field, and it's the only monster on my side, I can negate the attack!"

Bravo was growling loudly, but not as loudly when the remaining three bruisers began charging forward. "What the?! Wait! Stop!"

"They won't stop!" Riko explained as the Chaotix Tai Gars charged forward as well. "My trap card has another effect! If you have any other monsters out on the field, they attack my monster on my command!"

"NO!"

First the Fanged Bruiser leapt into the air, ready to deliver a powerful kick to the Chaotix Tai Gars. Until the holy warrior also leapt into the air, grabbing the bruiser's leg and slamming him into the nearby wall with a sickening crack. (BLP: 5800)

With their smallest comrade down, the two Bruiser Grunt Tokens charged to slam their fists into the being that killed their friend. However, the Chaotix Tai Gars saw the two bruisers coming, slamming his feet into the heads of the two Bruisers. The force sent the two Token monsters flying into the sky between the two buildings. (BLP: 4800)

"W-What the!?" Bravo was awe-struck, as was his Boss Bruiser King (2800/2000 – 600/0) since most of their comrades were no more. "How…how dare you!"

"…well, I guess I'm just daring," Riko commented as his Chaotix Tai Gars landed on the ground, spinning on his feet until he stood straight up with his arms crossed over his chest. "Besides, if you didn't have to attack me, you know. All you had to do was skip your battle phase, and you could've destroyed my monster next turn if you drew a set destruction card."

"Damn it…" Bravo growled as he fitted his next card into his duel disk, making the card appear behind his enraged Boss Bruiser King. "I've still got my Boss Bruiser out, and he's going to slam that little whelp into the ground!"

"I see," Riko stated raising the one card in his hand up to his face. "Then I'll just have to get rid of him then, now won't I?"

"W-What?!" Bravo questioned as a bright light shined over the dark alley.

"I activate the spell card, Card of Sanctity!" Riko announced as both duelists' duel disks beeped loudly a few times. "Now, thanks to the magical charms of my card, we can now draw six new cards."

"Grr…fine," Bravo was starting to lose his composure, not that he didn't have any in the first place, as he swiftly drew his next few cards.

"And now, I enter into my battle phase!" Riko announced as the Chaotix Tai Gars lifted his arms up into the air.

"Ha! Nice try! But I was ready for you!" Bravo interrupted as a powerful vortex appeared at the Chaotix Tai Gars' feet, making the warrior look down at it. "I activate my trap card, Karma Cut!"

"Karma Cut?" Riko asked, apparently this card had eluded his personal card database.

"It's the trap card version of Dark Core," Bravo explained fitting a card into his graveyard (his second Fist Bruiser), making the vortex at the Chaotix Tai Gars' feet erupt with dark energy.

Many question marks erupted around Riko's head, making him tilt his head to the side. "…and what pray tell does that do?"

"What? And you're the second best duelist here at the academy?" Bravo asked, not really believing it for a second that someone that high ranked in the academy wouldn't know what those two cards were known for.

"I'll let you in on a little secret," Riko stated rubbing the back of his head. "When I lost my sight, I really didn't take to my classes. That included the card statistic classes, so, whenever it came to my tests, I guess I was just lucky that they were all multiple choice so I could just guess the answers…"

"You're kidding me!?" Bravo shouted, dumbstruck by how lucky this kid was to become the second best duelist in the whole academy. "How the hell did you even make it like that!"

"Don't get me wrong," Riko stated adjusting his sunglasses slightly. "My dueling skills were up to par with the title I was given. But, I didn't see the need to memorize all the cards in the game…besides, unless you're the creator of the game or cards, I doubt you could either muscle man."

"Well what I do know is thanks to my trap," Bravo stated as many ghostly hands erupted from the vortex, pulling the Chaotix Tai Gars into the vortex. "Your Chaotix Tai Gars doesn't get to go to the graveyard, instead, I'm sending him on a one way trip to the remove from play pile!"

"I see, so your trap allows you to remove my monster from play," Riko stated before his holy warrior was pulled into the closing vortex.

"Heh! You seem rather calm for someone losing their key monster," Bravo admitted raising an eyebrow at the near empty field of his opponent.

"Who says I lost him?" Riko retorted holding a card back from Bravo.

"Eh?"

That's when several golden chains erupted from the walls, directly into the ground where the vortex was once at. The ground began to crack as the chains began to recede, pulling a familiar monster from the ground, the chains wrapped around his more muscular body. "I activate the spell card, Chains of Salvation! Now, I can special summon Chaotix Tai Gars from my removed from play pile, and all I had to do was discard a card from my hand!"

"Dude, I like bondage and all…but, I prefer it when there's a girl involved," Bravo admitted scoffing at the sight of the chained Chaotix Tai Gars.

Riko couldn't help but blink a few times from that little statement, "Um…well, I didn't need to know that…" That's when the Chaotix Tai Gars shattered all of the chains around its more muscular body (2000/2000 + 500/500), releasing the more powerful warrior to the ground. "…but what I do need to know is that my ace in the hole gains an additional five hundred points thanks to those chains!"

"N-No…" Bravo muttered as his Boss Bruiser King stepped back a few feet, even he could feel the tension created by the Chaotix Tai Gars's very presence. "No way…y-you managed to counter my move at the last second…"

"And thanks to your trap, he's stronger than before," Riko explained as the Chaotix Tai Gars began to run forward. "And since my spell was a quick play, my battle phase is still on! Chaotix Tai Gars! Attack his bruiser!"

In a blue and red blur, the Chaotix Tai Gars slide right in front of the surprised Boss Bruiser King. Before the King could react, the Chaotix Tai Gars slammed his fists into the big Bruiser, sending him floating upwards for a few seconds before the holy warrior delivered a powerful kick to the bruiser's face, sending the Boss Bruiser sky high! (BLP: 4500)

"My…my Boss Bruiser King…" Bravo moaned at the sight of both his monster's dramatic exit, and the fact that his entire army was killed by a single monster by this little man's monster.

Two cards appeared behind the muscular Chaotix Tai Gars, making the warrior smirk confidently with his duelist. "I'll end my turn muscle man…heh, that's kinda ironic since my monster's almost the same size as you…"

"Oh yeah? Then how about I show you someone who's even bigger?" Bravo shouted snapping another card from his hand, giving him a full six cards. "When you summoned that monster, I thought he was nothing more than a weakling…someone who couldn't stand in this world of ours…and someone who could just be brushed aside…"

Riko raised an eyebrow at Bravo's last sentence. The Bruiser duelist certainly was starting to take a liking to the Chaotix Tai Gars, maybe there was some deep significance that spoke out to Bravo…

"I can understand your monster perfectly," Bravo sighed, turning his head to the side, the shadow of his hair covering his eyes. "No matter how many times someone knocks him down, he'll just keep getting up again and again till he surpasses those that send him to the ground!"

A powerful fiery aura erupted over Bravo's body, making both the Chaotix Tai Gars and Riko sweatdrop at the muscular Yokai's passion, "I don't know what will happen at the end of this duel, but whatever happens to you, shades, I will honor you and your monster by adding him to my deck! He will not be discarded, never!"

"Well, uh, that's very kind of you…" Riko stuttered rubbing the back of his head instinctively. "…I think…"

"I'm glad you agree!" Bravo announced slapping his next card to his duel disk, allowing a second fiery aura to erupt on the field. "So, I'll introduce you to someone that is the exact same! A fiery soul who will never give up, until he surpasses anyone around him! I summon, Bruiser in-Training!"

Stepping from the flames was a young skinny teenaged man with a scar racing across the bridge of his nose, with wild red hair flares over his head that resembled that of the flames that were behind him. On the back of his black jacket were the four suits of playing cards, shown as he spun around on his heel (1400/1200).

"I see…" Riko stated, learning that all of Bravo's monsters, although strange in appearance, were known to be rather dangerous. "Then, I welcome your challenge! Bring it on!"

"Fine! I activate the equip spell, Weight Shackles!" Bravo announced as two pairs of matching weights appeared on the wrists and ankles of the Bruiser in-Training (1400/1200 – 600/600). "Sure it lowers his attack and defense…but wait till you see what he can do! With this resistance he will train, and train, and train!"

Throwing the shackles to side, the fiery aura engulfed the Bruiser in-Training, covering his body for a few minutes. The flames whipped about the field spell's alleyway, making the Chaotix Tai Gars step back a few feet. Even Riko lifted his arm up from the heat. '_This…this power?! I guess he's not just a bag of hot air after all!'_

The flames scattered, showing a much more muscular version of the Bruiser in-Training with his clothes almost ripped off of his body. The bruiser was now in his early twenties with multiple scars racing on his face, but his right eye was covered up by his long fiery red hair that went past his broad shoulders. On his large black overcoat are the four card suites that were exposed as the monster slammed his fist into the nearby wall (2800/2400). "Meet the worst of the worst! The Royal Flush Bruiser!"

"I'm impressed that you managed to summon such an impressive monster," Riko replied raising his duel disk up as if it was a shield. "But strength isn't everything…"

"I agree," Bravo admitted crossing his arms. "But, we'll see about that! Royal Flush Bruiser! Attack the Chaotix Tai Gars! Royal Flush Punch!"

With a loud battle cry, the over muscular bruiser charged forward, the flames trailing behind him as he pulled his fist back, ready to take down the holy warrior. But Riko had other plans, throwing his hand out over one of his face down cards, "Nice try! But I activate the quick play spell, Heavenly Battle Cry! Now my monster gains one thousand attack points, so your attack…"

The Chaotic Tai Gars (3500/2500) leapt over the Royal Flush Bruiser's fist, placing his hands on the large monster's arm, ready to slam his foot into the bruiser's face. "…isn't over!" Bravo shouted snatching a card from his hand. "I activate the instant spell card, Shrink! Now your monster loses half of those attack points!"

The holy monster's foot slammed into the Bruiser's face, however, the Bruiser just smirked at the slightly thinner Chaotix Tai Gars (1750/2500). The next second, the Royal Flush Bruiser snatched onto the Chaotix Tai Gars's foot, spinning the holy warrior directly into the alleyway's wall, a sickening crack echoing through the air. (RLP: 2650)

"Eh…that's not good…" Riko gulped loudly looking at his duel disk's life point counter.

"You haven't seen anything yet!" Bravo shouted as his Royal Flush Bruiser began to fire up once more, performing several muscle man poses (2800/2400 + 800/0). "Because when my bruiser destroys a monster as a result of battle, he becomes more confident and stronger! So, he'll gain one hundred attack points times the level of the destroyed monster, and since yours was a level eight, he'll be able to crush your Chaotix Tai Gars, no matter how strong he becomes!"

"…you're right," Riko stated as the ground began to erupt, allowing the Chaotix Tai Gars to leap back on the field, his muscles even bigger than before, and his face now sporting a rugged beard (2500/2500 + 500/500). "But…we won't know…"

Riko drew his next card, thanks to his Card of Safe Return, his eyes narrowing down behind his sunglasses, "Until we try!"

"Then bring it!" Bravo challenged.

TBC

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Card Stats**

**Against the Odds / Trap / Effect:** This card can only be activated when your opponent declares an attack against a monster on your side of the field and you only have one monster on the field. Negate the attack. Then, all other monsters on your opponent's side of the field must attack the one monster you have on your side of the field.

**Image:** A ragged man fighting several brutish monsters.

**Chains of Salvation / Quick-Play Spell / Effect:** Discard one card from your hand to activate this card. Special summon one 'Chaotix Tai Gars' that was removed from play to your side of the field. Increase the printed attack and defense of the special summoned monster by 500 points.

**Image:** The Chaotix Tai Gars being wrapped up by several shattering chains.

**True State of Mind / Trap / Effect:** During this turn, your life points take no battle damage.

**Image:** The Chaotix Tai Gars meditating in a field.

**Boss Bruiser King / Earth / LV. 7 / ATK: 2000 / DEF: 2000 / Warrior/Effect:** For each monster on your side of the field with 'Bruiser' in their name, you may increase this monster's attack by 200 points. This card cannot be destroyed by targeting effects.

**Description:** A fancy and large muscled man with long blonde hair with a black leather jacket with many chains and a crown on the back of his jacket.

**Bruiser in-Training /Fire / LV. 4 / ATK: 1400 / DEF: 1200 / Warrior/Effect:** When this card is equipped with 'Weight Shackles' you may tribute this card to special summon one 'Royal Flush Bruiser' from your hand or graveyard.

**Description:** A young skinny teen with a scar racing across the bridge of his nose. His wild red hair flares over his head that resembles a flame. On the back of his black jacket are the four suits of playing cards

**Royal Flush Bruiser / Fire / LV. 8 / ATK: 2800 / DEF: 2400 / Warrior/Effect:** This card cannot be normal summoned or set. This card cannot be special summoned except by the effect of 'Bruiser in-Training'. Whenever this card destroys a monster as a result of battle, increase this monster's attack by 100 points times the level of the destroyed monster. When this monster would be destroyed or removed from play, you lower this monster's attack by 800 points to keep this card on the field (When this card's attack reaches 0 through this effect, destroy this card).

**Description:** A muscular man in his early twenties with multiple scars on his face, but his right eye is covered up by his long fiery red hair that went past his broad shoulders. On his large black overcoat are the four card suites.

**Fanged Bruiser / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 200 / Warrior/Effect:** When this card is special summoned from your graveyard, you may special summon all 'Fanged Bruiser' cards from your hand, deck or graveyard.

**Description: **A dark blue haired teen wearing a red long sleeved jacket with many belts and chains wrapped around it.

**Weight Shackles / Equip Spell / Effect:** The equipped monster equipped with this card loses 600 attack and defense points.

**Image:** Many weights being added onto a skinny man's frame.

**Call the Gang / Spell / Effect:** Pay 1000 life points. Special summon one level four or lower monster from your graveyard with 'Bruiser' in it's name.

**Image:** A muscular man shouting out to other gang members.

**Spare Resources / Trap / Effect:** As long as this card remains in your graveyard, all players' spell and trap cards are not considered to take up space in their spell and trap card zones.

**Image:** A large storage facility with overflowing packages and junk.

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

_**Luke:**_ And now, for something completely different!

_**Ganryu: **_…what the hell are you doing?

_**Luke:**_ What does it look like? I'm doing the preview with some sparks and comedy!

_**Ganryu:**_ …you're an idiot.

_**Luke:**_Hey!

_**From the challenges of the Twilight Generators, to the trials to the Clocktower, will Luke luck out from the trials with his deck's true power? **_

_**Next time – **__**Chapter 46: Tranquil and Chaos**_

_**Luke:**_ Wait…why am I dueling?

_**Ganryu:**_ Because you're expendable.

_**Luke:**_ …I'm not expendable…

_**Big Boss:**_ Yes you are.


	47. Chapter 46: Tranquil and Chaos

_**Duel Spirits.**_

_**According to the theory, when Pegasus J. Crawford (or Maximillion as he liked to be called) created the game, he some how unlocked an ancient world of monsters that can manifest themselves in our cards. Once in a great while, Duel Spirits can actually appear in our world with a physical body, or if someone knows how, they can actually perform a ritual summoning for them.**_

_**Sounds like a stupid idea to me.**_

_**The aspect of duel monsters coming out of cards, that I can believe (mainly since I faced that coking pervert a while back), it's the fact that someone would even go to the bother to summon one of these duel spirits especially if its for a mundane reason…**_

…_**kinda like if they're being used as a guard as such. Sure they're powerful, but if you have one as a guard, it's obvious that there's something worthwhile to even face such a creature.**_

_**We've got one such creature before us, so, in order to finish this mission that the two of us have gotten…we've got to take this big guy out!**_

_**But, at the moment, I'm too tired and annoyed by these stairs to duel this idiot…so I'll let the other idiot duel him.**_

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

_**Chapter 46**_

_**Tranquil and Chaos**_

_**0-0-0-0-0-0**_

While the explosions erupted outside the large clock tower, two familiar students ran up the seemingly endless stairway. "You'd think they'd put in an elevator in something this tall!"

"Are you that stupid?" Ganryu snarled stopping at the stairs he was at to look down at a sweating Luke. "Even if they did have an elevator, using it would give away our position to the enemy…that's a given to anyone even hoping to gain surprise in a battle."

"…we're in battle?" Luke asked looking around only to see the stairs around him. "I mean, I know the stairs are a tough enemy, but I think that…"

"What the hell are you babbling on about?" Ganryu sighed rubbing his forehead a few times. "We're in enemy territory and I'm sure not going to let this be my final chapter in my story! Now get off your ass and get back to climbing these stairs!"

Standing up straight, Luke dusted off his pants slightly before walking up the stairs once more. "Fine, you don't have to be such a jerk about it."

"Just hurry up!" Ganryu snapped.

"Yeesh!"

Unfortunately, unknown to Ganryu's perspective someone did know where their position. In fact, he had sensed them ever since the two step foot into the clocktower, as it was thanks to the Twilight Crystal that he now held in between his fingers.

"…run as fast as you like," Eternity Angelo chuckled looking into the Twilight Crystal, almost seeing Ganryu and Luke run over the stairs. "…as long as I possess this, you'll run as far as I want…"

But that wasn't Eternity Angelo's style.

They were his guests after all, albeit uninvited guests, but still guests. It was only the job of a proper host to provide some sort of entertainment for them. And thanks to Beck foresight, Eternity Angelo had three extra helping hands to greet these two. "…but which one would be the best?"

He still had a lot of time until the two reached the halfway point on the stairs, that's when Eternity Angelo would spring the trap. "…and I know exactly which one to send."

_**0-0-0-0-0-0**_

Speaking of the enemy…

From falling cloud of smoke, Beck slowly stood up dusting off his now slightly tattered clothes, "Damn it! These were designer!"

…unfortunately, that was only thing damaged.

Snapping his fingers a few times, four cloaked Yokai members appeared in front of Beck as he removed his bandana from the top of his slightly singed hair. "Alright, you three, I want you to go after that idiot that attacked this clock tower and whoever saved that idiot…"

That's when Beck's cold glare transformed into a soft smile at the remaining Yokai. "And as for you, I want you to go back to my dorm room and grab some good clothes…and make sure that they're matching."

The fourth Yokai's eyes widened as Beck slowly began to head back to the clock tower.

The other three Yokai snickered at the fourth's expense; one even wagged his finger at the fourth while chuckling. "Heh, looks like you got the dangerous job, Hesh."

"Aw man, Hesh is always getting the hard jobs!" Hesh exclaimed throwing his arms over his chest as he stood up. "Hesh is going to get a chick to help!"

"…do you have to refer to yourself in the third person?" Another Yokai asked tilting his head slightly to the right.

"Hesh says shut up!"

Meanwhile…

Hiding out in the Obelisk Blue cafeteria was a good choice, especially if you were only in a group of two duelists. "Miss Cleo! Thanks for saving me again, ya know!"

"Asche, you've been saying that for the last five minutes," Cleo growled massaging the sides of her head to relieve some of the pain that Asche had been giving her. "I get the point!"

"Uh, okay, ya know," Asche muttered with a large sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head as he looked around the cafeteria. "So…are there other blue students?"

"We've got them hidden somewhere when that weird light came over the island," Cleo explained sitting down at one of the tables. "A few of us actually volunteered to look for others since the phone lines are down…"

"…no disrespect Miss Cleo," Asche sighed lifting his hand up into the air. "But, if you volunteered, it sounds like you went to find the cute guys…ya know?"

Now Asche was just asking for trouble now, and yet, he didn't know it even when Cleo had held up her fist ready to strike him. "Asche…"

"Heh, so this is where the party is at, eh? Most interesting…"

A single light illuminated a single table in the cafeteria, showing that a familiar purple overcoat wearing man stood atop of the table with his arms held out before he spun around. "But I fail to see the logic here. No music, no food, there's only one hot chick here and she's already got a date here."

"Who is that, ya know?" Asche asked lifting his hand to magnify his line of sight.

Shaking the slight blush from her face, Cleo finally caught sight of the man who was standing before them, "I don't believe it, it's…Vic!"

"…in the flesh and blood!" Vic laughed loudly from behind his cough-prevention mask as he stepped down from the table, the light following him as he raised up his duel disk armed arm. "So good to see you two here!"

"Did you escape from this weird invasion too, ya know?" Asche asked tilting his head slightly to the side.

Vic remained silent as he slowly walked closer and closer towards the two Obelisk Blues until he spun around on his heel. "I guess you could say that…but, I don't think that it would really describe my case."

"Tell me, you both are a part of the elite blue duelists…surely you keep up with the news of other academies, correct?"

"Well, I do at least," Cleo answered.

"Good, good," Vic replied nodding his head. "I'm more curious about what you heard about with the Pacific Duel academy."

"Well…" Cleo was at a loss of words, the latest thing she had read about concerning the academy's sister duel academy was that financial power was transferred back to the original headmaster/principal…but that was over a month and a half ago.

"That was my original academy as you are no doubt aware of," Vic interrupted raising his finger at the two. "The second best duelist in the entire academy, the Dark World Prince…but let me ask you something, why am I standing before you when I held onto such a title?"

Before the two blues could even reply, Vic continued on. "Well, I was on a quest to go to the top. Why, you may ask? Well, no one remembers your name when you're the second best or second rate. But hey, anyone calling themselves human can understand where I'm coming from, it's only natural that humans want to be the best they can be."

"Yeah, but where's this all going?" Cleo asked.

"I'll be getting to the point," Vic answered wagging his finger at the two blues. "I sought to become the Dark World Kaiser, anything to get past that Die Hard Ass! But every step of the way I was knocked down, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't claim what I sought for so long…but now, now I have a chance to be at the top, not Kaiser but even more…"

The lights on Vic's duel disk went active, gleaming off a bright purple light. "…and the only thing I have to do to reach that goal," Vic slowly raised his hand once more to the two blues, this time his pointer and middle finger pointed at them both, "Is beat you two! Right here, right now!"

"What?! Don' you know what's been happening when people duel here, ya know?" Asche asked blinking a few times.

"Of course, why wouldn't I know?" Vic asked holding up the deck of his cards towards the two blue duelists. "But you need not worry…this duel is nothing more than, well, how to put this? I know, think of it as the monthly exams we have at the academies…"

"And how do you propose to prevent us from being like everyone else here who's lost a duel?!" Cleo pointed out.

Reaching into his back pocket, Vic produced a single card that had a black border and a yellow cross on it. Tossing the card on the ground in between him and the two Obelisk Blues, Vic smirked as light began to emit from the card. "No worries, now then…"

"DUEL!"

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

"Aw man, are we there yet?"

"For the last time stop asking!"

Every five minutes.

That was how long it took till Luke asked that question as he and Ganryu scaled the stairs from since the last time they took a break. If Luke asked that question once more, Ganryu swore that he'd kick the monk duelist right over the edge of the stares.

"Hey Ganryu…" Luke started.

Ganryu stopped dead in his tracks, readying his foot to kick Luke off of the stairs, "What?" he spoke with venom dripping off his tongue.

"Looks like we're here," Luke sighed pointing past the Samurai duelist.

As Ganryu turned around, he was met with what Luke was pointing at. A few stairs up was a large fancy door that was decorated with several forest green jewels and such giving the door a different look than what one might've expected in a clock tower. "…why didn't I notice that?"

"Its like it just popped out of no where," Luke answered slowly stepping towards the door, raising his hand to touch the door.

"What the hell are you doing?" Ganryu snapped as he stopped Luke from touching the door. "We have no clue what this damn thing can even do!"

"Yeah, but it's a door, and as a door," Luke stated lifting his other hand up towards the door. "We need to open it to continue!"

"No you idiot!" Ganryu shouted aiming to take the other hand; unfortunately he was unable to stop Luke from placing his hand on the door.

Not even a second passed when a bright light engulfed the two duelists in its glare, blinding the two for a few minutes.

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

A few minutes later, the light began to die down around the two duelists, leaving them both with a jaw dropping sight. The stairs had disappeared completely and rather, the two were now surrounded by a beautiful forested area that had several exotic trees, and even a cloudy sky floating overhead.

Wherever the two were, it certainly wasn't the clocktower…

"This is amazing," Luke whistled out rubbing his eyes a few times, disbelief coursing through his mind.

Ganryu had bigger things on his mind other than the foliage, like the fact that they weren't alone in this forested area. In fact the two were surrounded…and just as Ganryu lifted his duel disk up, he saw what had surrounded them. It was several forest animals, deer, chipmunks, beavers; there was even a moose or two. "…I don't like this…not one bit…"

"Huh?" Luke questioned before he noticed the many animals. "So? They're just a bunch of overgrown plushies…"

"…not what I'm getting at you dolt," Ganryu growled his eyes shifting to the right and left. "It's strange that we're suddenly in a forest…and that weird aura isn't even around here."

"Now that you mention it," Luke muttered.

SNAP!

That sound echoed through the clear sky, making both duelists raise their duel disks into the air. "_**HUMANS!**_"

Many leaves and branches flew into the air as a large muscular figure scarred the sky above them. The shadow of the muscular figure began to grow over the two duelists, making them jump to the side before the shadow's owner crashed into the ground sending a large amount of dirt and dust flying into the air between the two duelists.

Slowly the dirt began to fall showing that the shadow's owner was a large muscular man dressed in gold and blue armor. However, the man's head was actually that of a panther's head with purple fur that ran over the beastly-warrior's body. Luke stumbled back taken by the sight of the monster and its almost lifeless yellow eyes. "W-What the?! P-P-P…"

Since Luke had lost his ability to speak, Ganryu stood up, sending a cold glare against the one he and Luke were getting. "…Panther Warrior…"

Indeed, it was one of the infamous luck duelist's monsters staring down the two. Luke fell backwards, his eyes widened at the sight of the monster. "B-B-But…he's supposed to be…"

"Yeah, you're supposed to be a card," Ganryu finished knowing full well what Luke was getting at. Even Ganryu was a little unsettled at the fact of seeing this monster stand before him.

Slowly, the Panther Warrior barred his teeth and began to growl loudly. "_**Filthy humans…why have you trespassed upon this sacred ground?**_"

"Sacred ground?" Ganryu spat out from under his breath.

"_**Yes, any land that is untouched by the filth of you humans is considered sacred amongst animals,**_" Panther Warrior answered crossing its arms over its armored chest.

"Huh? What the heck are you talking about?" Luke asked finally regaining his composure.

"_**You humans…wherever you extend your venomous touch,**_" Panther Warrior explained twisting its head towards Luke. "_**Pollution, those cities, and stealing land that does not belong to you…you humans are the bane of our planet's existence.**_"

"…are you done yet?" Ganryu sighed rolling his eyes at Panther Warrior.

"_**What? You dare speak to me in such a disrespectful tone?**_" Panther Warrior growled, making Luke take another step away from the beast-warrior.

"Ganryu, maybe you shouldn't piss off the nine foot tall beast man who could rip us like tissue people!" Luke shouted, unfortunately, his protests fell on deaf ears.

"I dare, you overgrown furball," Ganryu replied flicking some of his hair away from his eyes. "You say that humans are the bane of the world, and then you yourself are a walking contradiction. You're a beast-warrior, meaning that you're part human. Whether you're a mutant, a cursed human, or a hybrid of some sort…"

"…ew," Luke spat his tongue out at the last line.

"…the fact of the matter stands that you're just as corrupted as the two of us," Ganryu stated pointing towards himself and Luke with his finger and thumb. "You can act as a protector of nature if you want, but how about you let me and the idiot leave here? You do that, and we'll make sure that this place will never be touched by human feet again…save for yours of course."

"_**Insolate human!**_" Panther Warrior roared loudly, its fangs barred and claws extended, before leaping towards Ganryu. "_**How dare you slander my righteous mission! Die!**_"

"Ganryu! Move!" Luke shouted.

However, all Ganryu did was hold up five cards from the top of his deck, making five lights erupt around him. The lights immediately became the five samurai of the five scrolls, allowing all five of the Japanese Warriors to tackle into the surprised Panther Warrior. "_**What is this!?**_"

"Whoa, Ganryu!" Luke shouted running around the struggling Panther Warrior. "How'd you know how to do that?"

"…I didn't," Ganryu replied looking at the five cards that had held onto the five Samurai.

"WHAT!?" Luke shouted.

"Anyway, none of my Samurai will be able to hold him," Ganryu pointed out, and as if to illustrate his point, the Panther Warrior punched the Samurai of Earth, sending the samurai flying into the air. "Yeah…so we kinda got to think of something…"

"How can you act so cool at a time like this?!" Luke muttered under his breath.

"You'd be surprised," Ganryu replied shaking his head. "But, enough of that, I have a plan that can get us out of here."

"Really? What is it?" Luke asked blinking a few times as the Samurai of Water was thrown screaming into the air.

"…If there's an entrance to this place," Ganryu explained turning around. "Then more than likely, there's an exit. I'm going to find it…I need to you do a distraction…"

"WHAT THE?! ARE YOU FRICKEN KIDDING ME!?" Luke shouted waving his arms around in the air. "What do expect me to do!? Dress in drag and do the hula?!"

"…I'd rather you didn't," Ganryu said, trying his hardest not to have that thought pictured in his head. "Look, what we're dealing with here, is a duel spirit."

"Duel Spirit?" Luke questioned before tapping his finger against his chin a few times. "Oh yeah…now I remember. Isn't that the spirit of a duel monster card?"

"Correct, and what's a better way to deal with a duel spirit," Ganryu stated as the Samurai of the Sky was punched into the air. "Than with a duel?"

"But…" Luke stated before the two remaining two Samurai were thrown off of the Panther Warrior, a loud roar echoing through the air making Luke turn around. "Ep!"

"_**You foolish human! How dare you taint my fur with those disgraceful human warriors!**_" Panther Warrior roared slamming its fist into the ground a few times.

Luke couldn't help but notice that Panther Warrior was glaring at him with the beast-warrior had roared that protest. So pointing to himself a few times, Luke blinked in confusion. "Uh…are you talking to me?"

"_**Don't be stupid! Of course I am!**_" Panther Warrior shouted its yellow eyes glaring down on the monk duelist. "_**The other filthy human escaped…but once I finish with you, I'll track him down!**_"

"W-Wait!" Luke shouted activating his duel disk in front of the Panther Warrior. "I…I uh…challenge you to a duel!"

Those words seemed to ring to Panther Warrior's twitching ears. "_**A duel? You wish to duel against me?**_"

"Uh…yes?" Luke replied.

Standing up straight, the Panther Warrior cracked its neck a few times until lifted its shield up. "If that is what you desire…" the duel spirit's shield melded until it formed into a gold and purple duel disk. "…then I shall grant you that one last request…"

"Wait, what happened to your voice?" Luke asked reaching for the back of his belt where his deck case was located.

"As much as I hate to admit it," Panther Warrior sighed lifting the duel disk up to show that a deck of cards had appeared in the deck slot. "That fellow filthy human was right. I am partially human, and as such, I can control my voice to sound more human than beast at times…but you shouldn't get comfortable, the moment that this duel is over, I'm ripping you limb from limb."

"Wait; even if I win I'll get maimed?" Luke shouted with his eyes widening even more. "Then why are you dueling me?!"

"Even if you are a human," Panther Warrior explained slowly drawing the five cards, as to not to pierce the cards with his claws. "I'm not going to relinquish a final request of a living creature."

"…how kind of you," Luke moaned with his duel disk activating. '_Hopefully Ganryu can hurry up before this duel is over with!'_

"Let us commence!" Panther Warrior announced holding up his five cards that he had already drawn. (PWLP: 8000)

"…I prefer the saying, 'let's duel'!" Luke replied scratching the back of his head before he snapped off the top five cards of his deck. "But it's the same concept." (LLP: 8000)

"And I shall start then," Panther Warrior announced ignoring Luke's comment as he drew his sixth card. "Come forth my fellow protector of nature, Giant Rat!"

As Panther Warrior placed the card onto his duel disk, a large blue rat dug itself from the ground, a slightly bloodied skull grasped between its teeth (1400/1450). "Next…I shall reserve one card in the back barracks. And then allow you to make a pathetic attempt for a counter measure, you filthy human."

"…can't you talk like a regular duelist?!" Luke asked pulling his sixth card from his deck. "Like this! I set a monster and call it a turn!"

Just as the face down card appeared before Luke, Panther Warrior's face down card flipped up, showing a young woman dancing in the rain. "However, you will not be able to do so, not until my trap card, Solemn Wishes activates. Now, whenever a card is drawn into my grasp, my life force shall increase by additional five hundred points."

"…seriously, do you have to talk like that?" Luke protested. If this was his last duel, then he didn't want to deal with this crap.

"Commence!" Panther Warrior shouted snapping off another card from his deck, allowing him to bask in the light of his trap card. (PWLP: 8500)

"I guess not," Luke sighed.

"Hiding behind a shield," Panther Warrior stated lifting another card from his hand, slapping the card onto the duel disk. "Then I will shatter that shield with my purveyor of nature's justice! I call forth Centaur Swordsman!"

Another shadow leapt from the trees, however, unlike the Panther Warrior, this one was a horsemen dressed in armor from the waist up with a long sword in its grasp that galloped on the field a few times (1800/1900) before he twirled his sword into the air. With a clenched fist, Panther Warrior threw his arm to the side. "And now, strike down that face down monster Centaur Swordsman!"

Without a moment's hesitation, the Centaur leapt forward, the sword being brought from overhead as the face down monster flipped up. Just as the sword was about to slice through the monster, two rough hands clapped onto the blade. The blade was held in place before it contact with the monster's skin (1000/2000). "Sorry beastie, but my face down monster was known as Meditating Monk!"

The blade was thrown backwards making the Centaur Swordsman stagger backwards, revealing that the monster that had caught the blade was a young monk with long blonde hair covering his dark glaring eyes, with his clothes resembling the Monk Fighter's fighter gi only topaz yellow. "And since my monster has more defense points, you take damage!"

Panther Warrior flinched slightly before it raised another card from its hand up. "Grr…not that it matters…" (PWLP: 8300)

A set card appeared behind the Panther Warrior's two monsters. "I'll place a little something in the barracks, and allow you to make a foolish move…"

"If I'm so foolish," Luke stated as he snapped his next card into his hand. "Then how come I managed to inflict damage to your life points…the first damage?"

"That was mere inconvenience," Panther Warrior stated bluntly without hesitating.

"Yeah…you keep telling yourself that," Luke sighed as his Meditating Monk began to chant out loud. "I on the other hand have a monster effect to play, and it's a costly one. Since my Meditating Monk is face up on the field, I can pay five hundred points…" (LLP: 7500)

The Meditating Monk began to glow a soft yellow light, allowing Luke to pull of another card from the top of his deck. "…and because I did that, I can draw another card."

"You would make your time on this earth shorter than it was already determined then go ahead," Panther Warrior sneered shaking its head at Luke.

"I'm so going to enjoy this move…" Luke growled holding up a spell card, fitting it into his duel disk. "I activate the spell card, Gather Your Mind!"

"A useless card for a useless duelist," Panther Warrior stated.

"Useless? Maybe…but when used correctly," Luke replied before a large chain erupted from the ground to strike his appearing spell card. "It can work wonders for my strategy! I chain my spell with the card known as Chain Gang! This card can only be activated when a normal spell card is activated. First it negates the card's effect, and then every copy of that card in our decks gets sent to the graveyard. In this case all Gather Your Mind cards are gone!"

"I do not possess such a useless card," Panther Warrior stated as his duel shield glowed brightly.

"Maybe," Luke replied crossing his arm over his chest to reach for his dueling deck. "But I certainly do…so I lose all three of the cards."

Panther Warrior's eyes narrowed down as Luke pulled out the two other copies of his spell card from his deck, slipping them into his duel disk's graveyard slot. "When will you stop these pointless moves?"

"Now who ever said that those were pointless moves?" Luke replied waving one of the cards he had in his hand. "For me, having those cards in the graveyard, my ultimate strategy can finally begin! You see, while I don't know much about nature, I do know about how to coincide with nature. In fact the monsters in my deck are rather well in tuned with nature…"

Fitting the card into his duel disk, a large Buddhist temple began to erect itself from the ground around the two duelists, many golden statues of bulls appearing as well. "…in fact, while they may make buildings, this is the most they usually build, only the necessities."

"How dare you defile this sacred ground with this building?" Panther Warrior roared, slamming his clawed foot into the ground a few times.

"Yeesh, don't be so loud," Luke sighed as three orbs of light began to circle him. "Anyway, this is my Monk's Training Hall, and for each Gather Your Mind card in my graveyard when activated my hall gains a counter. So since I had three…well, its now really not that hard to guess how many counters I get."

"…keep up that obnoxious attitude," Panther Warrior growled. "It'll make it all the sweeter to rip out those vocal chords of yours."

Trying his best not to think about that, Luke simply raised his hand up. "Now then, by getting rid of one of my counters, I can return my Meditating Monk back to my deck."

One of the orbs of light flew into the Meditating Monk's back, making him become an orb of light himself that flew onto Luke's duel disk. As Luke lifted up the card from his duel disk, his deck popped out into his hand as he began searching through the cards, "Then, I can special summon another Monk from my deck with a level equal to or lower than the one I returned. So, I'm thinking how about I special summon Brash Monk in attack mode!"

From the top of the Monk's Hall, a young monk with short cut red hair exposing his dark glaring eyes, leapt over the roof. This monk's clothes that resembled the Monk Fighter's only ruby red fluttered in the air before the red themed monk landed on the ground (1750/1000). "And now, Brash Monk, attack and destroy that Giant Rodent!"

Panther Warrior looked down at his face down card, it was an interesting trap that could stop his opponent's attack…but since he could use this attack to his advantage…

The Brash Monk leapt into the air once more, this time delivering a spinning jump kick that collided with the side of the Giant Rat's head with a sickening crack that echoed through the air. (PWLP: 7950)

"For a human you do have some use," Panther Warrior scoffed as its hand slowly reached for its duel disk. "Since you destroyed my Giant Rat, I now can summon an earth monster of my own…"

"Don't think so!"

The Panther Warrior snapped its head up just in time to see the Brash Monk grab its wrist. "What is this?"

"Sorry," Luke chuckled wagging a finger at Panther Warrior. "But since my Brash Monk was special summoned thanks to my Hall's effect, any monster he destroys in battle has its effect negated!"

"Then…then that means…" Panther Warrior stuttered before the Brash Monk leapt back to Luke's field.

"Whatever strategy you had before…it won't work now!" Luke announced fitting another card into his duel disk, making it appear behind his Brash Monk. "And to end my turn, I'll set this little number face down…and call it a turn."

Panther Warrior was silent as he slowly drew its next card, its yellow eyes trailed over the card until they curved into a sneer look. And once more, the beast-man's Solemn Wishes activated. "Oh…but with my deck, a strategy can reform itself in an instant." (PWLP: 8450)

"I activate the spell card, Star Blast!"

The spell card erupted in front of the beastly-warrior, forming into a picture of a duelist lifting his arms up to block an explosion from a star. "Now, by paying five hundred life points, I can lower the level of one monster on the field or in my hand by one." (PWLP: 7950)

"So…that means what exactly?" Luke asked as Panther Warrior waved a card in its clawed fingers.

"It means that now the level seven monster in my hand," Panther Warrior explained reaching for the duel shield, pulling the Centaur Swordsman card off his duel disk. "Is now a level six, meaning now, I can sacrifice my monster for an extremely powerful one!"

The Centaur Swordsman disappeared, leaving only a small orb of light that floated over the ground for a few seconds. The orb of light crashed into the ground, making the entire earth rumble so ferociously that Luke almost lost his footing. The ground erupted allowing a large hand to claw its way up on top of the ground, pulling a large gigantic man like creature with dull skin dressed in dirty loincloth and holding onto a large club (which was actually a tree) (2700/0). "Meet the Giant!"

"…yikes…" Luke muttered under his breath, unable to really say about the Giant.

"Giant! Attack his damn warrior!" Panther Warrior commanded as the Giant lumbered forward, lifting the club to strike down the Brash Monk.

"Actually, my Monk is really a rock-type monster," Luke corrected before the club came smashing down on his monk, with a loud sickening squish. "…although, it appears that he dies the same way a warrior would…" (LLP: 6550)

"Heh, to end my turn," Panther Warrior announced fitting another card into its duel disk. "I activate the spell card, Foolish Burial. I send Griffin from my deck to the graveyard…"

"…Okay…now you're just confusing me…" Luke stated as he drew his next card. "Who's the one making bad moves?"

"That would still be you," Panther Warrior stated with its arms crossed. "Let's look at the field for a moment, you've got one face down and your now useless spell card…I highly doubt that what you've got in your hand is any good either…"

He hated to admit it…but that overgrown furball was right, his face down card was Rock Bombardment…and it would help…but only if he could use it. "…I set a monster face down…turn end."

"Now you're running scared," Panther warrior smirked (or what looked like a smirk to Luke) as it drew another card from its deck, the lights of its trap card raining down on it. (PWLP: 8450)

Without a word, Panther Warrior slapped the next card onto the duel disk, allowing a small fox like creature to appear on the field at the Panther Warrior's feet, yawning loudly as its tail whipped about (1300/1200). "Allow me to introduce the Sly Fox…and he's got an interesting ability, he allows me to look at all of your set cards once per turn!"

"W-What?!" Luke announced as his face down cards flipped up, showing his Rock Bombardment and a second Meditating Monk.

"Nothing to fret about," Panther Warrior sighed, almost annoyed by the fact that he had to summon Sly Fox. "Giant! Stomp that face down monster!"

The face down Meditating Monk was immediately crushed under the Giant's large foot, shattering the card into hundreds of pixels. "And now, Sly Fox! Attack him directly!"

Luke raised his duel disk just at the last second, having the small fox leap up to snap its fangs onto the machine. Although, the bite was still having an effect on his life point counter before Luke knocked the fox away. (LLP: 5250)

"This duel is as good as done," Panther Warrior announced as it fitted another card into its duel disk, making it appear next to the other card. "I'll set another card in reserve, and leave you to fight against my ever growing army."

"Oh for the love of…shut up!" Luke roared pulling off another card from his deck. "Now this is a matter of pride! I summon Monk Fighter in attack mode!"

The doors to the Monk's Training Hall slammed open, allowing the familiar Monk Fighter to slowly walk from the halls, cracking his knuckles loudly (1300/1000).

"In attack mode?" Panther Warrior stepped back, could this filthy human actually know.

"Yes! I plan on taking down that Giant!" Luke shouted holding his next card up in his fingers. "I activate the spell card, Kaminote Blow! Now, for this one turn, my Monk Fighter can destroy any monster he battles! Three guesses which monster I'm attacking!"

The Monk Fighter roared loudly, throwing his right fist back ready to suicide with the Giant. However, the Giant stumbled to it knees with its face lowered to get clobbered by the surprised Monk Fighter. Luke just blinked a few times as the Giant shattered into several pixels. "What the hell?" (PWLP: 7150)

"My Giant has negative effects," Panther Warrior explained turning its head to the side. "When he becomes the target for an attack, he switches to defense mode. Then the difference between your monster's attack points and my Giant's defense becomes damage to my life points."

"Well…that seems…strange," Luke admitted rubbing the back of his head.

"True, but because of that, my army," Panther Warrior announced as its duel shield and face down card began to glow. "I activate the effect of the trap card, Damage Condenser!"

A strange device erupted behind Panther Warrior, surging with electricity as the Beast-Warrior lifted its dueling deck into the air. "A card that represents my hatred for you humans, but, when combined with my strategy, I can end this duel quickly. By relinquishing one card in my hand, I can now special summon one monster in my hand with the same amount of damage I took just now…"

The moment that Panther Warrior slid its card in its hand to the graveyard, a large spike of stone shattered the machine. Allowing a small armored Dwarf to leap onto the field, a small hammer resting on its shoulder (1100/1600). "And my Red Dwarf falls under that category perfectly…and since he's on the field, all beasts and beast-warriors gain four hundred attack points! Sly Fox, empower yourself!"

All of a sudden, the Sly Fox's body began to become more muscular and feral (1300/1200 + 400/0), making the creature roar loudly. "And I'm not done, since you destroyed a level seven monster, I now can pay one thousand life points to special summon another monster from my graveyard!" (PWLP: 6150)

Many feathers erupted from the sky, flowing over the Panther Warrior as a very large creature with the head of an eagle, the body of a lion, and tail of a snake. The large beast landed on the ground with a loud roar that shook the very foundations of the Monk's Training Hall (2300/1900 + 400/0).

"Um…well," Luke just slipped two more cards into his duel disk, making them appear behind his Monk Fighter. "Turn end…"

"Isn't that like a human to cower when true strength appears?" Panther Warrior scoffed as it snapped off the top card of its deck. "Allow me to make you cower even more! I activate Sly Fox's ability once more! Reveal those two new face down cards!" (PWLP: 6650)

As the Sly Fox's eyes glowed brightly once more, both of Luke's face down cards flipped up (along with the already set Rock Bombardment), showing the trap card, Lone Wolf and Soul Resurrection. "I don't know what you have had planned with those cards, but they will fall! First, I summon Mouse Knight!"

The next monster that Luke was starring down was rather…well, it was a small cute mouse dressed in knight's armor with small rapier at its side (1200/1400 + 400/0). With a loud squeak, the Mouse Knight raised it rapier into the air.

"And now, I activate my trap card," Panther Warrior continued with its face down card flipping face up, showing several unicorns charging over the field. "Known as the Unicorn's Charm…now when a Beast-Type monster inflicts damage to your life points, one of your spell or trap cards will be bounced back to your hand."

"Yeah, but, the moment you attack, I'll activate Lone Wolf," Luke pointed out with his Monk Fighter narrowing his eyes down at the Panther Warrior. "And thanks to my Monk's ability, any damage will be reduced to zero…"

"That's why I summoned Mouse Knight," Panther Warrior wagged its finger a few times at Luke. "You see, my Knight has the ability to attack you directly by cutting the damage in half…and since I'd be able to inflict damage…"

"Your trap would activate," Luke gasped as the Mouse Knight began to run forward, the rapier spinning around in its grasp.

Luke tried to step to the side to dodge the rapier, but instead, the tip of the blade got the side of his stomach, ripping some of his clothes and having a small cut stream blood. "Agh!" (LLP: 4450)

"And now," Panther Warrior lifted its hand up, pointing towards the trap card on its field. "My Unicorn's Charm activates! So Lone Wolf returns to your hand!"

Luke's eyes widened greatly as his trap card reappeared back in his hand. "No!"

"And that's not the only thing," Panther Warrior pointed out, its arms now crossed. "You see, when my Mouse Knight inflicts damage, I can change the battle position of one of your monsters…and since you only have one…"

The Monk Fighter knelt down, his arms crossing as his card appeared underneath it. "And its defense is weaker than my Red Dwarf's!"

Almost on cue, the Red Dwarf leapt into the air, spinning its hammer until it slammed the weapon right into the Monk Fighter's head with a loud sickening crack echoing through the air. "And now…you are wide open and you are ready to be destroyed…"

The beastly warrior was correct, it would be barely…but Luke's life points wouldn't hold out against an onslaught like that…at least not for long…

…and yet, Luke smirked to himself…

"Griffin! Sly Fox! Attack him…"

"Trap card go!" Luke shouted throwing his hand up into the air. "I activate the effect of Rock Bombardment! Now, by sending my Labyrinth Wall to the graveyard…" Luke fanned out all the cards he held in his hands till he selected single on to fit it into his duel disk. "…I can inflict five hundred points of damage to your life points!"

A large rock fell from its sky, falling directly over the Panther Warrior's head…however the beastly-warrior merely slammed its fist into the rock, shattering it into several shards that rained down around it. "A mere annoyance…an attack like that won't do any damage against me!" (PWLP: 6150)

"Maybe so," Luke smirked as he flicked a button on the duel disk. "But it'll serve as a decent shield! I activate my other trap, Soul Resurrection! Now, one normal monster gets special summoned to my field in defense mode…and I'll choose the Labyrinth wall I just sent to the graveyard!"

Once more, the ground began to rumble, this time allowing hundreds of walls to erupt around the two duelists, tearing up the plants and grass around them (0/3000). As one would expect…

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING YOU DAMN HUMAN!?" Panther Warrior roared with all four of its monsters not looking all too pleased as well. "You…you…you destroyed this sacred ground! I'll be sure to ram my fist down your throat and break your god damn spine!"

"…that's from Running Man," Luke sighed rolling his eyes. "But before you do that, you've got to get past my three thousand point defender…and it looks like none of your monsters will be able to do that."

Panther Warrior could only snarl as the beastly-warrior crossed its arms. "…turn end."

"Now then…" Luke snapped off the top card from his deck. "Its time this duel gets back into my favor!"

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

Unknown to the two duelists, another pair of eyes was watching them duke it out in the forested area…with the Twilight Crystal in his hands, Eternity Angelo never took his eyes off of the crystal, even when the elevator's doors opened up to allow Beck to stroll into the room (completely dressed a fancier version of his clothes). "Hi! Hi! Did you miss me Angelo!?"

"I missed you like I would miss a cancerous tumor," Eternity Angelo stated in a monotone voice, keeping his eyes to the Twilight Crystal.

"Aw," Beck cooed throwing his arm around Eternity Angelo's neck. "You know you love me! Just admit it!"

Big mistake…

A powerful aura of purple and yellow energy surged around Eternity Angelo's body, sending Beck flying into the nearby wall. "ACK!" With a loud thud, Beck fell to the ground just in time to see Eternity Angelo had drawn his attention to him, and even though a mask was blocking his view, Beck knew full well that his master was enraged. "Uh…s-sir?"

"Listen, and listen good Beck," Eternity Angelo growled with the aura flaring even stronger. "I could stand for that weird attitude of yours, I can stand the fact that you seem to have a weird fetish with outfits…but if you tell me who I can and cannot love…I'll make it you won't be able to stand ever again!"

"Y-Yes sir!" Beck almost swallowed his tongue.

"Good…" Eternity Angelo sighed turning his back on Beck. "Oh, and prepare yourself, we're expecting a few guests soon…I'd like you to greet them in the second main hall…"

"You got it boss!" Beck chuckled jumping to his feet, ready to do any task.

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

"Now then, I summon a second Brash Monk in attack mode!" Luke announced as a second red clothed monk appeared before him (1750/1000). "But he's not staying for long…I send him away, in order to summon someone a little better!"

The Brash Monk clapped his hands and was immediately engulfed in a bright light. "You see, by sending a monk from my field to the graveyard, I can special summon one of the heavy hitters in my deck!"

The light shattered allowing an older monk with a shinning white hair to step forward, wearing a beautiful white gi that seemed to sparkle in the light as he lifted his arms up in a famous martial art stance (2400/1000). "Meet the Enlightened Monk!"

"I could care less!" Panther Warrior roared throwing its arm out to the side. "My Griffin will tear that warrior to pieces!"

That's when the Panther Warrior's yellow eyes trailed down to his face down card. '_But…just in case, I've already got an ace up my gauntlet…'_

"Actually he's a Rock monster as well," Luke pointed out crossing his arms over his chest as his Enlightened Monk did the same. "And you haven't heard what he's able to do…during the battle phase, he can attack three times!"

"W-What?!" Panther Warrior shouted before the Enlightened Monk leapt forward into the air, spinning around in a white cyclone.

"My first target…" Luke stated before the Enlightened Monk stopped spinning directly in front of the Red Dwarf. "…Is that Dwarf!"

The Dwarf didn't even get a chance to blink when the monk landed in front it, delivering a powerful kick to the Red Dwarf's stomach, sending the monster flying sky high into the air over Panther Warrior's head. (PWLP: 4850)

And since the Red Dwarf was no longer on the field, the Sly Fox (1300/1200), Mouse Knight (1200/1400) and Griffin (2300/1900) were weakened, allowing Luke to smirk widely. "And now…Enlightened Monk! Attack again, this time, attack that Griffin!"

Jumping in an immediate second, the Enlightened Monk delivered a harsh roundhouse kick to the beast's head. (PWLP: 4750). "Now, attack Mouse Knight!"

Enlightened Monk looked down at the now scared Mouse Knight, its harsh eyes leering into the beast-warrior's very soul…at least until the Enlightened Monk slammed his palm into the Mouse Knight's chest, flinging the cute monster into the air. (PWLP: 3550)

"Bull's eye!" Luke announced pumping his fist into the air a few times.

"Grr…you just got a lucky shot!" Panther Warrior snarled, its eyes narrowed down on Luke. "Don't get cocky!"

"…you're just sore cause this duel just went out of your favor," Luke stuck his tongue out at the beastly-warrior. "Anyway…I'll use my Training Hall's effect for a second time, allowing me to special summon another Monk…and I'll choose Solemn Monk in defense mode!"

The Enlightened Monk leapt high into the air, disappearing in the glare of the sunlight above. Meanwhile, crouching down to the ground, was a new monk, this one with shaggy blue hair from his head and covering his eyes, his arms crossed over his chest. His clothes resembled the Monk Fighter's only sapphire blue (1600/1350). "And that's my turn, ya furball."

"The more you taunt," Panther Warrior growled before it drew another card from the top of its deck, calling forth more rain from the Solemn Wishes trap card. "The more I'll tear you more pieces than what you humans call a puzzle!" (PWLP: 4050)

"In fact…I'll start the torture right now! I'll activate the trap card, Beast Soul Swap!" The moment Panther Warrior's face down card flipped up, the Sly Fox disappeared in a bright orb of light, returning to Panther Warrior's hand. "By retuning Sly Fox on my field to my hand, I can special summon a monster with the same level from my hand…and I'll get Faithful Badger to take the field!"

In the place of the fox was a small badger that seemed to bow towards Luke (1300/1200).

"Um…okay…but why in the world would you do that?" Luke asked raising an eyebrow at the badger. "Your fox had the same stats…"

"True," Panther Warrior replied picking the card up from his duel disk, allowing the Faithful Badger become a twinkle of light. "But that's where their similarities end. You see, my Badger has the ability to count as two sacrifices for a beast or beast-warrior monster…like now for example!"

The ground rose up once more, pushing the Labyrinth Walls, the Monk Training Halls and the Solemn Monk were thrown into the air while a large spike of a mountain erupted from the ground.

Luke was mesmerized at the sight of the spike eclipsed the sun, at the very pinnacle of the mountain stood a large lion, its fur glowing as bright as gold and its mane as fiery as the sun (2800/2600). And as the creature roared loudly into the air, the ground began to shift once more, forming into its original form before the lion was summoned.

"Wh-What is that?!" Luke stuttered looking at the lion that stood tall.

"Meet the king of the wild," Panther Warrior snickered, its face turning more and more smug by the second. "The protector of nature…king of the pride, Aslan!"

"Wait…isn't that from a…" Luke started with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head.

"I activate a spell card!" Panther Warrior interrupted lifting another card from its hand. "An equip spell card known as the Horn of the Unicorn! This increases Aslan's attack and defense by seven hundred points each!"

Protruding from Aslan's head was a large golden horn that seemed to spark electricity into the lion's very core (2800/2600 + 700/700). "And now…first things first, I'm ridding this field of your great defender! Aslan! Destroy Labyrinth Wall!"

Aslan pulled his head back, unleashing a booming roar that rocked the entire labyrinth, sending cracks spiraling through the walls until the maze was no more than rubble that slowly sank into the ground at Luke's feet. "Uh…okay."

"I'll set one card face down card," Panther Warrior stated as the face down card appeared behind the now calm Aslan. "And end my turn…"

"Uh, okay…" Luke mumbled under his breath as he drew his next card…unfortunately, his hand wasn't the best that he had before. "…I'll have to end my turn…"

"Heh…then this duel is as good as done," Panther Warrior stated as Aslan began to glow a bright gold. "By forfeiting my draw, I can add one Beast or Beast-Warrior monster from my deck to my hand…and I choose Enraged Battle Ox!"

With a loud beastly battle cry, the infamous minotaur appeared, its red armor gleaming in the light as it raised its battle axe into the air (1700/1000). "I'll assume that you'll know that my Ox can inflict piercing damage…and not just it, all my beasts, beast-warriors and winged-beasts gain that ability as long as my ox is on the field!"

"Oh bugger…" Luke gulped before the Enraged Battle Ox stomped before the Solemn Monk.

Lifting the Monk to his feet, the large Minotaur lifted the struggling monk before slicing its axe right through the monk's neck. A moment passed till the Solemn Monk's body shattered into millions of pixels that flew into Luke's body. (LLP: 4050)

"Heh…and it may not be enough to destroy you…" Panther Warrior chuckled as Aslan stepped in front of him. "But Aslan can now attack you directly!"

"Or he could!" Luke interrupted before two blue blurs appeared in front of him, transforming into a pair of blue statues that resembled the Monk Fighter with their arms crossed over their chests (500/500 x2). "If my Solemn Monk didn't have his special ability he gets when he's special summoned by my Monks Training Hall! When he's destroyed, I get two Monk Tokens in his place!"

"He can still deal you a good chunk of damage!" Panther Warrior roared as Aslan leapt into the air, electricity surging through the new horn on its head before the beast roared loudly.

The power of the roar sent cracks racing through one of the statues that stood before Luke, before it shattered into many shards that flew right into Luke's body, ripping his uniform and his skin. "Agh…AGGGHH!" (LLP: 1050)

"Hmph…I would say that this duel is over with," Panther Warrior sneered with a fang filled grin.

Luke's breathing had slowed down rather decently, making him take a knee as he slowly snapped off the top card from his deck. However, at the sight of the card, Luke's eyes immediately widened at the sight of it. "A…Alright…Tell me, does that overgrown kitty have any other effects?"

"Grr…you insult my lion one more time…" Panther Warrior growled with its eyes narrowed down at Luke. "And I'll…"

"Yeah…yeah, I get it," Luke sighed trying to get to his feet…unfortunately the strength wasn't in his legs and he kept to kneeling. "I insult and you threaten…well…it's about time we change that then. I…I activate the Equip Spell Premature Burial!" (LLP: 250)

The ground erupted, allowing the very first monk, the Meditating Monk (1000/2000) to return to the field, covered with dirt and with his hair a complete mess. "S-Sure, this costs me a few more life points…but, it'll be well worth it…"

"I activate my Monk Training Hall's effect one last time!" Luke announced as the Meditating Monk disappeared in a bright light. "Now, by returning my Meditating Monk…I can special summon the Monk Fighter from my deck!"

Now standing in front of Luke was a second Monk Fighter (1300/1000) who raised his fists up.

"I see what you're getting at," Panther Warrior stated with its arms crossed. "You still have your Lone Wolf in your hand…you'll plan on setting it to defend yourself with your monk's effect…too bad you still have your Monk Token out! And thanks to my Enraged Battle Ox, I can smash right through to your life points!"

"…so you'd win," Luke muttered reaching for his duel disk. "Unfortunately, that wasn't what I had in stored for you at all you beasty! You see, now that my Training Halls no longer have counters on it, I have to destroy it!"

At that very word, the monk temples shattered like glass, falling to the ground behind Luke. Panther Warrior raised an eyebrow at the move. "Hmm…good, I was starting to tire of the sight of that man made structure…"

"Oh yeah? Well, when my temple is gone," Luke stated as a card shot out of his deck and into his hand as he held it up. "It leaves me with a gift…the very reason the monks guard the temple! I add Taurus Golem to my deck to my hand!"

"Taurus Golem?" Panther Warrior questioned before both of Luke's monsters shattered into several shards of stone. "What's going on!?"

"I'm sacrificing my two monks," Luke explained as he held the card he had just received from the deck over his head. "In order to summon, the very card I just got! I summon Taurus Golem to the field!"

At first nothing happened…then slowly, the ground began to rumble, gaining strength with each passing second until the ground began to shift and break away from itself, changing the very forest around the two duelists.

Then, IT appeared!

Climbing its way from the crevice was a large, stone, bull-headed warrior with a rugged black armored covered gi with a pair of large stone like arms and legs. When the golem managed to crawl its way to the top, it was shown that on its back was a small Japanese styled roof, acting like a shield for its back (2800/2200). With a loud stomp, the bull golem snorted loudly that sent steam coursing through the air made Panther Warrior and its two beasts cringe slightly.

This time, the Panther Warrior couldn't speak, it was too engrossed at the sight of the large monster…

…its attention drawn away from Luke as he lifted up two of the cards in his graveyard up. "Now! I activate Taurus Golem's ability! By removing two monks from my graveyard, I can destroy one monster on your field and one spell or trap card…I'm thinking Aslan and your set card!"

"What!?" Panther Warrior shouted finally free from its stupor to see the Taurus Golem ram shoulder first into Aslan and then charged right through the set card. "NO!"

"Hmm…and that's not all!" Luke stated as he lifted his hand up. "Since your Horn of the Unicorn was destroyed, it gets placed on the top of your deck! So unless you have a draw card in your hand, you'll be getting a dead draw next turn!"

"You…you…insolent human!" Panther Warrior snarled.

"You might as well quit," Luke coughed with his arms crossed. "My Golem can still attack your Battle Ox…you'll draw an equip spell card you can't use on your monsters, and the only other card you have out is Solemn Wishes."

As much as he hated to admit it…the human did have a point.

"Very well…" Panther Warrior sighed slowly placing its clawed hand atop of its dueling deck, making all of the remaining monsters to disappear before the two duelists. (PWLP: Surrendered)

"Heh, I guess we saw that man can always triumph over nature!" Luke laughed slowly standing up with his clothes starting to show that they were ripped. "…although, you did a real number on my outfit…"

"Keep making all the jokes you like," Panther Warrior snarled, its claws starting to lengthen. "Remember what I said what would do to you regardless of the outcome?"

"Oh, uh, well, don't you have a code of honor?" Luke gulped taking a weakened step backwards.

"That's a product of man!" Panther Warrior roared as it leapt into the air towards Luke. "Now..._**DIE!**_"

…

"Samurai of the Five Scrolls! Intercept!"

Just as the Panther Warrior was about to sink its fangs into Luke's body, a large celestial samurai slammed its arm directly into Panther Warrior's stomach, sending the beast warrior flying into the air. From out of no where, five mythical swords appeared behind the Samurai of Five Scrolls, and with a lift of the celestial samurai's arm…all five swords flew directly into the Panther Warrior's chest!

With a loud painful roar, the Panther Warrior slammed into the ground, blood spurting from under its armor when all five of the swords shot out from its body. "_**GGGRRRGGGAAAAAHHGGGGHHHH!!**_"

Luke couldn't help but turn away as the samurai floated over the battle wounded beast warrior…only to stab a katana made out of pure light into the Panther Warrior's neck.

There was now one less duel spirit in this world…

"You're pathetic in combat, you know that right?" A cold voice stated as the Samurai of the Five Scrolls disappeared in a flurry of light.

"G-Ganryu?" Luke muttered turning back to see the cold-hearted duelists standing behind him, shutting down his duel disk.

"…get up you idiot," Ganryu sighed walking past the still knelt on the ground. "I've found an exit, so hurry up!"

"Yeah…don't worry about me…I just almost got killed here…" Luke moaned as he stood up to follow the Samurai Duelist.

"Whatever."

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Card Stats**

Centaur Swordsman  
Earth/Beast-Warrior/Level 4/ATK1800/DEF1900  
This card is unaffected by monster effects.

Red Dwarf  
Earth/Rock/Level 4/ATK 1100/DEF 1600  
As long as this card remains in face-up on the field, all Beasts and  
Beast-Warrior type monsters gain 400 ATK points.

Faithful Badger  
Earth/Beast/Level 4/ATK 1300/DEF 1200  
If this card is used as tribute to tribute-summon a Beast-Warrior or  
Beast-type monster, it can count as two tributes.

Mouse Knight  
Earth/Beast-Warrior/Level 4/ATK 1200/DEF 1400  
This card can attack your opponent's life points directly. When it does so  
using this effect, Battle Damage to your opponent's life points is halved.  
When this card deals Battle Damage to your opponent's life points, you can  
change the position of one face-up monster on your opponent's side of the  
field.

Griffin  
Wind/Beast/Level 6/ATK 2300/DEF 1900  
When this is in your graveyard, you may special summon it when a level seven or higher monster on your side of the field is destroyed as a result of battle. When this effect is used, you must pay 1000 life points.

Giant  
Earth/Warrior/Level 7/ATK 2700/DEF 0  
You can normal summon this monster without tribute. If you summon it this  
way, this card must be the first to attack at the beginning of the battle  
phase and you must tribute one other monster in order for this card to  
attack.  
If this monster is tribute summoned successfully, this monster can attack  
each of your opponent・s monster・s once. This monster must be the first to  
attack at the beginning of the battle phase.  
When this monster becomes the target of an attack, switch this monster to  
defense. Then inflict the difference between the ATK and defense of this  
card as battle damage to this card・s controller・s life points.

Sly Fox  
Earth/Beast/Level 4/ATK 1300/DEF 1200  
Once during your main phase, you may chose to look at all your opponent・s  
set card・s or look at one random card in your opponent・s hand.

Aslan  
Light/Beast/Level 8/ATK 2800/DEF 2600  
If this card is destroyed and sent to the graveyard by a card effect you  
control. You can special summon this monster during your next standby phase  
in attack mode. This effect can only use this effect once. You can skip your  
draw phase to add one Beast or Beast-Warrior monster from your deck

_The Previous cards were made by my friend, Swartzvauld A.K.A. Black Death X and were based on the Chronicles of Narnia. The effects belong to my friend while the idea for the cards does not._

**Training Monk / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 1750 / DEF: 1200 / Rock/Effect:** When this card is face up on the field or in the graveyard treat this monster's name like 'Monk Fighter'. If this card was special summoned by the effect of 'Monk's Training Hall', then when this monster destroys an opponent's monster as a result of battle, this card may attack once more.

**Description:** A ruff looking monk with spiked up emerald green hair on the top of his head and a small goatee starting to sprout out from his chin. His clothes resemble the Monk Fighter's only emerald green.

**Solemn Monk / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 1600 / DEF: 1350 / Rock/Effect:** When this card is face up on the field or in the graveyard, treat this monster's name like 'Monk Fighter'. If this card was special summoned by the effect of 'Monk's Training Hall', then when this card is sent to the graveyard, you may special summon two 'Monk Tokens' (Earth/LV. 2/ ATK: 500/Def: 500 / Rock) on your side of the field in defense mode.

**Description:** A young monk with shaggy blue hair from his head and covering his eyes. His clothes resemble the Monk Fighter's only sapphire blue.

**Brash Monk / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 1750 / DEF: 1000 / Rock/Effect:** When this card is face up on the field or in the graveyard, treat this monster's name like 'Monk Fighter'. If this card was special summoned by the effect of 'Monk's Training Hall', negate the effect of a monster that battles this card.

**Description:** A young monk with short cut red hair exposing his dark glaring eyes. This clothes resemble the Monk Fighter's only ruby red.

**Taurus Golem / Earth / LV. 8 / ATK: 2800 / DEF: 2200 / Rock/Effect:** This card is considered to be a Beast-Type monster. Once per turn, you can remove up to 2 'Monk' Cards from your Graveyard from play. If you remove 1 'Monk' Card, destroy 1 monster your opponent controls. If you remove 2 'Monk' Cards, destroy 1 monster and 1 Spell or Trap Card your opponent controls.

**Description:** A large stone bull-headed warrior with a rugged black armored covered gi with a pair of large stone like arms and legs. And on its back was a small Japanese styled roof, acting like a shield.

**Monk's Training Hall / Continuous Spell / Effect:** When this card is activated, for each 'Gather Your Mind' in your graveyard, place one counter on this card. Once per turn, by removing one counter on this card, you may return one face up monster on your side of the field with 'Monk' in its name to your deck. Then select one monster from your deck with a level equal to or lower than the returned monster. When there are no more counters on this card, destroy this card and add one 'Taurus Golem' from your deck or graveyard to your hand.

**Image:** A large Buddhist temple with many golden statues around it.

**Chain Gang / Instant Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when a normal spell card is activated. All players must send all copies of the card that was chained to this card.**  
Image:** Three crooks on a chain gang on the side of a road.

**Star Blast / Normal Spell / Effect:** Pay 500 life points. Lower the level of a monster on your side of the field or in your hand by 1 star. Return the level of the selected monster to normal at the end of the turn this card was activated.

**Image:** a duelist lifting his arms up to block an explosion from a star

_This card was first used in Yugioh 5Ds, by Bomber. All creative arts belong to the writers of the show._

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Eternity Angelo:** So the first of the three spirits fell…

**Beck:** Maybe so…but we've got the other two, and two other aces up our sleeve! And speaking of…

**Eternity Angelo:** I see…it would appear that the one who defeated the Bloody Devil Hunter will face against…him…

_**Next time, can the one who defeated the Bloody Devil Hunter faces off against a blast from her past…but wait a minute…then this title makes no sense then!**_

_**Back to the Twilight Chronicles – **__**Chapter 47: Fighting the System**_

**Beck:** Wait a minute! What the hell is 'HE' doing there!?

**Eternity Angelo:** It would appear that not all of your members were loyal as you thought Beck…


	48. Chapter 47: Fighting the System

_**Justice…**_

_**What is justice?**_

_**How can you truly describe what justice is to you, especially when you have been cheated by the so called system time after time?**_

_**I am simply a man…**_

_**And yet, I go through many names and faces…**_

_**At first, I went by the name of Alex Tudor…an up and coming student to this academy, rank, Ra Yellow Status with my standard XYZ Discard Deck with a touch of Ojama in it.**_

_**But…apparently he wasn't strong enough, so the Black Tiger was born into this world, both with a stronger attitude and a fiercer strategy…**_

_**Still no good…**_

_**So…I became the person who stands before you, the legacy of a noble thief, De Masque! All to defeat that one person!**_

_**At first, it was because she had humiliated me…but, after much research…I've found another reason.**_

_**But I'm not dueling her…rather, I am dueling someone else…the one who had captured my idol!**_

_**May this twilight be the twilight that no one will forget…no matter how hard you try!**_

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

_**Chapter 47**_

_**Fighting the System**_

_**0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

"And that's when I brought out my Insect Queen, with that newbie's monsters all insects," Weevil bragged with his head held high as he walked in front of Rena and Rex. "I swear, I would've beaten the idiot had the rules of today been applied back then…"

"…but didn't you cheat during that duel?" Rena asked with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of her head.

"Uh…a minor technicality…" Weevil coughed, trying to get rid of the large sweatdrop that had appeared on the side of his head. "With what I've got in my deck now, there's no way that newbie could actually beat me in this day and age!"

"…you said that when we challenged Bandit Keith," Rex pointed out lowering his hat over his eyes. "And we all know how that turned out…"

"Why is everyone against me?!" Weevil shouted raising his arms up in the air before he charged forwards into the woods ahead of the two, "Humph!"

Rena turned to Rex, raising an eyebrow at the former Dino Duelist, "I heard from Van you two were with Bandit Keith, but what happened before?"

"Well…" Rex stated throwing his arms behind his head. "I really don't think Weevil would like me to tell anyone about this…but…"

"It happened a year ago actually, about when Weevil and myself actually entered in a tournament. Nothing too big, but it was something to get us some cash on the side. Somehow, and don't ask me how, but we both managed to get to the final four, and for a second, it looked like either of us stood a chance to actually win. Hell, I even made it to the finals…"

"…but Weevil, well, he was forced to face against Bandit Keith in the semi-finals, beating him with that Big SATURN card. Unfortunately, Weevil fell for its bomb effect and it cost him the match."

"I didn't do so well either…in the end, Bandit Keith came up to us with a proposal to improve our decks and win the next tournament…so, we agreed with him and after a little bit of explanation and planning, we found ourselves working on the plan to steal those rare cards...but now that we're both pulling our own paychecks, we're able to provide for ourselves and get what we needed to make ourselves stronger. I guess I should thank Alan the next time I see him…"

"…maybe you should thank Bandit Keith too," Rena suggested smiling slightly, earning herself a confused look from Rex.

"Huh? What in the world are you talking about?" Rex asked.

"Well, if he didn't drag you here," Rena explained walking ahead. "Then you wouldn't have gotten that job."

Rex just stood there dumbfounded by Rena's logic, although in a sense, maybe he and Weevil did owe this new success to Bandit Keith…not that he would actually admit it though.

That's when Rex realized that he was standing alone in the woods, "What the? Hey! Wait for me!"

Unknown to the trio of duelists, a familiar yellow cavalier hat wearing figure watched them run off into the woods.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

While the duel between Panther Warrior and Luke was just wrapping up and Panther Warrior was becoming no more, high atop the clocktower, Eternity Angelo stood at the window. In front of him a large floating screen appeared before his eyes, showing that two of the generators had already been destroyed on the very island…

…not that it mattered to him…

As Eternity Angelo fingered the Twilight Crystal in his hand, there was no way to drop the Twilight Barrier that surrounded the island. Sure, his plans would slow down for sure, but, as long as he had the crystal nothing would be enough to stop him…

…not when he was so close…

As Eternity Angelo raised his hand, the screen turned to show a cloaked person standing in front of him, "There's someone you should know heading to the northeastern Generator. I trust you know what you have to do."

The cloaked person just nodded slightly before the screen went black.

"…hmm, if overpowering an enemy won't work," Eternity Angelo stated crossing his arms. "Then the best way is to deal a blow to their heart and mind…foresight is a must in this business of evil."

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

A lowly hum echoed through the air near the Twilight Generator, only accompanied by the crashing waves as a familiar beetle haired teacher walked out from the woods, "Damn ingrates! I'm a much better duelist than that time in Battle City, there's no way I could lose."

"…you seem rather sure of yourself…bug boy…"

Weevil's eyes widened as he turned left and right looking for the owner of that voice, that's when it dawned upon him that there was someone standing at the top of the generator, right in front of the satellite.

The person's entire body was covered with a black cloak, save for the bottom of his thin beard covered chin. The slight breeze seemed to lift the cloak slightly, showing that the person standing before Weevil was definitely a man, a muscular man at that wearing a messed up dark blue suit with a white shirt underneath.

But that's when Weevil noticed that the man's eyes were also seen from under the hood of his cloak…but they glowed a bright red.

The man scowled as he leapt into the air, the cloak nearly falling off his shoulders before he landed on the ground before Weevil. The man crossed his arms as the cloak floated back down over his shoulders, showing the duel disk that was on his left arm. "…I'm only going to give you one chance to turn around and walk away. I suggest you take it."

"Ha! Like I'd really take advice from some Grim Reaper wannabe!" Weevil laughed, lifting up his duel disk. "You're nothing more than hot air!"

The man merely lifted his arm, activating the duel disk with a snap of the device, "…don't say that I didn't try to warn you."

**0-0-0-0- Ten Minutes Later… -0-0-0-0**

"Hyhohoho!"

With his laughter accompanying the crashing waves and hum of the Twilight Generator, Weevil stood strong with his field looking better and better. Standing behind him was an extremely large and long millipede that coiled around both of the duelists and Lucian, its red and black exoskeleton resembling more like armor with it countless legs twitching and moving its large body (2800/2600).

To the millipede's right was another insect, this a very large green mantis with four scythe like claws protruding from its body (2350/1000), as the monster hissed loudly, the scythe like arms were raised into the air.

And there was still one more, this monster being a large spider with a red and black exoskeleton (2200/100). "Heh, now what do you think about me?" (WLP: 2000)

The man however, did not even posses a single card on his field, yet in his hand, he held tightly on his six cards. "…I still think that you're a fool…my draw!" (MLP: 50)

Lifting his newest card into the air, a large flame erupted around the man's body, twisting and turning until it formed into a large demonic being that was on fire. As the demonic monster roared loudly into the air, the man fitted two of the cards in his hand into his duel disk's graveyard.

Before Weevil could protest a large bolt of lightning erupted over his three insects, eradicating all three of them into pure dust.

And the man…well, he slowly raised his hand up towards Weevil and said… "…Attack…"

"No…NOOOO!"

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

"Dang it Weevil! Where the hell are you?" Rex growled ducking under a low tree branch.

"I hate to say this, but I think he knew where he was going…" Rena pointed out with a sweatdrop, her head lowering slightly. "…and we're the ones lost."

"Terrific…simply terrific," Rex growled pulling his hair, almost ripping the hair from his roots.

"Do you ever notice that getting lost seems to keep happening around here?" Rena asked rubbing her forehead. "Especially when we're looking for someone?"

"That just makes things much more interesting."

Both Rena and Rex jumped at the sound of the familiar voice, however, as they looked all around no one else was there.

"I could've sworn I just heard…" Rena muttered to herself with a shrug of her shoulders.

…that's when a familiar dark haired young man slowly lowered himself upside down right behind Rena…an innocent smirk appearing on his face, "…Leo Childsman?"

"AAAH!" Rena screamed loudly in the air as she spun around to see the noble duelist hanging right behind her. "L-Leo! How many times have I told you not to do that?!"

"Hmm…what's today?" Leo asked dropping down from the branch he hung with his landing atop his feet.

Noticing that Leo was here, Rex rubbed his chin slightly, "Uh…well, I think its Friday?"

"Oh, if that's the case," Leo counted on his fingers a few times until he smiled brightly. "Then it would have to be two thousand three hundred and seventy one times you asked that me not to do that..."

"…and yet you continue to appear out of no where!" Rena shouted waving her arms about in the air.

"Well, some people whistle, others pop out from the void and a lot of persons skip when they walk," Leo chuckled walking past Rena. "As the days turn, as do we and we must turn along with it…"

"What?" Rena questioned with a few blinks. "W-Wait! Where are you going?"

"Well, there's another generator this way," Leo explained not stopping. "And since I managed to take down the previous generator, I figure that I'll be able to do the same."

"Wait, we didn't hear an explosion or anything," Rex stated raising an eyebrow at Leo as he and Rena ran after the noble duelist. "How'd you stop the thing?"

"Well…all I did was hit the off switch," Leo chuckled.

Rena and Rex couldn't help but turn at each other, blinking at each other until they both said at the same time, "…there's an off switch?"

**0-0-0-0-A Few Minutes Later…-0-0-0-0**

"My, what a wonderful walk," Leo chuckled shrugging his shoulders as he slowly walked from the woods, Rena and Rex a few feet behind, both trying to catch their breaths.

"Are…you…kidding me?" Rex panted whipping some of the sweat from his brow.

"I'd stop trying to understand him," Rena muttered rolling her eyes before she looked at the Generator that was now sitting in front of the group of three. "It saves a lot of time and brain power."

"I find that to be rather insulting," Leo snickered shrugging his shoulders. "And yet, I can't deny that."

Rex turned left and right, trying to find something…or better yet, someone. "Where's the bug lover?"

"I assume you mean Professor Underwood," Leo replied raising an eyebrow.

"You know where he is?" Rena asked getting her hopes up.

"…not really," Leo chuckled with a bright smile popping on her face.

A large sweatdrop rolled down both Rena's and Rex's heads…

…their fault for putting their hope in Leo.

"If you are looking for your glasses wearing comrade…"

All three of duelists turned their heads left and right, but that's when a pair of yellow glasses fell at their feet. The design was obvious to see who the owner was…

"On the generator," Leo pointed out, making both Rex and Rena look at the very tip of the satellite, seeing the black cloaked man standing at the very top.

Before anyone could say anything, the cloaked man leapt into the air, the cloak billowing over his body as he landed on the ground. "…he was foolish enough not to take advice to save his very life…"

"What?!" Rex shouted baring his teeth at the cloaked man. '_This is just like…just like when…'_

The man lifted his right arm up, showing that he was wearing a duel disk on his blue suited arm. The man's finger pointed towards Rena, "Heh, and you, Rena Akira, you will know exactly what his thoughts were as I send you to oblivion."

Rena's eyes grew large, and she took a step backwards, "How…how do you know my name?"

"I should know your name," The man chuckled shrugging his shoulders slightly as he took a step to the right. "After all, I know your birthday, your favorite food, the address at your apartment, when you had to buy your first training bra, the time when you tried to cut your hair and you looked like Mr. T, and when you got your pants pulled down two years a…"

"S-STOP!" Rena was blushing beyond belief, waving her hands in the air. "PLEASE STOP DOING THAT!"

"…you tried cutting your hair?" Leo mused with his hand on his chin.

"You got your pants pulled down?" Rex chuckled with a goofy grin replacing his scowl

"Ack!" Rena pulled her hair slightly, thinking this was all just a dream...too bad that would never be true. "W-Who are you?"

"…I'd figure you would already know that answer," The cloaked man coughed clenching the cloak at his collar. "What kind of girl…"

The man threw the cloak off his body, sending it flying into the air, revealing his dark blue suit…along with his chiseled face with the slight beginnings of a goatee. His long brown hair cascaded to his shoulders, lining his face and yet, there seemed to be red bangs over his sharp eyes. As the cloak fell behind the man, he reached into his pocket and produced a small pack of cigarettes and lighter. "…forgets her daddy dearest?"

"D-Dad!?" Rena's eyes nearly popped out of her head as the man lit a cigarette in his mouth.

"I see…so you're Rena's father," Leo chuckled.

"Wait, you knew he was Rena's father?" Rex asked, raising an eyebrow.

"…nope!" Leo replied with a bright smile on his face. "I'm as surprised as you are."

Rex lowered his head slightly with a large sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head, "If you keep getting my hopes up, I'll give you detention."

Taking a long hit on the cigarette, Mr. Akira leered at Rena, a shiver going down his daughter's body, "…I know it's a fad, but that mini-skirt is way too short for my daughter."

"D-Dad, I didn't choose the uniform," Rena sighed loudly.

"If I knew the uniform was going to be that short," Mr. Akira growled pulling the cigarette from his mouth, his eyes narrowed. "Then I wouldn't have let you gone to this academy…I can't believe I'm paying tuition to this place."

"Dad…" Rena sighed as her head lowered even further.

"Mr. Akira?" Leo asked taking a step forward. "It is a pleasure to meet you, I'm Leo Childsman."

"Leo?" Mr. Akira stated, his head tilted slightly. "Ah, you're that freak that keeps popping up out of no where with that bright cheery smile. I've read about you in my daughter's letters."

"…once again I find that insulting…" Leo coughed with a bright smile appearing on his face. "But, I can't really deny that now can I?"

"S-Sorry," Rena sighed again, her head lowering almost to the ground.

"Anyway," Leo stated crossing his arms. "While it is an honor to meet you sir, I can't help but wonder why you're here. And why you were on the generator just now?"

Mr. Akira crushed the cigarette in his fingers before he threw it to the ground, "…I'd figure it'd be obvious…hell, even my little speech should've told you right away that…"

The duel disk on his arm hummed to life, Mr. Akira's eyes narrowed down, "…I am here to guard this generator from the likes of you all…even if I have to defeat you, daughter."

Rena snapped her head straight up, her eyes widening eat the prospect of her own father being a duelist employed by the enemy, "D-Dad?! But…but why?"

"Why? Well…Why not?" Mr. Akira replied with a chuckle.

That answer made Rena and Rex fall face first, with Leo just raising an eyebrow, "…what a simple, yet satisfying answer."

"No its not!" Rena and Rex shouted throwing their arms in the air.

"Well, whatever my reason," Mr. Akira sighed as he waved his arm slightly. "You three are still going to meet the same fate as bug boy four-eyes…now, who's first? Fossil Breath? The Freak? Or how about my own daughter?"

"Dad! What's gotten into you?" Rena pleaded with tears rolling down the side of her head.

Before anyone could get a chance to speak, a single card flew into the ground in between the duelists, gathering their attention to it.

"I'll tell you what's gotten into him!"

Leaping from the trees from behind, a yellow blur landed right next to the card that pierced the ground, his yellow overcoat billowing in the wind and his hand atop of his cavalier's hat.

"That coat…" Rex stated with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head.

"That hat…" Leo mused with a smile on his face.

"It's…it's…" Rena muttered blinking a few times.

"Mask Cu Raid?!" Mr. Akira shouted taking a step back with his arms lifted up. "H-How is it possible!"

"…I wish I was Mask Cu Raid," the young yellow enthused man stated lowering the hat over his mask. "But, nay…I am merely De Masque!"

Mr. Akira rolled his eyes slightly, keeping his arms crossed over his chest at the fake masked thief, "Heh, I thought as much…no thief in their right mind would be willing to dress in all yellow like that…it's a disadvantage for their main profession."

"Not to mention it's an eyesore," Rex added nodding at the comments.

"The mask is a bit tacky," Leo noted.

"And your name is kinda a rip off of…" Rena started.

"I get the point already!" De Masque shouted almost falling face first into the ground. "Anyway, Rena Akira, while that may be your father standing before us…he is in fact not the person you think he is!"

"That…makes no sense," Rena admitted with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of her head.

De Masque merely lifted his duel disk up, revealing the deck inside the holster, "It will…when I and Akira will duel here."

"Humph," Mr. Akira growled as he reached into his back pocket, pulling out a small deck case. As he flicked it open, only a small set of cards popped out of the case, likely around fifteen cards. "Then allow me to make a few changes to my deck…"

"Why's he doing that?" Rex asked turning to the other two duelists.

"Well, it's not against the rules to exchange cards in your deck with the side deck," Leo explained. "But it looks like he's exchanging all fifteen of them…which is rather weird…"

"…I know why," Rena moaned crossing her arms over her chest, almost as if she had gotten the shivers. "My…my father, he taught me how to duel when I was younger and even helped me with my elf deck."

"Ah, I see, so he would know your weaknesses and your cards," Leo stated rubbing his chin. "Is your father a professional duelist or something?"

"N-No, he plays for fun once in a while," Rena explained, her head getting even lower. "But…but he's a detective by trade."

'…_a detective that I know all too well,_' De Masque thought as his eyes narrowed down at his deck. "…are you done yet?" (DMLP: 8000)

"All too well," Akira replied snapping his newly shuffled deck back into the duel disk. (ALP: 8000)

As they drew their opening hands, neither of them spoke, no catchphrase, no intimidation…even the crickets nearby were silenced by the tension that floated through the air…

…only until Akira drew his sixth card did the silence shatter, "My draw! Hmm…interesting. I choose to end my turn without doing anything."

"What?" De Masque, Rex, Rena and even Leo questioned at the empty field in front of them.

"Did I stutter?" Akira asked crossing his arms. "…if you're not going to draw, then I win automatically."

Shaking his head a few times, the masked duelist snapped the top card of his deck into his hand, "Your funeral! Cause it's my turn!"

"Way to state the obvious, you fan boy," Akira chuckled.

"Shut up!" De Masque shouted slamming his next card onto his duel disk. "I summon White Magical Hat in attack mode!"

In a flurry of white playing cards, the familiar white cloaked nobleman appeared in front of De Masque, taking his hat and bowing over (1000/600). "And since there's nothing in front of me…White Magical Hat! Strike down that detective down!"

With a powerful leap, the noble thief slammed his fist directly into Akira's body, sending him falling to the ground with an annoyed grunt. (ALP: 7000)

"And now, thanks to my Hat's ability, you lose a random card from your hand!" De Masque continued with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Very well," Akira growled as he stood up, only to have the White Magical Hat skid in front of him, snapping one of the six cards in Akira's hand away from him. "I actually have to thank you for that…"

"Huh?" De Masque asked blinking slightly. "Well then, I'll be more than willing to do the same next turn just for you…"

"Oh, I don't think so," Akira chuckled holding up another card in his hand before he slapped it onto his duel disk. "Since you inflicted a thousand points of damage, I can special summon…this!"

A loud roar erupted through out the air as a large green skinned alligator like monster crawled out from the forest to the side of the duelists, a large mane of dirty blue hair cropping out the back of its head. The alligator like monster stuck out its insanely long tongue looking at the four duelists (1000/2000). "Ruklamba the Spirit King!"

"Eww! That is gross!" Rena shouted, waving her head at Ruklamba.

"My, that's a new one," Leo mused. "I'm not sure that I've ever heard of that monster before…"

"Heh, well, after you see what he can do," Akira admitted with a smirk, "You'll never forget him, ever."

"Hello? I'm your opponent, remember?" De Masque asked fitting a pair of cards into his duel disk, making them appear behind his White Magical Hat. "You're supposed to use the intimidation tactics on me."

"Oh, don't worry about that," Akira snickered snapping his fifth card into his hand. "I didn't forget about you…banana man."

De Masque couldn't help but overhear the snickers behind him, "…Oh come on! That's not even funny!"

"Neither is this," Akira stated pointing his finger towards Ruklamba, making the Spirit King shatter into millions of shards. "For you see, by tributing him, I can special summon as many monsters from my hand as I can as long as they have two thousand or less attack points! And what do you know? I've got three such monsters right now!"

"What?!" De Masque shouted as Akira slapped the three monster cards onto his duel disk, sliding his finger over the machine's monster card zones.

As soon as Akira snapped his hand from his duel disk, three flames exploded in front of him. The flames began to meld and twist until all three of them took the forms of three skulls that were engulfed in their fire (1000/600 x3). "Meet my three Burning Skull Heads!"

"Again, something I haven't seen before," Leo mused raising his eyebrow. "Although, it might be something out of a comic book I once read."

"You had me worried for a second," De Masque chuckled adjusting his hat slightly to cover his left eye. "But you set them in defense...why?"

"Well, what better to have a wall of defense?" Akira admitted shrugging his shoulders slightly. "But they hold another reason with them…you see, when my Burning Skull Heads are special summoned, I can inflict one thousand points of damage to ya."

All three of the Burning Skull Heads came to life, all three of them laughing maniacally before they flew around De Masque's body, making him raise his arms up in front of his face as the flames grew higher and higher. "Urgh!" (DMLP: 5000)

"Ouch! That's gotta hurt!" Rex yelped as all three of the Burning Skull Heads flew back to Akira's field, all of them lowering to the ground as their cards appeared underneath them.

"…d-dad…" Rena muttered.

Akira held up the final two cards in his hand, immediately fitting them into his duel disk as they appeared behind his three skulls, "To end this burning sensation, I'll set the two final cards in my hand face down."

'_Dang it! Now my Magical Thorn is practically useless!'_ De Masque thought, snarling loudly as he drew his next card. '_Although…it looks like I won't be needing it…he depleted all of the cards in his hand, so this is a golden opportunity that I can't waste!'_

"I activate the spell card, Secret Pass to the Treasures!" De Masque announced as the spell card, making his White Magical Hat glow slightly white. "Now thanks to its magical charms, I can now have one monster with a thousand or less attack points…attack you directly!"

The White Magical Hat leapt into the air, ready to deliver a powerful punch to Akira's face…

"Trap card reveal!" Akira shouted as one of the two face down cards fitted into the ground. "…I guess reveal isn't the right word."

"It looks like your trap isn't worth anything!" De Masque shouted as the White Magical Hat continued its attack.

"Really?"" Akira asked.

At that very moment, two large steel spikes erupted from the ground, with three additional spikes on the end of them. And just as the White Magical Hat noticed them, the spikes began to spin at high velocity, stabbing directly into the noble thief's chest, shattering him immediately. (ALP: 6200)

"Because my Chariot Pile had other plans," Akira laughed with his empty hands placed at his hips. "You see, once per turn, when you declare a direct attack against me, by paying eight hundred life points, I can negate the attack and destroy that very monster."

'_But that's not all it does…'_

'_That…that one card ruins my entire strategy! But at least he has to pay a price to use it,_' De Masque shook his head as he pulled another card from his hand and slapped it onto his duel disk. "I set a monster face down and end my turn…"

"End your turn?" Akira questioned pulling his next card into his hand. "Oh, no, no, no…this will be the end; soon enough actually…I activate the second ability of Chariot Pile!"

"Second…ability?" De Masque asked as the two Chariot Pile spikes spun back into the ground.

"You see, this trap inflicts eight hundred points of damage to you every one of my turns," Akira explained as the ground began to rumble loudly. "However, this can be avoided rather simply…you need to tribute a monster on your field…your choice of course."

"Grr…what kind of strategy is this?" De Masque growled raising a fist at Akira. "You're nothing more than a coward who lures people into traps!"

"…that's…that's dad strategy," Rena muttered under her breath as her hair began to shadow her eyes. "He'll either get you with the burn strategy…or with his other strategy…"

"I'll take the damage!" De Masque shouted before two large drills erupted on both sides of him, spinning wildly as they ripped clothing from the lower parts of his pants. "Hey! Watch the pants! These are designer leather!" (DMLP: 4200)

"Oh, cry me a river!" Akira laughed holding up the single card in his hand up. "But, no matter how much you cry, I'll summon up one of my one hit killers! Balrog! You're up!"

A powerful flame erupted over the field in the middle of the three Burning Skull Heads, this time forming into a large dark red skinned demon with wings of blue flame, grasping a large blue flame sword (1000/1000). "Now, at first glance this guy may seem like a wimp…but never judge a book by its cover! For each fire monster on the field, he gains five hundred attack points! And what do you think he is?"

The Balrog roared loudly in the air, the blue flames racing over its ever growing body (1000/1000 + 2000/0).

"T-T-T-Three thousand attack points?!" Rex gulped reminded of a famous corporation leader's ace dragon card…unaware that very dragon faced against this fire demon.

"Indeed…Fire decks are rather hard to deal with," Leo stated with a raised eyebrow.

"Now then…Balrog! Attack his set monster!" Akira commanded as the fire demon flew forward, bringing the large blue flame sword directly into the face down card, shattering it into millions of flame covered shards.

As the shards flew past his shoulders, De Masque reached for his deck, "Too bad for you, you see, that monster was Sangan, so I've got to thank you…"

Holding up a single card from his deck, De Masque seemed to smirk behind his mask as he added the card to his hand, "…so hurry up and end your turn."

"Oh, I will," Akira chuckled before another flame erupted around his skulls. "But before that, I activate the second effect of my Balrog. Any monster that falls to it in battle, comes back to my field…"

That's when the little furry, three-eyed critter appeared before Akira…only its fur seemed to be pure red (1000/600). "Only it becomes a creature of fire…and with another creature of fire…"

Balrog roared loudly, the flames around it growing even larger (3000/1000 + 500/0).

"…Turn end…"

"…" De Masque remained silent as he drew his card, however, the moment he added the card to his hand, the thief duelist turned his head slightly. "…Heh…yah know, this really ironic…me representing one of the greatest thieves of all time, up against…the very man who put him away."

Rena lifted her head up as she heard that, "W-Wait, are you saying that d-dad he was the one…"

"Correct, Mr. Akira," De Masque growled lifting his finger at Akira. "You are the very same detective who put Mask Cu Raid away!"

"…guilty as charged," Akira chuckled.

"Wait a moment, I thought that Pegasus caught him," Leo pointed out with his head tilted slightly to the side. "If I recall correctly, it was during his last heist and he was stopped in his tracks by the creator himself…"

"…that's only a part of the story," De Masque sighed as he adjusted his mask. "And I would assume that Akira would know what I mean."

"Heh," Akira chuckled.

"Does that mean?" Rena gasped.

"…I can remember it just as if it was yesterday," Akira chuckled flicking another cigarette in his mouth, searching for his lighter afterwards. "But it was only nine years ago…ten to be in at least a month away."

"I still can't forget the look that was on Mask Cu Raid's face as I ripped that mask off his face…turned out that he was actually a kid just out of college…the rival I had searched and trekked after for three long years was nothing more than a runt. But then again, I was only a greenhorn detective at the time.

"When Pegasus received that card, he did his research in the week before Mask Cu Raid could strike and called me up right away. It was weird, instead of telling me of his security systems, he showed me his paintings and asked me questions about Mask Cu Raid. I wasn't too surprised about the questions; after all, only Mask Cu Raid's three major heists were highlighted on national news. His other heists were hidden from the public…

"Then the night of the heist came…an eerie chill was flowing through the castle, which was weird that the guy didn't have a mansion or something, and I was outside, working on my tenth cigarette…lungs be damned!"

"…I never did like your love of tobacco," Rena sighed, with her head lowering a bit more.

"Anyway," Akira stated finally finding his lighter, giving a spark to his cigarette. "It was quiet…almost too quiet. But that's when it dawned upon me that it was all a part of Mask Cu Raid's plan! I rushed back into the castle, directly to where Pegasus had shown me those painting…"

"And sure enough, Mask Cu Raid was there…but so was Pegasus. My eyes should've deceived me, but they weren't. Pegasus had subdued Mask Cu Raid, but there wasn't a scratch or rip on their clothing. And the only thing that Pegasus had in his hand was a card…a single card."

Akira took a moment to take a drag on his cigarette, blowing a ring of smoke into the air. "…Of course, even though it still plagues my mind how he could've taken down that thief, and not even get his suit messed up. But still, I have one more thing on my mind…"

"De Masque…how could you know about Mask Cu Raid? The more I look at you, the more I notice that you're roughly the same age as my daughter, so, you should've been at least six or five at the time of his crime spree."

"…you wanna know?" De Masque growled as he snapped his mask off, revealing his face as Alex Tudor with a serious look on his face. "Fine…my name is Alex Tudor, Ra Yellow duelist, thief apprentice…and the son of Henry Tudor, also known to the world as the original Mask Cu Raid!"

"T-Tudor?!" Akira shouted taking a step back, sweat rolling down the side of his head.

"Ah, now it makes sense," Leo stated with his hand on his chin.

"Huh? What makes sense?" Rex asked, trying to keep up with all of this new information.

"…the last time we met De Masque…or Alex there," Leo admitted closing his eyes in deep thought. "He told us this…"

_Throwing his fancy over jacket over his shoulder, De Masque adjusted his hat while he threw Rena a yellow jewel pin. "But now that the story is over…I owe you that pin. And you owe me an I.O.U. on another duel…you may not know it…but there's something that ties us Miss Akira…"_

"_There is? Is it something other than the fact I've beaten you twice?" Rena asked making De Masque cough a few times._

"_Yes! One day I wonder if you'll realize it soon," De Masque responded before spinning on his heel and walking it away. "Our battle is not over…not by a long shot!"_

"…and that's what he said," Leo coughed rubbing his throat afterwards.

"I didn't know you could throw your voice to sound like us," Rena admitted with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of her face.

"I'm more concerned with what he said," Leo replied. "Remember, he said that there was a link that tied you and him together Rena…your father put his father behind bars."

Rena didn't know what to say, and for what seemed like the fifth or sixth time in the last hour, Rena lowered her head even further, '_…something tells me…something tells me that this isn't the only reason why I'm down…'_

"Well, I find this to be such a great opportunity!" Akira laughed loudly, his hand covering the top of his head, blocking his sight of the twilight sky. "I can make two generations of Tudor go out the window!"

"In case you've forgotten," Alex growled fitting the mask back over his face, returning him to his De Masque alias. "You've still got to win this duel, and it's my turn!"

De Masque drew, his eyes burning at the sight of his next card, "And Akira…its time you get what you deserved for putting my father behind bars! I summon…Kuriboh (300/200) in attack mode!"

"D-Did he say what I think he…" Rex stated before the infamous furball popped onto the field in front of De Masque, squeaking loudly as its small claws flapped around. "…oh you've got to be kidding me!"

"I'll finish up," De Masque continued fitting one of the remaining three cards in his hand into his duel disk. "By setting this card…if you think you can beat this generation of Tudor…bring it on!"

"My pleasure!" Akira roared snapping the next card from his deck. "And now…its time for the fun to continue…Chariot Pile! Do your stuff!"

"I choose to take the damage!" De Masque announced before the Chariot Pile erupted from the ground, spinning around him this time ripping through his yellow overcoat this time. "URK!" (DMLP: 3400)

"Next, I'll switch all three of my skulls to attack mode" Akira continued as all three of his skulls chattered loudly, with their cards underneath them disappearing. "It's time to end this! Buring Skull Head! Devour his Kuriboh!"

With a loud chattering laugh, the Skull Head flew into the air, heading straight towards the panicking Kuriboh…

"…sorry, but that's not how this will go down!" De Masque shouted throwing his hand over his face down card. "I activate Multiply!"

With a loud squeak, the one Kuriboh became five separate ones that landed on the ground (300/200 x5). "And this is what I needed, because my spell creates five Kuriboh Tokens to defend my field!"

"More targets for me then!" Akira shouted as the remaining four monsters on his field leapt into the air. "It's a massacre among furballs!"

Everyone couldn't help but sweatdrop as a powerful flame erupted over all five of the Kuriboh Tokens being destroyed in a powerful flame. "…And I'm here for another turn."

"Not for long…I'll set one card," Akira growled. "And end my turn…"

"Not so fast!" De Masque shouted throwing his hand into the air at the side. "I activate my trap card during the end phase, Kuri Blast!"

Before Akira could ask what the card did, he couldn't help but notice that there was something on his Balrog…no, on all five of his monsters! A small patch of brown fur that seemed to multiply with each second on the monster, that's when it dawned on Akira. "What the hell are those fuzzballs doing?!"

"Heh…it's the price you paid for attacking all five Kuriboh Tokens," De Masque chuckled as all five of Akira's monsters were now fully covered with the Kuriboh monsters, with the exception of the sizes, you couldn't tell which monster was which. "For each Kuriboh monster that was destroyed this turn in battle, you have to destroy one monster. And since you destroyed all five…"

"All five of your monsters…go boom…"

BOOM!

The entire area seemed to rock thanks to the oddly large explosion, leaving only small patches of fur to float down to the ground all over the grassy field. Needless to say, Akira was speechless at the sight of his monsters all being destroyed…by puffballs nonetheless!

"And since Sangan was sent back to my graveyard," De Masque announced as a card popped out of his deck. "I can add a certain card from my deck to my hand…and its going to be a blast from the past…"

"Draw!"

Without hesitation, De Masque held up one of the cards in his hand and slid it into his duel disk, "I activate the spell card, Cost Down! Now, by discarding Necro Gardna from my hand, I can lower the level of all other monsters in my hand by two! But, I've only got one left…so that means…I can summon, Mask Cu Raid without tribute!"

"What?!" Surprised again, Akira shouted as his eyes narrowed as the cloaked thief appeared on the field, adjusting his hat at Akira (1500/1500). "…After these nine long years, I never thought I'd have to see that damn taunt ever again! But…I suppose I should enjoy this while I can…I get to defeat him myself this time around!"

"Yes…but don't think for a second I've forgotten what your Chariot Pile is capable of," De Masque scoffed at the side. "So I'm not going to waste him by attacking turn."

"Heh…then let's see if I can destroy him the good old fashioned way!" Akira shouted pulling his next card into his hand…but when he brought the card up to his face, his eyes narrowed. "Not exactly what I wanted…but I'll do! I activate the spell card Blasting Vein! Now, I destroy my face down card on the right, and I can draw twice!"

The face down card just exploded into millions of shards that flew into the air as Akira drew his next two cards.

"Professor Kryancelo used that card when he faced against Ganryu," Rena stated remembering all the way back then.

"Indeed," Leo mused with a smile, taking in the fact that Rena cheered up slightly.

"But wait, I'm not done…not by a long shot!" Akira laughed. "You see, that face down card was a trap card, but not just any trap card, a card called Dormant Volcano! And when destroyed, you take three hundred points of damage right on the spot!"

A powerful flame erupted front the ground at De Masque's feet, making the thief duelist jump slightly as the flames flew around his body. "Urk!" (DMLP: 3100)

"And let's not forget about my other card effect!" Akira laughed as the ground began to rumble once more. "Either you get rid of that impostor Mask Cu Raid, or run the risk of taking more…"

"I take the damage!" De Masque shouted before the Chariot Piles erupted from the ground once more, spinning around to cut a little bit of his legs. "URG!" (DMLP: 2300)

"You fool," Akira sighed slapping a card onto his duel disk, making the face down monster appear in front of him. "Clinging onto that pathetic thief…Although, he was your father, so I can understand."

"Understand?" De Masque asked. "Don't even try to relate to me. You're nothing more than a poser…And I'm going to prove it!"

"A poser?" Rex asked as De Masque drew his next card. "What in the world is talking about?"

Leo and Rex turned towards Rena, who blinked at them, "Well…I, I don't really know."

"I activate the spell card, Spider Web!" De Masque announced as a web of threads appeared in De Masque's hand. "This spell allows me to take a spell card you used last turn and add it to my hand…and Blasting Vein is just what I needed!"

De Masque's face down card erupted into flames as he drew his next two cards, '_I hated to give up Magical Thorn, but if I can't attack him directly, then it's all for naught!'_

However, the two cards were no better, '_Damn it! Of all the days to have dead draws!'_

"I set two cards face down…" De Masque growled as the two cards appeared behind Mask Cu Raid. "Turn end…"

"I think you have that mixed up," Akira chuckled pulling his next card up. "The only thing that's going to end, is you! First, I activate Chariot Pile's effect, and I assume that you're…"

"I tribute Mask Cu Raid!"

"What?!" Everyone shouted as the two Chariot Piles slammed into Mask Cu Raid's chest, making the masked thief shatter into millions of shards.

"…I'm sorry…" De Masque muttered under his breath.

"…not that it matters to me!" Akira shouted shoving another card from his hand into his duel disk. "I activate another spell card, Pot of Avarice! Allow me to shuffle the three Burning Skull Heads, Balrog, and Ruklamba back into my deck…"

With a fancy shuffling technique that could make even a magician envious, Akira immediately snapped the top two cards from his deck, "Well…I don't think I need to explain what happens next…but anyway, now's the second effect of Dormant Volcano! Allowing us both to take one fire monster from our decks, and add them to our hands!"

"…I don't have a fire monster," De Masque replied turning his head to the side.

"Aw, too bad," Akira chuckled holding up his new card in his hand, "But, I now release my face down monster, Flame Ruler!"

The face down monster erupted into a powerful flame that began to build up and up, transforming into a large man shaped flame that seemed to grow with each passing second. "And thanks to his ability, he counts as two monsters for a release of a fire monster…making it easy for me to summon Skull Flame!"

The flames shattered into the air, revealing that underneath the flames was a tall demonically dressed man, covered with skulls and flames erupting from his back and head. With a loud, shrill cry, the flame demon increased the intensity of the flames that flew around the area (2600/2100).

"…Heh…you couldn't help but play it…" De Masque laughed slightly, adjusting his mask once more.

"Why wouldn't I play my favorite monster?" Akira scoffed to the side. "Isn't that right, daughter?"

"Y-Yeah…" Rena muttered, lowering her head back down.

Leo sighed and wrapped his arm around his friend's shoulders. Although he was smiling on the outside, on the inside it was killing him that Rena was bearing this. "…Rena…"

"And that's the point," De Masque replied. "You had to play that…just to show that you're Rena's father. The memories, the dueling style, the fact that you seemed determined to prove that you are her father…seems like you're pushing the envelope a little too much don't you think?"

De Masque threw his hand towards Akira, a powerful aura erupting over his body, "So…you're not Vincent Akira!"

"What?" Rena yelped.

"Are you daft?" Akira snarled with a bead of sweat rolling down the side of his head. "Just look at me! I am Vincent Akira! Head detective of the New York City police department! The man who threw Mask Cu Raid behind bars!"

"Skull Flame! Attack him directly!"

Cackling loudly, the large enflamed zombie charged flew forward readying to slam its enflamed fist directly into De Masque's torso. That's when something shot out of the ground, stabbing directly into the Skull Flame's body, making the Skull zombie cry out in pain before it shattered into millions of flames.

"W-What happened!?" Akira shouted noticing that the two Chariot Piles were spinning to a halt at Akira's field. Grabbing his bicep, Akira narrowed his eyes. "How the hell did…"

"…your trap get to my field?" De Masque finished, pointing to his revealed face down card, showing a blue moon with the silhouette of a wolf in front of it. "My trap card, Once in a Blue Moon makes me pay one thousand points, and I can take one trap card on your field and use it as my own!" (DMLP: 500)

"And you used it to use Chariot Pile against me," Akira growled his body sweating a little more. "But…if I even summon one monster…"

"Too bad you already summoned," De Masque replied. "And I couldn't help but notice that you're shaking…is something wrong?"

"N-No…" Akira muttered. "Turn…turn end."

"And at the end of the turn, the trap that gets selected by mine," De Masque announced crossing his arms before the Chariot Pile exploded. "Is no more."

"That's weird," Leo stated. "I can understand when a monster is destroyed a player would be shocked…but it looks like Akira is completely rattled by that monster's death."

"I've never seen dad act like that before," Rena admitted.

"My draw!" De Masque announced pulling his next card…and then chuckled loudly. "I activate my face down card, Call of the Haunted!"

Instead of a coffin erupting from the ground, hundreds of cards rained down from the sky, allowing a familiar thief to land on the ground softly (1500/1500). "And the legend of Mask Cu Raid lives on!"

"Urk!" Akira gulped, the sweat growing on the side of his head. "N-No…"

"Next, I'll activate the spell card, Copy Draw!" De Masque announced as the card appeared behind his Mask Cu Raid. "And now…Mask Cu Raid! I think its time you get some well deserved revenge!"

With a nod, Mask Cu Raid leapt right in front of a surprise Akira, delivering a powerful kick directly into Akira's stomach, sending the detective falling to the ground with a loud thud. "You…you little bastard!" (ALP: 4700)

"Dad!" Rena gasped, apparently she wasn't used to the fact of her father swearing loudly.

"And now comes the Coup De Gra!" De Masque announced as Mask Cu Raid glowed brightly. "Now you have to discard your hand…but then you get five new cards. And thanks to Copy Draw, whenever you draw cards outside your draw phase, I can draw two cards, however, neither of those cards can't get used this turn."

"I hope you realize…" Akira growled as he drew his five cards without hesitation. The normally glazed eyes he had, were replaced with a fiery look in his eyes. "…that I'll be kicking your ass right now!"

"…Okay, my dad wouldn't swear like that," Rena stated raising her hand up at Akira. "At least not in front of me!"

"Grr…damn it you little bastard," Akira growled as he lifted his sixth card up. "I activate the effect of a monster I had in my hand, Mezuki allows me to remove it from play…in order to special summon one zombie monster from my graveyard! I choose to special summon an old face!"

A powerful flame exploded behind Akira, forming into a very miffed Skull Flame (2600/2100), this time cracking its knuckles loudly. "Skull Flame! Attack Mask Cu Raid!"

With a loud roar, the fire zombie flew forward, its flame engulfed fist ready to slam directly into Mask Cu Raid's body…only to have a dark warrior with a large white mane appearing in front of him, ramming his shoulder directly into the Skull Flame's face, sending the zombie staggering backwards.

Akira rubbed his face slightly, as if he was the guy who got shouldered in the face, "You bastard…you used Necro Gardna's effect didn't you?"

"Congrats, you figured it out," De Masque chuckled fitting the removed card from his graveyard into his back pocket. "So, you mind telling me why you're keeping up that farce?"

"Farce?" Akira growled. "I don't…"

"Knock off the acting, you're a terrible actor," De Masque scoffed to the side, pointing his finger at the Skull Flame. "Not all duel spirits are actors…right Skull Flame?"

A moment of silence lofted over the field at De Masque's proclamation, no one knowing what to say.

"…heh…hahahaha…"

"BWA HA HA HA HA!" Akira and Skull Flame laughed at the same time, raising both their arms in conjunction at the same time. "Aw, what gave it away? I thought I could become a decent Akira."

That's when Akira's eyes dimmed, sending him to the ground with a loud thud. Meanwhile, the Skull Flame that stood behind him simply raised his left arm up, allowing the duel disk and cards that Akira held appear on his arms. "But then again, you were one of the Yokai members that were assigned at the time, so it shouldn't have come as a surprise." (SFLP: 4700)

"Ah man," Rex groaned with a slap to his head. "Am I the only one who notices that something dramatic happens every five minutes? Seriously, it can't be just me."

"Sorry, but that's how things work around here," Leo replied with a large smile on his face.

"So does that mean…" Rena gasped noticing that Akira's body was still on the ground before them.

"Oh, that's your father alright," De Masque replied, his arms crossed over his chest. "He was just possessing your father…"

"Dad!" Rena shouted as Skull Flame lifted Akira up by the back of his suit, tossing him over to the side like a ragdoll.

"Heh, why do you have to be such a spoiler?" Skull Flame sighed shaking his head at De Masque. "I was enjoying my time in that body. But, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end…"

"How did you even get in my father in the first place?" Rena shouted as she ran over to her unconscious father.

"…do you really want to know?" Skull Flame chuckled crossing his arms. "I guess that could be fun…I'll watch ya squirm before I destroy you all…"

"No! Wait!" De Masque shouted throwing his hand up into the air.

"Too late mask boy," Skull Flame bellowed throwing his hand into the air. "You see, in order for a duel spirit to inhabit a human's body, there has to be a reason for the human to accept the spirit. And all I had to do was promise your father, was to get rid of one memory."

"The memory…of your birth, Rena Akira!"

"My…my birth?" Rena gasped, her eyes turning smoky.

"I'm warning you Skull Flame!" De Masque shouted. "You better shut that trap of yours or…"

"Or what? You're just a pathetic human," Skull Flame chuckled not turning away from Rena. "I think you already know why he would want to get rid of a memory that normally would bring a father joy…"

Tears were starting to form at Rena's eyes, "No…stop…"

"…there was a small problem with you," Skull Flame chuckled. "What was the medical term you humans had to use for it?"

"Skull Flame! Bite your tongue this instant!" De Masque roared.

"…I'll pass on that," Skull Flame replied shaking his head. "It sounds like that would really hurt…Now, I might not remember your humans medical lingo, but, all the same…Rena Akira…You killed your mother!"

"W-W-What?!" Rena gasped.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Card Stats**

**Ruklamba the Spirit King / Dark / LV. 8 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 2000 / Reptile/Effect: **When you take 1000 or more Battle Damage from 1 attack, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. During your Main Phase, you may Tribute this face-up card to Special Summon as many monsters from your hand with ATK of 2000 or less as possible.

**Description:** a large green skinned alligator like monster crawled out from the forest to the side of the duelists, a large mane of dirty blue hair cropping out the back of its head

_This card was first used Gansly in the original anime._

**Balrog / Fire / LV. 4 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 1000 / Fiend/Effect:** For each Fire Attribute monster on the field, increase this card's attack points by 500 points. In addition, each time this card destroys a monster as a result of battle, you may special summon that monster at the end of the battle phase. A monster special summoned with this effect is considered to be a Fire Attribute.

**Description:** into a large dark red skinned demon with wings of blue flame, grasping a large blue flame sword

_This was first used by Amelda/Alister in the original Anime._

**Burning Skull Head / Fire / LV. 3 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 600 / Zombie/Effect:** When this card is special summoned, you may inflict 1000 points of damage to your opponent's life points.

**Description:** A large skull engulfed in a large flame

_This card was first used by Enjo Mukuro in Yugioh 5D's _

**Chariot Pile / Continuous Trap / Effect:** During each of your turns, you may inflict 800 points of damage to your opponent's life points. However, you opponent may negate this damage by tributing one monster on their field. In addition, whenever your opponent declares a direct attack, by paying 800 life points, you may negate that attack and destroy the attacking monster.

**Image:** A large spike erupting from a large wheel.

_This card was first used by Bommer in Yugioh 5D's_

**Mask Cu Raid / Dark / LV. 5 / ATK: 1500 / DEF: 1500 / Spellcaster/Effect:** When this card inflicts damage to your opponent's life points, your opponent must discard their entire hand, then they draw the same amount of cards that were in their hand when this effect was activated.

**Description:** A silver masked thief, wearing a black cavalier's hat with a large plume feather in it. On his fancy gold trimmed red shirt is a long black cape like overcoat that exposes his thin body.

**Once in a Blue Moon / Trap / Effect:** Pay half of your life points to activate this card. Select one trap card on your opponent's side of the field, and use it as your own for the turn this card was activated. At the end of the turn, destroy the card that was selected for this card's effect.

**Image:** a blue moon with the silhouette of a wolf in front of it

**Draw Copy / Instant Spell / Effect:** During the turn this card was activated, if your opponent draws one or more cards outside their draw phase, you may draw two cards (neither of the cards draw with effect cannot be used during this turn).

**Image:** Two duelists drawing at the same time…one of them dressed like a mime

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Leo: Oh my, this looks like another cliffhanger…**

**Rex: Damn it! And the tension was just getting good!  
**

**Rena:…guys, I don't think that's really fair to be talking about this in front of me…**

**Leo: I do apologize Rena, it would appear that Rex isn't all that nice.**

**Rex: What? Wait, you're the one who brought this up!**

_**Next time on Duelist Twilight, the flames of hate and past raise up from the very depths of hell! What will happen now with Skull Flame holding the cards in the duel?**_

_**Next time – **__**Chapter 48: Burning Passion**_

**Skull Flame: You humans certainly are interesting…what you do just to rid yourselves of a few negative emotions.**


	49. Chapter 48: Burning Passion

_**Humans…**_

…_**Such, fragile and naïve creatures…it was my assumption that they would prove to be a bit more interesting…**_

_**And now…I stand before these weak humans, making a fool out of me…**_

_**But…Humans…they are but stubborn and foolish…it takes a journey to hell for them to accept anything that does not click with what these humans call 'logic'…**_

_**Such a sweet irony…**_

_**But these humans do not interest me with their personal problems…for I am here to enjoy some good old chaos…**_

_**However…this person…this masked person has made a mistake, he may have brought me into this world but I shall not be stopped by a person like this…**_

_**Although…I do encourage, for the opportunity to face a being of such foolishness…as a grand challenge…**_

_**Bwa ha ha ha ha!**_

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Chapter 48**

**Burning Passion**

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

"_Congrats, you figured it out," De Masque chuckled fitting the removed card from his graveyard into his back pocket. "So, you mind telling me why you're keeping up that farce?"_

"_Farce?" Akira growled. "I don't…"_

"_Knock off the acting, you're a terrible actor," De Masque scoffed to the side, pointing his finger at the Skull Flame. "Not all duel spirits are actors…right Skull Flame?"_

_A moment of silence lofted over the field at De Masque's proclamation, no one knowing what to say._

"…_heh…hahahaha…"_

"_BWA HA HA HA HA!" Akira and Skull Flame laughed at the same time, raising both their arms in conjunction at the same time. "Aw, what gave it away? I thought I could become a decent Akira."_

_That's when Akira's eyes dimmed, sending him to the ground with a loud thud. Meanwhile, the Skull Flame that stood behind him simply raised his left arm up, allowing the duel disk and cards that Akira held appear on his arms. "But then again, you were one of the Yokai members that were assigned at the time, so it shouldn't have come as a surprise." (SFLP: 4700)_

"_Oh, that's your father alright," De Masque replied, his arms crossed over his chest. "He was just possessing your father…"_

"_Dad!" Rena shouted as Skull Flame lifted Akira up by the back of his suit, tossing him over to the side like a ragdoll. _

"_Heh, why do you have to be such a spoiler?" Skull Flame sighed shaking his head at De Masque. "I was enjoying my time in that body. But, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end…"_

"_How did you even get in my father in the first place?" Rena shouted as she ran over to her unconscious father. _

"…_do you really want to know?" Skull Flame chuckled crossing his arms. "I guess that could be fun…I'll watch ya squirm before I destroy you all…"_

"_No! Wait!" De Masque shouted throwing his hand up into the air. _

"_Too late mask boy," Skull Flame bellowed throwing his hand into the air. "You see, in order for a duel spirit to inhabit a human's body, there has to be a reason for the human to accept the spirit. And all I had to do was promise your father, was to get rid of one memory."_

"_The memory…of your birth, Rena Akira!"_

"_My…my birth?" Rena gasped, her eyes turning smoky._

"_I'm warning you Skull Flame!" De Masque shouted. "You better shut that trap of yours or…"_

"_Or what? You're just a pathetic human," Skull Flame chuckled not turning away from Rena. "I think you already know why he would want to get rid of a memory that normally would bring a father joy…"_

_Tears were starting to form at Rena's eyes, "No…stop…"_

"…_there was a small problem with you," Skull Flame chuckled. "What was the medical term you humans had to use for it?"_

"_Skull Flame! Bite your tongue this instant!" De Masque roared._

"…_I'll pass on that," Skull Flame replied shaking his head. "It sounds like that would really hurt…Now, I might not remember your humans medical lingo, but, all the same…Rena Akira…You killed your mother!"_

"_W-W-What?!?" Rena gasped._

The field was set…

…Mask Cu Raid (1500/1500) stood tall on the field, with Call of the Haunted right behind him…with no cards in his hand, De Masque just glared at his opponent…and at the same time, the very monster that he not only summoned to this plane…

…but the one that had a grip on the field, Skull Flame (2600/2100) holding two cards in his clawed hands. And to the side, Rex and Leo stood over Rena, holding her father closer with the news that Skull Flame just stated. "I guess humans have poor listening skills…so listen and listen well little girl…"

"…You…"

"…Killed…"

"…Your…"

"…Mother…"

"I don't get how difficult of a concept that is to grasp…"

"But…But…I never got a chance to meet my mom…" Rena started until Skull Flame clamped his fist shut, allowing a powerful flame to erupt from the fire demon's back, making Rena fall backwards with her father's head on her lap.

"And why do you suppose that is, hmm?" Skull Flame cackled loudly, narrowing his oddly blue eyes. "Through the memories of your father, I have seen the very instant of your mother's death…and at the same time, your birth into this world."

"Skull Flame!" De Masque shouted throwing his hand to the side. "It's still your move! If you don't make a move, I'll accept that as your forf…"

"I'll see these two cards on my field in a matter of seconds," Skull Flame announced, fitting the cards into his duel disk like appendage. "…and end my turn…you happy now?"

Truth be told, De Masque was quite miserable. And as he drew, he turned towards Rena, seeing that the young duelist was almost on the verge of tears, '_…I may have wanted revenge…but not like this…I wanted to beat her on my terms, but if I don't win this, I'll never get a chance to do that!_'

"Now who's stalling?" Skull Flame taunted.

"No one!" De Masque shouted lifting the card up to his eyes, them both widening slightly at the card. '_…this card! I don't believe it! I drew…I drew this?'_

If he had eyebrows, Skull Flame probably would have lifted one of them. From the look in the masked freak's eyes, he drew something that probably could've done some damage. But Skull Flame didn't care…if De Masque activated a spell card, Magic Drain would render it useless.

And if the masked freak tried setting a trap, the Dust Tornado that the fire zombie monster had set was more than ready to be sprung in that instant. No matter what move De Masque was planning, Skull Flame was more than ready to face.

"Now then…earlier, if I'm correct, one of the guest duelists played a strange monster," De Masque stated. "A tuner and then a Synchro monster…Master Beck himself had to face against these strange monsters…"

'_Tuner? Synchro?_' Leo thought to himself as he bent down to place a hand on Rena's shoulders. '_I've heard of those words mentioned in a duel magazine…but…someone actually played those monsters in the tournament?_'

"Yeah…what of it?" Skull Flame questioned, before his eyes widened slightly. "No…you couldn't…"

"But I do…" De Masque stated slapping the card onto his duel disk. "I summon the tuner monster, Masked Forte!"

A bright lightly emerged onto the field, transforming into a large white and black mask that resembled that of the theater masks, on half displaying happiness while the other half displayed sadness (0/0). "And now…its time for a little tuning! Mask Cu Raid! I tune Masked Forte to you!"

With a nod, the majestic thief monster leapt high into the air, the Masked Forte flying high into the air as well, transforming into three large rings that flew around Mask Cu Raid's body, transforming him into five bright stars. "When a legend falls to the sands of time, with a new face, that legend can be reborn!"

A large pillar of light erupted behind De Masque, the whipping around his clothing and hair as he threw his hand up into the air, "With Mask Cu Raid's fall, a new legend arises! I Synchro summon…Red Daemon's Dragon!"

The light shattered like glass, allowing a rather large black and dark crimson scaled dragon to emerge onto the field, white horns and claws erupting from its head, neck and long wings as it slowly landed on the ground behind De Masque. With a small growl leading it, the large dragon roared immediately into the air, making the ground quake as if it itself was in terror (3000/2500).

And Skull Flame himself, his eyes had widened at the very mention of the dragon's name, and even at the sight of it, Skull Flame had to take a step back from the beast that was eyeing him hungrily. "…you…you had to play him…out of all the Synchro monsters around, you had to play that one!"

"Oh…what's the matter?" De Masque asked adjusting his mask slightly. "Don't like my dragon? Well, he seems to like to you for some reason…"

"HE SEES ME AS A BULL'S EYE!" Skull Flame protested waving his arms in the air.

"And that's what you are!" De Masque shouted throwing his hand towards Skull Flame, eliciting a loud roar from the dragon behind him. "Red Daemon's Dragon! I command you…no! I beg of you! Sending this fiery demon back to the bowels of hell of which he came!"

"No! Stop!" Skull Flame pleaded…

…but it was too late, the Red Daemon's Dragon unleashed a powerful black and yellow flame that crashed directly into Skull Flame's torso, at first, he tried to resist it grabbing the flames with his longer arms…but soon the flames had fully engulfed him, making him scream loudly before the flames exploded.

"…begone from this world…" De Masque whispered, lowering his hat as the Red Daemon's Dragon growled in agreement.

Smoke began to rise up into the air next to the satellite generator, allowing De Masque to turn towards the others, slowly looking down at Rena and Akira, "…I…I apologize, I didn't mean for…"

"…just stop," Rena sniffed, tears starting to well up her eyes, the news of her mother still fresh in her head.

"…At least it's over…" Rex sighed falling backwards to sit on the ground. "Now we can…"

"WHO SAYS WE'RE DONE!?!"

Everyone turned towards the pillar of smoke, seeing that the smoke was rolling off a familiar form…the flame at the head starting to grow larger with each passing second. Then, in a powerful burst of flames, the smoke flew to the sides, seeing that Skull Flame was still standing (albeit, his clothes were smoking and there was obvious damage done to him). "…I…I'm still standing you masked freak! I'm not going to let a runt like you ruin my fun!" (SKLP: 4300)

"But how?!" De Masque shouted taking a step back as Skull Flame drew his next card, nearly ripping the card in the process with his strong grip. "Red Daemon's Dragon just destroyed you!"

"…just because you destroyed the avatar of me," Skull Flame stated looking down at the card he had drawn as the flames behind him began to flare up around his body. "Doesn't mean that I'm dead yet! As you can tell, I've still got more than enough life points to have some more fun with you! And I activate the effect of a monster card in my hand, Demon Hell Treasure!"

Placing the card on his duel disk's graveyard slot, a large flame appeared in front of Skull Flame, allowing him to snap off the top three cards of his deck. "This monster allows me to draw cards from my deck…three cards to be specific. However, before you get to complain, there is a cost…two actually, any and all monsters I draw are automatically sent to the graveyard, and I take five hundred points for each…"

Skull Flame couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of the three cards he had drawn, and spinning them around, Skull Flame revealed that all three of the drawn cards were spell cards, "But it looks like the duel spirit of luck is on my side today, I didn't draw any monsters at all!"

"You…you bastard," De Masque hissed under his breath before a small flame flickered on the fire Zombie's duel disk.

"But…even then, for such a powerful effect, I need to destroy a monster on my field," Skull Flame continued to explain slapping the flame from his duel disk, showing that the life point counter was slowly dwindling down. "If I can't, then my life points take the hit…not a bad trade off actually." (SFLP: 3300)

"And now…" Skull Flame slowly lifted the first of his three spell cards, flipping it around to reveal it. "Its time for the end! I activate the spell card, Foolish Burial! Now, I can send one monster from my deck to the graveyard…and I choose Mezuki!"

"Mezuki?" De Masque questioned, obviously never heard of the card that Skull Flame popped into his graveyard. "What does that do?"

"All in due time," Skull Flame replied holding up another one of his cards. "But now, I activate another spell card, Fancy Burial!"

"Fancy Burial?" De Masque asked, thinking how many burial cards this zombie had in his deck. "And what does that one do?"

With three cards popping from his deck, Skull Flame lifted them up to show that all three of them were the Burning Skull Heads that he had earlier. "This spell card allows me to send up to three monster cards from my deck to the graveyard…the only catch is that all three of them have to be the same monster card. So my Burning Skull Heads are all in the graveyard…"

"And I could win this easily…" Skull Flame stated before pointing his clawed finger at the Red Daemon's Dragon. "But…I'd rather get that damn eyesore out of my sight! I activate the effect of Mezuki! By excluding the card from my graveyard, I can special summon a zombie from my graveyard…and any zombie to boot! Regardless of level!"

"Ah! He could win this by special summoning one of his Burning Skull Heads," Leo concluded before rubbing his chin. "But…if I'm correct, the only other zombie in the graveyard…"

"I special summon myself to the field!" Skull Flame roared as he took a step forward onto the field a powerful flame washing over his body, healing all the burns, cuts on his clothing, and allowing the flame atop of his head to burn even brighter (2600/2100).

"Ha! That fire freak made a mistake!" Rex laughed out pointing towards Skull Flame. "He could've just won it there…"

"You insignificant runt," Skull Flame growled, narrowing his eyes down at Rex, making the former Dino duelist step back. "If you don't shut your trap, I will personally rip your limbs off, and then sauté you into a fine meal that the undead denizens of my deck will have raging reviews about for weeks to come. I activate the final spell card of this game…Burning Skull Chain!"

The moment that Skull Flame fitted the card into his duel disk, the fire zombie clasped his hands together, summoning a powerful flame within his clawed fingers. And as he slowly pulled his hands away, a large fiery chain began to be pulled out from almost out of no where (2600/2100 + 900/0). "My equip spell can only be equipped to a 'Skull' monster, increasing the attack of the equipped monster by three hundred points for every Burning Skull Heads in my graveyard! Oh and look, I have three! Three! Three!"

"N-No…" De Masque mumbled under his breath as the Red Daemon's Dragon roared out, welcoming the challenge in front of him. He had failed…

"And now…time to die!" Skull Flame laughed loudly spinning the chain in his hands before he threw it directly into the air, guiding it until it wrapped around the Red Daemon's Dragon's neck, pulling it into the ground with a loud crash, making the dragon snarl at being dragged down.

And as the dragon roared and tried to get up, Skull Flame leapt into the air, the flames on his body growing larger and larger as he raised his arms up high. "Take this! My finishing move!" The flames all collided with each other, forming and rising into a large orb of fire that he held over his head. "Final Skull Flash!"

Everyone raised their arms up as the flaming orb crashed into the roaring dragon's back, making it explode into a flurry of flames that began to wrap around both De Masque and the hovering Skull Flame. Soon, a large wall of flame separated both duelists from the students, allowing Skull Flame to slowly float over to his prey. "…you lose…" (DMLP: 0)

De Masque lowered his head, taking note that a large black inky substance was beginning to crawl up over his body.

BAM!

Skull Flame slammed his foot directly into De Masque's body, cutting off the air supply to the masked duelists lungs, and still the ink crept up past his legs, "Tell me human…how does pain affect such fragile creatures? Does it make you want to scream? Or perhaps fill you with anger? Will sorrow flow through the veins of those who knew and cared about you?"

Applying more pressure to De Masque's neck, Skull Flame cackled loudly as he lifted his arms up, taking note that the inky liquid was almost up to De Masque's chest. "Oh well…I guess we'll never know now. Now shall we? Your time is about up, my summoner…"

"You…you…" De Masque coughed, the inky substance reaching up to his neck, allowing Skull Flame to remove his foot. "You…bastar…"

The rest of the ink covered De Masque's body, freezing him momentarily before his body began to snap and crack loudly as his body began to contract into itself. Skull Flame kicked the crumpled body over to the side, "Sorry that you had to waste your last words like that…"

Then, just like that, De Masque's inky body was pulled directly into his mask, forming into one mask that was completely black save for the white eyes on the mask. With the punishment over, the flames around the duelists died down into nothing as Skull Flame lifted up that mask, which was the only thing left of the masked duelist save for his deck and duel disk. "I find it ironic…he's become the symbol of the very man he idolized, and never more will he be able to look up to that thief…"

And with a toss, Skull Flame sent the mask flying off to the side at the remaining duelists that stood in front of him. "…and even though that was fun, I'm not done playing by a long shot…next victim please..."

It was like a frog was stuck in his throat, Rex couldn't help but look at the two students next to him and the knocked out detective. Akira was out cold, Rena was on the verge of tears, and Leo…well, even though he looked alright on the outside, Rex knew that he just went through a duel like that with Morty, there was no way he'd be able to compete in a duel like that for a second time so soon.

So, with a gulp, Rex slowly stood up reaching for the deck case he had gotten at the back of his belt…

"Hold it!"

Everyone turned to where the source of the voice was, looking up at the very top of the generator's dish, seeing a familiar dark and white haired young man standing atop of it, dressed in white and black clothing with a duel disk strapped to his arm…

"It's…it's…" Rena stuttered wiping some of the tears away from her eyes. "Dias?"

The familiar black and white haired young immediately face fell, which wasn't the best of ideas, since he was standing atop of the generator. Plummeting from the satellite, the young Swartzvauld brother landed smack dab on his face, making everyone, including Skull Flame wince…

"MY NAME IS KYO!"

Everyone was amazed that Kyo managed to jump to his feet immediately and waved his arms at the group, "How many times do I have to say it until you people get it?! Honestly!?!"

"Ah, don't worry about it Mr. Swartzvauld," Leo stated, not using the first name since that seemed to cause the most amount of pain on Kyo's pride. "Eventually, people will call you that, but you must remember the impression we have on the Swartzvauld family here…"

"Hey…" Skull Flame questioned with a question mark appearing over his head.

"So…why exactly are you here?" Rex asked raising an eyebrow, remembering the tournament earlier that Kyo competed…and then disappeared after the duel he was involved with Beck.

"…anybody forget about the flaming zombie that's going to kill you?" Skull Flame asked with a blood vessel appearing on the side of his head.

"Why else?" Kyo retorted flicking some of his hair out of the front of his face. "The hero always arrives at the last minute to save the day! And today…I'm that hero!"

"HEY! DON'T IGNORE ME!" Skull Flame roared with the flames on his back erupting into the air.

"Aw shut up," Kyo replied making the Skull Flame blink a few times. "No one was talking to you ya burning bag of bones."

"…you…you…YOU INSOLENT HUMAN!" Skull Flame erupted as the flames grew even taller than before, surging around his body as the duel disk around his wrist hummed to life. "IF YOU INSULT ME ONE MORE TIME…I SWEAR TO YOU THAT I'LL MAKE EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOUR REMAINING SECONDS ON THIS MISERABLE PLANET FILLED TO THE BRIM WITH PAIN AND SORROW! AND THAT WON'T BE FOR TOO MUCH LONGER! I'M KILLING YOU RIGHT NOW!" (SKLP: 8000)

With a deep breath, Kyo slowly cracked his neck, arms and fingers before he reached for his deck. "…sure, why not? I'm in the mood for taking out the trash." (KLP: 8000)

"WHAT?! Y-YOU…YOUR DEATH SHALL NOT BE QUICK AND PAINLESS!" Skull Flame bellowed as the flames around his body slowly died down as to not burn his cards up.

"Dia…" Rena started only to get a darkened look from Kyo's eyes. "Uh, I mean…Kyo, please…don't do this…you don't know what he's capable of…and you don't need to get involved with this…"

"…Rena Akira," Kyo mused snapping his deck of cards into his duel disk, turning his gaze back at Skull Flame. "I've learned many things in this life…People do stupid things…always have, always will. Why they do them…those reasons aren't so stupid. As for me, I have a reason to fight this demon…and that's to repay a debt. A debt, to you Rena…"

"A…A debt to me?" Rena questioned with a few question marks appearing over her head. "But…"

"Enough…" Kyo replied as he and Skull Flame both drew their five card hands. "The time for talking is over…"

"Indeed," Skull Flame chuckled looking over the cards before turning up at the new opponent that stood in front of him. "There is only one thing left to say…"

"Duel on!"

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Meanwhile…

"Terra Flame Alchemist!" Luntina announced as a large daunting figure leapt over her, preparing a large fiery fist. "I hate to do this Lily…but you made a bad move joining the Yokai!"

Lily fell back onto her behind, crawling backwards in an attempt to get away from the powerful alchemic monster that was falling directly towards her at an almost blinding rate. "N-NO! M-Mercy! I don't want to die yet!"

BOOM!

Luntina turned to the side as she looked at all of the flowers that remained from Lily's field spell card, taking note that all of the flowers were starting to change color from yellow and white to a pure red color that washed over the field like a wave of water. Then as the Kaisaris turned around, she saw her fused Alchemist warrior pull his fist back, seeing Lily simply laying on the ground, knocked out from the force of the attack. (LILP: 0)

As the Terra Flame Alchemist began to disappear, Luntina slowly walked over to Lily, her eyes closed as to not see the bright light began to cover Lily's body, compacting her body until it resembled that of a new shape…

…that of a beautiful lily that stood out from the rest of the flowers in the field, and just as Luntina was about to pass the flower…she just stopped and lowered her head at the plant. "…I'm sorry…whenever you challenged me, I always hoped that you'd be the one to defeat me."

Drip…

A single droplet fell onto the lily, making the Kaisaris rub her eyes slightly as she continued towards the generator. "…but…I guess you got desperate…desperate enough to join scum like this. And for all your beauty…you eventually became scum as well…"

Standing in front of the generator, Luntina lifted up one of her cards, and immediately slapping it onto her duel disk, summoning a familiar mohawk warrior with steal arms…taking a small puff on his cigar. "…But, know this…the times we spent as friends in my freshman year, the rivalry we developed in sophomore and all the times we talked…they will remain with me forever…"

The Armor Piercing Alchemist leapt into the air, bringing his arms down atop of the generator, slicing the metal into clean even strips that fell to the ground. And as the alchemist landed behind the generator, the machine exploded into a fit of smoke that was a darker shade than that of the Armor Piercing Alchemist's cigar smoke.

"…and with that," Luntina muttered before she walked off into the distance while the Armor Piercing Alchemist disappearing into smoke. "…I must find that little pain in the ass…knowing him, he's probably in trouble by now…"

In actuality…

"_Huh?" Klein questioned hearing a pair of screams echoing through the air. Then with a shake of his head, Klein began to charge towards the source of the scream, running through the trees, dodging branches and leaping over the trees._

_And just as he reached the opening, he was met with a large blood red aura-like-dome that had several eyes and mouths on it. "Holy…" Klein felt a chill creep up his back as the grabbed his arms. "…w-what the hell is that?"_

_That's when the aura shattered like glass, flowing into the air along with other glass like shards…merging into the large twilight aura. "Whoa…"_

_As the last of the blood red aura-like-dome shattered, Klein lowered his head to see someone standing in front of a large satellite generator that was glowing bright white…_

…_the person turned around, allowing his cloak to flow over his body and the gray braided strands of hair that fell from the hood of his cloak. "Hello…ya little cockroach…"_

"…and here I thought that braided hair was out of fashion," Klein commented crossing his arms at the sight of the cloaked man.

"Is that anyway to say thanks to a guy who did your dirty work?" the cloaked guy growled raising his arms up. "After all, if I didn't show up, you'd have to face against two duelists on your own…and that wouldn't be fair now would it?"

"True…but that raises a few new questions, now doesn't it?" Klein asked raising a hand up towards the cloaked man. "Who exactly are you…and why would you go to the trouble of helping me?"

"…Looks like someone has some sense on this island," The cloaked man chuckled as he turned around with his arms crossed over his chest, taking in the sight of the generator that was before him. "This looks sorta like the kinds of things I'd see Giga work on in his spare time…and since I've got some spare time, I might as well do what I do when I get some spare time."

Reaching into his cloak, the mysterious man pulled out five red sticks that were all tied together with a large string trailing out from the top of all five. Klein eyed the sticks strangely, as the cloaked man immediately produced a small lighter, and then it hit Klein as to what that was…

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" The man chuckled throwing the now lit dynamite sticks towards the generator before taking off past a surprised Klein, who only started to run a few seconds later…

KA-BLAM!

The explosion rocked the entire area, sending smoking pieces of metal that flew into the air, crashing into the ground next to the two who were watching it…however, how they accepted the explosion was another matter, "YAHOO! Let's do it again!"

"Are you nuts!?!?" Klein shouted, not noticing that some of his hair had a spark of fire at the end of it. "Do you have some sort of medical condition?!"

"…Hmm…well, not any more, I'm happy enough to announce that I'm perfectly sane," the cloaked man announced as he stood up on the field, clapping his hand against his chest a few times. "I've got documentation that even says that…"

"Who'd you have to bribe to get that?" Klein coughed before putting out the flame on his hair.

"…you'd be surprised how little people you need to bribe for that sort of thing," The cloaked man replied cracking his neck. "Anyway, with my job here done…I must be off."

"What? Wait! You didn't answer my damn questions!" Klein shouted making a reach for the cloaked man, missing his cloak barely as the man immediately shifted over to the side.

"Are you sure you want to know?" the cloaked man asked raising his hands up, pushing the hood over his shoulders to allow his gray braided his hair falling down to his sharp face, showing that he had black eyes with red pupils that looked down at Klein…sending a chill down the red duelist's spine. "…Because…a lot of people who come to know me, end up with bad luck for the rest of their life…I guess you could say I'm a black cat…"

"I didn't ask for a biography," Klein sighed with a slap to his forehead.

"Actually, it'd be an autobiography," the gray haired man chuckled waving his hand towards Klein.

"I don't care!" Klein shouted pulling his hair out. "And screw this! Screw you! And screw the idiots who made this freaky aura that appeared around the island! I'm going to go back to the dorms!"

"Aw, and it was so fun to mess with your mind," The gray haired man coughed turning away from the enraged Klein. "Oh well, I guess there has to be a buzz kill everywhere…I guess this place isn't an exception. Tell ya what, answer one question of mine, and I'll answer yours…"

Klein just eyed the man warily, he'd learn long ago not to trust people wearing cloaks, and with what has been happening lately, that mistrust was more founded. But, if the guy was carrying more dynamite, Klein didn't want to take that risk, "…fine…"

"Tell me, why do you and the other people here fight against destiny?"

"…heh, destiny?" Klein chuckled hearing that word, the thoughts of a certain cold hearted stiff appearing in his mind. "If destiny was real, I wouldn't be standing before you on this island…I'd be kept in the streets like a lowly rat, scrapping at the remains of the crew I used to lead…pulling crime after crime, just trying to live day by day. No, destiny doesn't exist.

"I don't know what the others are doing this for, but I'm only here for my little brother…"

"…how noble," The gray haired man chuckled as he brushed one of his braid locks of hair out of his face.

"Now, answer my questions," Klein growled walking around to see the man face to face. "Who are you? And why are you helping us?"

"Oh, right, the simple questions of today," the gray haired man chuckled rubbing his thumb against his nose. "My name…well, you can call me what everyone else calls me in my profession…Cig."

"Cig?" Klein questioned at the weird name with a raised eyebrow.

Cig just chuckled as he raised his arms up into the air. "As for why I'm helping you…well…this little battle the students and Yokai are having, I wanted in on it. I love the thrill of battle, the cries of the enemy falling, and the fact that everyone seems to suffer a different punishment afterwards…it's so rewarding!"

With his eyebrow raised a little more, Klein just glared at Cig. "…bull…"

"Ah…well, you're more than welcomed to believe or not me if you wish," Cig stated walking past the ruined generator that was beginning to allow a large amount of smoke to erupt into the air. Klein didn't notice till just now, but the generator was located next to one of the many cliff sides of the island, "But, either way…my job is done. And I no longer have to stay here…"

Klein watched as Cig slowly reached the edge of the cliff, that's when it dawned on him what Cig was going to do.

Then, Cig just stopped dead in his tracks, turning around to smirk at Klein, "So, enjoy this little war of yours kid…I've got plans to do…" And with that Cig slowly began to fall backwards, his cloak billowing as he began to plummet towards the water below.

Klein didn't know what to do, so running forward in an attempt to stop the falling Cig, Klein reached out towards him, maybe he knew where Koji was, "Wait!"

"So long kid…" Cig replied before he disappeared behind the cliff, the sound of his flapping cloak the only thing left that allowed Klein to know that Cig was still falling…

…until it stopped…no splash, no flap…nothing except the wind blowing through his hair that alerted Klein of Cig's existence. And as the short duelist looked over the cliff, there was nothing that showed that the mysterious man was alive…or that he was even there save for the smoke rising high into the air behind the shorty. '_…what the hell was that about?'_

"Hey! Shorty! You over here?!"

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

"I'll start off!" Skull Flame announced pulling his sixth card into his hand, and with a cackle, the fire zombie spun one of the cards he held around. "And I couldn't ask for anything better! I activate the effect of a monster I didn't draw in my last duel, Skull Conductor!"

As the demonic duel spirit placed the card onto his duel disk, a tall sleek, ghostly conductor appeared behind him, waving his arms about and smirked evilly at Kyo, who had remained silent so far since the duel had begun. The conductor red hair flared out from under his white cap, and he looked rather alive for a zombie (2000/0), "Now, for a mere cost of sending this guy to the graveyard, his musical charms allow me to special summon two zombie monsters from my hand as I special summon up to two zombies from my hand, so long as their attack scores are combined to two thousand points!"

Holding up two of the cards he had left in his hand, Skull Flame chuckled as he spun the cards around to reveal two familiar cards, "And what better than my Burning Skull Heads? I special summon both of them from my hand right now!"

With a pair of loud slaps, the two cackling burning skulls appeared in front of Skull Flame (1000/600 x2) their flames immediately turning blue before they flew around Kyo's body, "Next, since they were special summoned, you take a thousand points for each of them that were! And that's a quarter of your life points right now!"

Kyo only growled as the flames grew brighter around his body, singing his clothing and hair, all the while keeping a steady glare at Skull Flame. (KLP: 6000)

"Man! This is nuts!" Rex shouted pulling his long brown hair from underneath his hat. "It's only the first turn and already the black haired dude is getting his ass handed to him!"

"I fear that Skull Flame isn't done yet with his turn, just yet," Leo stated with a concerned look on his face…and yet still managed to retain that smile. Rex could only guess that smile was the only thing that was keeping Leo on his feet.

"Now…I'll activate the power of fusion, Polymerization!" Skull Flame announced as a powerful red vortex appeared behind his two Burning Skull Heads, pulling them into the vortex with a powerful flame erupting from it. "And since I've got the right materials on the field, I'll use them right now! I fuse my two Burning Skull Heads…"

The vortex erupted into a tower of flames that flew high into the air, taking shape of that of a man-like creature before the flames flew from its body to reveal a tall enflamed warrior dressed in ancient tribal clothing that was adorned in skulls on its shoulders and on its head. The monster's fists and legs were completely engulfed in powerful flames as it was shown when the monster roared loudly (2750/2400). "Meet my older brother…the Skull Flame Giant! Next, I'll set one card face down…"

That's when Skull Flame lifted up his final card in his hand, allowing a powerful flame to erupt around the field, trapping the two duelists. However, the flames were not red…they were pitch black, "And activate the final card in my hand! Coins of the Underworld! This card forces us to discard our hands. Then we both can draw five new cards from the bottom of our decks! However, I don't have anything left in my hands, so you're the only one to discard!"

Kyo grimaced slightly as he fitted his entire hand into the graveyard slot, all of the cards being pulled directly into it as he and Skull Flame drew the same five cards from the bottom of their decks. "Aw…did I make you discard something good, human scum?"

Still silent, Kyo just looked at his new hand, "Aw…what's the matter? Ran out of snappy comebacks? That's too bad, cause I've got something right here that'll make you talk…well, scream actually…I activate my face down card, Mischief of the Time Goddess!"

As his face down card lifted up, Skull Flame's card dissolved into a cute young girl with long blue hair tied in two long pig tails wearing fancy ceremonial robes that displayed her cute, petite figure. When she realized where she was, she turned around and waved at Skull Flame, making the fire zombie turn to the side scratching his cheek.

"…that's something you don't see everyday," Rena admitted with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of her head.

"I happen to like cute girls like this," Skull Flame stated as the Time Goddess giggled at being called cute, and began to pray quietly. "Especially when they have very useful effects! Since I played this card on the first turn, we take a trip through time, skipping the rest of my turn…your whole turn…then my draw and standby phase…meaning its my next turn's battle phase! Skull Flame Giant! Attack him directly with Burning Fist of Battle!"

Kyo's eyes widened when the burning fist collided with his body, making him stagger backwards as the flames began to surge through his body, making him grunt loudly in pain. (KLP: 3250)

"Aw come on!" Rex complained pointing at the Skull Flame Giant that stomped away from Kyo who was breathing deeply. "This can't be fair! Attacking on the first turn?!"

"Technically," Leo stated with a smile on his face. "He just skipped Kyo's first turn…"

"…I really don't like you right now," Rex groaned

Rena was still silent, holding her father even closer as she watched the duel closely. That's when a familiar hand clasped onto her shoulder, making her turn to see Leo smiling at her, "Don't worry…I'm sure your father doesn't feel the way Skull Flame says he does."

"B-but…" Rena started but Leo just place a finger on her lips.

"…don't worry…just watch the duel…" Leo replied crossing his arms over his chest. "I think you'll be surprised with what happens…"

"Heh…you haven't even gotten a single card on the field, and you've already got less than half your life points!" Skull Flame cackled lifting two of the five cards in his hand up. "And this fun has just begun! I set two cards face down, and I think I'll end my turn with that…"

Slowly, and silently Kyo drew his next card, keeping his eyes closed until he raised the card up towards his eyes…and slowly, that smirk appeared on his face that could only belong to a Swartzvauld shown up on his face, "…you've come…"

"Huh?" Skull Flame questioned before Kyo lifted up one of the cards in his hand. "…what'd you say?"

"…you're about to see," Kyo replied holding up the very card he had drawn up, spinning it around to show a familiar monster. "I summon Junk Synchron in attack mode!"

A bright circle of light emerged on the field next to Kyo, forming into the small orange robotic warrior, lifting its arm up into the air before crossing his arms over his chest in a daunting form (1300/500). "And when he's normal summoned successfully, I can special summon a level two or lower monster from my graveyard! And I choose…Nitro Synchron!"

Tossing his hand to the side, the Junk Synchron created a separate circle of light next to it, forming into what appeared to be a small fuel canister like monster with comically small legs and arms with a goofy face on it as well. On the top of the creature's 'head' was a small gauge that was at the yellow end of it (300/100).

Skull Flame couldn't help but eye the weird looking creature that was crouching down next to the Junk Synchron, figuring that the card was placed into Kyo's graveyard with Skull Flame's Coins of the Underworld spell, "Alight…and what the hell is that?"

Instead of answering, Kyo merely lifted his hand up, allowing another bright circle appeared next to the Junk Synchron. "I now activate the effect of another monster card…this one in the graveyard, Bolt Hedgehog!"

As he called out it's name, a small orange hedgehog-like creature appeared on the field, save for the fact that the monster had many bolts and screws sticking out from its body (800/800). "When I have a face up Tuner monster on the field, I can special summon this monster automatically from my graveyard! So thanks for placing them into my graveyard!"

That's when the Junk Synchron pulled a ripcord at its side, revving the large motor on its back into a really loud roar, transforming it into three large bright green rings that began to fly around the Bolt Hedgehog, "Which means I can now tune my level two Bolt Hedgehog with my level three Junk Synchron…"

The Bolt Hedgehog transformed right before their very eyes into two small blue stars that flew with the rings into the air, "…allowing me to fuse the new light, creating an opening to a brand new future! Arise!"

The light shattered allowing the large, sleek blue metallic warrior to spin over the field, his white scarf flowing into the air as he raised his larger right fist into the air (2300/1300 + 300/0). "Junk Warrior!"

"It's another one of those Synchro monsters!" Rex shouted remembering the Red Daemon's Dragon. "But…how'd it get stronger?"

"It's thanks to my Nitro Synchron," Kyo explained not turning away from the duel. "For you see, Junk Warrior is a man who defends the weak…and for each level two or lower monster on the field, he gains their attack points to his own!"

"Too bad he's not strong enough to defeat my giant," Skull Flame chuckled before a small steam like sound filled the air. "What's that noise?"

"Who said I was done tuning?" Kyo asked as the Nitro Synchron began to make a lighter steam shrill, the gauge on its head shifting to red as the weird machine transformed into two rings that began to fly about the Junk Warrior. "I tune my level five Junk Warrior with my level two Nitro Synchron!"

Throwing his fist up into the air, the Junk Warrior immediately transformed into five glowing white stars that whipped into the air, erupting into a powerful burst of flames that turned into a raging tower of flames, "With the flames burning down the past, the fires of rebirth unleash a new spark of life into this world!"

The flames scattered, forming into a new monster, this one a large bright green skinned warrior that resembled that of a few insects with a few fangs on the mouth, and a large exhaust pipe at its waist and many spokes erupting from its back (2800/1800). And with a loud roar, many flames erupted from the spokes of the monster, "Appear! Nitro Warrior!"

"Kick ass!" Rex shouted throwing his fist into the air. "He just summoned a powerhouse of his own in one turn!"

'_Indeed,_' Leo thought to himself watching as the Nitro Warrior stomped its feet into the ground loudly. '_To adapt in a situation like the one that Skull Flame brought upon him, and even use it to his advantage…and seeing his brother's skills first hand, the Swartzvauld family must have been a great dueling family…and these two are the only ones remaining._'

"Next, I'll activate the equip spell card," Kyo continued snapping one of the remaining five cards in his hand into his duel disk. "Junk Barrage! And equip it to Nitro Warrior!"

As the spell card's name was announced, the Nitro Warrior raised his right hand up, revealing that it was glowing a bright green color, twisting and turning.

"So what?" Skull Flame cackled running his clawed finger along the duel disk he had. "Sure you may have the stronger monster, but don't forget about my face down cards…they may have the might to…"

"Nitro Warrior! Attack Skull Flame Giant!"

"What?!" Skull Flame shouted as many flames erupted from the spokes of the Nitro Warrior, making him roar loudly into the air (2800/1800 + 1000/0). "Why is it getting stronger!?!?"

"During the turn a spell card is played, my warrior gains one thousand attack points!" Kyo announced before the Nitro Warrior shot forward, both of his fists glowing brightly. "All of them aimed at your Skull Flame Giant!"

Before Skull Flame could protest, two large aura like fists erupted around the Nitro Warrior, allowing him to slam them both directly into the Giant, making it explode into millions of flames that flew backwards around the Skull Flame. "URK!" (SKLP: 6950)

And just as Skull Flame was about to push one of the buttons on his duel disk, he noticed that the Nitro Warrior was floating in front of him, charging a powerful burst of green energy in his right hand. Before he could ask, many green blade like disks flew from the Nitro Warrior's hand, cutting through the fire demon's body, making him scream loudly. (SKLP: 5575)

"And then there's Junk Barrage," Kyo explained as the Nitro Warrior returned to his field, cracking his knuckles loudly. "Whenever the equip monster destroys one of yours in battle, you take damage equal to half of its attack…"

"Yeah…well, on the off chance you did manage to destroy my Giant…I…" Skull Flame slammed his clawed finger into the duel disk button, making his face down card flip up. "I can activate trap card…Hell's Redemption!"

A powerful explosion rocked from the exposed trap card, allowing two flames to erupt onto the field, merging into the two Burning Skull Heads once more (1000/600 x2), glowing brightly blue before they spun around Kyo's body once more. (SKLP: 4575) (KLP: 1250)

"When you summoned that green eye-sore," Skull Flame chuckled crossing his arms over his chest. "You talked about the flames of rebirth…well, my trap does the same thing. When a fusion monster of mine bites the dust, I can special summon the fusion components of it…however, at the end of the turn, they're destroyed…but, giving you less than a quarter of your starting life points is more than enough…"

"Damn it! The dark haired freak can't catch a break!" Rex shouted pulling his hair once more.

Rena looked down at her father, at the way things were going, Kyo was going to…

"Heh…"

Skull Flame's eyes shot wide open when he heard Kyo laugh, and everyone just starred at him.

"Well then…you just made things much easier for me," Kyo explained raising his hand up towards his Nitro Warrior (3800/1800 – 1000/0) who just cracked his knuckles. "Since in order to his second effect, I need to have a monster on your field in defense mode…and both Burning Skull Heads are! My Nitro Warrior can attack once more, all the while switch his target to attack mode…although, his attack returns to normal if I use this effect…"

Nitro Warrior didn't wait for his owner's attack call, forcing him to launch forward just as one of the Burning Skull Heads burned back into red flames, receiving a large green fist into it…shattering it immediately backwards into Skull Flame's body. "Erk…y-you little…" (SKLP: 2775)

"And don't forget!" Kyo interrupted as the Nitro Warrior lifted his hand up once more, sending many blades slicing through Skull Flame's body. "Junk Barrage's effect is still in motion! So you take half of your monster's attack strength!" (SKLP: 2275)

Skull Flame, his clothes now in tatters and his flames starting to die down, didn't say anything as three cards appeared behind the confident Nitro Warrior. "I'll set these three cards face down…and call it a turn."

Once again, Skull Flame didn't say a word, nor did he even make a movement at Kyo's last move even when his Burning Skull Head exploded into millions of pixels, '_H-How does something like this happen? W-Why? I can't lose to…to…to a mere human!_'

"…Are you even awake?" Kyo asked raising an eyebrow at Skull Flame.

"Never as before!" Skull Flame roared as the flames on his body erupted high into the air, drawing his next card without taking a second to look at it. "Now, I activate my face down trap card, Scorching Prominence!"

Skull Flame's face down card flipped up, revealing a large skull flying into many flames, "Now, all I need to do is send a fire zombie from my deck, and I can draw two cards…I send my final Burning Skull Head to the graveyard!"

Skull Flame immediately flipped off the top two cards, making his eyes widened as he looked at the remaining cards in his hand. "…heh…heh, heh, heh…this is perfect!"

"Man, I hate it when the bad guy laughs like that," Rex moaned with a slap to his forehead.

"Now…I activate the spell card, Smashing Ground!"

Kyo's eyes widened as the Nitro Warrior was immediately destroyed by a powerful shockwave that made the warrior scream before he was pulled underground. "And now…I activate another spell card, Foolish Burial! Allowing me to send my Skull Flame from the deck to the graveyard!"

"What?" Everyone questioned as to why Skull Flame would send his own card to the graveyard.

"I know, you're all thinking I'm crazy right?" Skull Flame chuckled as he slowly pulled out his next card from his duel disk's graveyard, revealing it to be the Skull Flame. "Well…I have good reason to do so. Especially since by excluding myself from the graveyard, I can bring out my true form."

"True form?" Everyone but Kyo asked as a powerful flame erupted around Skull Flame, focusing around his legs as he began to grow taller and more muscular.

"Yes!" Skull Flame roared kicking the flames away, revealing that he had transformed into a centaur version of himself, his legs and tail engulfed in flames (3000/2300). "For my true form…is the Speed King – Skull Flame!"

"Man…I'm betting that Kaiba wouldn't like the fact that there are more and more three thousand attackers that can be easily brought out," Rex admitted rubbing the side of his head.

"Oh yes, you did compete in a few of his tournaments now didn't you?" Leo asked raising an eyebrow at Rex.

"Yep! And I was a real contender in both of them!" Rex stated with a fist to his chest.

"I read about that," Leo replied with a smile on his face. "In Battle City, you lost in the first round to a Psychic duelist, while in the second one, you didn't really get a chance to compete…you weren't even invited really…"

"…thanks for rubbing salt in the wound," Rex moaned.

"SILENCE MORTALS!" Speed King – Skull Flame roared loudly slamming his enflamed hooves into the ground, calling powerful flames erupted around its body. "Watch and learn…I'm about to kill this little mortal, and stomp on him till nothing remains!"

"You say that…" Kyo stated shaking his head away from Skull Flame's proclamation. "…but, I wonder…can you back that tough talk up?"

"You ask a question that stupid?" Skull Flame cackled creating a powerful orb of fire over his head, immediately having it float in front of his face. "Of course I can! I'll burn you to a crisp!"

That's when a large demonic mouth appeared on Skull Flame's face, allowing him to shallow the orb of fire…then unleashed a powerful hellish fury that erupted its way towards Kyo. The powerful flame exploded around Kyo, the flames wrapping all over his body, completely covering his body.

"That's not good…" Rex gulped as the flames began to fly higher and higher into the sky above.

"Kyo!" Rena shouted.

"Finally…finally we're done with this idiot," Speed King – Skull Flame cackled lifting his arms up. "And now…we've got three more mortals…"

"I don't think so!"

The flames erupted to the side, showing that Kyo had thrown the flames away from him, showing that one of his face down cards was the cause, "I activate my trap, Defense Draw! This makes all battle damage in one instance down to zip! And I can draw one new card from the deck!" (KLP: 1250)

"You…little…" Speed King – Skull Flame roared into the air, summoning three Burning Skull Heads around his body. "I activate my effect! Once per turn, I can inflict four hundred points of damage to your life points for each Burning Skull Head in my graveyard! And I've got three!"

"Three!"

"THREE!"

All thee skulls flew directly through Kyo's body, making three powerful bursts of fire erupted from his back and immediately disappeared. (KLP: 50)

"Ack!?! He doesn't even have a hundred life points to his name!" Rex shouted, wondering if his hair would turn gray at the end of the day.

"I set one single card face down," Speed King – Skull Flame announced as the face down card appeared behind him. "And let you wallow…next turn, either through attack or effect…I'll still burn you to a crisp…"

"Why!?"

"Huh?" Speed King – Skull Flame questioned turning towards Rena, seeing that she was crying.

"Why are you doing this?!" Rena asked, holding her father closer. "Hurting my father, using a secret he held against me, turning De Masque into a mask…and now burning Kyo alive! Why are you doing this?!"

"Why? You ask me why?" Speed King – Skull Flame laughed loudly raising his arms into the air. "I'll tell you why! Its my existence!"

"Your existence?" Leo questioned raising an eyebrow at Skull Flame.

"Only days ago did I come into the human plane," Speed King – Skull Flame answered clapping his hands together. "I was ripped from my home in the duel spirit world…and what a marvelous world it was. I was a king among the zombie world…beautiful handmaidens, all the most wonderful food a zombie like I would love…hmm, charcoal…"

"…you eat charcoal?" Rex questioned with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head.

"Don't knock it till you try it, it tastes great with barbecue sauce," Speed King – Skull Flame stated before shaking his head. "But that's beside the point. I had the sweet life…and all of that was pulled away from me! All in the name of some jackass named Eternity Angelo to do his dirty work!"

"…Eternity Angelo?" Leo repeated raising an eyebrow. "Who the heck is that?"

"The dumbass who made all of this!" Speed King – Skull Flame roared pointing to the sky…rather the aura that engulfed the island. "And if things continue…I'm more than likely not going to be able to go back home…so, if I'm stuck here, I'm going to make the most of it! So…I'll be having my fun with all humanity!"

"Stop this!" Rena shouted. "I don't want another person become what happened to De Masque…"

"Heh…don't worry about that," Kyo replied snapping off the top card from his deck. "I don't plan on losing to his horror movie reject."

"…Horror Movie Reject," Speed King – Skull Flame muttered with a large sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head.

"Besides…that's not how the hero's supposed to end the show!" Kyo stated spinning the card he just drawn to his eyes. "This is how it's supposed to be done! I first activate the face down trap card, Call of the Haunted! Now, I can special summon one monster from my graveyard, so come on back…"

'_He's more than likely going to bring back that Nitro Warrior…well, even if he did manage to power it up,_' Speed King – Skull Flame's eyes trailed over to his face down card. '_But…even if he manages to power it up with its own effect…I can activate my trap card blowing whatever little trick he'll have left…so bring on the Nitro Warrior…_'

"…Junk Warrior!"

"W-What?! Junk Warrior?!?" Speed King – Skull Flame shouted taking a few backwards as the blue armored warrior appeared on the field, crossing his large armored fist over his other arm (2300/1300). "Why didn't you bring back Nitro Warrior!?"

"Well, if I did, then I couldn't win this turn," Kyo stated holding up another card of his into the air. "But with what I've got in stored just for you, that's going to be a little different…now, I summon Turbo Synchron!"

"Turbo Synchron!?!" Speed King – Skull Flame roared as another bright ring appeared next to Kyo.

"About how many Synchrons are there?" Rena asked with a large question mark appearing over her head.

"Heh, a lot more than you'd be willing to admit," Kyo replied throwing his hand to the side, right next to the ring that began to take shape into a small green, car like machine with limbs and a small circular face (100/500). "And just like the last two…my monster's a tuner as well! So, I tune my level five Junk Warrior…with my level one Turbo Synchron!"

Revving up the engines on its back, the Turbo Synchron flew directly into the air, transforming into a ring of green energy that flew around the Junk Warrior, turning it into five glowing blue stars began to spin around in the air, creating a powerful tornado that crashed onto the field behind Kyo. "Rev it up, Turbo Warrior!"

The tornado shattered allowing a tall sleek red armored machine like warrior with a car theme to its armor along with its clawed arms that glowed brightly (2500/1500).

Speed King – Skull Flame narrowed his eyes at the newest monster, "…that's what you're going to beat me with? You can't be serious…you should've brought back your Nitro Warrior!"

'_Because my trap only works when two fire attribute monsters battle, and that Nitro Warrior was a Fire Attribute!_'

"Someone needs to clean out their ears…" Kyo stated pointing towards his ears before he blinked a few times. "Uh, sorry, but do you even have ears?"

"Grr…of course I do!" Speed King – Skull Flame roared with his flames growing larger and larger. "You just can't see them under my mask!"

"Yeah, sure…heh, I think I struck a nerve…" Kyo chuckled before he shook his head. "Turbo Warrior! Attack Speed King – Skull Flame!"

"Heh…excellent, you're doing all the hard work for…" Speed King – Skull Flame started to gloat before a red aura appeared around his body. "…Huh? What…the…hell? Why…" Speed King – Skull Flame slowly began to knelt down, grabbing his sides (3000/2300 – 1500/0). "Why…do I feel…feel so weak?!?"

"Because when my Turbo Warrior battles a monster with a level six or higher, that monster gets its attack cut straight in half!" Kyo explained before pushing a button on his duel disk. "But even with that, you won't be able to lose, so I'll chain my attack with my own trap card, Synchro Strike!"

Kyo's face down card flipped up, revealing the Junk Warrior flying forward with the Speed Warrior and Junk Synchron right behind it. The trap card glowed a bright red, casting the Turbo Warrior in a red aura (2500/1500 + 1000/0), "This trap card increases my Synchro monster by five hundred points for each monster that was used to create it…and that means he's got another thousand G's to use on you!"

"I'll…I'll still be…" Speed King – Skull Flame growled before Kyo held up another card.

"Which is why I'm activating a handy spell…Rush Recklessly!"

Speed King – Skull Flame's eyes widened before the Turbo Warrior (3500/1500 + 700/0) appeared in front of him, his right hand glowing a powerful fiery red. "W-Wha?!?!"

"Turbo Warrior! Strike down this nightmare and awaken us into a new day!" Kyo announced as the Turbo Warrior pulled his hand back.

"N-No…w-wait!!" Speed King – Skull Flame shouted before the aura covered hand stabbed right through his stomach, flames erupting from the back of the fire zombie's back. "A-A-ACKH!" (SP-SKLP: 0)

"And that's game!" Kyo shouted as the Turbo Warrior spun backwards till it was back on Kyo's field, cracking its steal claws. "And with that…the sun will rise on a new day…"

"He…he won?" Rena gasped with a smile starting to appear on her face.

"I told you…everything is going to be…" Leo started with a smile on his face.

"…you…you bastard…" Speed King – Skull Flame growled getting back to his feet, his body starting to show his wounds. "…you may have won this…but unlike you fragile humans…"

"Ack!?!" Rex shouted jumping backwards. "Why didn't he disappear!?! Why didn't he become a mask?!?"

"…you humans are fragile…" Speed King – Skull Flame explained holding his bruised arm up. "I am a duel spirit, these sort of things, like this Realm of Twilight don't affect me…sure, I take physical damage, but I don't take your stupid punishments…"

"Hmm, is that a fact?" Kyo stated holding up two cards from his graveyard. "Then what are you going to do?"

"Oh…I'm going to kill you!" Speed King – Skull Flame answered slowly walking towards Kyo. "And then…I'll kill those idiots over there…but I might keep that vessel I was in…Just to stay in this world once all this over…"

"Oh…crap…" Rex moaned. "Stuff like this always happens!"

"Any last words?" Speed King – Skull Flame asked standing directly in front of Kyo…

…who just continued to smile…and immediately winked at Speed King. "Just two…Bring. It."

"…I'm going to love wiping that smirk off your face," Speed King – Skull Flame growled pulling his flaming fist back. "DIE!"

As Speed King – Skull Flame unleashed his fist towards Kyo…

…only to have a familiar red hand grab his arm just before it collided with Kyo's face. "WHAT THE!?!" Speed King – Skull Flame's eyes trailed the arm to see that the Turbo Warrior was still there, and was the one who grabbed him. "WHAT?!? Why is he still here!?"

"You didn't get a punishment," Kyo stated slapping the two cards he had gotten from the graveyard slot, slapping them onto his duel disk, allowing two pillars of light to erupt behind him…forming into the Junk Warrior and the Nitro Warrior, both of them slamming their fists together. "So…my punishment to you…is to feel the pain and suffering you have caused to everyone…dealt through the fists of judgment!"

"Junk! Nitro! Turbo! Rough him up a bit!"

"What?!" Speed King – Skull Flame shouted before the Turbo Warrior side swept the flame demon with his long arm. "Erg!"

That's when both the Junk Warrior and Nitro Warrior took advantage of this, leaping forward to plow their fists directly into Speed King – Skull Flame's face. The powerful attacks made the fire demon skid backwards, making him drop whatever cards he held to the ground.

And just as Speed King – Skull Flame was about to respond, the Turbo Warrior delivered a powerful drop kick that knocked out the fire zombie. That's when all three of the warriors flew towards Speed King – Skull Flame, all three of them pulling their fists back, all three of them glowing a bright blue, green and red…

BAM! POW! KA-BLAM!

All three of the fists collided with Speed King – Skull Flame's face, sending him into the ground, creating a powerful crater appearing around the fire demon's body. As the three warriors pulled their fists back, Speed King – Skull Flame moaned loudly as a bright red light appeared around his body…making him shrink into two cards…the Skull Flame and Speed King – Skull Flame…

Both cards were immediately swept up into Kyo's hands as he held them up to the duelists in front of him. "And that's how the hero's work is done!"

"Wow…" Rena stated blinking a few times as Kyo immediately pulled all the cards on ground and began to shuffle them back into a deck.

"…damn…" Rex whistled, adjusting his hat.

"I knew he was going to win," Leo replied watching Kyo coming to them.

"Of course!" Kyo laughed standing before the three (and the knocked out Akira). "After all the hero always wins in the end."

"Thanks Kyo…" Rena stated looking down at her still knocked out father.

"…no thanks are needed," Kyo replied crossing his arms. "You see, I was just repaying a debt that my brother made to you a while back…you gave him a new chance on life…and eventually he'll be back to face you…along with me at his side!"

'_Great…so I might as well say I've got a few guys after me…but not in the good way,_' Rena thought looking down at her father. "…I wonder…d-did my dad really hate me for…"

"Rena," Leo started, knowing that no one could really answer that question…

"Ugh…R-Rena…"

Everyone's eyes snapped down, seeing that Akira's eyes were slightly opened, while Rena's eyes snapped opened. "DAD!"

"Heh…I thought I told you not to dress like that…" Akira coughed pointing at the uniform that Rena was wearing. "Not until…not until you get a decent husband…"

Rena couldn't help but blush at those comments made by her father, and the snickers form both Kyo and Rex didn't help out at all, "Dad! Stop it!"

"Heh, anyway…I was still conscious the whole time…" Akira stuttered reaching into his pocket, pulling out a small pack of cigarettes. Rena grimaced as he plucked on into his mouth and began rummaging for his lighter. "…and…and unfortunately, Skull Flame was right…You…your mother did die giving birth to you."

"And yes…I did have some hatred burning through me…"

Rena lowered her head slightly.

"…but…that never lived on," Akira coughed out, placing his hand on Rena's cheek. "You were a beautiful baby…and you've grown up into a beautiful young woman. No matter what, I would always love you and care for you…in fact…that was your mother's last wish…"

"D-Dad…are you serious?" Rena asked before a small click caught her attention, already, her father had lit his cigarette. Sure, she didn't care for it, but after what he went through, he deserved it.

Taking a drag on the tobacco, Akira blew the smoke away from the group. "…of course…in the short few seconds your mother knew you…she loved you. But, I and your brother Guy, we both carry her love in our bodies, so that it will forever live. Nothing will change that…"

"Oh…dad!" Rena wrapped her arms around her father's neck, tears of joy rolling down the side of her face as Akira spat out his cigarette as to not burn his daughter.

"This seems like a Kodac moment," Kyo stated holding his hand up towards the three warriors that were still on the field, and then towards the large generator. "But, we've got a job to do! Junk Warrior, Nitro Warrior, Turbo Warrior! Strike down that eyesore!"

All three of the warriors leapt into the air, all three of them slamming their fists into the machine, destroying it immediately in a fiery explosion. And with their jobs done, the three warriors saluted to Kyo before disappearing. "Thanks dudes…I appreciate it."

Kyo then turned towards the others, flicking some hair from his eyes, "Now then, since my part's done here…I think you three have somewhere to be…" Slowly lifting his hand up, Kyo smirked as his finger pointed towards the Clock Tower that stood in the middle of the island. "…more specifically there…"

"Huh? What makes you say that?" Rex asked raising an eyebrow.

"Makes sense to me," Leo replied standing up straight with a smile on his face.

"…once again, I have no clue what he's talking about…" Rex sighed.

"You're starting to sound like Van," Rena admitted with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of her head. "He could never really understand Leo either…"

"…is this someone you forgot to mention in your letters, Rena?" Akira asked as the sweatdrop grew on Rena's head a little more. "…and I'm more concerned with this 'Leo' character…"

"N-Not now dad," Rena laughed sheepishly.

"Since that tower appeared along with the aura," Leo explained, not listening to Akira bickering to his daughter about how guys are nothing more than dogs looking for one certain thing. "It would be to one's assumption that it would be the enemy's base…"

"…then why the heck are we attacking these damn generators!?!" Rex shouted pulling his hair slightly.

"…hmm…" Leo looked up, his eyes showing that he was in extremely deep thought. "…that, I do not know…"

"ARGH!" Rex shouted pulling louder…

RIP!

…until the dino duelist had ripped out a decent amount of hair out of the side of his head…Rena, Kyo, and even Leo looked concerned at the fact Rex was able to do that. And as Rex looked at the hair in his hands, the older duelist nodded at his hair, "…Oh…"

…

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

THUD!

"Um, well, okay," Kyo stated kicking Rex in the side a few times, learning that he was now unconscious. "I guess that it's up to you two then…I'll stay here to make sure that Mr. Smoker and baldy here don't get killed. I'll move them somewhere safe…"

"…Mr. Smoker?" Akira questioned sitting up on his own, allowing Rena to stand up.

"That would be much appreciated," Leo replied taking a bow to Kyo. "Perhaps you can move them to the cafeteria…"

"Oh! That's a good idea," Kyo commented clapping his hands together. "There shouldn't be any of those cloaked freaks there…right?"

"Actually, I was going to propose that you get them lunch and bring us some," Leo chuckled with a smile as he rubbed his flat stomach. "Its rather quite past lunchtime…but your reason's good too."

"Leo…" Rena sighed with a slap to her forehead. "But…dad can…"

"Rena…as long as you don't do anything...that involves dirty business with guys," Akira coughed slowly trying to get to his feet. "Go for it…"

"It's comforting to know your priorities as a parent," Rena muttered before Leo took her hand. "Huh?"

"Well, shall we make haste, Rena?" Leo asked before letting Rena get an answer in, pulling her towards the clock tower.

"L-Leo?!" Rena shouted being pulled into the distance…she underestimated Leo's speed, no wonder he was able to appear almost out of no where.

"HEY! WHAT DID I JUST GET DONE SAYING!?!" Akira shouted with a blood vessel appearing on the side of his head…before he reached into his pocket pulling another cigarette to his mouth. "…eh, it was bound to happen…I guess…"

Before Akira could even bring his lighter up, Kyo easily flicked the cigarette out of Akira's mouth, making the detective look down on him. "…Smoking will kill ya."

"And not letting me smoke will kill you, ya little dark haired freak…" Akira growled, fighting the urge to straggle this little idiot.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Card Stats**

**Skull Conductor / Dark / LV. 4 / ATK: 2000 / DEF: 0 / Zombie/Effect:** Send this card from your hand to the Cemetery. You can Special summon 2 zombie-type monsters from your hand in face-up defense mode whose total attack points equal 2000**  
Description:** A sleek ghostly conductor with a long red hair.

**Speed King – Skull Flame / Wind / LV. 9 / ATK: 3000 / DEF: 2300 / Zombie/Effect:** By removing 1 'Skull Flame' in your Cemetery from the game, you can special summon this monster. In addition, by sending this card to the Cemetery, you can special summon one 'Skull Flame' in your Cemetery. Once per turn, inflict 400 points of damage to the opposing player for each 'Burning Skull Head' in your cemetery.

**Description:** Skull Flame, only this time looking like one of the four horsemen

**Synchro Strike / Trap / Effect:** The attack power of 1 Synchro Summoned monster increases by the number of monsters used as Synchro Material x 500 points.

**Image:** The Junk Warrior becoming stronger thanks to the Speed Warrior and Junk Synchron

_The preceding cards were used in Yugioh 5D's. Synchro Strike is currently a Japanese card, and will be released in America in a few months._

**Burning Skull Chain / Equip Spell / Effect:** This card can only be equipped to a monster with 'Skull' in its name. For each 'Burning Skull Head' in your graveyard, increase the equipped monster's attack and defense strength by 300 points.

**Image:** The Skull Flame spinning a large flaming chain.

**Demon Hell Treasure / Fire / LV. 3**** / ATK: ****0 / DEF: 0 / ****Fiend****/Effect:** Discard this card. After this is done, you may draw three cards and show your opponent. Any monster cards drawn are immediately discarded. For each monster card discarded by this card's effect, inflict 500 points of damage to your life points. Then you must destroy one monster card on your field, if you cannot inflict 1000 points of damage to your life points.

**Image:** A large silver and black treasure chest with several red jewels in it.

**Skull Flame Giant / Fire / LV. 8 / ATK: 2750 / DEF: 2400 / Zombie/Fusion/Effect:** [1 Fire Attribute Monster + 1 Fire Attribute Monster] This card cannot be special summoned from the graveyard. When this card destroys a monster as a result of battle, you may inflict damage to your opponent's life points equal to the destroyed monster's attack points.

**Description:** a tall enflamed warrior dressed in ancient tribal clothing that was adorned in skulls on its shoulders and on its head. The monster's fists and legs are completely engulfed in powerful flames

**Hell's Redemption / Trap / Effect:** This card can only be activated when a Fusion monster was destroyed as a result of battle. Pay 1000 life points. Then special summon the proper fusion material monsters from your graveyard back to your field. At the end of the turn, destroy the special summoned monsters.

**Image:** Many burning skulls flying towards the sun.

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Kyo:** With the hero's job finally finish, he takes his time to sit down and relax…

**Rena:** There he goes with that hero business…I'd expect Van to say something like that…

**Kyo:** But hark! The real boss appears!

**Rena:** Real boss?

**Kyo:** Wounded, and surrounded by several caring ladies, Kyo tries to get up…but he's unable to move…

**Rena:** Wait…what?

**Kyo: **So, sending his will to the others, a new group of hero's align themselves together…known as the Baka Squad!

**The end will soon come, either for the Yokai or the Baka Squad…but before that…what happened to the others?**

**Next time! On Rogue Hero – Kyo, master of the darkness – **_**Chapter 49: Steel Will**_

**Tony: **So, are we finally going to see what happened to me?

**Rena:** 'Shrugs shoulders'


	50. Chapter 49: Steel Will

_**Ya know, I don't really know about good or evil…**_

… _**Where does one draw the line between these two?**_

_**Is there even a line?**_

_**Let me ask you a small question. What if one day in the future you are faced with a great evil that cannot be defeated by just means? Do you remain to your just ways and fall to evil? Or… do you accept another evil in order to vanquish the greater evil?**_

_**Either way, if you think about it, evil will always remain.**_

_**It has to, evil and good… good and evil… they're no different from day and night, two parts of the same entity. One can't exist without the other, and if either side is stronger than the other… well, balance goes out of whack.**_

_**Man, I hate being so deep, not really my style… especially when I'm only on the sidelines. Being a Boss doesn't suit me to be like that at all!**_

_**Still… I find it invigorating to see this struggle play out before me…**_

… _**And yet, it's pointless…**_

_**Ya wanna know why?**_

_**Cause I'm the Boss! I'll be the winner in the end no matter what these idiots try! **_

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Chapter 49**

**Steel Will**

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

"Heh, is this the best the third strongest can muster?" Xander cackled cracking his neck at Tony's serious look. Standing before the eye patch wearing duelist was none other than the Overlord Superbia (3500/3000), the Chains of Sinful Music attached to him, making the Overlord snarl and growl, trying to break free from his bonds. While in Xander's hand, all he held was two simple cards. (XLP: 2400)

Tony on the other hand was silent, not wanting to respond to the taunts that Xander had been giving him ever since he arrived at the Generator. But, even then, Tony had tried to talk Xander out of this little duel… however, that just fell on deaf ears, and the duel began.

Holding on a full hand of five cards, Tony looked at his field only one monster card on the field with no spells or trap cards on the field. Ever since the duel began, all Tony had done was defend with a weird set of monsters that didn't seem to really resemble the other monsters that he was known to have and then use weird burn effects to get Xander's life points to where they were. (TLP: 3250)

"Not talking?" Xander cackled raising his arms up. "If I was in your shoes, I wouldn't want to stick to witty banter either… after all, not everyone can face my ultimate monster…"

"_YOU STUPID HUMAN!_" The chained Overlord Superbia roared out, trying to break the musical bonds that kept him in check. "_Don't talk like you own the Great Overlord Superbia! The moment I get free…_"

"You won't get the chance to do so," Xander chuckled holding up one of the remaining two cards left in his hand. "And now, I'll outfit Overlord Superbia with a certain card… the magical charms of Fairy Meteor Crush!"

At this development, Tony's eyes widened slightly as a powerful bright aura appeared over the enraged Overlord Superbia, "Naw… it doesn't matter what defense you've got! I'll just crash right through them! And I hope you haven't forgotten about my Chains of Sinful Music's effect, when the monster selected for it inflicts damage to you, you'll have your life points cut in half during your next standby phase!"

Tony's glare just narrowed a little more.

"… if you're not even going to reply then you're taking the fun out of this," Xander sighed with a shake of his head. "It's always more fun when the intimidation tactics show a visible response…"

"Forgive me if 'my mind's elsewhere," Tony finally spoke back, casting a gaze over towards the clock tower. "Ah just didn't feel like wasting my breath while there's a beautiful girl waiting for meh…"

Cocking an eyebrow, Xander looked at his opponent for a few seconds before he snapped back to his senses, "Yeesh, and here I thought Morty… oh, excuse me, the Artist Formally Known as Morty, was a hopeless romantic."

"… _Are you two going to actually get back to dueling?_" Overlord Superbia growled with the two hair antennae sticking up straight into the air. "_Or should I go get some Taco Hell while you two squabble like the weak little humans that you are?_"

"Feh… Fine," Xander sighed, rolling his eye at his impatient monster, at least it wasn't like Ira who kept dropping the F-bomb with every sentence. "Overlord Superbia! Destroy that face down monster with Overlord's Wrath!"

"_Heh… at least this part is fun!_" Overlord Superbia laughed loudly into the air, calling forth a large meteor that appeared out of no where, falling to the ground, burning up through the atmosphere.

Tony's eyes widened as his face down monster was revealed as an ivory statue in the shape of a bishop, a large staff cradled in its arms and a large symbol on its head that resembled that of a bishop's chess piece (1400/1500). Raising his duel disk up as a shield at the last second, the large meteor crashed into the statue, making it shatter like glass in the wind and the force of the meteor's collision sent Tony flying backwards into the air before he slammed into a nearby tree...

… A loud cracking sound echoing afterwards. (TLP: 1250)

"Aw…" Xander cooed in a mocking manner, as Tony began to slide down the tree, showing that tree itself was the source of the cracking noise. "And here I was thinking you'd have at least a decent defense…"

Back to silence, Tony just glared at the eye patch wearing Yokai member, "… ya keep talking like ya are going to win," Tony replied, shaking his head slightly.

"And why shouldn't I?" Xander scoffed to the side, his arms crossed over his chest. "I've got Superbia out, and if by some miracle you do manage to get another powerhouse out on the field, you'll still have to blast him three more times. Cause all I need to do is remove another Sinful Requiem card from my graveyard and I can keep him on the field."

"Indeed, but just because he's invincible," Tony coughed, slowly pushing himself off the ground, reaching for his deck. "Doesn't mean that ya are! Draw!"

Just as Tony pulled up the sixth card into his hand, Superbia appeared before him, and before Tony could react, the Overlord slammed his palm directly into Tony's throat. The force slammed Tony back up against the tree, shattering the bark once more, "GAK!" (TLP: 625)

"With all that talk saying I'm not invincible," Xander chuckled shaking his head a few times before Overlord Superbia released Tony to the ground. "You forget that you're not invincible…"

"Oh…" Tony coughed slowly getting to his feet once more. "Ah… Ah know I'm not invincible… just like everyone in dis world. Everyone has their faults; it's just how we use dem to our advantage…"

"Now you're talking gibberish," Xander muttered rolling his good eye. "And I'm not talking about your accent."

"… just watch," Tony replied holding up two of the six cards in his hand, immediately fitting them into his duel disk. "Ah actually have ta thank ya… if ya didn't destroy all my Chess Golems, ah wouldn't have been able ta pull dis move off…"

"Ah activate spell cards, Coronation of the Ivory King and Coronation of the Ebony King!"

Ten cards erupted from Tony's graveyard, five of them glowing bright white and the others glowing a dark black.

"What the… what are you doing?" Xander questioned raising an eyebrow as the cards began to circle around Tony, shifting and surging until the black cards combined as well as the white cards, forming into two pillars at Tony's sides.

"Ya summoned an overlord," Tony replied as the pillars began to shape themselves, morphing into two extremely large man-shaped golems, both of them looking similar to each other. Both of their heads adorned with helmets that resembled that of the chess king piece, both of them wearing exotic armor with capes flowing over their shoulders. At their sides were large broadswords, both untouched as the two Chess Golems crossed their arms over their broad chests.

In fact, the only difference to each other was the fact that one was pure white ivory and the other was pure black marble (3000/2600 x2). "So I'll summon a pair of kings! Chess Golem – Ebony King and Chess Golem – Ivory King!"

Even at the sight of the tall Chess Golems, Overlord Superbia just glared at them, "_Do you think this scares me? I've take on worse…_"

"Indeed, both of them are just fodder for your own demise…" Xander stated before Tony held up another card from his hand.

"I fully agree," Tony replied fitting the card into his duel disk, making both of the Chess Golem Kings pull their fists back. "This is why I'm activating a card that should remind you of a familiar short duelist…"

Xander's eye widened at the spell card's image, and immediately took a step back from the field, "N-NO! ANYTHING BUT THAT!"

"Yes! Ah activate, Brave Attack!" Tony shouted before both of the Chess Golem Kings threw their fists forward, both of them aiming towards the surprised Overlord Superbia. "Now my kings… Ultimate Checkmate!"

Overlord Superbia's eyes widened, "_What the heck is…_" The overlord didn't even get a chance to finish, both of the Chess Golem Kings' fists collided into the small overlord's body, sending him spiraling backwards directly towards Xander. (XLP: 0)

But the one eyed Yokai member immediately dropped down to his knees, just barely dodging the flying overlord. However, the generator behind him wasn't as lucky, the Overlord crashed right through the machine, making sparks erupt from the machine…

"A-AHH!" Xander shouted crawling away from the machine, but not quick enough as the explosion erupted, sending him flying through the air until he landed into the tree that Tony was standing under. "OW! Oh you've got to be kidding me!"

"… um, ya okay up dere?" Tony asked turning off his duel disk.

"Just leave me alone…" Xander moaned from his tree.

"Heh, hehe," Tony chuckled slowly sliding down on the tree, rubbing his throat with the burning sensation that managed to stick with him from that last attack. "Well… ya did put a decent fight nonetheless… what's a guy like ya in da Yokai?"

"Humph, what's it to a hick like you?" Xander replied popping his head from the leaves.

"Hey, hey, ah just like talking like this fer fun," Tony retorted adjusting his wool cap, taking it off to let his orange hair to flow from his head. "Sides, nuthin' wrong with curiosity… well, less ya'll are a cat…"

"Damn it! Start speaking real English!" Xander shouted with a large sweatdrop rolling down his head.

"Naw," Tony chuckled taking note that the smoke from the destroyed generator wasn't dying down, and then his eyes trailed over to the clock tower. "And stop sidestepping da question… unless ya wouldn't mind answering another question."

"Oh, and what pray tell would that be?" Xander moaned shaking his head slightly.

"That tower," Tony stated pointing towards the clock tower, all the while speaking in perfect English. "What is its purpose?"

"Hell if I know," Xander replied, allowing his tired arms to droop towards the ground. "All I know is that it serves as our main base… at least that's what Beck said."

"… Beck… I should've known," Tony growled slowly standing up. "If I was ya, ya'll best get outta here. This is your only chance to get off the island."

"Thanks for the advice," Xander muttered as Tony began to walk away. "Wait… are you actually going to go there?"

"The things dat love can make us do," Tony chuckled making his way towards the 'borrowed' D-Wheel. "Sides… I kinda owe Beck a couple of things… and I intend to pay him back."

"Yeah… good luck with that," Xander commented before turning towards the ruined generator. '_Where the hell am I supposed to go?_'

"_Oh, I so hope you haven't forgotten about me ya pathetic little human,_" A familiar voice cackled before Xander fell from the tree.

"No… n-no… it can't be!" Xander shouted immediately getting to his feet.

From the smoking remains of the generator, the familiar antennae haired Overlord slowly stepped towards Xander. "_Oh… it be… heh, and now, you get your punishment, you miserable human!_"

"AAAAH!" Xander sped off in a random direction, tears streaming from his good eye.

Overlord Superbia chuckled to himself before he cracked his fingers, "_I love it when the idiots think they can run…_"

**0-0-0-0-0**

Meanwhile…

Sitting back on his throne in the clock tower, Eternity Angelo slowly tapped the side of his hat in frustration. Six of the generators were now gone, and already it was starting to show, the barrier had decreased its growth…

Not something that would please the man in charge, especially one who usually used to the taste of victory. But there one thing that kept the masked wearing man calm in this time, and that was the jewel he kept fingering in his hands as if it were a part of his very life. "Let the rats continue to scurry about… as long as I hold this, my plans will not be derailed by a few setbacks."

"Yes… as long as you are in my grasp," Eternity Angelo slowly lifted the Twilight Crystal up into the air. "I'll never have to worry about such a thing."

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

"Hmm?" Eternity Angelo questioned as a large screen appeared before him, immediately showing a very excited Beck on the screen. "Oh… it's only you Beck…"

"What ya mean 'Oh, it's only you Beck'?" Beck huffed on the screen, his face scrunched up in a small pout.

"… Beck, you have three seconds to tell me why the hell you contacted me," Eternity Angelo sighed as he rubbed the Twilight Crystal in his hands.

"F-Fine, spoilsport," Beck moaned adjusting his new hot pink bandana that was brought to him. "Anyway, I was looking over the surveillance and you may want to look at cameras seven, nineteen and thirty-four…"

If he didn't have his mask on, Eternity Angelo would've raised an eyebrow at the camera numbers that were listed. The first two were located outside the clock tower; the seventh being in the forest and the nineteenth was just at the entrance of the tower.

Eternity Angelo wasn't concerned with the thirty-fourth camera, he already knew who was there, and as he lifted his hand up towards the floating screen, "I'll just have to see who these guests are then… and I hope you're prepared yourself."

"Oh please," Beck chuckled crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm more than ready! I've even managed to get my stage of battle ready! And let me tell you that…"

With a wave of his head, Eternity Angelo dismissed the screen showing Beck, a large sweatdrop appearing on the side of his head as a new picture appeared before him, this one showing Rena being led through the forest by Leo. This wasn't much of a surprise for the masked gentleman, with the generators being picked off one at a time; it was more than likely that the ones who did destroy the generators were going to arrive…

'_But, for someone to arrive at the clock tower so soon?_' Eternity Angelo thought to himself as he waved his hand in front of the screen once more. '_Who could be…_?'

The moment the screen changed, Eternity Angelo's white eyes widened on his mask. The sight on the screen almost made him drop the Twilight Crystal, "W-What!?! W-W-Why is he…!?!"

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

At that very moment…

"Whew… man… why does there… have… to be… s-so…"

"… This again?" Ganryu sighed stopping on the stair set he was on, turning his head to see Luke propping himself against the wall in an attempt to catch his breath. "… I didn't think you were the kind to tire out so easily…"

"S-Shut up!" Luke spat out, apparently getting his second wind. "I had to deal with a homicidal duel spirit who for some reason knew movie references, and we've been running nonstop up these stairs!"

"I'm about ready to pull my hair out of my roots!"

"… then feel free to turn back," Ganryu snapped before turning back to the stairs, slowly heading up towards the final destination. "I don't need a damn wuss in my story…"

After Ganryu took a few steps up the steps, Luke immediately pulled his hair before giving chase behind the samurai duelist, "Aww! I can't walk down all those stairs! Wait up!"

"Feh, suit yourself," Ganyru replied… before he immediately stopped dead in his tracks on the stairs. "… heh… well, well, well, looks like you don't have take too many more steps."

"Huh?" Luke questioned finally catching up with Ganryu, and immediately his face turned sour. "Oh… it's another door, I'm so excited…"

Indeed, the two were now faced with another pair of doors… only this one seemed to have a gold trim with large hot pink doors. Ganryu couldn't help but blink at the doors, even he was a little reluctant to even touch the doors.

"_Oooh! You've finally arrived!_"

Both Ganryu and Luke turned their heads left and right, trying to figure out where the voice came from. "_Now, now, now… no need to be shy! Although that is a desired trait in being attractive…_"

"… okay… A freaky voice," Luke commented rubbing his chin at the door, having a large sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head. "Think it could be another Duel Spirit?"

"… What duel spirit would sound like that?" Ganryu pointed out lowering his head slightly.

"_Aw… you two are just teasing me now…_" The voice cooed before the two doors slammed wide open allowing a powerful gust of wind to erupt from the doorway, only to change from the gust into a powerful vacuum that began to pull in both duelists. "_Come and join the party!_"

"What the?!" Luke shouted before he was drawn into the dark doorway.

Ganryu on the other hand, just leapt into the air, allowing himself to be pulled into the dark doorway.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

"Ow…"

There was a single spotlight over the two, lighting the floor that Ganryu and Luke sat on. Slowly Ganryu stood up while Luke rubbed his back, "Damn it! This time I landed on my wallet!"

Silent as due to his nature, Ganryu's eyes slunk side from side, only seeing the very darkness that had surrounded the two of them. '_… just like the last time… I wonder if this is the work of another duel spirit?_'

"About time you two got in here!" The voice from before announced, a tad bit annoyed with the late arrivals. "But, I suppose it's better sooner than later…"

"Are you a foe?" Ganryu asked bluntly narrowing his eyes.

"Hmm, the 'quick to the point' kinda guy?" The Voice questioned. "Well, I guess that's somewhat an attractive type…"

"Enough of this pointless banter," Ganryu growled. "Answer the question!"

"Aw… but I love pointless banter," the voice chuckled.

'_What kind of conversation is this?_' Luke thought with a large sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head.

"Humph, fine," The voice sighed loudly with a few claps. "Lights please!"

CLICK!

That's when several bright lights erupted over the two duelists, making them cover their eyes momentarily until their eyes adjusted to the bright lights… although, due to the large sweatdrops appearing on the side of their heads, maybe it would've been better that they didn't see the room they were in.

Unlike the last room which was lush and filled with plants, this one was completely manmade… by what kind of man, well, the jury was still out on that. The room was tiled with red floor tiles, with exotic pink and red furniture that looked like you'd find in lover's hotel room. On the ceiling were several stage lights that kept moving around every few seconds.

But the most embarrassing thing about the room, was the large heart themed stage, complete with a large red curtain that was drawn back to reveal a familiar form standing on the stage… dressed in his hot pink bandana that covered his blonde hair with a fancy velvet suit like you'd see on one of those corny dating shows from the 70's, was none other than Beck. "Greetings boys! And welcome to the Love-Love Room!"

"… more like the sick-sick room," Luke gagged, getting noticed by Beck. "Oh…"

"Luke?" Beck questioned blinking a few times at the Monk user. "I heard that there were a couple of intruders here, but, I didn't expect to see you here…"

"How do you expect me to work for a guy dressed like **THAT**?" Luke replied, putting emphasis on Beck's suit.

"… so, I guess I was in the dark about a supposed spy in my Yokai," Beck sighed messing with a strand of blonde hair that was poking out from under his bandana, taking note that it was a split end. "Although, maybe I did know there was a spy, but I ignored you just like this split end, you never notice it until you run a comb through your hair…"

Grabbing a hold of the split end, Beck's normally calm face turned sour, "But, normally if you find one, you have to smooth it out… or cut the ties to it. I'll rectify that right now…"

"Hold on," Ganryu stated taking a step forward lifting his duel disk up. "You're the boss here right?"

Beck blinked a few times at Ganryu, his eyes darting all over to get a good look at the cold duelist, "… Oooh, and if I'm not mistaken, you're Ganryu Dashiben."

"… and you know me, how exactly?" Ganryu asked raising an eyebrow at Beck.

"Well, we were both in the tournament finals," Beck stated raising his arms up with a great smile on his face. "But that wouldn't be the full truth since we never met in battle. So I'll be truthful, I've had an eye on you and a few other duelists since the Dias incident…"

That name made Ganryu wince at the mention of that duel.

"… Since I pegged you and your friends as the goody two-shoes who would always come to the aid of others and defeat the big bad villains that would often bring doom and displeasure to the people," Beck pointed out tapping his chin a few times. "So, I made sure to keep tabs on you and your little ragtag group ever since then… although their methods were a little over the top…"

"… do you think this is some sort of manga or video game?" Ganryu asked with a blood vessel appearing on his head. "And for the record, I don't consider those idiots friends…"

"If only a dream would come true," Beck sighed shaking his head. "And whether you consider them friends or not, there was always the chance you would interfere with my plans… or my Boss's plans."

"So… you're not the boss," Luke questioned with a few question marks appearing over his head.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm still the big man in the Yokai," Beck chuckled. "But, from time to time, the big man does need to find a new lead in order to improve his organization. The Yokai are no different, though our methods may be different, the way we grow is just like any other crime organization. Eternity Angelo is an excellent, hmm, well I consider him a business partner."

"A business partner?" Luke questioned, "First I heard of this…"

"Well, it was a silent deal that I kept secret from all members save for two of the higher ups," Beck stated holding up two fingers. "The first being Kazin, the one who developed the specs for the Generators as well as providing the necessary equations and theorems in order to continue the growth of the barrier. The second was Maderas, who provided the funds for the generators thanks to his family's transport business. To tell the truth, neither were originally members of the Yokai, but with the promise of revenge and lecherous deeds, I was able to bait them to do what I wanted."

Ganryu narrowed his eyes.

"Damn…" Luke gulped.

"Now, I suppose you want to hear about the evil plan that me and Eternity Angelo are working on correct?" Beck offered raising his arms up. "Well… if you two cuties don't mind more long speeches…"

"Didn't I say that was enough of the pointless banter?" Ganryu growled getting a surprised look from both Luke and Beck. "If you're not the cause for this barrier, then get out of the way…"

Holding up his left arm with his duel disk on it, Ganryu snapped the duel disk into the on position, "… Or how about I force you out of our way?"

"Oh, a tough guy, eh?" Beck chuckled placing a hand on his mouth, in an ill attempt to hide the insidious smirk appearing on his face. "I'm glad I can meet a few of you guys, but do you think you can beat me?"

"… No one's invincible," Ganryu replied holding his deck up.

"Indeed, but that also goes for you," Beck replied spinning around once to reveal that he himself had a duel disk on his arm. "Remember, I've been keeping tabs on you. Sure, you may have been able to win quite a few duels, but according to you records, you lost to Dias… even though your little girl friend was able to pull a win on the end. And then there was the first duel you had on the island. The duel against Riko, although unfinished, it was a certain fact that you were at a serious disadvantage, and you were just waiting for defeat to come grasp you."

"Facts and figures," Ganryu chuckled shuffling his deck before snapping it into his duel disk. "If that's all you have, then you really have no clue about what I can do…"

"Oh, this cocky attitude," Beck snickered fitting in his own deck into his duel disk. "Hmm… seems to be a good personality trait on you…"

"Enough talk!" Ganryu snarled as both his and Beck's duel disks lit up. (GLP: 8000)

"Indeed," Beck chuckled pulling his five card hand. "Let's duel… cutie." (BLP: 8000)

'_Beck versus Ganryu… double damn…'_ Luke thought to himself, taking a seat in one of the chairs in the room.

"I'll start us off, cutie," Beck chuckled pulling off the sixth card from his deck. "Hmm… choices, choices, choices… Sometimes I wonder if life has too many choices…"

Ganryu just glared at Beck.

"… So, I'll guess I'll just make this choice," Beck muttered as he slowly lifted up a single card in front of him. "I activate the effect of a monster card in my hand, Alter Gardna! By discarding this monster, I can take a certain field spell card from my deck and add it to my hand! And why wait to play it?"

"I welcome you all to the… _**Unfaltering Worship Alter!**_"

The ground began to rumble, almost making Ganryu fall to his knees and Luke out of his seat. All of a sudden, many statues erupted from the ground around the duelists, all of theme displaying several sacred beasts in dramatic poses. "Impressive, right? But good thing I decided to modify the holographic imagers in order to keep the cute charm of this room."

"Cute? Looks more like a dump," Ganryu scoffed turning his head to the side.

"Of course, the cold hearted cutie would say that," Beck sighed holding up another card from his hand. "Oh well, on with the duel! I activate my field card's effect! By discarding one card from my hand…"

Beck revealed the card, showing it to be a spell card called… Ganryu couldn't help but sweatdrop at the name of the card, 'A Man's Challenge'… before sliding the card into his duel disk. "And now, I can summon a Follower Token!"

A bright light erupted onto the field, forming into a small man dressed in flowing white robes that covered his entire body (0/0). "And now… I'll just set a card face down, and end my turn."

"Huh? All that just for a token?" Luke questioned as Ganryu drew his next card.

"… You have to look at the big picture," Ganryu replied looking at his newest card. "He plans to sacrifice the token next turn…"

"Oh, was it so obvious?" Beck asked with a question mark appearing over his head.

"W-Well, it wasn't to me…" Luke sighed lowering his head.

"Too bad you won't get the chance to do so," Ganryu growled slapping his choice of cards onto his duel disk. "I summon Drunken Samurai!"

Calling out his monster, the red-armored, drunk warrior appeared on the field, slinging his sword around in the air until he stabbed it into the ground (1750/1050). "And now… Attack!"

As the Drunken Samurai heard his commands, the surprised warrior ran forward, his sword held ready to slash right through Beck's only monster, "Heh… Big mistake cutie-pie! I activate the spell card I discarded, go A Man's Challenge!"

Two large puffs of smoke erupted on both sides of Beck, both of them revealing two large men dressed in professional wrestler attire that were performing muscle man poses. "When you declare an attack against a monster on my field who has less than half of your attacking monster. By removing my spell card from my graveyard, I can not only negate the attack, but for each monster on the field, you take five hundred points of damage!"

"What?!" Ganryu questioned before the two wrestlers charged forward, slamming directly into the Drunken Samurai, forcing the intoxicated warrior flying backwards with the two wrestlers shattering on contact. (GLP: 7000)

"Oh, too bad," Beck chuckled fitting the removed card from his graveyard and putting it into his front pocket. "Maybe next time."

"… I set two cards face down," Ganryu announced as the set cards appeared behind his now sleeping samurai. "Make your move."

"In due time my friend," Beck replied slowly pulling his next card. "But for right now, your assumption was right in saying that I would sacrifice my token… so, I sacrifice my token to summon…"

A powerful bolt of lightning crashed into the Follower Token, making the man cry out in pain before he exploded into shards of electricity. " _**Quetzalcoatl, Eternal Thunder Deity!**_"

The electricity all came back together forming into a large powerful bird made entirely up of pure electricity save for the glowing red eyes that the creature had (2400/2100). The creature screeched loudly, making both Ganryu and Luke cover their ears in pain. "Now then… I activate my trap card, A Rival Appears!"

Beck just chuckled as he lifted his next card up from his three card hand, "Now, since you have a level four monster out, I can special summon a level four monster from my hand… and what do you know, I've got my… _**Fenrir, Howling Wind Deity!**_"

A loud howl erupted throughout the room, this time allowing a powerful blue furred wolf with a pair of black horns jutting from its head with multiple blonde braids of fur sprouting from its head to leap onto the field, snarling about (1900/1200). "Now then, since I've got what we need on the field… Fenrir! Let's start off by ridding the field of his Drunk! Howling Winds!"

With a loud howl, the blue fur wolf leapt forward, spinning at a great pace to slam into Drunken Samurai, only to have the drunk clap his hands together, summoning a powerful barrier that made the Fenrir leap back at the last moment, sparks flying off of its body and onto Beck who stepped backwards with a loud grunt. "W-What the?!" (BLP: 7050)

"Reflector Barrier," Ganryu explained fitting the trap card into his graveyard slot. "When you declare an attack, I can negate that and then inflict damage to both of us by half of your monster's attack points. And the battle phase ends as well." (GLP: 6050)

"Not a bad move, but you still lost life points," Beck stated taking one of the remaining three cards in his hand and fitting one of them into his duel disk. "So, I'll just set a card face down and call it a turn."

'_I gotta be careful, these Deities… he's played two so far,_' Ganryu thought as he slowly drew his next card, his eyes slowly looking around. '_And if he played a card like his alter, it must mean he has a lot of tribute monsters in his deck… but, with this I might just be able to put an end to it…'_

"I activate the continuous spell card," Ganryu started as he held his newly draw card up.

"You will do no such thing!" Beck shouted throwing his hand forward, calling forth a powerful screech that made Ganryu stop in his tracks.

As Ganryu looked up, the screech was coming from Quetzalcoatl, calling forth more and more electricity. Beck and Luke however seemed to be unfazed by the screeching, "Sorry cold cutie, but as long as Quetzalcoatl is face up on the field, neither of us can simply activate spell cards. We need to set them first and we can't activate them until our next turn."

Ganryu's eyes widened and immediately spun the card in his hand to slip it into his duel disk, "… Fine, I'll set one card face down, and then I'll set another monster face down. And just for kicks I'll switch Drunken Samurai to defense mode. Turn end."

"Hmm… is this all you can do?" Beck sighed slowly pulling off his third card from his deck. "But, I suppose with a cute face like yours, I can't really expect much of a duelist's mind."

"… Your insult means nothing to me," Ganryu replied turning his head to the side. "Unless you've got the guts to back them up!"

"Oh… you're a whole lotta man!" Beck squealed with hearts popping all around him before he turned serious. "Too bad you're on the wrong side… My draw!"

At the moment that Beck pulled his next card, his face softened up into a mischievous smile, "Boy oh boy! Today must be my lucky day! First though, I'll be setting two of my cards face down, and then, I'll summon another hunk!"

Just after the two face down cards appeared in front of Beck, the ground began to shake once more, but this time the ground just pulled back to allow a large, dark skinned man with bulging muscles to pull himself from his earthly prison. His long white hair slightly dirtied from being under the stage as well as his loincloth (which thankfully covered all it needed to). The muscular man roared loudly into the air as he slammed his fists together (2000/0). "So, let me introduce another cutie! _**Titan, Crashing Earth Deity!**_"

"… That's a cutie?" Luke questioned with his tongue sticking out.

"Next, I think I'll activate the card I had last turn," Beck replied, completely ignoring Luke's comment about Titan, and was more focused on his face down card. "I activate Multiple Destruction! Now, both of us discard our hands, and then we draw five new cards. However, for every card I discard, I must take a penalty of one hundred points… But, I don't have a single card in my hand, so it's free for me!"

Ganryu scoffed as he immediately slid the last of his cards into his duel disk, and immediately following, both duelists drew their five new cards. Ganryu scoffed at the cards he drew, while Beck seemed to be ecstatic, "Oh! This is perfect! Simply my day! Luckily, I get to spend more time with you cutie."

"… you keep that up, and I won't hesitate to gouge your eyes out," Ganryu snarled fanning the cards in front of him.

"You kidder," Beck chuckled waving a hand at Ganryu… only before the confusing personality duelist's face immediately went sadistic. "I guess I'll have to smack some common sense in ya! Titan! Why don't you do the honors?"

Pulling his fists back, the Crashing Earth Deity slammed both of his fists into both the Drunken Samurai and the face down monster, shattering them both without even breaking a sweat. "In case you're wondering cutie, Titan has the ability to attack all monsters on your field… Making you wide open for…"

"As much as I would hate to interrupt," Ganryu muttered holding up the two cards that were destroyed just now. "Since you destroyed it, I can activate Bushido Scroll's effect! Allowing me to take a Samurai from my deck and place it into my hand!"

Beck smiled at Ganryu who began to search for his card, "Well, I guess whatever makes you happy… too bad it can't help you! Fenrir! Quetzalcoatl! He may be a cutie pie, but that doesn't mean you get to go easy on him!"

Both Fenrir and Quetzalcoatl flew towards Ganryu, however, just before the two were able to sink their claws into the samurai duelist, a large tombstone erupted from the ground to protect Ganryu. "I activate the trap card, Bushido Last Will! This trap card ends your battle phase! Then both of us can take a level four or lower monster from our decks!"

"W-Wait a second!" Beck snapped narrowing his eyes. "You can't activate that trap card unless it was in your…"

That's when Beck's face scrunched up as Ganryu pulled out a card from his deck. "… n-no…"

"The card got in there, thanks to your Multiple Destruction trap card!" Ganryu replied spinning the card he selected around to show Beck. "The monster I choose is Samurai of the Void!"

'_Oh… looks like he's trying to pull off that signature combo of his,_' Beck thought as he pulled out his deck of cards. He remembered the duels where Ganryu had started off by over powering his opponent with the rush, then used a powerful monster that had a combination of the Samurai of the Five Rings… or at least that's what the reports stated. '_I guess I should start preparing then…'_

"I choose to add Unending Sacrifice to my hand!" Beck announced, tossing the card into his now six card hand. "And to end my turn, I'll activate my face down spell card, the Hand of Fate!"

Beck's face down card lifted up, this spell showing a priest praying deeply with his hands glowing brightly, "What this spell card does… well, you'll just have to find out next turn. Turn end."

That's when Titan crossed his arms over his chest and took a knee on the ground, eliciting a few confused looks from both Ganryu and Luke until Beck chuckled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. "Oops, sorry, I forgot about Titan's backfire ability. Although he can attack all cards on the field, he switches to defense mode. Kinda a mix of Goblin Attack Force and Asura Priest… only neither of them are as manly as Titan here!"

"… Too bad we won't get the chance to see it," Ganryu replied drawing his next card. "I'll start this turn, by summoning Samurai of the Void in attack mode!"

Beck couldn't help but chuckle as the dark armored samurai appeared on the field in front of him, spinning the long katana in his hands (1700/1400), '_That's it… just bring out all of your key monsters… the moment you get all five of them out, I'll activate my Torrential Tribute trap card, sure, I'll lose my three monsters, but if your face down card is what I think it is, you'll make everything all the easier!'_

"When summoned, Void allows me to take Samurai of the Earth and add it to my hand," Ganryu explained as a card shot out of his deck and into his hand. "And now I activate my trap card, Ultimate Offering!"

'_Jackpot!_' That was the only thing ringing in Beck's head at this moment.

"Now, for the cost of five hundred life points, I am allowed to perform an additional normal summon this turn," Ganryu explained, holding up his duel disk to show that his life point counter was blinking a few times. "Like now for example!" (GLP: 5550)

As soon as Ganryu slapped the card onto his duel disk, the familiar green armored samurai appeared on the field, spinning the large spear in his hands like it was nothing (1200/1400). "And just like Void, Earth allows me to add Samurai of the Water to my hand! And why wait to summon him?" (GLP: 5050)

Beck's eyes slowly curved as he watched the trident wielding samurai appear on the field (1300/1100) before Ganryu pulled the next card from his deck, most likely the Samurai of the Flame, '_Just two more to go… then my trap will work.'_

"… I think that's enough for now," Ganryu stated looking at his hand.

"Wait… what?" Beck questioned blinking a few times.

"I activate my face down spell card!" Ganryu continued on, not stopping to answer Beck's question. Ganryu's face down card flipped up, showing that this card had several samurai leaping towards an unknown enemy, electricity surging around their bodies as they all drew their weapons. "Go! Take-Mikazuchi Thunder Struck!"

"Take… what?" Beck questioned taking note that electricity was now surging around the Samurai of the Void (1700/1400 + 900/0), the Samurai of the Earth (1200/1400 + 900/0) and the Samurai of the Water (1300/1100 + 900/0). "Huh?!"

"This spell was granted by the thunder god," Ganryu explained throwing his fist into the air. "And as such, this card grants any and all who possess the ability of striking like thunder an added attack bonus! In game terms, for each samurai I posses, all samurai gain three hundred attack points."

"An A. Forces just for Samurai?" Luke pointed out getting a slight nod from Ganryu.

"Now then…" Ganryu started as he lifted his hand up into the air, and immediately brought it down towards Beck's three monsters. "Samurai! Charge!"

"Wait a minute!" Beck shouted before all three samurai appeared right in front of his surprised monsters. The Samurai of the Void immediately sliced his katana right through Quetzalcoatl's neck, the Samurai of the Water stabbed his trident directly into Fenrir's chest and the Samurai of the Earth just kicked the kneeling Titan into the air. (BLP: 6750)

"And now, since Quetzalcoatl is no longer on the field," Ganryu stated holding up two cards from his hand. "I can play my spell cards without hesitation. I activate my first spell, Mystical Space Typhoon! Now, that face down card you have is no longer a threat!"

Beck's eyes widened as his face down Torrential Tribute card was whipped off the field by the powerful burst of wind. '_I-Impossible!_'

"And my second spell," Ganryu continued holding up another card. "Is one known as Spell Mist."

"S-Spell Mist?" Beck questioned as a powerful fog began to wrap around the field.

"I take it you know of this card," Ganryu stated as the fog wrapped around his Take-Mikazuchi Thunder Struck, hiding the spell completely. "Then I won't explain…"

"Well explain it to me!" Luke shouted waving his arms in the air.

"That spell selects one card on the field," Beck growled narrowing his eyes. "And makes it impervious to destruction… once and only once."

"I'll set one card face down," Ganryu continued before he crossed his arms. "And that's all for me."

"Now wait a minute!" Beck shouted throwing his hand to the side. "Why didn't you summon the other two of your samurai?"

"There was no need to summon more than what I needed," Ganryu replied crossing his arms. "Besides, I didn't need to waste any more life points than what I needed."

"Oh, sure…" Beck growled pulled off the top card from his deck. '_Damn it! The one time he wants to be a conservative and it bites me in the ass!'_

"I activate the effect of my Alter!" Beck shouted as he immediately tossed another card into his duel disk's graveyard. "And that activates the effect of my Hand of Fate! Whenever a card is discarded for a card effect or cost, I can gain five hundred points!" (BLP: 7250)

Ganryu narrowed his eyes as the Follower Token (0/0) appeared before Beck. "And now, to end my turn, I'll set two cards face down!"

"What's the matter?" Ganryu chuckled even though his smirk was rather diabolic. "Not so sure I'm a rookie? Or are you just too reliant on your data?"

"Does it matter cutie?" Beck chuckled with a wink, casting a small heart towards Ganryu. "I've got the skill, I've got the cards, and I've got the ability to win this… and all you've got are the same old tricks that you've held for the entire semester."

"Same old tricks?" Ganryu replied pulling his next card up. "Perhaps, but in order to keep the same old tricks, I use different combos. Besides, these cards were with me when I began my story, and they'll see me to the end of it as well. Draw!"

"Such sentiment!" Beck cooed, his eyes turning into hearts as he grabbed his arms. "You do have a heart! But its in your cards!"

"Stop spouting random crap," Ganryu stated slapping a card onto his duel disk, allowing the Samurai of the Flame (1500/1000 + 1200/0) (E 2400/1400) (V 2900/1400) (W 2500/1100). "And lets get this story rolling! I summoned Samurai of the Flame, and now, by paying another five hundred points, I can summon the monster he just gave me, Samurai of the Sky!" (GLP: 4550)

As soon as the light blue armored samurai appeared on the field, all five of the samurai lifted their weapons in the air, the powerful electrical energy surrounding them (E 2700/1400) (W 2800/1100) (F 3000/1000) (S 2900/1400) (V 3200/1400). Luke couldn't help but slip out of his seat at the sight of the five powerful monsters, "A-Amazing… five monsters with over twenty-five hundred attack points each! That's more than enough to win this and then some…"

"Samurai of the Earth!" Ganryu shouted as the green armored samurai pulled his spear back, getting ready to charge along with the other four samurai. "Let's end this and take this freak down!"

"Oh! I don't think so!" Beck shouted pushing a button on his duel disk, allowing a powerful vortex to appear around his Follower Token, forcing back all five samurai. "I've got Negate Attack of my own!"

As all five of the samurai skidded back to Ganryu's field, all of them sending scowls towards Beck's smirking face, "Aw, I'm sorry, looks like I ticked off your little samurai pals…"

"Turn end," Ganryu growled crossing his arms.

"Heh, aw what's the matter little cutie?" Beck giggled plucking his next card. "Cat got your tongue now? Well, let's see if we can't change that."

'_Damn it… I don't have Bahamut in my hand, but, I do have someone else,_' Beck thought to himself as he looked at the field, and all five of the powerful samurai on the field. '_However, he wouldn't last for a turn, and then I'd be blown out of the water… still, I've got another move to play.'_

"I activate Magical Mallet!" Beck announced holding up his newest card, shuffling all four cards in his hand back into his deck. "Now then, let's see if lady luck is on my side!"

With four snaps, Beck held up his new hand, his eyes turning into hearts. "Oooh! I drew this guy?! I can't believe it!"

Ganryu lifted his eyebrow up, what could this freak have drawn?

"…But before anything else, I'll activate the spell card, Heavy Storm!" Beck laughed loudly as a powerful storm swept through the heart themed room, making Ganryu's and Luke's clothing whip about.

"D-Don't forget!" Ganryu shouted as the mist around his continuous spell card disappeared, and while his face down card shattered. "Take-Mikazuchi Thunder Struck won't be destroyed thanks to my Spell Mist!"

As the storm died down, and the room returned to normal… well, as normal as it was originally, but Beck didn't seem to care as he held up his three destroyed cards, "You think I was after that? Wrong! I get more benefits than just making your power card susceptible to destruction. You see, there's first my field spell, when destroyed, I can take Ties to the End from my deck to my hand!"

As Beck fitted the card into his graveyard, another card popped from his deck. "Next, comes my Hand of Fate! Which when destroyed, makes me take another card from my deck, my Cosmos Fate spell card!"

The moment that Beck slid that card into his graveyard, another card popped into his hand from his deck, "And finally, my face down trap card activates, known as Dread Revival activates. When destroyed, I can special summon a monster from my graveyard with one thousand or less attack points. And I choose Duos, Brothers in Arms!"

A bright light illuminated over the field, allowing two beastly warriors, dressed in Japanese armor (1000/1000) to appear on the field, both of them crouched down to cover their chests. "And now, I set a monster from my hand onto the field and set one card face down. And that's all I've got right now."

Ganryu narrowed his eyes as he drew his next card, whatever this freak was up to, Ganryu didn't like it one bit. But, as it stood at the moment, Ganryu couldn't destroy any spell or trap cards on field, but he was more than able to take down whatever defense Beck had! "Samurai of the Earth! Destroy the Follower Token!"

In the speed of a blink, the green armored samurai stabbed his spear into the Follower Token's chest, shattering the monster immediately. "Samurai of the Water! Take out that face down monster!"

Without hesitation, the dark blue armored pierced through the face down monster's card, making it flip up to show a beautiful blue skinned woman dressed in white robes. However, the attack still struck, making the woman (300/1350) scream loudly.

"Heh, not bad handsome," Beck giggled before a large pillar of ice appeared in front of him (0/1000). "But that was Shiva, Diamond Dust Deity. And when she's flipped up, for every two spell and trap cards on the field, I get an Ice Gardna Token."

"Grr… Fine," Ganryu snarled throwing his hand forward, prompting the Samurai of the Flame to rush forward, slicing right through the pillar of ice. "Then, I'll just go right through your defenses! And now, Samurai of the Sky, attack Duos!"

Pulling back on his bowstring, the sky blue armored samurai fired a single arrow towards the two beastly brothers… however, at the last second, the two beastly brothers jumped to separate sides (1000/1000 x2). "And when destroyed, Duos gives me two more tokens! So thanks hunnie!"

"Damn it, you're starting to get on my nerves you damn freak of nature!" Ganryu snarled, his eyes narrowed down at Beck. "I don't care what you think of me, but keep those damn thoughts to yourself! Samurai of the Void! Destroy one of those tokens!"

In a dark blur, the samurai sliced right through one of the beastly brothers, shattering the token immediately. "And I end…"

"Heh, a freak of nature," Beck chuckled slowly taking off his hot pink bandana, allowing his long blonde hair to fall to his shoulders. "Ya know, after all this time, you'd think I'd get used to this name… perhaps maybe it's another name on my birth certificate. Hell if I know."

"What are you talking about?" Luke questioned, getting off the seat and taking a few steps away from Beck.

"Oh… from the teasing to the beatings," Beck chuckled, not stopping to return Luke's comment. "I guess I was always different from everyone on the playground… and their comments didn't help either…"

"_Why are you into those girly things?"_

"_Can't you be more manly?"_

"_How come you don't act like a guy?"_

Ganryu's sharp eyes darted left and right, trying to pinpoint the voices as they still seemed to question a certain person's traits…

"But tell me!" Beck shouted, silencing all of the voices in the room as he got both Ganryu and Luke's attentions. "What is it to be 'manly'? What does it mean to 'act like a guy'?! I hated those questions! I detested being treated different! I was always treated like the outcast, always being beaten up for my likes and dislikes and how I talked!"

Closing his sharp eyes, Ganryu turned his head to the side.

Lowering his head, his hair overshadowing his eyes, Beck slowly chuckled, "Then I thought, 'what if I held power?' I would be able to make those who made me suffer feel the same pain they inflicted on me! It wasn't long after that I decided to harness that power... that hatred it, it empowered me, guiding me till I finally reached the top of one of the most internationally known crime syndicates in all of the world! The Yokai… all of the members, all of the money, all of the power…"

Beck slowly lifted his right hand in front of his face, immediately clenching his fist in his hand, "… all of it resides in my hand… and thanks to Eternity Angelo's plan, I will be able to hold that power for the years to come!"

"…are you going to duel?" Ganryu asked shaking his head at Beck. "Or are you trying to pitch the plot line for your autobiography?"

"Heh, you're as cold as ice," Beck chuckled twirling some hair in his fingers. "You keep talking about how this is your story, and yet you won't let anyone have a small cameo in your story? I'm the big baddie here!"

"That's not your decision," Ganryu replied pushing some of the hair from his eyes, showing the serious glare that was on his face. "To me, you're nothing more than some Mid-Boss… a shadow ready to be cast to the side!"

"A shadow? Oh, you're going to regret that," Beck hissed pulling off his next card. "As soon as I draw, I activate my trap card, Ties to the End!"

The last remaining token shattered as Beck face down card slowly lifted up, the art depicting a young man dressed in black clothing with his arms outstretched in front of a large overshadowed lion like figure. "In order to activate this trap card, I need to destroy one card on the field, and can count a token. Too bad my trap is rather useless after that. It needs two certain spell cards out in order to have a decent effect…"

Holding up two of the remaining four cards in his hand, Beck immediately spun them into his duel disk. "Good thing I have them both in my hand! I activate the continuous spell cards Universal Road and Cosmo Fate!"

Two spell cards appeared on both sides of the Ties to the End, the one who's title read 'Universal Road' had many cards floating down on a star covered field. While Cosmo Fate had a deck of cards floating down into a deck of star backed duel monster cards. All three of the cards seemed to glow brightly as Beck chuckled, placing one additional card from his hand into his duel disk. "I set one card face down… and since I have all three of my cards out on the field, I can now add one card from my deck!"

Popping his deck out from his duel disk, Beck fanned the few cards he had left in his deck, his eyes scanning over them until he spotted the card that he needed and plucked it from his deck. "However, during the turn I use this effect, I cannot use that card. So I'll have to end my turn."

"Then… it's my draw!" Ganryu shouted pulling his next card looking at his next card. '_Hmm… I could bring out my Samurai of the Five Rings, but I can end this right now!_'

"Samurai! Attack and finish Beck!"

All five of the samurai didn't need to be told twice, Sky pulled back on his bow while the other four samurai charged forward, each of them ready to skewer Beck… until four multi-colored sheep like puff balls (0/0 x4) appeared in front of Beck, taking the Samurai of the Void, Flame, Water and Earth's attacks! "Sorry Handsome! But my Scapegoat spell card will block most of your attacks…"

"And yet I still have one more!" Ganryu shouted before the Samurai of the Sky unleashed a powerful feathered covered arrow that flew right into Beck's right leg…

"ARGH!" Beck screamed loudly as the metal pierced through his leg's muscle tissue, slowly Beck grabbed hold of the arrow, "… is that all you've got?" And with a swift pull the Yokai leader yanked the arrow from his leg, a small blood patch appearing on his fancy pants. "I'll have you know that you'll be paying for my medical bills and dry cleaning." (BLP: 4350)

"Send the bill to my old man," Ganryu replied hold up another card from his hand as he slipped it into his duel disk. "I set one card face down and end my turn."

"Heh, do you think whatever defense you have," Beck cackled slowly pulling the top card from his deck before he stopped halfway. "Will protect you? No… nothing will. I activate the effect Universal Road, I can either draw from either the top or bottom of my deck, and I think I'll go to hell on this one and pull the card from the bottom."

Pushing the top card back onto the deck, Beck immediately drew from the bottom of his deck as he announced. "Aw… to bad, this card can't help me… but that's when I've got my Cosmos Fate! When I draw, once per turn I can return the card I drew," Beck immediately slipped the card back into his deck, shuffling vigorously as he did. "Shuffle, and then draw again! And thanks to my Universal Road, all my draws can be from the top or the bottom! And I'll take the low road again!"

Looking at his newest card, Beck couldn't help but smile, "… Ya know handsome, I do have to admit, you've given me a good run for my money in this duel. I didn't think I needed to use my full power. Cosmos Fate!"

As Beck called its name out, the spell card was enveloped a bright tower of light, "Universal Road!"

Once again, a tower of light emerged on the field, this time covering up the Universal Road spell card, " And now… Ties to the End!"

Another tower of energy erupted over the field, only this one was pure black and had enveloped the Ties to the End card. All three lights began to twist and turn with each other, shattering the cards they had emerged from. "Now that the conditions have been met… its time to call forth the strongest of all deities, the alpha and the omega…"

The twisted towers of light covered Beck, raising the young duelist into the air, immediately turning into a mere shadowed version of himself. Slowly that shadowed Beck began to grab his head, clutching it as if it was in pain… then it happened!

The shadow imploded! Creating a large blob of shadows that shook and shot out violently while in the mixed towers of light. That's when the blob began to take shape, "_**You think that you're the star of this story… too bad that's only a pipe dream! You don't have what it takes to face the big boss of this tale!**_"

The shadow's shape was slowly growing bigger, and bigger! Cracking the mixed towers of light as if they were glass, and then they shattered to allow the creature that was incubated in the light to crash onto the pink tiled floor.

Even Ganryu had to take a step back at the mighty beast that now stood in front of him, if you were compare this creature to anything, a large lion would be the best description… even if its fur was a deep ebony shade and resembled that as armor and its mane was a bright silver that wrapped around its sharp lion face and gleaming yellow eyes. On the creature's back was a set of six golden wings that were folded around the beast's body as to conserve energy, however, even so, the wings were glowing brightly. And around the beast's claws were several glowing bracelets that had spikes emitting from them (3950/2800)…

But what made Ganryu and Luke step back was the fact that there was something jutting from the beast's head… and that something was Beck's torso, still dressed in his fancy suit and armed with his duel disk, but his face had several veins pulsing on his face and his hair had turned into a real mess, "_**But since you're so adamant and you've got decent looks, I'll give you a taste of true power! This is Leo-Gun, Cosmos Deity! The Alpha to your Omega!**_"

"Holy… crap…" Luke gulped slowly inching away from the duel.

"You think that scares me?" Ganryu scoffed to the side narrowing his eyes at Beck. "You're nothing more than overcompensating…"

"_**Before you get to assuming,**_" Beck interrupted wagging his finger at Ganryu. "_**You should hear what Leo-Gun is capable of… he's more than able to destroy everything on the field when he's summoned!**_"

"WHAT?!" Ganryu shouted before Leo-Gun roared loudly into the air, causing a powerful rush of cosmic energy erupted through the room, shattering all five of the samurai and Ganryu's two spell and trap cards on the field. "No!"

"_**Yes!**_" Beck laughed loudly before crossing his arms. "_**Of course, Leo-Gun's unaffected by his own effect, but as a safety precaution, he uses too much power for such an effect that he can't attack and I cannot summon for the rest of the turn.**_"

"W-Well, at least Ganryu can defend himself next turn…" Luke muttered rubbing the back of his head.

"_**Yes… and no,**_" Beck cackled holding up one of the remaining two cards in his hand up. "_**You see, I have the means to at least blast a good portion of his life points. I activate the spell card, Divine Punishment!**_"

As Beck announced the card, the spell appeared in front of Leo-Gun, forming into the picture of a young man being struck by lightning. "_**Now here's how it works. By skipping battle phase, I am allowed give you a choice. You select one monster on the field, and then you take damage equal to its attack points… or the alternative, you take four hundred points of damage times the level of the selected monster.**_"

"And there's only one monster on the field," Ganryu growled lifting a hand up towards Beck and Leo-Gun. "I don't know what level your monster is, so I'll take your attack…"

"_**Good choice, his level's eleven, so you'd have only a hundred and fifty points left,**_" Beck explained before Leo-Gun roared loudly into the air, immediately charging a powerful orb of dark energy in its fanged maw. "_**Besides… I think this method is much more fun!**_"

Before Ganryu could get a word in, the powerful orb of dark energy erupted and crashed directly into the young Samurai duelist's body. At first, Ganryu tried to stand up to the blast, but more energy just flooded into him, making him fly backwards and crash into the opposing wall, where the energy just continued to pour into him, making Ganryu growl and curse in pain. (GLP: 600)

"_**Heh… Sorry about that cutie,**_" Beck chuckled fitting the last card in his hand into his duel disk. "_**But its all in the name of progress! I set one card face down, and call it a turn!**_"

Slowly, Ganryu slid from the wall, a small streak of blood leaving its mark on the wall. However, when Ganryu's feet touched the ground, the young duelist weakly stood up tall, albeit he tripped slightly, but still stood up. "… Draw…"

"_**So, you've got the strength to face me?**_" Beck cackled placing a hand on his face. "_**In addition to your looks, you at least got a good sense of tenacity…**_"

"Shut up!" Ganryu snarled holding up one of the other cards he had drawn. "I thought I told you… this is my story! And no Mid-Boss is going to get in my way!"

"_**Me? A Mid-Boss? Oh, that's rich,**_" Beck laughed loudly lifting his arms up into the air. "_**Even though you had first hand experience to my strength, you still claim that I'm not worth your time?! Do you think that you'll be able to prove that is still plausible?!**_"

That's when a bolt of lightning surged through room, making Beck and Luke step back. More electricity surged through the air, all of it jumping around Ganryu until began to surge around him. Leo-Gun took a single step backwards, the ground shaking. "_**W-What is this?! What is this strength I'm sensing?!**_"

"This…" Ganryu started before he slapped a card onto his duel disk, allowing the electricity to surge up into the air behind him. "This is the wrath of Take-Mikazuchi! Since you destroyed Take-Mikazuchi Thunder Struck, you will face the wrath of his disciple!"

The electricity shattered behind Ganryu, forming into an extremely tall black armored samurai, the armor looking like that of a human skeleton, with his long white hair streaming back from his helmet. With a large black aura streaming around his body, this samurai's katana was actually shaped to resemble that of a large golden lightning bolt, shown as the warrior drew his weapon (3400/2700). "Meet the Samurai of Take-Mikazuchi!"

"_**Very impressive…**_" Beck muttered under his breath. "_**But that's all it is, just flash…"**_

'_But, just in case, I've got my Mirror Force trap card out on the field…_'

"Then I'll just add some flare to the flash!" Ganryu shouted fitting two cards into his duel disk. "I activate my two spell cards, Megamorph and Riryoku!"

Two auras erupted about both Leo-Gun and the Samurai of Take-Mikazuchi, first the blue aura around the Samurai caused the warrior to grow in size, until it was almost twice the size as it was originally (6800/5400). That's when a red aura pulsed around both Leo-Gun and the Samurai of Take-Mikazuchi, making Leo-Gun growl in pain (1975/2800) and the Samurai roar in power (8775/5400). "Now then… I've got more than enough strength to wipe you out!"

"_**Then by all means,**_" Beck cackled loudly. "_**Try it!**_"

"If you insist!" Ganryu shouted as the Samurai of Take-Mikazuchi lifted his lightning shaped blade into the air. "Take-Mikazuchi! Strike down his almighty Deity!"

The thunder themed samurai pulled his katana back, and immediately charged towards Leo-Gun. However, Beck simply pushed a button on his duel disk, "_**YOU FOOL! I activate my trap card, Mirror Force!**_"

The large glass barrier appeared in front of Leo-Gun, Beck's laughter echoing through the room as the Samurai slammed his shoulder armor into the barrier. "_**Your foolish attempt will back fire you handsome idiot!**_"

"I activate Samurai of Take-Mikazuchi's special ability!" Ganryu shouted as a card popped out of his graveyard, sparks starting to surge around his samurai and the barrier. "Strike through!"

Amazingly enough, the Samurai of Take-Mikazuchi continued to push through the Mirror Force, sending cracks spiraling through the trap card, and amazingly enough, Beck's eyes grew wide, "_**W-What is the meaning of this! Why isn't it being destroyed!?!**_"

"PUSH THROUGH!" Ganryu roared, making the Samurai of Take-Mikazuchi roar as well, making more and more cracks appear in the trap's Mirror like barrier. "Strike him down!"

Then all at once, the Mirror Force trap shattered like glass, falling to the ground as the Samurai of Take-Mikazuchi continued to charge forward roaring loudly at Beck and Leo-Gun. "_**N-No! S-Stay away from me!**_"

But it was too late, with a great leap, the powerful samurai spun around, delivering a powerful slash at the base of Leo-Gun's neck. However, when the samurai landed behind Leo-Gun, nothing seemed to happen. That's when the Samurai of Take-Mikazuchi stabbed his katana into the ground and slammed his fists into his armored chest…

…causing Leo-Gun's head to slide off of the body, Beck screamed loudly as the head fell to the ground. However, the head and body both shattered into millions of pixels leaving Beck to fall on his ass and back. "ARGH!" (BLP: 0)

"… And that ends your chapter in my story," Ganryu replied turning off his duel disk while gathering his cards.

"Damn it, don't act so cool," Luke growled rolling his eyes.

"Why am I inferior?" Beck shouted, taking note that shadows were slowly crawling around his body. "I had the strength, I had the strategy, I had the cards! I even knew every strategy you had in your deck! And where did that monster do to my trap?!"

"You don't know about the wrath of Take-Mikazuchi…" Ganryu stated, his back to Beck. "So I'll tell you. First, when you destroyed my spell, you broke the seal that I placed, during the next turn, I was able to summon him. And as for my Samurai, when you activate a trap card during the battle phase when he attacks, by removing one samurai from my graveyard, I can negate the activation and effect of that trap card!"

"S-So… you're saying that I didn't have a chance?" Beck stuttered as the shadows clawed up to his chest.

"… Yes," Ganryu sharply said moving his head to the side. "Now… be gone from my sight!"

"NNOOOOOO!" Beck screamed as the shadows fully engulfed him, covering his body from head to toe. The shadows whipped about, showing that Beck was trying to escape…

… Until the shadows melted downwards, revealing that Beck was no longer there on the floor… But in his place was a small blonde furred dog, kinda looking like quite a few different kinds of breeds all mixed together, yipping about with its curled furry tail whipping about at the two teenagers.

Luke and Ganryu were silent at the sight of the small pup, at least until Luke brought it up, "Um… Any idea he would be become a dog?"

"… Do I look like a damn mind reader?" Ganryu retorted turning his head left and right, as if he was looking for something.

"Uh, so what are we supposed to do now?" Luke asked taking note that the mutt was rubbing itself up against Ganryu's leg… Even more surprising was the fact that Ganryu wasn't shaking the dog away.

"… I think… We need to find an exit," Ganryu replied, earning himself a sweatdrop from Luke.

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

Meanwhile, in the woods outside the clock tower…

"Dang it, Leo! How fast are you?" Rena gasped for air as she and Leo slowly stepped from the woods. "Or… Better yet… How'd you get… so fast?"

"Hmm," Leo muttered to himself, rubbing his chin. "I guess I was born fast."

"… Yeah right," Rena sighed loudly lowering her head.

"Ha, ha, well, you should know me by now," Leo chuckled as he turned his head back towards the clock tower, ready to take a step forward… Until he stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes widening at the sight at the doors.

"Leo?" Rena questioned, slowly looking in the same direction as Leo. "What's wrong?"

POP!

As the greasy green dyed haired man chewed vigorously on his gum, he smirked at the two arriving teens, "Greetings Miss, I don't think we've met…"

"The name's Big Boss…"

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Card Stats**

**Chess Golem – Ebony King / Dark / LV. 8 / ATK: 3000 / DEF: 2600 / Spellcaster/Fusion/Effect:** This card cannot be normal summoned. This card can only be special summoned by 'Coronation of the Ebony King.' ????

**Description:** A large ebony man shaped golem with a head shaped like a chess king piece, with a large black cape flowing over his shoulders. At his side is a large ebony broadsword.

**Chess Golem – Ivory King / Light / LV. 8 / ATK: 3000 / DEF: 2600 / Spellcaster/Fusion/Effect:** This card cannot be normal summoned. This card can only be special summoned by 'Coronation of the Ivory King'. ?????

**Description:** A large ivory man shaped golem with a head shaped like a chess king piece, with a large white cape flowing over his shoulders. At his side is a large ivory broadsword

**Coronation of the Ivory King / Spell / Effect:** Remove 'Chess Golem' monsters from your graveyard with the following names, 'Ivory Pawn', 'Ivory Knight', 'Ivory Bishop', 'Ivory Rook', and 'Ivory Queen'. Special summon one 'Chess Golem – Ivory King' from your Fusion deck.

**Image:** Many Ivory Chess Golems standing in front of a glowing ivory crown.

**Coronation of the Ebony King** **/ Spell / Effect:** Remove 'Chess Golem' monsters from your graveyard with the following names, 'Ebony Pawn', 'Ebony Knight', 'Ebony Bishop', 'Ebony Rook', and 'Ebony Queen'. Special summon one 'Chess Golem – Ebony King' from your Fusion deck.

**Image:** Many Ebony Chess Golems standing in front of glowing ebony crown.

**Alter Gardna / Light / LV. 3 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 2000 / Spellcaster/Effect:** By discarding this card from your hand, you may take and activate one 'Unfaltering Worship Alter' from your deck on your side of the field.

**Description:** An old blue haired priest with dirty white robes.

**Unfaltering Worship Alter / Field Spell / Effect:** By discarding one card from your hand, you may special summon one 'Follower Token' (Light / LV. 1 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 0 / Fairy) to your side of the field. This effect can only be activated once per turn during your main phase. If you use this effect, you cannot normal summon or set this turn. If this card is destroyed, you may take one 'Ties to the End' from your graveyard or deck and add it to your hand.

**Image:** Multiple people bowing down at a fancy alter with multiple statues depicting multiple deities around it.

**Quetzalcoatl, Eternal Thunder Deity / Light / LV. 6 / ATK: 2400 / DEF: 2100 / Thunder/Effect:** This card cannot be Special Summoned. As long as this card remains face up on the field, all Spell cards must be set and cannot be activated the turn they are set.

**Description:** A large bird made of entirely pure electricity with a pair of red eyes.

**Fenrir, Howling Wind Deity / Wind / LV. 4 / ATK: 1900 / DEF: 1200 / Beast/Effect:** When this card destroys a monster as a result of battle, it can attack again during the same Battle Phase by cutting this monster's attack in half. Also, when this card is destroyed, inflict 1200 points of damage to your opponent's Life Points

**Description:** A blue furred wolf with a pair of black curved horns with multiple braided blond strands of hair behind it's sharp ears

**Titan, Crashing Earth Deity / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 2000 / DEF: 0 / Beast-Warrior:** This card may attack all of your opponent's monsters (this card cannot attack your opponent's life points directly if this is done). At the end of your battle phase this card attacked, switch this monster to defense mode.

**Description:** An extremely large, dark skinned man with bulging muscles and wearing a dark brown loincloth and a fanged toothed necklace. On the top of his head, is overflowing white hair.

**Hand of Fate / Continuous Spell / Effect:** Whenever a card is discarded by a card effect or cost, you may increase your life points by 500 points. When this card is destroyed, you may take one 'Universal Road' or 'Cosmos Fate' from your deck and add it to your hand.

**Image:** A priest praying deeply with his hands glowing brightly.

**Take-Mikazuchi Thunder Struck / Continuous Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you have a face up 'Samurai' monster. Increase the attack of all 'Samurai' monsters by 300 points for each 'Samurai' monster on the field. When this card is destroyed, destroy all monsters on your side of the field. Then, during your next main phase, you may special summon one 'Samurai of Take-Mikazuchi' from your deck or hand.

**Image:** Many Samurai leaping into the air with electricity surging around them.

**Ties to the End / Continuous Trap / Effect:** When this card is activated, you must destroy one card on your side of the field. During your main phase, when you have 'Universal Road' and 'Cosmos Fate' on your side of the field, you may take one 'Leo-Gun, Cosmos Deity' from your graveyard or deck to your hand. The added card cannot be used the turn this effect was used.

**Image:** A young man wearing black with his arms outstretched in front of a shadowed large Lion

**Shiva, Diamond Dust Deity / Water / LV. 3 / ATK: 300 / DEF: 1350 / Aqua/Effect:** [Flip]: When this card is flipped face up, for every two spell and trap card on the field, you may special summon one 'Ice Gardna Token' (Water/LV. 3 /ATK: 0 / DEF: 1000 / Aqua) to your side of the field.

**Description:** A beautiful blue skinned woman wearing fancy purple clothes.

**Universal Road / Continuous Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you have a face up 'Ties to the End'. If 'Ties to the End' is destroyed or removed from the field, return this card back to your deck. Whenever you draw, you may choose from either the top or the bottom of your deck to draw from.

**Image:** Many cards flowing over a star covered field.

**Cosmos Fate / Continuous Spell / Effect: **This card can only be activated when you have a face up 'Ties to the End'. If 'Ties to the End' is destroyed or removed from the field, return this card back to your deck. Whenever you draw, you may return the card you drew to your deck (the deck is then shuffled) then you may draw once more (this effect can only be used once per turn).

**Image:** A deck of cards floating down into a deck of star backed cards.

**Leo-Gun, Cosmos Deity / Light / LV. 11 / ATK: 3950 / DEF: 2800 / Beast/Effect:** This card cannot be normal summoned or set. This card cannot be special summoned except by sending one face up 'Ties to the End', 'Universal Road', and 'Cosmos Fate' from your side of the field to your graveyard. When this card is summoned, destroy every card on field (other than this card) and send them to the graveyard. This card cannot attack the turn it was summoned. During the turn this card is summoned, you cannot normal summon, set, or special summon.

**Description:** A large black, noble lion with was silver mane and six silver wings on its back that simmer in the light. Around it's ankles are golden bracelets with multiple spikes on them.

**Samurai of Take-Mikazuchi / Light / LV. 10 / ATK: 3400 / DEF: 2700 / Thunder/Effect:** This card cannot be Normal summoned or set. This card cannot be special summoned except by the effect of 'Take-Mikazuchi Thunder Struck'. When this card attacks, if your opponent activates a trap or spell card, by removing one 'Samurai' monster from your graveyard you may negate the activation of that spell or trap card and destroy it. This effect can only be activated once per turn.

**Description:** An extremely tall black armored samurai, the armor looking like that of a human skeleton, with his long white hair streaming back from his helmet. With a large black aura streaming around his body, this samurai's katana is actually shaped to resemble that of a large golden lightning bolt.

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Big Boss:** From the news he received from Cig, Big Boss stepped back in surprise!

**Rena:** Who's Big Boss?

**Big Boss: **There's been a rash out break of the dreaded T-Virus on the Atlantic Duel Academy Island!

**Rena:** … What in the world are you talking about?

**Big Boss:** Students left and right are turning into zombified duelists! Each of them spreading the disease to another victim!

**Rena:** This sounds like the plot to a game franchise…

**Big Boss:** It's up to Big Boss and his spunky sidekick, Rena Akira, to quell this outbreak!

**Rena:** Huh?! How'd I get roped into this!?!

_**Next on Duelists' Evil Twilight! Final episode – The Devil's Gain and Bane! Let the battle against Adversary begin!**_

**Big Boss:** Let's lock and load!

**Rena:** Seriously, who are you?

_**Next Chapter – **__**Chapter 50: The Gentleman's Ruse **_


	51. Chapter 50: The Gentleman's Ruse

_**When I first came to this academy, I had hopes of a decent high school experience with a little added bonus of change since it was a duel based academy…**_

_**Enjoy the high school life…**_

_**Make a few new friends…**_

_**Maybe meet a certain special someone…**_

_**And it looked like the first month was going to be just that… but then, Dias and his little team of rag tag duelists came to the island, and all hell let loose. At least I knew then I had quite a few good friends…**_

_**Leo, Van, Rukia, Klein, Koji, Tony, I guess even Cleo and Asche would be friends (although Cleo would be more of a rival to me…), and I'm not sure about Luntina, since we didn't really get to know each other.**_

_**And there are more and more duelists, some of them risking their lives just end this and those who were used for this cruel plan.**_

_**But now… I'm facing the very man who caused all of this torture for the students… I can't even see his face… but, the power I can sense from just standing in front of him…**_

… _**It's more dangerous than Dias's power…**_

_**Maybe… Maybe it's not too late to get a transfer to another school…**_

_**0-0-0-0-0**_

_**Chapter 50**_

_**The Gentleman's Ruse**_

_**0-0-0-0-0-0**_

"_Dang it, Leo! How fast are you?" Rena gasped for air as she and Leo slowly stepped from the woods. "Or… Better yet… How'd you get… so fast?"_

"_Hmm," Leo muttered to himself, rubbing his chin. "I guess I was born fast."_

"… _Yeah right," Rena sighed loudly lowering her head._

"_Ha, ha, well, you should know me by now," Leo chuckled as he turned his head back towards the clock tower, ready to take a step forward… Until he stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes widening at the sight at the doors._

"_Leo?" Rena questioned, slowly looking in the same direction as Leo. "What's wrong?"_

_POP!_

_As the greasy green dyed haired man chewed vigorously on his gum, he smirked at the two arriving teens, "Greetings Miss, I don't think we've met…"_

"_The name's Big Boss…"_

"… Big Boss?" Rena questioned with a couple of question marks popping over her head. "That's a weird name… but then again, I've been meeting people with weird names all semester…"

"Rena…" Leo mumbled slowly taking a step backwards.

However, holding his hands up, Big Boss just cackled slightly, "Oh, hey, hey, hey, I know I have a weird name, but hey, never judge a book by its title."

"… I think it's never judge a book by the cover," Rena replied with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of her head.

"Never-the-less," Big Boss chuckled before pulling up a small wrapper, where he placed his gum into it. "Pleasure to meet such a fine young lady…"

"Um, hi," Rena replied. "My name is Rena Akira… nice to meet you Mr. Big Boss."

"Mister?" Big Boss looked a little taken back from what Rena just said, a large sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head. "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! I'm not that old… at least not yet…"

"So, Mr. Big Boss," Leo started taking a step forward in front of Rena. "What do we owe this visit to?"

"Now you're just trying to push my buttons now," Big Boss growled with a large blood vessel popping on top of his head, however with a deep breath, the greasy haired man lifted his hands up in a peaceful manner. "But I have no ill intentions against you two… rather, I'm here to cheer you on!"

"Cheer us on?" Rena asked…

As if to prove his point, Big Boss immediately pulled up a large backpack, and in a matter of seconds Big Boss was some how dressed in a large black overcoat with his slightly dyed hair tied up in a green bandana, "Ha! Yep! I'm a man of my word and I'm going to cheer ya on!"

"Uh, no thanks," Rena gulped slightly blinking a few times before Big Boss threw the cheer squad outfit off, showing his real clothing once again.

"Heh, good choice, my voice wasn't made for cheering," Big Boss replied reaching into his vest pocket as he slowly walked towards the two duel academy students. "Rather, I'm here to provide a little support…"

"Whatever help you're planning on giving us," Leo scoffed to the side with his eyes closed slightly. "Won't be needed."

"Aw… you're making it sound like I'm a bad guy," Big Boss sighed with tears streaming down the side of his face… However, that only lasted for a few seconds, that's when Big Boss was back to his suave nature, his arm crossed over his chest as he searched his pockets. "But I assure you, there are no strings attached with my help."

Rena blinked a few times at Big Boss and then at Leo, there was some sort of tension in the air… more than from the barrier that was surrounding the island at the moment. "Uh, as much as I would like to watch you two in a staring contest, we've got…"

"I apologize Rena," Leo interrupted holding his duel disk covered arm up towards Big Boss. "But, you'll have to go on ahead…"

"Now, now, now, is that anyway a gentleman should treat a lady?" Big Boss cackled lifting his crossed arm up. "In fact, lifting a duel disk against someone who doesn't have a threatening aura towards you or the girl, I would say that's somewhat cowardly."

"Call it what you will," Leo replied before he turned towards Rena, his smile returning to his face. "Now, if you would be so kind Rena, please continue on. I'll be with you in a minute or two."

"Leo, I don't think that…" Rena started before Leo raised his hand up to his waist, stopping her.

"… I apologize Rena," Leo commented, still having the smile on his face. "But, please… I insist that you go on ahead."

"W-Well… Okay," Rena replied, slowing walking past Leo and was making her way to the door to the clock tower…

But stopped dead in her tracks when a familiar calm voice called out to her, "One more thing Rena… No matter what, promise me that you'll come out of that tower."

"I… I promise Leo," Rena stated before turning back to the tower…

But she halted once more as Big Boss threw his hand in front of Rena, his hand grasping on four duel monster cards, "I hope you didn't forget that I was here to help you… So, consider these as a small gift from me to you…"

"Um… Thanks?" Rena mumbled before she entered the clock tower, the doors closing behind her.

"And thus, it begins," Big Boss cackled, the last thing Rena heard before the doors slammed shut behind her.

The lobby of the clock tower was rather fancy, and as Rena stepped on the red carpet, she couldn't help but take notice of all the paintings on the walls… each depicting several duel monsters. '_I wonder who painted these? There's Flame Wingman, Obnoxious Celtic Guard, Ojama King, Airknight Parshsath… And, is that the Samurai of the Five Rings?'_

That's when it hit Rena! All those paintings…

DING!

Rena's train of thought was interrupted as she turned away from the paintings, and saw at the end of the red carpet was what appeared to be an elevator, just as fancy as lobby that she was currently standing in. And even though the paintings were questionable, Rena knew that she had a job to do…

… Meanwhile, back outside, Big Boss shook his head slightly, "I don't know why you had to give me such a rough greeting, care to enlighten me as to why, Mr. Childsman?"

"… I don't know what you're planning," Leo replied, the smile still on his face as he held up his deck of duel monster cards. "But I won't let you use my friends for your means."

"Says the young man with a smile on his face all the time," Big Boss chuckled reaching into his other vest pocket, pulling out a small, black cell phone like device. "Now, you know I'm not interested in taking an innocent person out, ya realize that, right?"

"Whoever said I was innocent?" Leo asked, the smile trying hard to stay on his face, remembering Kazin and Kimatori… in a sense, Leo was the reason why their love ones had disappeared. "So you should have no problems about facing me! Right?"

"… Mr. Childsman," Big Boss sighed, slapping the small device on his wrist, immediately transforming it into a pitch black duel disk. "I respect you both as a duelist and a young man with a bright future… but if you're so certain on throwing that away…"

Big Boss immediately reached for his belt behind him, pulling out a small green deck case, and unlocked it, "Then I can think of no one else to snuff out that flame you call a life, than myself."

"Let's duel!"

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

At the top of the clock tower…

With his top hat currently taken off, Eternity Angelo adjusted his mask slightly, allowing his wild gray hair to fall in front of his face. He had taken a moment to wipe some sweat from his face, Eternity Angelo didn't normally sweat this much, but there was a good reason for him to.

Not that he was worried… but there were several kinks in his plan, and now there were a few un-accountable factors that were on their way at the moment to thwart his plans. But as he donned his top hat, Eternity Angelo patted his tux's pocket… where his trusted back up plan sat comfortably, even if it ends up that he has to use that plan.

However, Eternity Angelo had total confidence that he wouldn't have to resort to that.

Turning his top hat to the right angle, Eternity Angelo stepped towards the small pedestal that held the Twilight Crystal on it. '_As long as I have this here, I have all the power that I need to…'_

DING!

With a swift pull, Eternity Angelo had his hat covering his mask's eye holes, "… I knew that you would come… so I waited instead of fleeing, because I wanted to see the very power that defeated Beck… So, come face me Ganryu Dashiben!"

Immediately, Eternity Angelo spun around with his finger aimed at the person at the elevator doors… and immediately sweatdropped as he realized who was actually standing in front of the elevator.

"Um… H-Hello…" Rena gulped with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of her head. This was the first time she was ever mistaken for a boy, let alone the cold duelist that she knew personally.

"Wha…WHAT THE HECK!?!" Eternity Angelo shouted staggering backwards slightly, nearly falling backwards.

"That's a nice way to say hello to a girl," Rena muttered with the sweatdrop growing on the side of her head.

"N-No! I didn't mean it like that!" Eternity Angelo sputtered his hands snapping upwards in a defensive stance. '_Damn it! This wasn't a part of my plan! I was supposed to face the Dashiben jerk first and then his little friend that came with him! Then, with that out of the way, I'd crush whoever was coming up here next!"_

"_But… But I didn't expect it to be a girl!"_

"Uh, are you okay?" Rena asked blinking a few times.

"Y-Yeah!" Eternity Angelo coughed… he didn't have a choice in the matter now, so he'll have to adjust his little speech slightly. "First off… how'd you get up here so fast? The stairs would take you a good hour and a half to get up here..."

"I took the elevator," Rena replied getting a couple of confused blinks from Eternity Angelo. "It was open when I entered the tower."

'… _Damn it Beck…_' Eternity Angelo snarled in his head before he lifted his arms up into the air. "… So, you've come. I guess you're here for one thing… and one thing alone."

"What are you doing?" Rena asked blinking a few times.

Scratching the back of his head, Eternity Angelo coughed a few times, "Ah, well, I had different plans set… Let me try this again…"

Rena couldn't tell if this was a part of this guy's plan… or if he actually didn't prepare for this.

"Ahem…" Eternity Angelo coughed once more before regaining his composure. "So, you've come. Just as I expected."

"… Should I actually play along with this?" Rena questioned, the sweatdrop reappearing on her head. "Ah, anyway, who in the world are you?"

Taking a bow towards Rena, Eternity Angelo took his hat off towards Rena, "I am Eternity Angelo. Behind the scenes, only a very select few are privy to my existence…"

"Well, you certainly seemed dressed for a night on the town," Rena stated, before turning her head to the side to mutter. "That night, Halloween."

"I'd watch your tongue if I were you," Eternity Angelo replied placing his top hat back atop his head of gray hair. "You're more sarcastic than as I had heard… but the rumors about you still float around in my head…"

"Rumors?" Rena gulped, hoping it wasn't the rumors that had plagued her in the early weeks of the first semester.

"The rumors pertaining to you defeating Dias Swartzvauld," Eternity Angelo continued, although he couldn't help but notice the relieved look that appeared on Rena's face. "Although, according to the reports and security cameras, I have heard that you seemed to have a bit of a handicap on that match."

"Aw man, why does that duel always come back to bite me?" Rena sighed loudly as she lowered her head.

"I apologize for that," Eternity Angelo replied crossing his arms. "But still, the fact that you managed to defeat one of the legendary duelist family members can still turn heads. Especially if that person is a rookie from an academy."

"Give me some credit," Rena moaned slapping her forehead. "I may be in red, but I can hold my own in a duel."

"True… but, I doubt you came here to discuss your dueling ability," Eternity Angelo chuckled, his gloved covered hands now clasped together. "Am I correct?"

"Well, you're not off," Rena replied holding up her duel disk.

"Now, now, now, it doesn't have to be this way," Eternity Angelo commented, his masked mouth curled in a smile… not that anyone could tell.

"W-What do you mean?" Rena questioned, nearly tripping on her own feet as she inched backwards.

"You can just turn around right now," Eternity Angelo twirled his finger around until he addressed the elevator that was still opened. "And leave this room… I'll pretend that you never even came here in the first place. So this is your chance to leave, so, I suggest that you…"

"No."

Beneath his mask, the fancy dressed mastermind's eyes bugged out from the eye holes, "Uh… Excuse me?"

"I'm not going to walk away from this," Rena replied, her arms starting to shake. "Not after what you've done!"

"Oh? And what is it exactly that I've done?" Eternity Angelo quizzed, slowly fixing his composure.

"W-Well…" Rena mumbled… she did come up here rather quickly. "You're behind all of this! This aura! Those satellite generators! And… And you used my father as a weapon! Why?!?"

Silence crept through the large fancy room…

"…heh…"

"HA! HA HAH! HAHA! HAHAHA!"

Rena's eyes couldn't believe it, Eternity Angelo was laughing loudly, his hand slapped over his mask's eyeholes. "How profound! How magnificent!"

"Huh?" Rena asked.

Slowly, the laughter halted, even though a cackle slipped from behind Eternity Angelo's mask, "This aura… the Twilight of this world, for far too long it was brushed to the side, hidden behind the mask that cover the true nature of this world."

"And you yourself are wearing a mask…" Rena pointed out the irony in Eternity Angelo's last announcement. "Answer my question… what is going on here?"

"If you want answers," Eternity Angelo smoothly retorted pulling some of the hair from under his hat to the side of his mask. "Then I shall give them to you… As I said, this world is wearing a mask, and it's only fair that I should wear a mask."

Walking behind the pedestal of the Twilight Crystal, Eternity Angelo waved his hands over the beautiful crystal, "I forget how many years it has been since I heard of this marvelous crystal, and the legends that came with it… the power of judgement… And this light, is it not beautiful?"

"I think we've got a difference in opinion on that one," Rena replied rubbing her eyes slightly. "This aura has been giving me a headache ever since it came up…"

"Everyone seems to have a different effect to this," Eternity Angelo explained caressing the Twilight Crystal with his gloved fingers. "Some people get a natural high to this, others seem to be sickened with this… and others, well, they get a wish granted… as it were."

"A wish?" Rena asked.

With a wave of his hand, a large holographic screen appeared in front Rena, showing nothing but static until it formed up to show a familiar duel having a large muscular man facing off against…

"Is that Riko!?" Rena gasped taking note of Kryancelo and Van. "W-What the?!"

On the screen, slowly, Riko grabbed the sunglasses that sat on his face, only to throw them into the air. Bravo blinked a few times at the bandages that covered Riko's eyes. "Whoa…that's some fashion statement there, shades."

"It's not a fashion statement," Riko corrected slipping the bandages in his fingers, only to throw the bandages into the air, the breeze sent the bandages flying into the air. Riko's eyelids twitched slightly, as if he was afraid of something. "…but, in order for me to win, I need to discard it to realize my potential…"

Time seemed to stand still as Riko cracked his eyes open, only to squint because of the bright light of the Twilight Realm. "Ugh…too bright."

But when the glare died down, Riko's golden eyes blinked a few times in confusion until they began shifting around to see the many trees, the grassy hills, the twilight sky, and even Bravo's team of monsters. "…man, I didn't expect people to have such bad haircuts when I opened my eyes…"

"Hey! I don't have a bad haircut!" Bravo shouted as he slammed his foot into the ground.

"Oh, you're the duelist?" Riko asked blinking a few times. "Sorry, I'm just getting used to this…"

The screen then disappeared with a snap of Eternity Angelo's fingers, "As you can see, the Twilight Realm possesses the ability to grant one's wishes… but only if the wish is pure. And even then, the wish will only last as long as the Twilight Realm is active. So, your friend's sight will only be temporary…"

"Riko was blind?" Rena asked, she was learning a lot today.

"… I thought it was obvious," Eternity Angelo replied blinking a few times behind his mask. "But, the real effect of the Twilight Realm is to pass judgment after an ordeal… such as, a duel."

De Masque, Skull Flame, and that purple guy that Leo had dueled… each of them had received a judgment after their duels, and who knows who else received one, "You… You monster! Why would you make this realm here?! Sending all of those people to…"

"If you think they're dead… you're dead wrong yourself," Eternity Angelo replied, tapping the rim of his fancy hat. "They merely are just out of the way… for now."

"Where are they then?" Rena asked throwing her arm to the side.

"… Where are they?" Eternity Angelo mumbled to himself. "… Does that information even exist in my mind? I don't think so…"

"What?" Rena questioned, if this was the master mind, then it was logical that new knew all the details to this plan.

"… I believe we've gotten off topic," Eternity Angelo sighed reaching into his pocket. "The true self, I shall give you the 'truth' that you claim to seek so dear…"

And as the fancy leader held up his hand, he pulled out a small deck of duel monster cards, pending it into front of Rena. "The inescapable fact of your demise here!"

'_After all that… he still didn't tell me his reason for this,_' Rena thought as she snapped out her own deck of duel monsters. "Sorry, but I made a promise to a friend that I'd come back out of this tower!"

"Well… I'm sorry," Eternity Angelo moaned lowering his head slightly. "But that is one promise that you will not be keeping."

"… We'll see about that!" Rena announced snapping her deck into her duel disk. "Let's duel!" (RLP: 8000)

Even as Rena's duel disk whirled to life, the young red duelist couldn't help but notice that Eternity Angelo didn't have a duel disk on… and her duel disk seemed to be the only one in the room. "Um… don't you need a duel disk?"

"I do not require such frivolous machines," Eternity Angelo replied, clasping his free hand onto his deck. "Watch and learn."

A bright light wrapped around the deck of duel monster cards, immediately transforming into a small orb of white light that slowly floated from Eternity Angelo's hands. The orb floated over Eternity Angelo's left arm, and with it floating around his body, Eternity Angelo flicked the light a five times…

… Creating five large Duel Monster cards in front of the tux wearing duelist, their backs to Rena.

"Wow, nice trick," Rena admitted, her hand to her mouth to try to stop her from gasping.

Flickering over his head, Eternity Angelo's life point score appeared over his head, "Its one of the perks of being the Master of Twilight." (EALP: 8000)

"So… Shall we dance?"

"Uh, sure," Rena sighed clicking off the top five cards from her deck.

"And so… As the challenger, I'll start," Eternity Angelo stated reaching for the orb of light at his left wrist… but then stopped. "But, that's what a rude man would say. I am a gentleman, so, ladies first."

"Uh, yeah, thanks," Rena replied snapping off her sixth card from her deck. '_Lets see… I added those cards that weird greasy haired man gave me… but I don't have any of them. And what kind of deck would this guy run? I… I guess I don't have a choice but to wait._'

"I'll start off with a defense monster!" Rena announced slapping the card onto the card zone on her duel disk, making the face down card appear before her. "And that'll be all for me."

"Ah, starting with a defense," Eternity Angelo chuckled as he flicked the white orb of light, calling forth a sixth card in front of him. "When you face against the shadows of the unknown, you start off defensively. But, against me, a true self, you will not need to worry… at least right now."

'_Again with the True Self stuff…_' Rena thought as Eternity Angelo lifted his hands up towards one of his cards.

"Allow me to show you," Eternity Angelo replied as the card he pointed to spun around, showing a warrior absorbing several souls that had the faces of common monsters on it. "I activate the continuous spell card, Soul Absorption."

"Ah! That card!" Rena gasped, remembering that card from a few strategies she read about in class.

"Indeed, for each time a card is removed from play, I gain five hundred life points," Eternity Angelo replied with a snap of his fingers, allowing another of his enlarged cards to spin around this one showing a young alchemist lifting up an emerald. "Allow me to show you, by removing the spell card, Alchemic Poetry – The Emerald's Pattern, from my hand, I can add a field spell card from my deck to my hand."

"Alchemic? You mean like Luntina's Alchemists?" Rena asked as a fifth card appeared in front of Eternity Angelo. (EALP: 8500)

"I assume you're talking about that rather lovely duelist," Eternity Angelo chuckled… surprisingly enough, there was a blush on his mask. "I do run a concept like hers… but while she uses human Alchemy, I use… Infernal Alchemy."

"Infernal Alchemy?" Rena questioned again. "What does that have to do with what you're doing? I don't see a connection at all…"

"…Oh, everything shall soon become clear," Eternity Angelo replied, his head shaking at the five cards left in front of him. "But for the time being, I am done with my turn."

"What? Just a spell and life point gain?" Rena questioned, getting a nod as confirmation from the finely dressed mastermind. "Well alright… Don't blame me if this it'll come back to bite you…"

"I more than aware of what could happen," Eternity Angelo sighed in relief as Rena pulled her next card up.

"Then allow me to show you!" Rena announced slapping her newly drawn card onto her duel disk, creating many sparks in front of her, allowing a familiar red haired elf with a large mallet in its hands to appear before her (1200/900) a large grin appearing on the monster's face. "I summon Mallet Elf in attack mode! And then… I'll flip up my face down, Edge Elf in attack mode!"

The face down card sliced into many sections, being flung into the air along with the familiar dark elf, its two chained swords being crossed in front of him (1700/1300). "And since you were more than willing to leave yourself wide open… Mallet Elf! Edge Elf!"

Both of the weapon wielding elves nodded to each other before they leapt towards Eternity Angelo, the Mallet Elf lifting his hammer over his head and the Edge Elf spinning around at a quick speed.

And just as both of the elves were about to land their attacks on him, Eternity Angelo's eyes glowed brightly, ceasing both of the elves' attacks and kept them in the air slightly. "… Sorry, but I just got this tux, and its one hundred percent silk."

Both of the elves were then flung back to Rena's field, with Eternity Angelo dusting off his tux, "Man maybe wearing masks all the time… but I still enjoy the clothing they make." (EALP: 5600)

'_He didn't move and he forced my monsters away,_' Rena thought as she looked at the five remaining cards in her hand. "Uh, I'll just set a card face down and end my turn…"

With another flick at the orb of light, a sixth card appeared in front of Eternity Angelo, "I must say, you certainly do have a unique sense in monsters… Elf cards are quite rare actually. But then again, my flavor of cards is a rarity as well."

"You're really confusing you know that?" Rena muttered.

"Well, they say that a card is worth a thousand words," Eternity Angelo replied as he slowly pointed towards one of the cards that floated in front of him. "And this card's thousand words all say the same thing… Demise! I activate the field spell card, City of the Alchemic Flames!"

The selected card floated up into the air, only to fizzle out of sight. Rena blinked a few times at the weird sight, "Um… Nothing's happening…"

"Wait for it," Eternity Angelo commented with his arms crossed over his chest.

That's when a sharp cracking sound slid through the air, making Rena look up at the glass walls. Webbing around the clockwork and the room itself, until millions of flames surged through the room, making Rena cover her face with her arms. With her sight blocked, Rena could only hear the searing blazes around her, the shattering of glass, and even the cracking of metal!

Then… it was quiet…

"I suggest you lower your arm," Eternity Angelo's voice rang out.

A little afraid what may be awaiting for her, Rena lowered her arm down, and her eyes shot wide open.

The glass windows, the clock work, and even the walls that supported it all… they were gone! The strong wind was whipping around the two duelists, making Eternity Angelo grab his top hat and making Rena hold her skirt down, a large blush covering her face. "W-W-What the heck is going on here?!?"

"It's not over yet," Eternity Angelo announced as he lifted his free hand into the air. "Rake the clutter and make a fire…"

That's when the debris on the ruined floor was swept up into the air around the duelists, spinning around the two duelists, "Arrange the stones to circle the pyre…"

Several flames erupted behind Eternity Angelo, merging with the debris around the two of them, "Drag your belongings one by one… Break up the moon to inflame the sun!"

That's when a powerful explosion erupted over the two duelists, wrapping the two of them in a powerful light that blinded Rena slightly. "Now… Gaze upon my beautiful stage…"

Slowly, Rena's sight came back to her, revealing a large beautiful city made up of gold had appeared around the two of them, flames surrounding them both and blocking the powerful wind around them. From where they stood, Rena saw that they were what appeared to be the City's plaza. "Wow…"

"It is awe inspiring," Eternity Angelo replied, his fingers caressing his mask. "And it holds a deadly secret…"

"Speaking of secrets," Rena stated as her Mallet Elf gained a floating orb of energy around him (1200/900 + 200/0). "Each time you play a spell card, my Mallet Elf gains a Spell Counter and two hundred points per Spell Counter…"

"Then why don't I help out some more?" Eternity Angelo stated pointing towards three of his five card hand left. "You see, my city is known as the birthplace for Infernal Alchemy, an ancient and forbidden art to humans… or at least it was until I managed to acquire it. And in the walls of this forbidden domain, I can spawn creatures that you've never seen before!"

"In game terms, I activate three continuous spell cards… Alchemic Material – Sol Dragon! Alchemic Material – Luna Serpent! And Alchemic Material – Venus Leo!"

As the three cards appeared on the field, they transformed into three large statues, one of a golden dragon with the archaic symbol for the sun on its chest. Another of a large silver sea-serpent with the archaic symbol for the moon on its forehead and the third statue turned out to be a large copper lion statue with the symbol of Venus on its chest.

"Uh… those are weird," Rena blinked at the statues, but then as three more Spell Counters appeared around the Mallet Elf (1400/900 + 600/0). "But they still give my Mallet Elf more points!"

"You haven't seen what they can do yet," Eternity Angelo chuckled before throwing his hand to the side. "Awaken my three beasts!"

That's when all the eyes on the statues glowed a bright red, allowing all three of the statues to roar to life (500/500 x3). "My Alchemic Materials come to life! However, none of them can be used in a tribute."

"Okay… so unless you've got Mass Driver in your hand," Rena muttered looking at the weak monsters. "Then they're just living targets."

"Hmm… I don't have a Mass Driver in this deck," Eternity Angelo admitted rubbing his mask's chin. "But that's a good idea… However, you're wrong, you see my Alchemic Materials all posses a certain ability… the ability to bypass your monsters and attack you directly!"

To Rena's horror all three of the statue like monsters reeled their heads back, unleashing several flames that flew overhead the two surprised elves and crash into Rena, "Aaa-AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" (RLP: 6500)

After a few moments, the flames died down to reveal Rena, her clothing and hair slightly singed from the powerful flames. The two elves blinked at her, and then Rena coughed out a small puff of smoke from her mouth, "… urk…"

"Ha, ha, haha," Eternity Angelo chuckled trying not to laugh at Rena's comical reaction to the attacks. "My apologies, but you certainly are an interesting opponent."

"Well, I'm glad my pain could make you feel better," Rena sighed running her fingers through her hair.

"Ah, don't feel like that," Eternity Angelo replied as the remaining two cards in front of him slid down behind the three statue like monsters. "Tell ya what, I'll end my turn by setting the rest of my hand face down… and that's that."

"Oh… that really hurts," Rena moaned, it was almost too painful for her reach for her deck… but she made a promise! "M-My draw!"

"Aw, how sweet, you're still clinging to hope," Eternity Angelo chuckled with his hand lifted up to where his mouth would be on his mask. '_Just… Just like her…_'

"Well, that's what I'm basically running on now," Rena admitted looking at her hand. "But now, I summon Obnoxious Celtic Guard in attack mode!"

Without hesitation, the green armored elf swordsman appeared on the field, his clear eyes glared at Eternity Angelo (1400/1200), "And now, I'll outfit him with the spell card, Sacred Sword of the Forest!"

That's when a bright green light surged over the Celtic Guard's sword, sending many vines around the elf's weapon (1400/1200 + 300/0). "And while giving my Guard three hundred more points, he has the ability to attack twice! So… Obnoxious Celtic Guard! Let's get rid of those statues!"

With great speed, the elfin warrior charged forward, turning around to slice through two of the Alchemic Material monsters…

"What a decent move!" Eternity Angelo proclaimed before he waved his hand up, allowing a large barrier to appear around his three monsters. "But not as decent as mine! I activate my trap card, Negate Attack ending the battle phase!"

The Obnoxious Celtic Guard slammed into the barrier, with a loud smack that echoed through the city's streets. And as the elf warrior slid down, the barrier disappeared around Eternity Angelo. "Oh, so sorry…" (EALP: 6100)

"Wait a minute! How'd your life points go up?!" Rena gasped as her Obnoxious Celtic Guard staggered back to her field.

"Ah, well allow me to tell you about my City of Alchemic Flames!" Eternity Angelo announced with his hands lifted up to the city around them. "When a material is used… it is removed by the flames! Or, to make things simple, it removes any card of mine from play!"

"And with Soul Absorption, you'll gain life points," Rena gasped once more with the deadly combo would possibly give her opponent a virtually unlimited supply of life points.

"Indeed," Eternity Angelo replied with his arms crossed over his chest.

"W-Well… I'll set one more card face down, and end my turn," Rena announced as a second face down card appeared next to her first one.

"Then, it's back to me," Eternity Angelo sung as he flicked the orb of light, calling forth another card in front of him. "And I think its time I refreshed myself… So, I'll activate another spell card, the one I set. Alchemic Decomposition – Aries!"

That's when something erupted from underneath the three Alchemic Material monsters, transforming into a large red transmutation circle with what appeared to be symbols of weapons on it. The alchemic materials screeched out in pain before they melted among the circle's symbols… and then all together shattered into the air. "Unfortunately, this spell card destroys every Alchemic Material on my field. And then for a few bonus points, I gain the ability to draw two new cards for each one."

"A-And with each card destroyed," Rena mumbled, not caring that another Spell Counter appeared around her Mallet Elf (2000/900 + 200/0). Rather, Rena gulped as Eternity Angelo summoned six more cards from the orb of light in front of him, and as well as having a large aura erupt around the fancy duelist. (EALP: 8100)

"Yes, I gain life points," Eternity Angelo calmly said looking at his seven cards, looking at the cards with malice seeping from his eyes. "And what do you know? I've got a few options, and since I no longer posses any monsters, I am no bound by requirements… I activate the Alchemic Multiplication – Aquarius!"

With another one of his cards disappearing, a large blue transmutation circle appeared underneath the two duelists' feet, this one displaying the symbol for Aquarius. While another Spell Counter appeared around the Mallet Elf (2200/900 + 200/0), three more cards appeared in front of Eternity Angelo. "As long as I do not have any monsters on the field and no cards in my graveyard, I am allowed to add three Alchemic Material cards back from my removed from play pile back to my hand." (EALP: 8600)

'_Three so far… only five to go…_'

"S-so those three statues…" Rena gasped at the thought of having those monsters back on the field.

"Yes, they shall return," Eternity Angelo finished holding his arms to the side, making five of the cards turn around. "Along with two companions! For I introduce, Alchemic Material – Sol Dragon…"

A powerful flame erupted on the field, forming into the golden dragon statue, roaring loudly (500/500).

"Alchemic Material – Luna Serpent…" A bright light exploded over the field, forming into the silver serpent statue (500/500)

"Alchemic Material – Venus Leo…" The ground opened up to allow the copper lion statue (500/500) to crawl upon the field.

"Alchemic Material – Mars Phoenix…" A powerful windstorm swept over the field, allowing a large iron phoenix statue to crash into the field, the Mars symbol resting on its beak (500/500).

"And… Alchemic Material – Jupiter Sea Beast!" Eternity Angelo announced as the tin fish statue erupted from the ground with a large amount of water, the symbol of Jupiter atop of its dorsal fin (500/500). "And now, I possess a full field of artificial monsters."

"Y-Yeah, but even if you do attack me," Rena replied with her field of powerful elf monsters. "I can…"

"Oh, I have no intention of attacking this turn," Eternity Angelo replied holding his hand out towards the remaining four cards in front of him, making it spin around to a large transmutation circle shattering from electricity. "Instead, I'm activating another spell card, the one known as Alchemic Disruption."

All five of the Alchemic Material monsters began to glow brightly, each of them snarling, growling or hissing at Rena and her three surprised elves. "When I am in possession of five different Alchemic monsters, each with a different attribute, I can activate this card when my graveyard is empty… every single card on your field is destroyed!"

"What?!" Rena shouted before five auras erupted from all the powerful Alchemic Material monsters, all of it transforming it into a powerful cyclone of energy that crashed into Rena's field, shattering not only the three elves but also the two face down cards on her field. "No!"

All Eternity Angelo did was cackle loudly as a powerful aura surrounded his body, "Heh… so sorry, and I know it took you so long to get that field set up…" (EALP: 8600)

"What… what strength…" Rena gasped as her entire field was cleared off in one felt swoop.

"And trust me…" Eternity Angelo chuckled, tapping the rim of his hat. "You have yet to see anything yet!"

_To be continued…_

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Card Stats**

**City of the Alchemic Flames / Field Spell / Effect:** All of your cards that would be sent to the graveyard are removed from play instead. When this card would be destroyed by an effect controlled by your opponent, destroy one card on your side of the field to keep this card on the field. This card cannot be destroyed by the effect of 'Vulcan – Infernal Alchemic Ouroboros'.

**Image:** A large golden city surrounded by flames upon flames, basking the city in the fiery light.

**Alchemic Poetry – The Emerald's Pattern / Spell / Effect:** By removing this card from your hand from play, you may take one field spell card from your deck and add to your hand. During the turn this effect is used, you cannot activate the field spell card that was added with this card's effect.

**Image:** A young alchemist lifting up an emerald.

**Alchemic Material – Sol Dragon / Continuous Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated during your Main Phase when you have a face-up "City of the Alchemic Flames". After activation, this card becomes a monster card (Machine-type/Fire/Level 3/ATK 500/DEF 500), and is special summoned to your monster card zone. This monster can attack your opponent's life points directly. This card cannot be tributed for a tribute summon.

**Image:** A large glowing statue of a gold dragon with the symbol of the sun on its forehead.

**Alchemic Material – Luna Serpent / Continuous Spell / Effect:** You can only activate this card during your Main Phase when you have a face-up "City of the Alchemic Flames". After activation, this card becomes a monster card (Reptile-type/Light/Level 3/ATK 500/DEF 500), and is special summoned to your monster card zone. This monster can attack your opponent's life points directly. This card cannot be tributed for a tribute summon.

**Image:** A large glowing statue of a silver sea-serpent with the symbol of the moon on its forehead

**Alchemic Material – Venus Leo / Continuous Spell / Effect:** You can only activate this card during your Main Phase when you have a face-up "City of the Alchemic Flames". After activation, this card becomes a monster card (Beast-type/Earth/Level 3/ATK 500/DEF 500), and is special summoned to your monster card zone. This card can attack your opponent's life points directly. This card cannot be tributed for a tribute summon.

**Image:** A large glowing statue of a copper lion with the symbol of Venus on its chest.

**Alchemic Decomposition – Aries / Normal Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you have a face-up "City of the Alchemic Flames" on the field and no cards in your hand. Remove all monsters with "Alchemic Material" on your side of the field from the game. For each monster removed this way, draw two cards from your deck.

**Image:** A large red transmutation circle with the symbol for Aries in the middle of it

**Alchemic Multiplication – Aquarius / Normal Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you have no monster cards on your side of the field or in your graveyard. Take three cards from your removed from play pile with 'Alchemic Material' in their names and place them in your hand.

**Image:** A large blue transmutation circle with the symbol for Aquarius in the middle of it.

**Sacred Sword of the Forest / Equip Spell / Effect:** This card can only be equipped to a monster with "Elf" or 'Celtic' in its name. Increase the ATK of the equipped monster by 300. The equipped monster can attack twice in one battle phase. The equipped monster can only declare a direct attack once in a single battle phase

**Image:** A sword being covered vines with a fancy hilt.

**Alchemic Material – Mars Phoenix / Continuous Spell / Effect:** You can only activate this card during your Main Phase when you have a face-up "City of the Alchemic Flames". After activation, this card becomes a monster card (Winged Beast-type/Wind/ATK 500/DEF 500), and is special summoned to your monster card zone. This monster can attack your opponent's life points directly. This card cannot be tributed for a tribute summon.

**Image:** A large glowing statue of an iron phoenix with the symbol of Mars on its beak.

**Alchemic Material – Jupiter Sea Beast / Continuous Spell / Effect:** You can only activate this card during your Main Phase when you have a face-up "City of the Alchemic Flames". After activation, this card becomes a monster card (Fish-type/Water/ATK 500/DEF 500), and is special summoned to your monster card zone. This monster can attack your opponent's life points directly. This card cannot be tributed for a tribute summon.

**Image:** A large glowing statue of a tin fish with the symbol of Jupiter on its large fin.

**0-0-0-0-0**

**Eternity Angelo:** It continues… Next time…

_**With the strength of Twilight against her, is Rena able to survive her duel against Eternity Angelo? I don't know, wait until next time:**_

_**On Duelist Twilight – **__**Chapter 51: The Power of A True Self**_

**Rena:** -gasp-, -gasp- I… I…

**Eternity Angelo:** It is useless… Judgment shall be passed, and I am the judge!


	52. Chapter 51: The Power of A True Self

_(Author's Note: Only 10 more reviews to 200! WOOT!)_

_**Heh ha ha ha…**_

_**It's all so funny…**_

_**Heh…**_

_**No one really notices what a person is capable of until they're trapped like a rat. Whether that trap is a physical one, for example let's say that a young woman is trapped in an alley way by a brute who wants to have his way with her… and that young woman notices a large sharp piece of glass near her…**_

_**Or if the trap is a mental one, as in the case when college entrance exams take place, students striving to learn everything they can and then blank out on the test… only to realize that the person next to them isn't having a trouble at all… should the troubled student's eyes slowly creep over to the test next to him…**_

_**But let's look at this from a psychological view… and toss in a little social view while were at it. Everyday humans enter into society, each of them putting up a farce just to be accepted by their fellow citizens, a mask if you will… **_

_**However, every once in a while, these masks are torn off… allowing the person underneath to experience happiness and joy, their own personal joy. **_

_**And you want to know what happens when people see this?**_

_**They laugh!**_

_**They ridicule!**_

_**They cause pain where happiness!**_

_**So, we continue to wear these masks… just for the sake of others… And that is why I wear my mask, only there's one difference…**_

… _**This isn't my mask… it is the mask of someone who was foolish to remove theirs! With this twilight, I will remove all masks from this world! **_

… _**it's… it's what she would want…**_

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Chapter 51**

**The Power of A True Self**

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

"_Oh, I have no intention of attacking this turn," Eternity Angelo replied holding his hand out towards the remaining four cards in front of him, making it spin around to a large transmutation circle shattering from electricity. "Instead, I'm activating another spell card, the one known as Alchemic Disruption."_

_All five of the Alchemic Material monsters began to glow brightly, each of them snarling, growling or hissing at Rena and her three surprised elves. "When I am in possession of five different Alchemic monsters, each with a different attribute, I can activate this card when my graveyard is empty… every single card on your field is destroyed!"_

"_What?!" Rena shouted before five auras erupted from all the powerful Alchemic Material monsters, all of it transforming it into a powerful cyclone of energy that crashed into Rena's field, shattering not only the three elves but also the two face down cards on her field. "No!"_

_All Eternity Angelo did was cackle loudly as a powerful aura surrounded his body, "Heh… so sorry, and I know it took you so long to get that field set up…" (EALP: 8600)_

"_What… what strength…" Rena gasped as her entire field was cleared off in one felt swoop._

"_And trust me…" Eternity Angelo chuckled, tapping the rim of his hat. "You have yet to see anything yet!"_

With her field clear, Rena could only look at the four cards that remained in her hand. For the moment, she thought she had at least a field advantage… (RLP: 6500)

… But thanks to that last move, Eternity Angelo and his Alchemic Materials – Sol Dragon, Luna Serpent, Venus Leo, Mars Phoenix and Jupiter Sea Beast (500/500 x5), toss in his weird field spell, The City of Alchemic Flames, and the continuous spell card Soul Absorption… This was one serious duelist that stood from Rena, three cards floating in front of him. "So… you ready to give up yet?" (EALP: 8600)

"Do I really have that choice?" Rena sighed lowering her head down slightly.

"No… not really," Eternity Angelo chuckled rubbing the chin of his mask.

"I figured as much…" Rena replied with a bead of sweat rolling down the side of her brown hair.

"At least after I play my spell card," Eternity Angelo explained with his eyes closing slightly behind the mask. "My turn must come to an end…"

"Well… at least that's one good thing," Rena gulped before she slowly drew from her deck. '_Well… I can at least make some headway…_'

"I summon Learning Elf in attack mode!"

Instead of the mystical entrance that it usually had, the book loving Elf appeared in front of Rena… turning left and right to see the large fiery buildings around her (1400/1500).

"Ah, elves are certainly an interesting race," Eternity Angelo chuckled adjusting his mask. "I've read in books from long ago that stated that they were a pure race that were quite in tuned with nature… though, I have to wonder… why do you use such creatures?"

"The same could question could be asked of you," Rena replied rubbing the back of her head. "You kept talking about judgment and masks, so I figured you'd use a mask deck, or those judgment angels."

"Demons and angels," Eternity Angelo sighed shaking his head to the side. "In my world, those things don't exist… now continue your turn…"

"Um, alright," Rena stated throwing her hand forward, making the Learning Elf flip through her book's pages. "I attack Sol Dragon with Learning Elf!"

Several pages erupted from the Learning Elf's book, sending them flying directly into the screeching Sol Dragon… then with a large explosion the statue's remains. (EALP: 8200)

"You forget that my Soul Absorption is still out and my field spell removes all of my cards," Eternity Angelo sighed as he shook his head disapprovingly. "And although you did indeed harm me… you're far from being able to pull me down."

'_Four… I only need four more…_'

"Fine…" Rena sighed holding up two of her other cards. "I'll set two cards face down and end my turn."

"Thus the gears of time continue to move forward," Eternity Angelo sighed as he flicked the white orb around his left arm, creating another large card in front of him. "… Ah…"

"Huh?" Rena thought, not liking where that sound came from.

"You need not be concerned about what I've drawn yet," Eternity Angelo replied spinning his hat on his head a few times. "Rather, you should be concerned with what I have on the field… my four Alchemic Materials! And all five of them hold the ability to attack you directly!"

"Luna Serpent! Lead the onslaught!"

With a loud hiss, the silver snake began to charge up enough fiery energy in its mouth, making the creature's cheeks to bulge greatly.

"Sorry, but I have a trap card!" Rena announced snapping her hand to the side, making the face down card on the right flip up revealing a dark suited hero leaping off the card art. "I activate my trap card, A Hero Emerges! Now you get to choose one of the remaining two cards in my hand, and if either of those is a monster, then I get to special summon it!"

"Ah… Very well," Eternity Angelo sighed with an additional shake of his head. "If I must, then I must. I choose the card on the right."

Rena blinked slightly, "Um… not the monster I wanted but… it'll do! I summon Archer Elf in attack mode!"

Leaping down from the sky, the bow wielding elf appeared on the field, his green tunic flowing over his muscular body (1300/450) as he drew an arrow from his quiver.

"How nice," Eternity Angelo stated with his hat covering his eyes, allowing all four of his Alchemic Material beasts floated in front of him, the Luna Serpent with its larger cheeks, the Venus Leo's fur standing on end, the Mars Phoenix's feathers swept up into the air, and the Jupiter Sea Beast began to grow larger. "Too bad it doesn't do a damn thing against my attacks!"

Before Rena could get a word in, all four of the fiery attacks slammed directly into Rena's body, making the young duelist scream out in pain from the powerful flames. When the flames slowly receded, small patches of Rena's clothing were burnt to a crisp and fell off, revealing a little more skin… (RLP: 4500)

… This of course getting a large blush to appear on Rena's face and even Eternity Angelo's mask. "O-Oh… Oh my…"

"Ack!?" Rena gasped, slowly taking a step backwards.

"Oh come on, you're more decently dressed than some girls I've met," Eternity Angelo coughed out pulling his hat down. "Anyway… I'll conclude my turn with two cards face down."

"Um… O-Okay," Rena gulped, her blush only getting bigger as she slowly drew. '_Well… I-I drew one of the cards that Big Boss character gave me…'_

"I-I activate Elf Archer's effect!" Rena shouted before the Archer Elf pulled back on the string of the bow, sending a large arrow of energy to strike through the Luna Serpent's body (500/500 – 400/0), making the statue screech in pain. "Once per turn, he can lower the attack strength of one monster on your field by four hundred points!"

"Nice ability," Eternity Angelo stated curling some of his long, gray hair in his fingers. "But still, that doesn't really concern me…"

"Huh?" Rena questioned before she shook her head, she couldn't listen to this guy… he was more than likely just trying to psyche out the elf duelist. "I… I summon Cursed Half-Elf in attack mode!"

A large shadowed figure crept onto the ground, immediately forming up into the dark cloaked evil looking elf, its white hair falling in front of his sharp face (1600/1400).

"Half Elf? The cross between a regular human and an elf," Eternity Angelo sighed throwing his hair over his shoulder. "Kind of a hypocritical existence…"

"Hypocritical existence?" Rena asked, her eyes narrowing slightly. "What makes you think that someone's existence isn't important?!"

"… experience," Eternity Angelo stated before he snapped his fingers over his face down cards. "Take for example my weakened Luna Serpent. His main existence was to damage you and be a shield for me, however, since he is damaged, not only would his attack cause you a small amount of damage, and cause me a large amount of damage…"

That's when the face down card flipped up, revealing the Sol Dragon exploding with a large red transmutation circle under it's remains. "However, even weakened he has one small use… I reveal my trap card, Alchemic Resolution. By destroying one Alchemic monster on my field, I can switch all monsters who are in the same mode on a player's field to a different position."

In a fiery explosion, the Luna Serpent screeched in pain before it puffed away in smoke, allowing the Venus Leo, the Mars Phoenix, and the Jupiter Sea Beast to crouch down to the ground, turning slightly into rusted versions of them all. "To make things simple, I can switch all attack mode monsters on my field or yours to defense mode. But I'll choose to turn my field into a defensive status. And since my trap and Luna Serpent are removed from play…" (EALP: 9200)

'_Dang it! He's baiting me!_' Rena thought looking at her three elves. '_If I attack his monsters, he'll just gain more life points… and if I don't, he'll just attack me directly next turn! And then there's that face down card he's got left… but what I really need to do, is get rid of his field spell! But I don't have anything to get rid of it!'_

"Hmm? Are you done yet?" Eternity Angelo chuckled scratching the side of his mask. '_What I wouldn't give to have one of those new-fangled i-Pods or whatever the hell they're called…'_

"Uh, I've decided! My elves! Attack his three remaining Alchemic Materials!" Rena shouted before all three of her elves leapt into action.

The Elf Archer immediately fired off a quick shot that pierced through the skull of the Venus Leo, making the beastly creature roar in pain before shattering. The Learning Elf threw countless sharp pages directly into the screeching Mars Phoenix, slicing it into millions of rusted parts. And last but not least, the Cursed Half-Elf appeared behind the surprised Jupiter Sea Beast… its cloak flowing over the Alchemic Material until it shattered in pain.

However, that just made Eternity Angelo cackle as his body began to glow a bright white, "Why thank you oh so much Rena…" (EALP: 10700)

'_Its time…'_

"I end my turn with that," Rena sighed holding her duel disk up in a defensive manner in front of her chest.

And with that, Eternity Angelo merely nodded, allowing another card to appear in front of him, "End your turn… No, rather, it's the end of me going nice on you."

"… You were being nice?" Rena thought, remembering the painful flames coursing over her body, and the fact that her clothing was slightly ruined.

"Indeed," Eternity Angelo stated as the card in front of him spun around to show a large yellow transmutation circle with the symbol for Cancer in the middle of it. "For now, I activate Alchemic Solution – Cancer."

"W-What does that card do?" Rena thought, remembering what the other Alchemic spells were able to do, and not caring that her Cursed Half-Elf gained a spell counter.

The other two cards disappeared in front of Eternity Angelo, "It removes my hand from play." (EALP: 12200)

"… Is… Is that it?" Rena asked.

Eternity Angelo didn't answer Rena, rather, the evil genius grabbed his top hat and threw it into the air. Rena blinked in confusion as the fancy evildoer began to unbutton his fancy tuxedo's jacket, and a few seconds later gently placed the jacket on the ground next to him.

That's when things started to get weirder…

"W-WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Rena shouted with a large blush rushing to her face as she turned away. '_Why does every evil person I run into always seem to undress!?!'_

Indeed, clad in only his pants and mask, the gray haired evildoer stood in front of Rena with his arms crossed over his sleek chest. "I apologize, but I prefer not to ruin that tuxedo jacket and undershirt. They are new, as for my pants, I've had them for a few years and could care less if they…"

"NOT WHAT I MEANT!" Rena shouted out, making Eternity Angelo step back slightly.

"Ah, I see," Eternity Angelo coughed slightly before a large card back appeared behind him. "You see when I possess eight or more Alchemic cards that were removed from play, hold no cards in my hand, and my cemetery has yet to be tarnished, I am allowed to special summon…"

A powerful flame erupted over Eternity Angelo's body, however, he did not scream… rather a large crack in the shape of a smile appeared on his mask as the flames began to condense, wrapping around his arms, legs, chest and head. "… No… Rather, become the one who created this city around us…"

Throwing his arm to the side, the flames scattered to reveal Eternity Angelo's new form, his gray hair now a bright fiery red color with his mask now changed into a strong iron version of itself with a blood red transmutation circle on the forehead. Covering his sleek body was now a large blood red cloak that whipped along with the flames that licked around his now iron suit of armor… blood dripping all around the joints of the armor (0/0). "… Infernal Alchemic Vulcan…"

"Whoa…" Rena muttered blinking at the weird new armored Eternity Angelo. "But… But where did it come from?"

"My fusion deck… that would be my best bet," Eternity Angelo surmised. "I know for a fact that the only monsters I possess, they do not reside in my deck, my hand or in my graveyard… not even in my removed from play pile as well."

"But what about those Alchemic Material cards?" Rena asked as the flames in the Alchemic City began to whip about into the air.

"Did you forget?" Eternity Angelo cackled behind his newest mask. "I hold no bonds to monsters… other than myself of course. That's why my main deck consists of only spells and trap cards… both that can be used to improve my game play."

"Why would you want to do that?" Rena asked blinking a few times.

"… I suppose I can answer a question like that," Eternity Angelo cackled as he clasped his iron clad hands tightly. "Remember when I had sacrificed my Luna Serpent that you wounded to protect myself?"

"That was just last turn," Rena replied.

"Humans… such interesting creatures," Eternity Angelo chuckled, adjusting his mask to fit properly over his face. "My actions showed what humans do in order to get ahead in this useless life… Take for example a president of a company, if there's a problem in the company, would they take the blame and fall for it? No, instead, they would find a scapegoat to take all of that… heck, they'd sacrifice as many of people as they needed. I hate humans… you see, I see monsters as the humans of the duel monster world, each of them with their flaws. The impurity."

"Only through the trial of fire and pain can one become pure… My Alchemic Materials are a perfect example, this place is their trial of fire and pain!"

"But… since you used your Alchemic Materials the same way, wouldn't that mean that you're a hypocrite yourself?" Rena pointed out.

"… I don't recall ever saying I was perfect," Eternity Angelo sighed turning his head to the side. "I too am human… I am flawed…"

"Then why are you talking about casting judgment on everyone!?" Rena replied. "If humans are flawed, then wouldn't your judgment be flawed as well?!"

"… That's the beauty of my plan," Eternity Angelo chuckled with taking a step to the side, revealing that the Twilight Crystal still stood tall on its platform. "The Twilight Crystal is unable to be swayed by flawed logic… subconsciously, it creates its own judgment. I was originally going to cast judgment on everyone in the world at first, and then those who helped me attain this power would taste the sweet relief of judgment…"

"… and then… I will face final judgment… Those who remain will rebuild this world, return it to its former glory. I do not know if I will see that world… but if I do, then I would greatly treasure every minute of its glory as a resident."

"So… what exactly are you after?" Rena asked.

"We've talked to much for now," Eternity Angelo stated throwing his hand to the side. "I have a busy schedule to keep! And I aim to keep it today! I activate the face down card I set last turn, go, Chaos Greed!"

'_His card was a bluff!'_ Rena thought as the spell card disappeared only to be replaced with two other cards that floated in front of Eternity Angelo. (EALP: 12700)

"Now… I'll activate the newest Alchemic Material," Eternity Angelo continued making one of the cards to disappear in front of him. "However, in order to do so, I need to remove one card from my hand in order to activate Alchemic Material – Pluto Night!" (EALP: 13200)

A large purple transmutation circle erupted next to the transformed Eternity Angelo, allowing a large steel armored knight statue to stand up next to him, a large broad sword in its hands that held the Pluto symbol on it (2000/1500). "The strongest of my Alchemic Materials…"

That's when a small flame floated around Eternity Angelo's head, "… At this time, Infernal Alchemic Vulcan's effect activates, when an Alchemy, Alchemic or Alchemist monster is removed from play, I place one Alchemic Counter on myself. And now… Alchemic Material – Pluto Night! Attack that Archer!"

Pulling the mighty sword back, the large steel statue leapt into the air, surprising all three of the elves on the field with the statue's agility. But, before any of them could react accordingly, the knight slammed the heavy blade directly through the Elf Archer, freezing the elf in place before he was split in two! "AAAAH!" (RLP: 3800)

"To be the bearer of worse news," Eternity Angelo stated as a card appeared in front of him, only to shatter into millions of pixels. "Whenever my Pluto Night battles, the top card of my deck must be removed… and that card was another Alchemic Material card, one known as Saturn Taurus. And since it was removed, I gain another Alchemic Counter." (EALP: 13700)

'_What the heck do these counters do?'_ Rena thought, slowly reaching for her deck. "Draw!"

As Rena's eyes adjusted to the card's art, and then immediately widened, '_It's another one of those cards that Big Boss gave me!'_

"I – I switch my Learning Elf and Cursed Half-Elf to defense mode!" Rena announced as her two elves crouched down, their arms crossed over their chests. "And… And I set a monster as well… Turn end."

"Of course you end," Eternity Angelo stated as another card popped in front of him. "Hmm… No matter how many times you defend, I'll have my Night go through your defense… all the while removing my cards to increase my life points."

'_Maybe at this rate I can deck him out,_' Rena thought, trying to remember all of the cards that were being played at this point with a small smirk appearing on her face. '_Let's see… he's got one in his hand, and three on the field, not counting that weird Fusion monster… and there's thirteen in his removed from play pile, so, if he's playing with the regulated deck…'_

"Ah, ah, ah!" Eternity Angelo chuckled wagging his finger at Rena. "I saw that smirk! You're probably thinking I'll deck myself out… well, you're wrong… this deck contains sixty cards, multiple copies of the Alchemic Material, the Field Spell around you and several other cards that provide support!"

Rena's eyes widened.

"I can't say the same for you…" Eternity Angelo stated before his Pluto Night began to run forward. "Pluto Night! Attack the Learning Elf!"

The book loving elf's eyes widened to dinner plates, before the sword sliced right through her body, making her scream loudly. "And like before… The top card goes goodbye… and since it's a copy of Alchemic Material – Sol Dragon, I gain more life points and a third Alchemic Counter!" (EALP: 14200)

'_I've gotta do something to gain momentum!'_ Rena thought reaching for her deck. "You're not the only one with a card effect! When Learning Elf is destroyed, I gain a free draw!"

"If I were you," Eternity Angelo stated with his arms crossed over his cloaked chest. "I'd be more worried about decking out."

"Draw!" Rena announced, ignoring Eternity Angelo's warning. '_I don't really need Big Bosses help, and I don't know why he'd give me these cards… But with what I've got now, I can at least knock a few life points down…'_

"Now! I flip up my face down Elf Swordsman!" Rena shouted as the face down card flipped up to show the cocky blonde haired elf with green clothing appeared on the field with large cocky grin (1400/1600). "And when flipped summon, I can special summon the one and only Sol Saber from my hand!"

A bright light appeared next to the cocky Elf Swordsman, forming into a large gold sword with the sun on it (500/500), but without hesitation the Elf Swordsman grabbed the sword, allowing a large aura to appear over his body (1400/1600 + 1000/1000). "And it's a Union monster! Allowing me to empowering my Elf Swordsman! And next, I'll summon Thoroughbred Elf!"

And that's when the fighter elf flipped over the field, allowing the green covered elf (1800/1500) to shoot a deadly glare at Eternity Angelo.

CLANK! CLANK! CLANK! "Impressive field rush," Eternity Angelo admitted, clapping his metallic hands as the Cursed Half-Elf stood up tall to attack mode. "But you'll require more than just brute strength to defeat me."

"We'll see how you deal with this!" Rena shouted before the Elf Swordsman leapt forward, the sword raised up to slice down on the Pluto Night! "ATTACK!"

The Elf Swordsman and the Pluto Night's swords clashed, the sparks flying in the air, until the Pluto Night's sword shattered into millions of shards… spiraling cracks through the entire Pluto Night's body until it shattered like glass.

"How unfortunate that you didn't anticipate a few points," Eternity Angelo stated as two more orbs of fire appear with the other three cards around his head. "One, my Alchemic Material's effect removes the top card from my deck and removes itself thanks to my field spell. And secondly, both of the cards are Alchemic, so I gain two more Alchemic Counters on myself." (EALP: 14800)

"Yeah… But they won't be good enough to help you!" Rena stated as the Thoroughbred Elf and Cursed Half-Elf stepped in front of her. "I'll destroy your monster before you even get the chance to use those counters!"

The Thoroughbred Elf jumped forward, spinning around at a great speed to slam his leg into the iron mask on Eternity Angelo's head… sending a loud echo to flow through the air. (EALP: 13000)

'_Why is he still in that form?'_ Rena thought before throwing her fist forward. "Doesn't matter! Cursed Half-Elf! Attack Infernal Alchemic Vulcan!"

The cloak wearing elf flew over the field, its cloak wrapping around Eternity Angelo's body, making the iron clad duelist step backwards… before snapping his arms to the side to free himself. "URK!" (EALP: 11400)

"W-Why are you still standing here?" Rena gasped as both of her elves leapt back to her field.

"Technically," Eternity Angelo coughed out adjusting his tattered cloak. "Infernal Alchemic Vulcan cannot be targeted for an attack, so your attacks would be considered as direct attacks… Sorry, but I don't have any plans to have my monster form to disappear."

"D-Dang it!" Rena hissed under her breath as she looked at her hand, besides the two monster cards that Big Boss gave her, there was another spell card… but, to use it now would probably be jumping the gun. "I… I end my turn…"

"Excellent," Eternity Angelo stated as a second card appeared in front of him. "Hmm… Looks like the fates of judgment are on my side this time again… I activate the magical charms of the spell known to duelists around this globe as Graceful Charity!"

"I've never heard anyone put the card like that," Rena admitted with a large sweatdrop rolling down the side of her head.

"Then you obviously been paying attention to me," Eternity Angelo replied as three more cards appeared in front of him. "Now then… I shall select my Alchemic Material – Mars Phoenix and Alchemic Filtration – Scorpio to send away… Leo would've been useless since I have my Infernal Alchemic Vulcan out on the field."

"What does it do exactly?" Rena asked as the three cards (including the Graceful Charity) disappeared in front of Eternity Angelo. (EALP: 12900)

"Well, since you asked," Eternity Angelo stated with two more orbs of fire appearing around his head. "If I had no monsters on the field or in my graveyard, then for each card I had removed from play, you would've taken one hundred points… and now, I have twenty cards removed from the game."

'_Toss in the two he has on the field and the two in his hand,'_ Rena thought with her eyes widening. '_H-He's got thirty-six more cards to go through!?'_

"But, I think you've got something more important to worry about than the size of my deck," Eternity Angelo chuckled as all seven orbs of fire around his body began to draw closer and closer to his body. "Yes… now that I possess seven Alchemic Counters, I now achieve the ability to evolve this tattered form into something a little more… hmm… It's not fancy, but on the other hand, it does give me the ability to at least…"

"Um, as much as I hate to rush something that may mean my doom…" Rena muttered with the sweat droplet growing larger on the side of her head.

"Ah, yes… My apologies," Eternity Angelo gasped before he took a bow towards Rena. "I shall cease my stalling… and unleash the beginning of the end! I activate the final effect of Infernal Alchemic Vulcan!"

The seven orbs of flame crashed directly into Eternity Angelo's body, engulfing his body in a flame that hid his body from Rena's sight. "By removing my current form from play, I may special summon the second form of the almighty Judge!" (EALP: 13400)

The flames ripped off of Eternity Angelo's body, pieces of the cloak and shattered armor flying off into the air as the newest form that stood in front of Rena. This time, it looked as though the mask was no more… and the young man's skin had itself turned into iron… while his previously red hair had erupted into a powerful flame that danced on the edge of his slightly rusted iron skin (0/0). Throwing his cloak over his shoulders, Rena couldn't help but gasp at what had replaced Eternity Angelo's hands…

"HIISSSSSS!"

"Y-Your hands?!" Rena gasped as the two snake appendages with ever-blinking, numerous yellow eyes that appeared on them.

"Ah, yes…" Eternity Angelo cackled, the mouth on his iron face actually moving in sync with his voice… as if it was his original face. "I realize this form is more monstrous than my last two, but judgment is never pretty… and in all the excitement, I forgot to introduce this new form. Iron Vulcan Alchemist."

"An Alchemist?" Rena thought, remembering Ganryu's duel with Luntina.

"I assure you, this alchemist is something you don't want to mess with," Eternity Angelo assured before one of his snake hands hissed loudly at one of the remaining two cards that floated in front of him. "But now, I activate another Alchemic card… Alchemic Projection – Pisces!"

With his new spell card, a large light blue transmutation circle erupted around the two duelists' feet, this one with the symbol of Pisces on it. "This card can only be activated when I the City of Alchemic Flames on the field and hold no cards in my cemetery… and I don't. Now for every four cards in my removed from play pile, I gain one thousand life points. And at last count, that was twenty-one cards… and since my Alchemic Projection will be removed, thanks to Soul Absorption that will be forty-five hundred life points all at once!"

The transmutation circle shattered like glass around the two duelists, allowing a bright blue aura to appear around Eternity Angelo's body… as well as an additional glowing fire ball around his body. (EALP: 17900)

"Y-You've got to be kidding me!" Rena shouted as the final card in front of Eternity Angelo slide to the ground.

"I assure you, this is no joke, trick, or shenanigan," Eternity Angelo replied as the two snake heads for his hands hissed loudly. "Now… I suggest you draw your next card… or shift judgment will be passed on you…"

"Fine!" Rena shouted pulling her next card into her hand, and then smiled as she noticed a familiar card. "And its time to demolish your city!"

Eternity Angelo just blinked his now yellow eyes in confusion.

"I summon Breaker, The Magical Warrior!" Rena announced slapping the card onto her duel disk, allowing the red armored spellcaster appeared on the field, his sleek sword and his yellow shield raised up towards the iron skinned Eternity Angelo (1600/1000 + 300/0). "And now… I've got some news for you!"

"… You aim to destroy my city," Eternity Angelo sighed, making Rena's eyes widen slightly. "Oh please, everyone and their grandmother knows what that card is capable of."

"Then you don't need me to tell you that I'm using his effect!" Rena shouted before the Magical Warrior leapt high into the air, his body glowing a bright red (1600/1000).

"In response I activate the City of Alchemic Flames second ability!" Eternity Angelo shouted as the flames from the city began to lick the sky above. "When my field spell would be destroyed by a card effect, I can destroy another card on my field in its place! And I choose to destroy my face down Alchemic Poetry – Grace Under Water!"

"WHAT?!" Rena shouted before the red energy around Breaker's body shot out, crashing into the face down card that remained on Eternity Angelo's field, shattering it into millions of shards. (EALP: 18400)

And, without hesitation, a second orb of flames appeared around Eternity Angelo's body. "And since another Alchemic card was removed, I gain another Alchemic Counter…"

"D-Does that mean you have another form after this one?" Rena thought out loud as all three of her elves and Breaker looked stunned from the sudden proclaim.

"… I do not have to answer that…" Eternity Angelo replied crossing his arms.

'_W-Well… that can't be good at all…_' Rena thought to herself before looking at the four monsters on her field, all of them sending glares at Eternity Angelo. '_But… If his monster has the same effect as the previous one… then I can damage him greatly!'_

"Elf Swordsman! Thoroughbred Elf!" Rena shouted as the two oddly acting elves nodded to each other. "Cursed Half-Elf! Breaker, the Magical Warrior! Attack…"

"… To answer your question," Eternity Angelo sighed as the flames on his head slowly rolled off of his head. "This form can be attacked…"

"Then you're the target!" Rena replied as all four of her monsters leapt towards Eternity Angelo.

Both Breaker and the Elf Swords man slashed their swords down on Eternity Angelo's body, a powerful force sending Eternity Angelo skidding backwards… only to receive a powerful kick to his stomach courtesy of the Thoroughbred Elf, being knocked into the Cursed Half-Elf who's black cloak wrapped around Eternity Angelo's body, the dark cloak crushing him…

Until Eternity Angelo snapped his arms to free himself! (EALP: 11200)

"So, your monster can't be attacked either?" Rena asked as all four of her elves reappeared in front of her with, all of them with a look of accomplishment plastered all over their faces.

"Not really," Eternity Angelo stated as four cards appeared in front of him, all four of them spell cards, each with Alchemic in their names. "You see Iron Vulcan Alchemist cannot be destroyed in battle. And he has a cost, each time I battle a monster, the top card gets removed from play. And since you battled four times…"

All four cards shattered into several bright lights that warped into four more orbs of flames that floated around with the other two from earlier, granting Eternity Angelo a total of six Alchemic Counters. "… My life points and Alchemic Counters increase." (EALP: 13200)

"You don't need all those life points!" Rena shouted with a large blush on her face.

"True… but it's still your move," Eternity Angelo chuckled with his two snake hands hissing loudly.

"But I don't have anything else to do…" Rena sighed lowering her head.

"Oh… Too bad," Eternity Angelo stated as the newest card appeared in front of him. "Hmm… Well, well, well… Looks like this'll have to do. I activate the spell card Alchemic Ceration – Sagittarius!"

The card spun around, showing the card art as a large sandy yellow with the symbol of Sagittarius in middle of it, "A rather simple Alchemic card, when activated, I gain three new cards from my deck… and then it removes itself from play with my field spell." (EALP: 13700)

Three more cards popped in front of Eternity Angelo, as well as another Alchemic Flame that floated with the other six. "Now… I'll set one card face down… and now, I think its time for the end…"

"The end?" Rena muttered, trying not to look embarrassed with all the clichéd lines Eternity Angelo could've chosen, he chose the biggest clichéd line of them all.

The seven flaming orbs slammed into Eternity Angelo's body, mixing and warping his body as the flames continued to rise into the air. Rena's eyes widened as the powerful flames roared loudly… (EALP: 14200)

… or maybe that wasn't the flames themselves… but rather the large form that was beginning to take shape in the fire…

"I have achieved it!"

The flames scattered into the air, revealing from the waist up, there was no change to the Iron Vulcan Alchemist, save that his hands had returned to normal rusty iron-clad gauntlets. But that's when the similarities ended…

… From the waist down, the new version of Eternity Angelo was an extremely, incredibly large serpent's head with countless amber eyes, and it wasn't the only thing serpentine… the head was only the beginning, the rest of the monster's large body slowly wrapped around the field, and behind Rena. And then, from the back of the human portion on the monster, several other snake like appendages erupted in a storm of blood (0/0).

"Wh-Whoa…" Rena gasped as all four of her monsters did the same.

"Allow me to greet you…" Eternity Angelo snickered, his voice sounding more like poison dripping off of sharp knife. "… to greet you to Vulcan – Infernal Alchemic Ouroboros…"

"Is… Is this the final form?" Rena gulped, her legs shaking slightly.

"Yes…" Eternity Angelo moaned as he lifted his hands up. "But do not fret… this card can be destroyed in battle and by card effect. However… I have a few natural defenses… for one, for every card I possess in my removed pile, this monster gains three hundred attack and defense points…"

"And… and you have," Rena stopped herself as she tilted her head to the side. "Um… how many cards do you have removed?"

"… Twenty-eight…" Eternity Angelo sighed…

"Then… then…" Rena started before many question marks appeared over her head. "S-Sorry, but math was never my strong suit…."

"… eighty-four hundred…" Eternity Angelo coughed out from his iron clad face. "H-However… if I possess no cards in the graveyard, that increase is changed from three hundred to five hundred points per card…"

"W-WHAT?!" Rena shouted as the snake head roared loudly into the air (14000/14000), flames pouring out the monster's mouth.

"However… my monstrous form holds a curse," Eternity Angelo stated as all the snakes from his back snarled loudly in the air. "All of my phases save for the battle and end phase are removed from play… meaning I can no longer draw cards, or activate any other cards in my hand… so my two cards in my hand are no longer of use to me."

"S-So…" Rena muttered, taking note of the face down card that Eternity Angelo had left before his transformation.

"Let us end this!" Eternity Angelo roared loudly into the air, as many flames began to form in the snakes' mouths, all of them taking aim. "I go into the battle phase automatically… and aim my Eternal Flames at your Elf Swordsman!"

"W-What?!" Rena gasped before looking at her field, noticing that all four of her monsters head their heads and stepped back… the Elf Swordsman falling on his back. '_N-No! And my face down card can't activate unless destroyed!'_

"Behold… Judgment Day…" Eternity Angelo wheezed until all the snake heads unleashed countless flames onto the screaming Elf Swordsman. "HAS ARRIVED!"

**0-0-0-0-0**

"URK!" Leo shouted before he was slammed up against the side of the clocktower, a familiar hand holding him up by his neck. "H-How…"

"Oh come now, Childsman…" Big Boss cackled, shadows slowly whipping off of his body as he tightened his grip around Leo's neck. "Did you honestly expect me to lose to someone like you? You haven't even awakened yet…"

"A-Awakened?" Leo sputtered trying to make Big Boss loosen his grip. "W-What are you talking about?"

"Oops, I spoke too much," Big Boss chuckled with a large blush spreading on his cheeks. "Oh well, not like it'll matter, since you lost in this realm, I'll be able to inflict my own judgment on you… damn, that sounds so cool! Now then…"

Leo closed his eyes, the darkness from Big Boss's body slowly began to crawl onto Leo's body, '_Well… at least I'll die without causing anyone any more pain… so long my fri…ri…ends…'_

…

"SPECIAL ATTACK! MIDGET CANNON!"

"WWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

"WHAT THE!?!"

BAM!

"URK!"

"GAK!"

Almost all at once, a burst of fresh air entered Leo's body, making the noble duelist's lung fill with air and making his eyes widen immediately. That's when he saw the sight before him, Big Boss knocked out on the ground, his eyes spinning around…

… With a dazed Klein lying right at Big Boss's head, "W-What the? Little three?"

"Are you still alive there, Childsman?" A girly, yet strong voice asked, making Leo turn to the side, leaning up against a nearby tree…

"L-Luntina?" Leo gasped, mostly for trying to get the air back in his lungs.

"What do ya think about my new special attack?" Luntina snickered walking up with her right hand on her left bicep. "With that midget's thick skull, and my power throw, I think it makes for a killer combo!"

Leo could only smile as he slowly got to his feet, "Heh, indeed, the attack does suit you… but what about Little Three?"

"Little Three?" Luntina questioned, blinking a few times. "… Who's Little Three?"

"Actually, that's the literal translation of Klein's name," Leo explained with his arms crossed over his chest. "But anyway, I can assume that you managed to win against your opponent, Miss Luntina?"

"…" Luntina closed her eyes slightly… Before snapping her eyes wide open. "Miss?! I'm only two years older than you!"

"Still older than him," Klein chuckled with his messy head of hair covering his eyes. "And you're three years older than me. So, you're an old lady to me!"

"WHY YOU LITTLE!!" Luntina roared throwing a fist at Klein, only to have the small man duck and dodge every single attack. "HOLD STILL!"

"MAKE ME!" Klein shouted back jumping to the side to dodge a powerful kick.

"Heh, nice to see some things never change," Leo chuckled with a large smile on his face.

"Yo!"

Leo turned to the side, while taking the opportunity Luntina grappled Klein around his neck, all the while changing her sight to see that Tony was standing at the edge of the woods, his wool cap taken off to reveal his bright orange hair. "Howdy, ya'll doing great here or what?"

"Tony!" Luntina gasped loudly with a large smile on her face… while keeping Klein in a choke hold. "Glad to see that you're still in one piece."

"Well… after facing an overlord… ah feel da same," Tony admitted rubbing the back of his head.

"O-Overlord?" Klein hacked while trying to free himself from Luntina's death grip. "D-Does that mean you…"

"W'ever!" Tony announced throwing his arm into the air before he ran up towards Leo. "So, Leo… tell me pardner, where's my lovely Rena at?"

"Hmm?" Leo muttered to himself as he simply pointed upwards. "Oh… when did that happen?"

"Huh?" Luntina, Tony and Klein stated before they looked straight up at the now ruined clocktower, the top of it now a large golden city with a large blood red scale tail wrapping around the tower's remaining body, sending cracks through the rest of the building. "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING!?!"

"… I would assume it's the man in charge of this," Leo stated with a calm smile on his face. "And that's where Rena is…"

"WHAT?!?!" Tony roared out with daggers glaring at Leo. "And why didn't you go up there to help her, ya little Mr. Fancy Pants!?"

"Excuse me for dealing with…" Leo started pointing to where Big Boss was knocked out… or at least where he was supposed to be knocked out. "Um… where'd the greasy haired guy go?"

"He was just here a second ago," Luntina stated with her eyes widening.

"But then he just disappeared," Klein added with a question mark popping over his head.

"… Forget it!" Tony shouted flipping his hat onto his head of orange hair. "Ya'll keep wasting time, and we need ta get up there right now!"

"Indeed, you are correct," Leo stated, his eyes still aimed at where Big Boss was at. '_Where did you go… Big Boss?'_

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

"It is… A shame…" Eternity Angelo cackled with his many snake heads slowly wrapping around his main body. "But, judgment… cannot be swayed… still, I am surprised that… I am still in this form…"

Smoke billowed over the flaming city, crossing over the Vulcan – Infernal Alchemic Ouroboros's body and into the sky above. "… The duel should be done… and I should have returned to my previous form…"

"KURI!"

Sweatdrops popped on not only on Eternity Angelo's head, but as well all of the snake-heads that erupted from his back and on the large snake head that was for below Eternity Angelo's waist. And the drips of sweat only increased as the smoke cleared to reveal that covering Rena's entire field were countless brown puffballs, each with small claws and large eyes. (RLP: 3800)

"What… what is this…" Eternity Angelo wheezed as all of his snake-heads hissed out. (EALP: 14200)

All of the brown puffballs exploded into light patches of smoke, revealing the Elf Swordsman (1400/1600) now unarmed, but still in tack. "This is… Kuriboh! And by discarding him, I take no battle damage for one instance!"

From behind her four elves, Rena narrowed eyes seemed to glow slightly red… brighter than when she had faced Dias months ago… "And my Sol Saber takes the hit for my Swordsman, allowing me to draw two new cards!"

'_W-What…'_ Eternity Angelo thought to himself as Rena pulled two cards from the top of her deck. '_Where did this come from? I sense strength from her… but, it matters not to me, I still have all of my strength, more than enough to cast judgment on her…'_

"Now… I move to my end phase," Eternity Angelo hissed. "And my turn is over…"

"Then… Draw!" Rena announced pulling her next card up, her red eyes peering over to the cards in her hand.

"I reveal my trap card!" Eternity Angelo interrupted with the final face down card flipping up, showing a young alchemist being struck by lightning. "Alchemic Judgment is a continuous trap card that inflicts one hundred points of damage to your life points for every three cards in my removed from play pile… and I have twenty-eight, so that's nine hundred points!"

A powerful yellow transmutation circle erupted underneath Rena's feet, electricity coursing through Rena's body, some of her uniform getting burned a little more… and yet, when the attack stopped Rena's glared did not falter. "… Tell me, does your Vulcan – Infernal Alchemist Ouroboros have the same ability to negate card effects on it?" (RLP: 2900)

"… No…" Eternity Angelo replied. "… not like the other forms…"

"Then I activate the spell card, Sacred Sacrifice!" Rena announced holding up two cards from her hand, the one in front a spell card that had a bleeding Celtic Guardian being held in the lap of a crying Mystical Elf. "By discarding one Elf card from my hand, I can destroy face up monster on the field!"

Sliding both cards into her graveyard, Rena narrowed her eyes at Eternity Angelo, "And three guesses what I'm aiming for!"

A large cloud appeared over Vulcan's head, electricity surging overhead as a powerful blood red aura erupted over Eternity Angelo's body. "I activate the second effect of Vulcan – Infernal Alchemic Ouroboros! When a card effect targets this card, I can remove the top card from my deck to negate the effect! As well as place an Alchemic CHAOS Counter on myself!" (EALP: 14700)

The blood red aura sent the storm flying away, allowing the countless snake heads to hiss loudly (14500/14500), "And with another card removed from play, my attack points increase again!"

That didn't even make Rena flinch, rather the red-eyed duelist immediately turned the cards on her duel disk, "I switch all four of my monsters to defense mode. And that's all I've got. Show me what you can do… snake-boy."

"… Do you think an insult like that will offend me?" Eternity Angelo asked, the flames on his head growing stronger and stronger.

Rena just glared at Eternity Angelo, the look in her eyes… That's when something snapped in Eternity Angelo's head, the figure of a sandy haired girl with a face similar to Rena's standing behind her… their eyes almost the same save for the other girl's eyes being a dull amber color.

"Stop looking at me like that…" Eternity Angelo growled, the aura around his body surging around his body. "Stop it! I skip my battle phase to go into my end phase… Activating the third effect! During the end phase, I can remove one Alchemic CHAOS counter to destroy every card on the field other than myself!"

The giant snake head roared loudly into the air, making the flames caress the City of Flames, soon the heat became too much and caused the three elves and the magical warrior shatter like glass. "And thanks to my field's spell effect, it cannot be destroyed by my effect… however, Soul Absorption and Alchemic Judgment are removed from play, increasing my strength even further (15500/15500)!"

"… Too bad your turn's over…" Rena growled with sharp eyes. "Those attack points mean nothing for now."

'_What happened?_' Eternity Angelo thought with his iron eyebrow raised up slightly. '_It's like her personality did a one-eighty flip!'_

"Are you just going to stand there, slithering like the snake you are?" Rena sighed scratching the side of her head. "Or are you actually going to allow me get my turn started with?"

"… Go…" Eternity Angelo grumbled under his breath. '_This… This doesn't make sense!'_

"… Draw…" Rena mumbled under her breath before snapping her hand forward. "And I activate the effect of a trap card in my graveyard! One known as the Forest's Revival!"

A single card popped out from Rena's graveyard allowing her to hold the card between her fingers, "By removing my trap card from my graveyard, I can special summon an elf monster from my graveyard with fifteen hundred attack points or less. However, that monster cannot attack, be tributed and is destroyed at the end of the turn."

"Oh, only a handful of those monsters in your graveyard could help you," Eternity Angelo growled, the snakes starting to wrap around his body, just waiting to sink their fangs into Rena's body. "And as you so bluntly stated, your monster would only be here until the end of the turn… you try to destroy my monster with a card effect, I'll save myself and blow away any defense you set."

"… True," Rena snickered pulling another card from her graveyard. "But, I have no intention of doing another blunder like that."

"Wha…?" Eternity Angelo muttered before a bright light erupted in front of Rena, making him and the snake-heads turn to the side.

A few minutes later the light died down, revealing the elf that Rena had summoned, this one a sleek female elf, her spiked black hair falling onto the black furred cloak over her skinny body. Her arms seemed to have light claws at the end of them and appeared to be nothing more than spiny arms. On her chest, a large glowing cross pended around her neck (1000/0). "Now, allow me to introduce the instrument of your destruction… Elf of the Pure."

"Pretty name," Eternity Angelo cackled raising his hands up. "But even if it could attack, against over fifteen times its attack points…"

"Did I say that this was the card that would be your down fall?" Rena interrupted with a smile on her face… but not the usually calm smile that was on her face, no, this one was a devilish smile that made her red eyes glow even more. "But… her ability is what will lead to it. I activate Elf of the Pure's first effect!"

All of a sudden, several orbs of fire appeared around Eternity Angelo's body, making the iron masked mad-man look left and right, "What is the meaning of this?!"

"When summoned, Elf of the Pure returns all spell and trap cards that were removed from the game, back to the owner's decks!" Rena explained holding up the trap card she had removed only a few moments ago. "I've only got one… but, if I'm correct, then, not counting those two previous forms, that means twenty nine of your cards return back to your deck!"

"Wh-What!?!?!" Eternity Angelo roared before the snakes on his body screeched in pain until his monstrous form crashed into the golden streets of the large City of Flames (1000/1000). "N-No!"

"Of course, there's the second effect of my Elf," Rena stated looking at one particular card in her hand. "Of course, that doesn't need to be explained at the moment. She wouldn't be able to use it, she can't attack. However…"

'_N-No! If she has a monster with at least one thousand points…_' Eternity Angelo's yellow eyes bulged out from the mask's eyeholes.

"… I've got my own monster," Rena stated slapping the card onto her duel disk, a large pink aura appearing around her body. "W-What the?!"

The aura grew thicker and thicker until it full covered Rena's body, allowing a lively musical beat to flow through the air. That's when the aura seemed to have countless cracks racing through Rena's aura covered body until the aura shattered to reveal her new form.

With a blue visor covering her eyes, and her hair pulled back into a small tail, Rena spun around to see her new outfit, which consisted of a light red sleeveless shirt and skirt with a small metallic heart covering her chest. She had long black sleeves and leggings that ended in red matching gloves and boots, while in her hands she held a light blue guitar… but it didn't have any strings on it (1400/1350). "… If I see that Big Boss character again, I'll kill him for putting me in something this…"

"N-Now wait a minute…" Eternity Angelo gasped lifting his arms up as the larger snake hissed in fear.

"Shut up!" Rena shouted leaping into the air, holding the guitar up over her head. "After you put all of Rena's friends through this, used her father as a pawn, and made her learn a terrible secret that scarred her… I'll pass my own judgment!"

'_W-Wait… why did she refer to herself in the third person?_' Eternity Angelo thought as Rena fell closer and closer towards him. "W-Wait a minute! C-Could you be…"

"SHUT UP!" Rena shouted slamming the guitar into the top of Eternity Angelo's head, sending the flames atop of the masked mad man's head, a loud sour note echoing through the air, and sending the flames on the city all dowsed out.

"A-AH!?!" Eternity Angelo howled in pain as cracks slowly but surely ran down his body, starting with his mask, then his body, and then the countless snake-heads, and finally the last giant snake-head. "N-NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Flames erupted from all the cracks from his body, Eternity Angelo slowly tried to keep his mask together until… until his entire body shattered like glass! "W-When… When my form here is destroyed… I-I lose…" (EALP: Automatic Loss)

Slowly the city of flames began to shatter like glass as well, and when the costume on Rena's body disappeared, the elf duelist stood tall with her hair covering her eyes as Eternity Angelo… back in his regular form (save for his shirt, jacket and hat)… landed on the ground with a loud thud. "I… My… Judgment…"

A large crack raced down Eternity Angelo's mask, breaking the mask in two to reveal Genjyo Zosimos's face, his glasses no longer on his face and his gray hair returned to its sandy blonde sheen. Slowly the wounded man turned his head towards Rena, and a smile appeared on his face, "Heh… I-I see… I didn't stand a chance, now did I?"

Rena remained silent.

"Your eyes… they remind me of her… my lovely younger sister…" Genjyo wheezed, lifting his hand up slightly towards Rena. "She… she had lovely eyes, but they also seemed fierce like your heads were a few minutes ago. S-She was my reason to live…"

Slowly pushing himself up, Genjyo turned towards the Twilight Crystal… surprisingly it was still in tact… perfect condition in fact. "However… we weren't always in the best shape financially, our parents, they… they had racked up an incredible amount of debt. To make matters worse, they left us with the debt to work off."

"For the first few years, we were able to provide enough financial support to pay off the debt and live meagerly," Genjyo coughed loudly as he slowly walked backwards. "B-But, that's when I became sick for a week… and since no one on the black market would be interested in a guy…"

"Those bastards! T-They used her until her life's flame was extinguished! I-I hated those bastards! I sword that judgment would be cast on them… but that was when I discovered that the entire world was like that! I swore that judgment would be cast on the entire world!"

"That… That's when I met him… he gave me the power of Eternity Angelo! And… and it looks like you have the…"

BANG!

A spurt of blood erupted from Genjyo's head, making him stumble backwards until he fell off of the ruined edge of the clocktower. As the heavy steps echoed through the air, Rena's body fell limp to the ground, "… You talk too much boy…"

Walking past Rena's fallen body, the greasy haired man stood in front of the in front of the Twilight Crystal, "First you betray me… then you try to take matters into your own hands… and now you don't know when to shut your big yap. Too bad I still win…"

Taking the crystal in his fingers, the black wearing man lifted the Twilight Crystal into the air, "And ya wanna know why? Cause I'm the Big Boss!"

(**Look past the Card Stats to see the epilogue of this chapter! That's right! This story isn't done, not by a long shot!**)

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Card Stats**

**Alchemic Solution – Cancer / Normal Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you have a face-up "City of the Alchemic Flames" on the field and no cards in your graveyard. Remove your entire hand from play.

**Image:** A large yellow transmutation circle with the symbol for Cancer in the middle of it.

**Infernal Alchemic Vulcan / Fire / LV. 1 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 0 / Warrior/Fusion/Effect:** This card can only be special summoned from your fusion deck when you have a face up 'City of the Alchemic Flames' and there are eight or more cards that have 'Alchemy', 'Alchemic' or 'Alchemist' that have been removed from play while there are no monsters on your field and in your graveyard, and deck and you have no cards in your hand. This monster cannot be attacked or declare an attack and is unaffected by all card effects other than this card's. Each time a card with 'Alchemy', 'Alchemic', or 'Alchemist' is removed from play, place one 'Alchemic Counter' on this card. When there are seven 'Alchemic Counters' on this card, remove this card from play and special summon one 'Iron Vulcan Alchemist' from your Fusion Deck.

**Description:** A young alchemist with fiery red hair wearing an iron mask with a blood red transmutation circle on the mask's forehead. Under his blood red cloak is an iron suit of armor with blood red markings all over it.

**Alchemic Material – Pluto Night / Continuous Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated during your Main Phase when you have a face-up "City of the Alchemic Flames" and by removing one card from your hand from play. After activation, this card becomes a monster card (Warrior-type/Dark /Level 6/ATK 2000/DEF 1500), and is special summoned to your monster card zone. This monster cannot attack your opponent's life points directly. Whenever this card battles a monster, remove the top card from your deck from play. This card cannot be tributed for a tribute summon.

**Description:** A large steel armored knight with a large broad sword in its hands, the symbol of Pluto on the blade of its weapon.

**Iron Vulcan Alchemist / Fire / LV. 6 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 0 / Machine/Fusion/Effect:** This monster can only be special summoned from your fusion deck by the effect of "Infernal Alchemic Vulcan". This card cannot be destroyed as a result of battle. When this card battles a monster, you must remove one card from the top of your deck. This monster is unaffected by all card effects. While this card remains on the field, each time a card with 'Alchemic', 'Alchemy' or 'Alchemist' is removed from the field, remove it from play and place one "Infernal Alchemy" counter on this card. Remove this monster from play during your standby phase when there are seven "Infernal Alchemy" counters on this card and special summon one 'Vulcan – Infernal Alchemic Ouroboros' from your fusion deck.

**Description:** An older alchemist with iron armor like skin with a flame as his hair. His blood red cloak has many rips and tears in the fabric. At the alchemist's wrists are two heads of what appear to be snakes with many eyes.

**Alchemic Filtration – Scorpio / Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you have a face up 'City of the Alchemic Flames', destroy all face up monsters on the field and inflict 100 points of damage to your opponent's life points for each card destroyed this way.

**Image:** A large green transmutation circle with the symbol for Scorpio in the middle of it.

**Alchemic Projection – Pisces / Instant Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you have a face up 'City of the Alchemic Flames' on the field and no cards in your graveyard. For every four cards in your removed from play pile, increase your life points by 1000.

**Image:** A large sea-blue transmutation circle with a symbol for Pisces in the middle of it.

**Alchemic Poetry – Grace Under Water / Continuous Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you have no cards in your graveyard. During your draw phase, you can skip your draw. If you choose to do so, you may add one card from your deck with 'Alchemic Material' from your deck to your hand. When this card is destroyed, this card is removed from play.

**Image:** A beautiful young woman floating underwater

**Alchemic Ceration – Sagittarius / Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you have a face up 'City of the Alchemic Flames' on the field and no cards in your graveyard. Draw three cards from your deck.

**Image:** A large sandy yellow transmutation circle with the symbol for Sagittarius in the middle of it.

**Vulcan – Infernal Alchemic Ouroboros / Dark / LV. 11 / ATK: ? / DEF: ? / Fiend/Fusion/Effect:** This card can only be special summoned from your fusion deck by the effect of "Iron Vulcan Alchemist". You must skip every one of your phases except your battle phase and end phase while this card remains on the field. When your opponent activates a card effect that targets this card, remove one non-monster card from your deck from play to negate the effect and place one "Alchemic CHAOS" counter on this card. During the end phase of a turn in which this card has an "Alchemic CHAOS" counter on it, remove it to destroy all cards on the field except this card. The ATK and DEF of this card become the number of your cards removed from play x 300, however, if you have no cards in your graveyard, increase this monster's attack instead by 500 points x the number of cards removed from play. If this card is destroyed, you automatically lose the duel.

**Description:** The Iron Vulcan Alchemist fused from his waist to the head of a large demonic, armored serpent with flames erupting from under the serpents armor. From under the blood red cloak are several demonic serpents with red eyes.

**Alchemic Poetry – Grace Under Water / Continuous Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you have no cards in your graveyard. During your draw phase, you can skip your draw. If you choose to do so, you may add one card from your deck with 'Alchemic Material' from your deck to your hand. When this card is destroyed, this card is removed from play.

**Image:** A beautiful young woman floating underwater

**Alchemic Judgment / Continuous Trap / Effect:** If you have no cards in you graveyard, inflict 100 points of damage for every three cards that were removed from play during your opponent's standby phase.

**Image:** A small alchemist being struck by lightning

**Sacred Sacrifice / Spell / Effect:** Discard one 'Elf' monster from your hand. Destroy one face up monster card on the field.

**Image:** The Mystical Elf crying tears as a bleeding Celtic Guardian sleeps on her lap.

**The Forest's Revival / Trap / Effect:** While this card is in your graveyard, by removing this card from your graveyard, you may special summon one 'Elf' monster from your graveyard with 1500 attack points or less. The special summoned monster cannot attack, cannot be tributed and is destroyed at the end of the turn.

**Image:** A burnt forest with several flowers blooming in it.

**Elf of the Pure / Light / LV. 6 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 0 / Spellcaster/Effect:** When this card is successfully summoned, return all spell and trap cards that were removed from play back to their owner's graveyards. 27272727each card returned by this card's effect, increase this monster's attack by 100 points until the end of turn this card was summoned.

**Description:** A young elf with spiked black hair wearing a black furred cloak over her skinny body. Her arms have light claws at the end of them and appear to be nothing more than spiny arms. On her chest is a large glowing cross.

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

_Date… well, my calendar was stolen by some punk. Oh well, it's been a week since that weird aura disappeared from around the island, and wouldn't ya know it, the students returned… a little freaked out of course, but still… at least I don't have to worry about them suing me, you see, those students who were defeated seemed to have a case of amnesia… and I kinda used some of my own pocket money to keep those students who didn't promise to speak to actually keep them quiet…_

… _my poor wallet…_

_Oh, and if you didn't guess this already, this is Alan Wright here! Currently walking through the halls of the school to one of the medic halls, a bouquet of flowers in my hand to give to one of the students who did their very best to help this island and academy. _

_After looking at the records, I discovered about the Yokai and the students who were a part of the group. I can't say that I wasn't surprised with them, but still, I can still be disappointed since I am the principal of the students and thus a mentor… I guess I have a lot of learning to do as well. After rounding up several students and taking testimonies from those students who were attacked first, I currently have the Yokai students making plea bargains not to get anything more than a few years in juvenile hall… And those students who were threatened, I have the security team deciding on suspension punishments._

… _Although, there are several students who are still missing and a few who I suspect were Yokai but, there were several inconsistencies. Some of the students who still have to be questioned… one Sheldon Boomer, an Alex Tudor (although, he might be more of a hero really), some dood named Xander, a weirdo known as Morty (or as according to the official files, the Artist Formally Known as Morty), Mr. Kazin, Robert Becker, a former top student called Lily… and two guys who's names are somewhat lost, I think Orange and Maroon…_

_What was really tragic was that we discovered the ringleader… dead… According to the autopsy, he took a clean shot to the head. Murder weapon and suspect, they still haven't been found, although he was the cause of this, he didn't deserve that kind of death. A shot to the head and a three hundred foot fall… yikes._

_Other than that, things seem to be back to normal… well at least as normal as things would get around here. Of course, I have to hand it to a few students… I'll have to give them something more than just extra credit. Luntina's waiting in my office, since she's top dog, I've got to talk to her about a few things… and I've heard from Riko… he's down in the dumps for some reason, good thing Sen's with him again._

_Oh crud, speaking of students, I've got to go… after all, I've got an appointment to make…_

"Heya, every-buddy!" Alan announced bursting into the room with the bouquet of flowers in his hand that he lifted up in the air. "And how's our favorite little red student doing today?"

Everyone in the room, Klein, Koji, Tony, Leo (with Kimatori sitting on his shoulders) Van, Rukia, and even Ganryu turned towards the door to see Alan bursting into the room all of them gathered around the bed in the corner of the room. Rena couldn't help but sweatdrop from her bed, "Um… Good to see you Principal Wright…"

"Ah, ah, ah!" Alan laughed wagging his finger at Rena. "That makes me sound old! I'm still in my twenties!"

"… No wonder people here are crazy," Van sighed getting a look from Rukia. "With a principal like this, we've got sign on our academy that says 'asylum' on it."

"Aw, at least it makes things fun now doesn't it?" Rukia questioned tilting her head to the side slightly.

"Not when my darling Rena gets hurt!" Tony shouted with tears rolling down the side of his head.

"Darling?" Rena asked blinking a few times.

"Still as hard headed as ever," Klein snickered. "I guess some things will never change… just like the Cold-Hearted stiff never growing a heart."

"Um, B-Big Brother!" Koji muttered with his arms waving in the air. "Y-Y-You shouldn't say while…"

Too bad Koji didn't get to finish that sentence, Ganryu had kicked both Klein and Koji through the glass window… shattering it rather easily as the two disappeared into the sky, "… you two need to shut up."

"WOW! They're blasting off again!" Kimatori announced with a great smile on her face.

"Heh," Leo chuckled with a bright smile on his face. "Too bad Klein was wrong, Ganryu does have a heart…"

Leo was met with a death glare from Ganryu, "Glare at me all you want… But you were the one who did find her…"

"Not to mention you did visit her the most since she's been in here!" Van added, making a small blush appear on Ganryu's face…

… And getting a scary look from Tony who immediately grabbed Van by his collar, "LIAR! I'VE BEEN VISITING MY DEAR RENA ALL WEEK!"

And with that, Tony threw Van through the other window, making him scream loudly about he was even more right about being with crazy people.

Alan coughed slightly getting everyone's attentions, "Um, I hate to be the bearer of bad news… But Mr. Dashiben, Mr. Havoc, I'm going to have to charge you for breaking the windows. And could you please drag those three back here, I know they'll probably be bruised up…"

As the two left the room, everyone else seemed to laugh while Rena looked out the broken windows to see the clear blue sky, '_Well… looks like things are back to normal… I just hope they stay like that for the next two and a half months…'_

Meanwhile…

"… **So… Eternity Angelo lost…"**

"Affirmative… But according to calculations, we shouldn't have to worry, especially with our two new additions…"

"**Aw come on! Ya don't have to be so cold, dood!"**

"… _**You do realize that's what he does best, correct?"**_

"_Hmm, hmm, hmm… aww… I don't like that one ghost guy… So… when do we begin this Big Boss?"_

"Heh… Eternity Angelo delayed our plans… but we should be able to begin, so you five should be able to go when the chance arrives…"

_**To be continued…**_

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Rena:** Ah! It's great to get out of that medic room!

**Van:** Too bad there are even more crazy people…

**Leo:** And it's another transfer student, and she's been here for a while. Although, this preview seems to be a little too dull…

**Van:** Dull is good… don't push the matter!

**Leo:** … BAM!

**Rena and Van:** Huh? '_Didn't expect that from Leo.'_

**Leo:** From all the corners of the island, girls run to a single point on the island! All for one reason and one reason alone…

**Rena:** I'm a girl, but I'm not running to a single point…

**Leo:** And that reason… is to discuss the top cutest hunks on the island (Which I happen to be in the top five, by the way.)

**Van:** Wait a minute! How come I never heard of this?!

_**Next time, on Duelist Unlimited Harem – Final Episode: The maidens clash over a single man!**_

**Rena:** I really didn't expect that from Leo…

**Leo:** 'Disappears in a cloud of smoke to reveal a smirking Klein': Ha! Meet my ultimate prank!

**Van and Rena:** Where the hell did Leo go?

**Next time on Duelist Twilight: **

_**Chapter 52: Enter Trimester Three!**_

_Author's Note: Please check my profile to read a note about my stories… don't worry, I'm not quiting._


	53. Chapter 52: Enter Trimester Three

_**Well… I don't really know what to say?**_

_**After that little incident with Eternity Angelo, I didn't really expect much to happen afterwards…**_

_**After all, it was only in the middle of the second semester, and we still have one semester left over to enjoy. And this time, I hope at least get a high school experience with a little touch of dueling.**_

… _**Too bad not everyone feels the same…**_

'_**Sigh'**_

_**Will I ever get a normal high school life?**_

_**I figure as long as I'm here… nope, not going to happen.**_

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Chapter 52**

**Enter Trimester Three**

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

The Atlantic Duel academy, now a calm and serene place after the events that had transpired over a week and a half ago, was back to its usual ritual. Students wake up, students go to class, and students duel and then do their homework…

Quite dull, if you think about it…

But as the after school masses were returning to their dorms, a certain room was filled with a loud buzz, and this room was none other than…

"Welcome back to the Admirer's Club, ladies!" Cleo announced with a large holographic heart popping behind her.

Asche lowered his head slightly as he held up his duel disk, '_Yeah… I'm still doing this… ya know…'_

"So, greetings ladies," Cleo announced through the microphone in the room as the heart disappeared to reveal several posters of several resident guys from the island (all of them hand drawn since most of them looked much more handsome than the real deal). "Our first matter of business is to discuss the Rush for the Treasure Tournament… Does, anyone know who won?"

Murmurs echoed through the room, making Cleo and Asche sweatdrop. Unfortunately, it was true that several students couldn't recall the end of the tournament… or for that matter what had happened afterwards. And to top it off, the records were gone…

… Or as Alan so stated, 'Yeah, I kinda lost the files… so, sorry!'

"Miss Cleo, can we please let this go, ya know?" Asche muttered leaning over to Cleo. "I-I mean, is it so hard for you to accept…"

WHAM!

"URK! YA KNOW!" Ashton yelped before falling backwards thanks to Cleo's fist.

With a large blush slowly creeping on her face, Cleo turned to the side.

Unfortunately for her, the last thing Cleo could remember of the tournament was waking up in the cafeteria… with Asche's arms around her. The memory just kept repeating in Cleo's mind again and again, there had to have been someone out there who knew what had happened…

But for the time being, Cleo just had to keep the meeting going, "Alright… now, on to new matters. We have a new member with us today, a transfer student from the mainland academy… so, if you could please stand up and introduce yourself…"

From the way back, a shadowed figure of that a young petite girl stood up, her hand slowly raised up into the air, "U-Um… I'm right here."

"Yes, we can all see that," Cleo sighed with a slap to her forehead. "But, do you have a name?"

The mysterious girl just turned her head to the side slightly, her large thick rimmed glasses that covered her eyes glowed brightly, "…"

"Ah, a shy girl, aren't you?" Cleo chuckled twirling some of her hair in her fingers. "Well, that's fine… you'll have to talk to me later though about your membership card, so meet with me after the meeting, okay?"

"U-um, y-yes," The mystery girl stuttered.

"Good," Cleo stated with a snap of her fingers. However, when nothing happened, Cleo snapped her fingers again…

… Still nothing…

"Asche!" Cleo shouted turning to the side to see that Asche was knocked out thanks to Cleo's punch. "… Oh, that's just perfect, now I've got to do this myself."

Walking to the side, Cleo pulled down one of the many cords that were around her, allowing a large poster to unfurl with several pictures of academy male students, each with a number on them. At the number one spot was a shadowed figure with three other pictures under them. "Onto further matters, I have scheduled a meeting with Principal Wright for ideas for this year's Duel Academia Festival. Which, will include a Mr. and Miss Duel Academia Contest, where the students will get to vote for who is the best of the best among the male and female population. There's also the proposition that the two who win will have winner's dance and dinner…"

Whispers shot through the room, some talking about the ideas of them getting hooked up with the hottest boy in school… whomever that maybe. Clearing her throat, Cleo silenced all of the whispers, "Now, now, I know that is a big deal, but its not finalized. We still need to get several signatures for Mr. Wright to actually approve of the idea. At least we have Professor Maria's support on this matter…"

'_Even though I had to promise a few things in order to get her to agree with it…_' Cleo added in the back of her head. "So, after the meeting is over, and if he's awake, Asche will hand out the clipboards to everyone who is willing to gather signatures…"

"Ugh…" Asche groaned loudly while rubbing his poor red nose, having finally woken up. "… Ya didn't have to hit me, ya know…"

Cleo just ignored Asche, "But then that leaves a problem. The contests will be open to anyone who signs up, so that lowers the chances of me… er, I mean, anyone of us getting chosen as Miss Duel Academia…"

Every girl in the room sweatdropped at Cleo's mistake, while Asche slapped his face, '_… Smooth… ya know…'_

"However, as an added bonus, thanks to Professor Maria's proposal," Cleo stated with a large smile on her face. "Anyone who has his or her named signed up, cannot back down from the competition. And as representatives, we will select the top five hotties of this school and sign the boys up the day of the opening. With our combined knowledge and votes, we know that they cannot be denied the top six contestants."

With a snap of her fingers, Asche pulled another cord near Miss Cleo, allowing a large banner with ten male faces on it to fall behind her. Most notable of the faces was the fact that Leo Childsman, Ganryu Dashiben, Tony Havoc and Riko Kamika were listed among the ten. "These are the top ten that we have listed in the past, so, for your mission tonight is to decide on which two of these you would like. We will decide on which ones were number one and number two on your list and decide which five we will sign up as selected members of the Admirer's Club."

"Yes madam president!" Almost the entire club members announced into the air.

Asche poked his fingers together, tears slowly rolling down the side of his face, '_… I can't help but notice I'm not up on there…'_

While that was going on, the newest member's eyes were drawn on a single picture on the board, '_W-Wow… L-Lord R-Riko, he's become so handsome…'_

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

"ACHOOO!"

"Brother? Are you alright?" Sen asked, turning back to Riko who was rubbing his nose slightly.

"Oh… you needn't worry about me, Sen," Riko sighed adjusting his sunglasses back over his eyes. "I'm perfectly fine."

Sen narrowed his eyes at his brother, ever since the Rush to the Treasure tournament, there was something odd with his brother. It was if something was taken from him again, in fact the only time Sen remembered when Riko acted like this was when…

'… _When Riko lost his sight…_' Sen shuddered remembering when his brother was caught up in all of that.

"Sen…"

Snapping out of his funk, Sen turned to his brother, "Yeah?"

Riko stood up from the couch, and slowly began to head to the door, his hands reaching for the doorknob. "… I'll be heading out for a while… I should be back before dark."

"Riko!" Sen shouted, only to have the door slammed in front of him. "… Riko…"

Stomping through the halls of the Obelisk Blue dorm, Riko continued his trek through the building, '_… Why? Why did it go away?'_

Unfortunately for Riko, he was one of the few students who did remember what had happened with the realm of twilight… after all, how could he forget? It was the last memory of sight that he could remember, and all he had in his mind was a ridiculous hair cut, and the image of his Chaotix Tai Gars.

And yet…

… He couldn't have been happier…

Stopping in the hall, Riko slammed his fist into the nearby wall, the slam echoing through the air, "Why!? Why did that have to be the last picture in my mind? I wanted to experience more… am I being too selfish?"

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

Meanwhile, on a less dramatic part of the island…

"So, I see you're up and about," Leo chuckled taking a seat next to the Rena on the bench near the school's main building.

"Heh, well, I always seem to be a fast healer," Rena giggled rubbing the back of her head with a slight blush. "Although, you didn't have to visit me and walk me back…"

"Well, maybe," Leo chuckled with that smile appearing back to his face. "But still, I am a friend…"

While the two friends were talking, a familiar orange haired young man watched the whole scene through a pair of binoculars, "Grr! Damn it! I don't like dis at all!"

"Heh, well, you're at fault here too ya know," Klein chuckled leaning up against one of the trees in the forest he, Tony and Koji were hiding in. "If you actually were straight-forward…"

"Um… Brother," Koji mumbled pushing up his thick glasses. "Why exactly are we here?"

"Cause we're being paid to spy on the girlie," Klein chuckled wagging a finger.

"… But isn't that an invasion of privacy?" Koji asked with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head.

"Actually, the two are in public," Tony answered, not taking his eyes away from the binoculars. "So, it's not really a violation of privacy… more like stalking really…"

"And you think that's any better?!" Koji shouted out with tears streaming down his face.

"Hey, at least this guy's paying us," Klein replied with a large smirk. "Besides, this beats cleaning tables at that café."

"W-Well you're right about that…" Koji slumped down slightly, his hair falling down in front of his glasses.

"Quiet you two!" Tony hushed holding up a small sound detector towards Rena and Leo. "I paid for this equipment, and I'll be damned if I can't use it since you two are being loudmouths!"

Back with Rena and Leo…

"I'm just so glad all that craziness is done with," Rena sighed with relief, her arms stretching over her head. "With all that Dias and Twilight stuff, it'll be good just to enjoy a quiet high school life. Well, at the very least, my dad and Kyo managed to get off the island."

"… Hmm… how curious," Leo muttered to himself as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Huh? What's curious?" Rena questioned with a few blinks.

"Were you adamant on a high school life?" Leo asked with a courteous smile on his face.

"Well, kinda," Rena chuckled with a blush appearing on her face. "I mean, with the friends, the events and well…" The blush on her face grew, "W-Well…"

"I see," Leo chuckled, making Rena's blush grow slightly. "Heh…"

"You don't have to laugh at me," Rena moaned with her head lowered.

"No, no, no," Leo replied sheepishly with his arms up slightly in a defensive stance. "I didn't mean it in that way, I meant it as a way to you really are just a normal girl…"

"… Yeah, that just makes it so much better," Rena muttered with a dull look on her face.

"N-Now wait a minute," Leo chuckled with a worried smile on his face with a large sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head. "W-What I meant to say was… was… was…"

"What was it then?" Rena asked raising an eyebrow.

"Uh… Riko?" Leo stated with a question mark appearing over her head.

"… Riko? I'm a Riko?" Rena muttered blinking in confusion.

"No, it's Riko," Leo replied pointing towards the side, revealing that indeed the second best duelist in the school was walking past the two on the sidewalk in front of them. However, he just walked past the two of them, his hands stuffed in his pockets and his sweater pulled up to mouth.

And then, Riko just walked past the two, not even acknowledging their existence.

"… something's wrong," Leo stated standing up from his seat.

"… You're just saying that to step out of my questions," Rena said bluntly getting a large sweatdrop to roll down the side of Leo's head. "But… You are right, something does seem wrong, I've never seen Riko look that serious before…"

"Hey! They're following Riko now!" Tony announced quickly flipping the binoculars over his shoulder, falling directly into Klein's head.

"ACK!" Klein shouted with a large bump appearing on his head where the binoculars landed.

"B-Brother! Are you okay?" Koji asked, running to his brother's side.

"Hey! What the hell are you doing?!" Klein roared running up to Tony, who seemed to be starring out to where the bench was. "Why the heck are you throwing a good pair of binoculars at me? And what the heck are you looking at… who the heck is that?"

**0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

The wind whipped around his body as Riko stood at the cliff, listening to the waves that crashed up against the cliff's rocky surface. And that's all he had to do… that's all Riko could do now, allow the salty air to flow through his locks of hair, have the waves grace his ears, and taste crisp air on his tongue…

… That's all…

How much did Riko long to see the sun over the vast sea?

'_Would I even get that chance to see again?'_ Riko's mind replayed that thought in his head again and again.

Meanwhile, in the nearby bushes…

"Psst! Leo… Why is Riko just standing there?" Rena asked popping her head up from the bush.

Leo just watched Riko, a small bead of sweat rolling down his forehead, '_… Could he actually be… No, no, that couldn't be, but, this looks all too familiar… Dang it, Leo, no, you've been watching too many movies…'_

"Leo?" Rena whispered tilting her head to the side.

"Shush," Leo replied, lifting his finger up towards Rena.

'_Yeesh…'_ Rena thought rolling her eyes.

Meanwhile, behind one of the nearby trees…

'_Oh… Lord Riko…'_

Back at the cliff…

"… Even now," Riko muttered to himself holding his sunglasses between his fingers. "Why do I regret this any more?"

The wind whipped to the other side, his hair and clothing blew slightly towards the cliff, "… That's right…" As he pulled his sunglasses off of his face, and opened his eyes, showing that his irises were no longer there. "… Its only human nature… when we get a taste of what we want, we want more."

"Desire… could this world become crueler?"

Turning away from the cliff, Riko raised his arms up slightly, "Although there is only one way to cease this cruelty…"

'_N-No way… is he actually going to…'_ Leo's eyes shot wide open.

Rena already knew this scene, "Riko!"

"Lord Riko!"

"H-Huh?!" Riko shouted out before stumbling backwards slightly, his footing slowly slipping over the side of the cliff. "Wha!?!"

Time seemed to slow down as Riko's body began to fall from the cliff's edge, his sunglasses floating away from his hand's grasp. '_… Huh… I didn't imagine this to be my end… I wanted to go down fighting…'_

"RIKO!"

"LORD RIKO!"

Then, all of a sudden, Riko's plummet to the sea below stopped, if he could see Riko would've seen that Rena and another girl had grabbed his ankles, trying to pull him back up.

However, the two girls were slowly slipping from the cliff's top, "Uh… this isn't good!"

"Luckily, you have me here," Leo chuckled reaching over the cliff, and with his added strength, he along with the two girls managed to pull Riko back over the edge of the cliff.

'… _well, I guess I'm safe for today,'_ Riko thought with a large sweatdrop rolling down the side of the field. '_Even though they were the cause of my fall…'_

A few minutes later at the cliff edge, all four of the students were sitting a good deal away from the rocky edge.

"My, my, Riko," Leo mused standing up with the back of his hand to his chin. "I didn't think you up to such terrible acts…"

"…" Riko would've rolled his eyes if he didn't close his eyelids. "I was only standing there…"

"And your fall backwards?" Rena asked with a raised eyebrow.

"She's right Lord Riko!" The other girl stated surprising everyone around her.

Rena and Leo just blinked at the girl, noticing that she was wearing a Ra Yellow girl uniform with a longer skirt that reached her knees. The girl looked to be about Rena's age, but had longer dark hair that seemed to have a purple sheen to her hair, majority of it falling over her large glasses and onto her shoulders.

"Uh, excuse me for asking," Leo stated rubbing the back of his head. "But… Who are you?"

"Huh?" The glasses wearing girl questioned with her head tilted to the side.

"… Indeed, you really don't ring much of a bell," Riko admitted, making the girl well up in tears.

"OH! You're so hurtful, Lord Riko!" The girl cried with tears spilling from her eyes.

Rena couldn't help but sweatdrop, '_This girl reminds me of Cleo… for some reason or another…'_

"I'm… I'm sorry," Riko gulped with a small bead of sweat rolling down his forehead. "Um… who exactly are you, if you don't mind…"

"N-No, Lord Riko!" The girl replied shaking her head wildly. "But um… c-can we talk about this somewhere else?"

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

Meanwhile, on another part of the island, more specifically, a Ra Yellow Dorm Room…

"Well… Here we all are again," Xander moaned slamming his head face down into the table, making all of the drinks on the table jump slightly into the air.

"Aw, you make this sound like a bad thing," The Artist Formally Known as Morty chuckled catching his drink in mid-air. "Only difference is… we're missing a member, and we've got a few more members with us time…"

"… You two have been through this before?" Bravo asked blinking a few times as he looked at his root beer. "This feels like crap…"

"Tell me about it…" Xander moaned before chugging down one of the many drinks. "Why do we always get caught up in this kind of crap?! WHY!?"

"… You're starting to sound like a pathetic drunk…"

"Huh?" All three of the young men turned towards the door, seeing a familiar dark haired man leaning up against the door.

"Well, well, well," Morty chuckled lifting up glass of milk towards the leaning man. "It's a pleasure to see you again Mr. Vanhemer… Would you care to join us?"

Indeed, it was the currently masked, former Dark Prince, his arms crossed over his chest. "Hmm… as temping as that is, I didn't come here to celebrate failure."

"Failure? Oh no, my friend," Morty chuckled before downing the milk in one shot.

"Yeah, we've managed to avoid getting caught," Bravo announced spilling some of his drink on the ground. "Sure there are others out there who managed to get away… but we're not only still here, but we've managed to trick everyone."

"… Everyone?" Vic cackled slowly walking into the room with his arms rose up slightly. "Oh, no, no, no, no… I managed to find all three of you… rather easily if I might add."

"So, what does that mean?" Xander grumbled with his face slamming into the table again. "I mean, we were comrades…"

BAM!

Vic slammed his hand into the table, making all three of the former Yokai soldiers jump up, "Don't compare me to you losers!"

Morty, Bravo and Xander looked at each other before they looked towards Vic, "Unlike you all, I have yet to lose ever since I came to this island. With the power of the Haunted Kaiser at my disposal, my ever-increasing strength, and with Beck and whoever was above him gone, I've got control of this island for the most part…"

"Control?" Bravo chuckled. "You're sounding like one of those bruisers in my deck fighting over territory."

Then, with a quick grasp, Vic snatched hold of Bravo's neck, and slowly began to lift the larger duelist from his seat, "Oh… I suppose you could say something like that… only, this is much more serious than some street rivalry. I've had a taste of power… and I deserve the full course meal of that power!"

"ACK! C-CAN'T BREATHE!" Bravo wheezed struggling to get free from Vic's grasp.

"… and you three," Vic snickered holding Bravo higher and higher into the air, as he turned his gaze over to a surprised Morty and Xander. "… oh, you're going to help me obtain that oh so tempting meal… Right?"

"P-Please! L-L-Let m-m-me go!" Bravo sputtered trying to pull Vic's hand away from his throat.

Xander and Morty looked to each other, beads of sweat rolling down the side of their heads. "T-This…"

"I'd answer me quickly," Vic cackled, his venomous eyes turning towards a blue faced Bravo. "Looks like he won't last too much longer…"

"And you're okay with spilling a man's blood?!" Xander shouted standing up from his seat.

"… Okay? Oh, I'm more than willing to step on the lives of anyone to get what I want," Vic snarled with his eyes glowing more venomous than beforehand. "… The question is… are you going to be okay with me killing someone?"

"Uh…" Morty and Xander lowered their heads at the same time and spoke at the same time as well, "… Fine… We'll join…"

"Good…" Vic cackled before releasing his surprisingly strong grip on Bravo's neck, the large duelist falling to the ground.

Bravo screeched out to catch his breath…

"… I'll assume that you won't have any objections joining me," Vic mused, his venomous eyes trailing towards Bravo. "… Right?"

"Um, y-yeah…" Bravo sputtered, grabbing his throat to rub the area where it was almost crushed by the surprising grip of Vic.

"Excellent, already my army has doubled in size," Vic chuckled rubbing his masked chin.

"… You got some other people to join you?" Morty asked with his eyebrow rose up slightly.

"Yes… well, I wouldn't think that it would come to using them," Vic sighed with a large sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head. "But, beggars cannot be choosers…"

"Then why the hell did you drag us here, sir?"

"Gee, we keep getting the best employers… at least last time we got paid. Now we're being threatened."

"What the?" Bravo questioned looking at the two young men who stood at the doorway. "It's… It's…"

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

At the Ra Yellow Cafeteria…

"Hmm… you know," Leo mused looking around the fancy yellow room, other Ra Yellow students turning their gaze away from the weird group of two blue students, a yellow student and a red student all seated together in the cafeteria. "Now that I think about it, we don't really know a lot of people from the Ra Yellow dormitory…"

"… Well, it's always a good idea to meet with your peers," Riko stated lifting up his carrot juice. "So… Now that we're here, would you mind telling me who you are young miss?"

"O-Oh! Y-Yes, Lord Riko!" The Ra Yellow girl stuttered with a large blush appearing behind her glasses. "I… I am Y-Yukino Armada… I – I'm a transfer student from the mainland academy, I came only recently though."

"Oh, well welcome to our crazy academy," Rena greeted with a sheepish smile on her face.

"Thanks," Yukino replied rather quickly to Rena with a glare gleaming off of her glasses to cover her eyes.

'… _What was that?'_ Rena thought with a bead of sweat rolling down the back of her head.

"So, Miss Armada," Riko coughed out as he placed his glass on the table in front of Yukino. "I would assume that you know me somehow… So, if you would be so kind as to tell me how, I would appreciate it."

"Ah, y-yes Lord Riko," Yukino replied immediately with a large blush appearing on her face.

"And if you don't mind," Leo chuckled with a bright smile on his face. "Could you explain why you call him, 'Lord Riko'?"

"Oh! Y-Yes," Yukino replied sweetly this time. "Well… Well… You see, I don't know if you remember me Lord Riko, but last year, for the festival, you came to the Mainland Academy as a special guest."

"… I remember going there by boat," Riko admitted, after all, he couldn't forget the sea sickness that he got on the ship rides to and from the Midland Academy. "Although you'll have to forgive me that I don't really remember the festival then…"

"Ah, a Duel Academy festival," Leo mused with a large smile on his face.

"Do you know what happens at one of those, Leo?" Rena asked raising an eyebrow.

"… Not really," Leo replied with a calm smile on his face.

"Stop doing that!" Rena shouted making Leo rub his ear slightly.

"The Annual Duel Academy Festival," Riko explained with his arms crossed over his chest. "It is actually an annual tradition that's been around since the original academy was established. It was made to remind us of the roots of the academy, and as a little spice, the festival changes location every year, and last year was indeed the Midland Academy's turn."

"As a little added bonus, the top three students, one from each dorm are invited to partake, they are also allowed a guest with them. Last year, I was a guest with Luntina as well as my brother Sen."

"And it was because of that…" Hearts appeared around Yukino's body as she clasped her hands together. "That was when I met you Lord Riko, on the night of the fireworks!"

"… Fireworks…" Riko mumbled under his breath.

"But, you're roughly the same age as me," Rena pointed out, noticing that at the same time all of the hearts shattered in two. "How could you be at the academy last year?"

"I have an older sister who was in her last year at the academy," Yukino answered immediately and coldly to Rena. "And she invited me to the academy to see what it was like."

'… _I get the feeling she doesn't like me for some reason,_' Rena thought with a large bead of sweat rolling down the side of her head.

That's when Riko stood up from his seat, surprising the three duelists, "I apologize and I thank you for earlier…"

'_Even if you were the cause of my fall…'_

With a cough, Riko spun around and slowly began to walk away, "But I have a paper due in the following week, so I'll have to leave you all…"

"L-Lord Riko, um, c-can I see you again?" Yukino asked with a large blush crawling back on her face. "I-I-I mean if…"

Stopping in his tracks, Riko slowly turned his head back with a small smile, "… Feel free to look me up."

"Aah!" Yukino sighed before she smiled greatly at Riko walking out of the cafeteria.

"So, what happened last year with you and Riko?" Rena asked, she was a little curious about this sort of thing.

However, instead of getting a response, Rena blinked at the terrible glare that Yukino was firing at her. "… What's your connection with Lord Riko?"

"Wow, she certainly did a one-eighty flip," Leo chuckled lifting his teacup to his mouth.

"You're not helping here Leo," Rena hissed with her eyes turning to the noble duelist.

"Oh, I rarely do help out," Leo chuckled again.

"Answer the question," Yukino growled, her glasses glaring again. "… Or, do not want to answer?"

"Uh, l-look," Rena stuttered with her hands raised up in a defensive manner. "I, I barely know Riko… although, he is a good friend and a decent guy, I just…"

"You're lying," Yukino replied bluntly with her eyes narrowed behind her glasses.

'… _Great, she's not even listening…_' Rena thought before she rubbed the back of her neck. "I'm not going to be any clearer, that's all it is…"

"You're still lying," Yukino growled, fire appearing in her eyes.

"Leo… A little help would be…" Rena started…

… Only to realize that Leo was no longer in his seat! Heck, he wasn't even in the room any more! '_LEO!'_

"Now you're just stalling," Yukino sighed, standing up from her seat with her arms crossed. "Tell me… and tell me now, what is your connection with Lord Riko?"

"Um… W-Well," Rena chuckled nervously as she slowly stepped back from the table, slowly inching her way to the doors.

"You're not going anywhere!" Yukino shouted before she gave chase after Rena.

"Why can't I have a normal high school life?!" Rena asked to herself as she ran from the cafeteria with Yukino chasing her.

When the two girls exited the Yellow Dorm's Cafeteria, they failed to see the three before… Tony, Klein and Koji. However, Koji seemed to be the only one concerned, "Um, shouldn't we stop them?"

"You idiot, you don't seem to understand what could happen!" Klein snickered with his arms crossed over his chest. "With this scene, we stand to actually witness one of the greatest events men of our caliber can view… the long awaited cat…"

WHAM!

With a powerful punch, Tony sent Klein flying into the air, spinning wildly about, "Don't ya dare try to pull that sort of thing with my lovely Rena!"

"I think you went a little overboard with that punch," Koji sighed before walking away. "Now if you excuse me, I'm going to go fish my brother out of whatever he falls into."

"Hard to believe that the younger brother would be more responsible," Tony mused looking up into the blue sky above. '_Then again… I wouldn't really know, Risely… Are you even alive out there?'_

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

A good half hour later near the entrance of the school…

"Dang it! Where'd she go?" Yukino asked, turning left and right in front of the large statue that was in the middle of the concrete walkway. It was only a few minutes ago until Yukino had lost track of where Rena was.

Unknown to Yukino, Rena was on the other side of the statue, trying to desperately catch her breath after all of that running with the crazy girl chasing after her. '_I… I really need to exercise more…'_

"I'll find you…" Yukino cackled with a dark look on her face. "And then I'll know what your connection to Lord Riko is…"

'_J-Just be calm…_' Rena thought to herself, making sure that she wasn't going to be seen easily. '_As long as I don't draw attention to myself…'_

"Ah! There you are Rena," Leo stated standing in front Rena, appearing out of no where once more.

"WHAT THE?!" Rena screamed as she jumped slightly into the air.

"There you are!" Yukino shouted running around the statue to glare at Rena. "Now, you're going to…"

"Dang it, Leo!" Rena snarled at the noble duelist who had his arms behind his back.

"Ah, ladies," Leo coughed out, getting the two female students' attentions. "I don't know if I can really say anything in this, but if you two have affection for Riko…"

"I don't have affection to Riko!" Rena shouted throwing her arms to her waist.

But, Leo didn't seem to listen, "… So, may I per chance suggest that you settle this like duelists that you are…" That's when Leo produced two new duel disks, one with a red border and the other with a yellow border. "And settle this in a duel?"

"A duel?" Rena and Yukino both questioned at the same time.

"Why not?" Leo asked with a bright smile on his face. "A simple game can make things oh so much easier."

"… I'm game," Yukino stated pulling the yellow duel disk from Leo's hands. "And if I win, you'll have to answer truthfully about what's going on between you and Lord Riko!"

"And I keep telling you that there isn't anything going on between me and Riko!" Rena shouted snapping the red duel disk from Leo's hands.

"Actually the proper grammar is, 'Riko and I'," Leo stated as Rena and Yukino walked away from each other until they were thirty feet away from each other.

"… You're still not helping Leo!" Rena hissed slightly as she shuffled her deck furiously and then snapped it into her duel disk. (RLP: 8000)

"Enough of this!" Yukino replied holding up her already drawn five card hand. "I hope you're ready for what I can do!" (YLP: 8000)

"Duel!"

"… You're more than welcome to start," Yukino stated with her arms crossed.

'_Well… at least this will be a normal duel,'_ Rena thought as she pulled her six card into her hand. '_As normal as this place gets normal.'_

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

While the duel was just about to start up outside, inside the main building a meeting not just between Principal Wright and the teachers… But with several television screens that were set up on the other end of the table.

"So, Mr. Atlantic…"

"Aw, come on," Alan chuckled with a large sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head. "Do we really need to use our meeting names Daigo?"

"It's Mr. Pacific to you, Mr. Atlantic." Mr. Pacific growled from the television screen.

'_This is why I hate meetings,'_ Kryancelo thought to himself, leaning up against the nearby wall.

"Fine," Alan sighed lowering his head down. "But still, we are all in agreement that this year that the school wide festival is going to held here… Right, Mr. Pacific, Mr. Arctic, Miss Southern, Ms. Edo, and Colonel Central?"

"Heh… you certainly know how to humor a guy," Colonel Central chuckled from the next screen. "And you can count on the Russian Academy to provide entertainment this year with the troupe… only if Mr. Pacific actually decides to participate this year."

A small laughter erupted from the TV that was labeled Southern, "Indeed, Mr. Pacific, you do tend to flake on us…"

"Hey, hey, hey, I didn't mean to offend anyone," Mr. Pacific muttered with his arms raised up in a defensive stance. "But don't worry… I won't be able to promise much, but I did manage to pull a few strings and get the first and second best duelists from my academy. We've had a few problems, so I had to do a few things in order for them go."

"… You seem to be in good spirits though," Ms. Edo commented making the older gentleman on the Pacific TV sweatdrop.

"Aw… now you're just teasing him," Miss Southern giggled. "But now onto other business… Mr. Atlantic, I do suppose that you at least have some entertainment for our students to enjoy, correct?'

"Well, actually, thanks to Professor Maria," Alan stated gesturing towards the blushing Red Professor. "We have a few events that'll be fun… in addition to the regular events that we usually have at these sort of things."

"Sweet… Too bad I can't attend," Colonel Central sighed. "But we know that my reps will fill me in on everything… so you'll better not screw this up, Mr. Atlantic."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Alan sighed slamming his head into the table with a loud boom. "But as for all of you, I hope that you already sent your duelists…"

"Of course," All of the other principals answered all at once making Alan jump up from his seat. "They should be there by the end of the week."

"… Great…" Alan moaned slamming his head into the table again. '_We haven't even gotten started on the preparations yet…_'

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

"Alright, I'll start off by setting a monster in defense mode!" Rena announced as the face down monster appeared in front of her. "And I'll set a card face down as well… Turn end."

"… Is that all you've got?" Yukino asked pulling her next card up to her eyes.

"Huh?" Rena questioned blinking a few times. "It's only the first turn…"

"Heh, and you don't know how powerful love can be!" Yukino announced fitting one card into her duel disk. "And I'll start with the continuous spell card, Jet-Black Whirlwind!"

Yukino's spell card appeared, showing a large black whirlwind with countless feathers spilling out of it. "This card is very powerful, but it's effect won't be any worry of yours till later…"

Spinning another card from her hand, Yukino slapped it onto her duel disk, "But not for too long! Since you have a monster out and I don't, I can normal summon… Black Feather – Sirocco of Dawn!"

Hundreds upon hundreds of black feathers fell to the ground, allowing a sleek black feathered crow like man with thin arms and large wings on his back (2000/900).

"B-Black Feather?" Rena muttered as the Jet-Black Whirlwind glowed brightly.

"You'll see how these cards will work," Yukino stated as a card popped out from her duel disk. "Take for example my Jet-Black Whirlwind. When I successfully normal summon a Black Feather monster, I can add another Black Feather monster from my deck to my hand…"

"Well, too bad you can't summon it," Rena stated looking down at her duel disk. '_And since my face down monster is a classic, your monster won't be able to get to me this turn…'_

"Oh… You think so?" Yukino stated holding up two of her cards from her remaining four card hand. "Well too bad… You see, since I have a face up Black Feather monster on my field, I can activate the effect of other monsters in my hand…"

'… _What are you up to?_' Leo thought with an arched eyebrow.

"First, I special summon Black Feather – Blast of Black Lance!" Yukino announced as another flurry of black feathers began to spin over the field.

The feathers scattered, revealing another crow like humanoid to float over the field, while most of its body was covered in dark feathers, its crest and head feathers a bright orange and yellow. In its clawed hands, the Black Feather monster clutched onto a large spiral black lance (1700/800). "And the coup de gra, is Black Feather – Gale of the Hurricane!"

As with the previous two Black Feather monsters, a twister of black feathers rolled over the field, until it shattered to form into a smaller crow-humanoid with green head feathers and a white crest (1300/400).

All three of the Black Feather monsters screeched loudly into the air, making everyone around cover his or her ears, including Yukino… but surprisingly not Leo. His eyes were glued to the duel and the three weird monsters.

"Ow…" Rena moaned rubbing her ears. '_This isn't good… now she can just plow right through my monster and to my life points… at least I have my face down card…'_

"Now then… what should I do?" Yukino stated looking down at her two remaining cards. "Oh wait… I'll go on the attack! Blast of the Black Lance! Start us off!"

With a loud screech, the Black Feather monster flew forward, spinning the lance around in his clawed hands at the face down monster. The card flipped up, revealing a surprised Obnoxious Celtic Guard (1400/1200), lifting his sword up in a defensive manner, the warrior was surprised to see that spear just stabbed right through the elf's armor. And with a pain filled cry, the Celtic Guard shattered into millions of pixels. (RLP: 7500)

"W-What the?!" Rena shouted looking at her duel disk. "Why did my life points go down?"

"Heh… Blast has the ability of trample," Yukino explained holding her hand up making the Sirocco of Dawn screech loudly. "But now… You've got bigger things to deal with! Mainly Sirocco's direct attack!"

Sirocco charged forward, spinning around with its black feathers falling to ground as it came closer and closer to Rena.

"I activate my trap card, Elf Tears!" Rena announced as her face down card flipped up, revealing a young elf girl crying. "When an Elf or Celtic monster is destroyed in battle, I can special summon that monster back to the field with half of its original stats! So that means my Obnoxious Celtic Guard returns!"

The trap card shattered into millions of shards, allowing a battle damaged Obnoxious Celtic Guard to leap in front of Rena (700/600), taking the diving Sirocco to his chest. However, the guard just roared, sending the crow humanoid backwards, "And since his effect is still in effect, Sirocco is too powerful to take down my elf!"

As Sirocco skidded backwards, Yukino growled, "Maybe… But Hurricane is more than a match for him!"

Indeed, the smallest of the three Black Feathers crashed right through the Obnoxious Celtic Guard, shattering the young warrior into pixels again. "And to end my turn, I'll set one card face down."

"… Is it too late to say that nothing happened between me and Riko?" Rena chuckled nervously with a sweat drop rolling down her head.

"Don't try to lie to me," Yukino scoffed to the side with a glare at Rena.

'_I'll take that as a yes,'_ Rena thought before she drew her next card. "This will work then! I summon Elf Swordsman!"

A bright light erupted onto the field, allowing the goofy looking elf swordsman to appear on the field, his face covered with a large grin on his face (1400/1600). "And when he's summoned, I can special summon one Sol Saber from my hand!"

And indeed the powerful sun sword did appear in front of the Elf Swordsman, allowing the young elf to draw the glowing blade into his hands (1400/1600 + 1000/1000). "And now… Attack Sirocco!"

Spinning the blade in his hands, the Elf Swordsman charged forward with the blade skidding on the ground behind him, sparks flying in the air before the elf warrior spun around to bring the glowing blade down on the Black Feather monster…

"I activate my trap card!" Yukino shouted as the face down card transformed into a large junky scarecrow, blocking the sword in mid-air. "Scrap-Iron Scarecrow negates one attack… and then sets itself again to block it later!"

'_What the?! Does everyone play that card now-a-days?'_ Rena thought looking at the last three cards in her hand. "I'll set two cards face down… and that's what I've got…"

"Heh… This will just make it much more fun," Yukino announced pulling her next card into her hand. "You see, since I have face up Black Feather monster… well three in this case, I can normal summon Black Feather – Elfen of the Pitch-Black without tribute!"

Hundreds upon hundreds of black feathers rained down from the sky, allowing a large humanoid crow to dive bomb onto the field, looking more crow than humanoid with dark purple armor on its torso (2200/1200). And with this newest Black Feather monster on the field, all four of the crow monsters screeched loudly into the air.

"… Whoa…" Rena muttered at the large monster, as the Elf Swordsman held his Sol Saber towards the winged beasts and as another card popped out of Yukino's deck, thanks to the Jet-Black Whirlwind.

"Oh, you need not worry Rena," Leo mused with his arms raised. "None of her monsters hold the ability to defeat your swordsman… and besides, you still have a few other tricks, like your two face down cards."

"R-Right," Rena muttered looking at her duel disk.

"You think so?" Yukino stated holding up the second to last card in her hand. "Too bad I have this card, I activate the trap card, Delta Crow – Anti Reverse!"

Yukino's newest trap card emerged onto the field, showing the first three Black Feather monsters unleashing a powerful burst of energy that crashed into the ground.

"Wait a minute! You can't activate a trap card from your hand!" Rena shouted throwing her hand up. "That's one of the most…"

"Rules were meant to be broken," Yukino replied as she threw her nearly emptied hand towards her trap card's hologram. "You see, if I have three Black Feather monsters on my field, I can activate this trap card from my hand. And when I activate it, all face down spell and trap cards on your field are no more!"

"What?!" Rena shouted as a powerful windstorm swept up her two face down cards, instantly destroying the cards that she had set.

"And what that guy said about you not worrying about your monster being destroyed," Yukino stated with her arms crossed over her chest as she pushed up her glasses. "He's more than wrong… Cause I'm guessing he's never seen these Black Feather monsters before, uh…"

Leo only smiled, "… Leo Childsman, at your service."

"Right," Yukino coughed with a small blush creeping on her face. "A-Anyway, almost all of my Black Feather monsters have effects that can be used at any time… Take for example Gale of the Hurricane. Once per turn, this monster can halve the attack and defense of one monster on the field! And I think I'll choose your Elf Swordsman!"

"Huh?" Rena questioned, still reeling from the fact that both of her face down cards were destroyed. Now as the smallest Black Feather monster flapped its wings, a powerful burst of wind crashed into the surprised Elf Swordsman, making the warrior take a knee to the ground (2400/2600 – 1200/0 – 0/1300) with his arms bruised greatly. "N-No!"

"And to make things more interesting," Yukino stated throwing her hand towards Sirocco, causing the Black Feather monster screech out loudly. "I'll show you another effect! Sirocco has the ability to pool all attack points of Black Feather monsters into one Black Feather… so, I'll have the effect go to Blast!"

Screeching loudly into the air, all three of the other Black Feather monsters flew behind the Blast of Black Lance, culminating all of their strength (1700 + 1300 + 2000 + 2200 = 7200).

"W-Whoa…" Rena muttered with her eyes widening greatly.

"Do not worry Rena," Leo stated crossing his arms. "Even though the damage will be great, you will survive with fifteen hundred points…"

"Actually… It'll be less than that!" Yukino announced as all four of her Black Feather monsters flew towards the surprised Elf Swordsman. "You see, when my monster's battle, I can activate the effect of a monster card in my hand, Black Feather – Qal'at of the Moonlight, when a Black Feather monster battles! By discarding it, my monster gains fourteen hundred more attack points!"

"WHAT?!" Rena shouted before all four of the Black Feather monsters drilled through not only the Sol Saber, but through the Elf Swordsman and then directly through Rena's body. As the Black Feather monsters passed through her body, Rena fell to her knees, grabbing her abdomen. "URK!" (RLP: 100)

Leo on the other hand, his eyes widened at the four Black Feather monsters flying back to Yukino's field, and even though he had a smile on his face, a small bead of sweat rolled down the side of his head, '_Per-Perhaps I shouldn't have suggest this duel… Rena's deck wasn't designed for such a powerful rush strategy…'_

"T-Thanks to…" Rena sputtered out reaching for her deck, thanks to the effect of Sol Saber, not only was she allowed to draw two new cards, but her Elf Swordsman survived the hit.

"Hmm? What in the world is going on here?!?"

Everyone froze, and slowly all three of the duelists turned their head towards the entrance to see a really annoyed Kryancelo standing with a powerful deadly aura around his body. "… I really, really didn't need to see this after that stupid meeting with those nicknames!"

"Crap!" A random yellow student shouted. "Professor Kryancelo's in a bad mood!"

"RUN!"

"Uh…" Rena chuckled as every student in the area ran off from the entrance way, even Leo managed to disappear when Rena wasn't looking. "D-Do you mind if we cut this duel short?"

Yukino growled, but then switched off her duel disk to make all four of the Black Feather monsters disappear in a flurry of feathers, "Fine! But mark my words… We'll finish what we started one day… My rival in love!"

"… Rival in love…" Rena sweatdropped before running off away from Kryancelo's rage induced rampage.

"DAMN IT!" Kryancelo shouted before kicking the edge of the statue from earlier. "I HATE THIS STUPID PLACE! AND THE STUPID PEOPLE WHO RUN IT!"

Meanwhile… In the Obelisk Blue Dorm…

"Oh, brother, back from your walk so soon?" Sen asked as Riko closed the door behind him.

"… I suppose so," Riko sighed as he walked towards the large blue couch in the room, immediately taking a seat when he reached it. "… Sen… you've been my eyes for a while correct?"

"Yeah, ever since you asked me to do so," Sen replied jumping onto one of the chairs in the room. "Why?"

"… Tell me," Riko stated with his brow narrowed. "I need… I need you to tell me, what happened last year at the mainland academy…"

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

In a darkened room, in front of a large darkened screen, a small chibi man walked out in front of the screen with a spotlight shining over him. His flashy gray spiked hair on his head shook up and down as his large white overcoat over his black shirt and velvet jeans. As he bowed down, the young man showed the purple guitar that was on his back. "Hello again everyone! If you've forgotten about me, allow me to introduce myself once again, I'm Ed Wright!"

Pointing his fingers together, Ed's face had a slight blush to his face as he turned his head to the side, his lips pouting slightly as he rubbed the back of his head. "It's been quite a while since I last appeared in any of Vyser Dragoon's work, in fact, the last time was in this story, chapter twenty six I believe…"

"Although, I really didn't want to do another song for this fiction, I don't really have much of a choice here…" Ed muttered to himself before taking a small piece of paper from his pocket, raising his eyebrows slightly. "I don't really have much of a choice here… it was either this or I go back to eating Cup O' Noodles for dinner… unless you all want me in this fiction as an all time character!"

Ed sulked down as he lowered his head as he pointed his fingers. "Y-yeah, I just added that last one in. Please! I'm begging for work here!"

"HEY ED! GET TO WORK! WE'RE NOT PAYING YA TO BEG TO THE VIEWERS! AND THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE!"

"Y-Yes sir!" Ed shouted pulling his guitar from his back and began to strum a few notes as the TV screen began to turn on. "You rock and you duel!"

The television immediately changed to show the sun starting to rise over the Atlantic Duel Academy's horizon as an upstart and fast musical beat erupted from Ed's guitar (_Moments that seem like they change both me_,) The light flows into a certain Slifer Red duelist's dorm room, making Rena wake up and yawn loudly (_And even the world are always right next to me…)_

Immediately dressed in her uniform and with her duel disk on her arm, Rena slams the door from her dorm room, seeing the blue sky above (_Gazing at the irritation, I can't hide myself as I stand stock still!_)

And running out of the room, time seems to slow down as Rena runs through the Red Huts around her, (_Despite my hesitation,_) seeing Klein and Koji running after her, both of them with duel disks armed (_Despite my worries,_). Then as they make a turn, Rukia with Kimatori on her shoulders give chase as well (_Despite my regrets,_).

Meanwhile, resting up against a nearby tree, Van notices the small group and immediately smiles as he jumps to his feet (_I should decide!_).

As the group runs through the island, they pass the Ra Yellow dorm, where an enraged Yukino spots Rena and begins to give chase after Rena (_With one word you've given me, my bewilderment vanishes!_) prompting Rena to run faster leaving the other red students to laugh at Rena getting chased by the love obsessed freak.

(_Light shone in my once empty room…_) A single duel disk falls through the forest's air, allowing Ganryu to catch the device in one hand, making him turn around to glare at who stood behind him in the forest…

(_The sky I gazed up at is so blue and serene_,) Seeing Vic standing tall with Bravo, the Artist Formally Known as Morty, Xander, with Orange and Maroon standing in the background, Ganryu's eyes narrow even more. However, as all six of the opposing duelists activate their duel disks, (_I decided to open up a window that was shut)_ Rena runs through the group surprising all six, and having Yukino and the rest of the reds charge right through the makeshift group of students, crushing them in the process. (_Moments that seem like they can change both me,_)

Ganryu couldn't help but sweatdrop and casually walk to catch up with the running group of morons (_And even the worlds are always right next to me…)_

The scene then shifts to Leo and Tony playing a game of chess outside the Obelisk blue dorm, Leo surprisingly winning against the Chess Duelist (_Searching for answers that must being the unfulfillable everyday!_)

However, that's when the group of reds and yellow student run past, making Tony's eyes pop with hearts around him, (_If I turn around towards the lonesome, gentle voice in the sunlight…_). And with Tony now in the chase, Leo only smirked as he saw Ganryu slowly walking behind the group and slowly stood up (_You unexpectedly smile in the midst of brilliant sunlight_!)

The scene shifts once more, showing Luntina, Alan and Riko standing on the pier welcoming six different shadows that seemed to have a dark greasy haired man standing behind them (_I'm about to open up a window that was shut!_)

That's when Ed performed a long guitar solo with random clips of the group, showing them on the beach in their swimsuits with Klein taking pictures, to another showing mostly the female cast standing on a large stage, all of them dressed in fancy manners… only to have Klein, Van and De Masque's faces to roll in front of the screen to show that all the girls were blushing due to the fact they were now in swimsuits getting hoots from the men in the crowd.

With Klein getting punched by Luntina, Ed began to sing once more, (_An existence that seems like it can change both me,_) allowing the screen to show Rena, Yukino and Luntina standing together, their back to each other as they spun around to reveal their duel disks. (_And even the world is right in front of my eyes)_

That's when a dark haired handsome man and white haired short guy appear around the three girls scaring them, making Luntina punch the dark haired guy in the face while the word "Short" appeared over the white haired guy's head (_The sky I gazed up at is so blue and serene)._

And with a loud roar, the short white haired guy scared everyone from the screen as he torn down the word 'Short' (_I decided to open up a window that was shut…_).

As Rena finally stops to catch her breath, she turns around to see everyone who was chasing her, in addition to the sleek black haired man, the short white haired teen (who had daggers glaring from his eyes) and De Masque, was standing behind her with a smile on his or her face. (_Right now, I sense here a moment that seems_.)

A powerful blast of wind swept through the air, catching Rena's attention, making her turn forward with her eyes widening. (_Like it can change me and even the world…_)

Standing in front of her was none other than Ganryu, his duel disk armed and ready. And with a nod, Rena activates her duel disk… (_Spread both your hands towards the light…_) And as the music began to die down, a bright light emerged from the screen…

Strumming the last few notes, Ed narrowed his eyes towards the sky, "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!?"

With a clenched jaw, Ed began to pull his hair, "If who I thought I saw was in that clip, then this makes no sense! WHY IS HE GETTING WORK WHEN I'M CLEARLY THE BIGGER STAR! WHY!?! WHY!?!"

… Boot to the head!

"URK!" Ed yelped as a large black boot collided with his head, knocking him out instantly.

**Author's Note:** _Since Ed's incapacitated, I'll say welcome to the new season everyone! I hope this last season will be the best I can give! That's right! More action! More drama! More of Leo surprising everyone! More fan-service! More everything!_

_So, I'd like more reviews if you don't mind! In addition, a Brownie point for who ever can guess the name of the song that Ed just made, in addition to which anime it was originally from!_

_And sorry, but there will be no review this time._


	54. Chapter 53: The Ultimate Foe

_**Tell me something…**_

_**Have you ever thought there were another you?**_

_**I'm not talking about a clone or an evil twin, what I'm referring to is a 'second self'. Like what Eternity Angelo was referring to earlier, about how everyone wears a mask over his or her face. **_

_**In psychology it's known as a persona, the appearance that one presents to the world. It isn't a pose or some intentional misrepresentation… but, it is the true self that someone has a mask over his or her face…**_

_**I don't know why I'm talking about this… but, I – I feel like…**_

_**I guess I'm just thinking about what happened with Eternity Angelo… I can't even remember what happened by I know that I defeated him. The same thing happened when I faced off against Dias…**_

_**W-What in the world is happening?**_

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

"… So, what now?"

"Heh… from what I expect, that little missy is going to have a little trouble… but what I've given ya…you should be able to help her out."

"… Ugh, do I really have to help her?"

"Are you going to stop listening to me?"

"… I'm just asking."

"Heh, I didn't think you a curious mind."

"Curiosity has nothing to do with it. My story was stolen… by her. She'd be the last person I want to help."

"Ironic since you were the very reason she got into the academy."

"…"

"Cat got your tongue? I guess that was a little over the top. My apologies."

"…Whatever. What do you need me to do?"

"Remember, before Luke left, I entrusted something to you. After you do the deed, you're more than allowed to use it on yourself… that way, you'll be just as strong."

"Alright… what do I need to do?"

"Heh… you must…"

**0-0-0-0-0**

**Chapter 53**

**The Ultimate Foe**

**0-0-0-0-0**

"... Ah… Ah…"

Rena's eyes shot wide open… making her sit up straight up.

However, she couldn't help but notice that she wasn't in her room… she was sitting in a dark room that was lit up slightly with hundreds of candles… but that didn't starve the darkness away from Rena's body. Slowly standing up, Rena turned her head around to only see the darkness and candles.

"W-Where am I?" Rena asked taking a few steps forward through the darkness, her footsteps echoing through the dark room.

That's when a loud note echoed through the room, as if there was a song about to be played…

"Welcomes and salutations around…"

That's when all of the candles blew out, leaving Rena in the darkness. However, it only lasted for a mere second as a bright ring of light appeared in front of her, revealing that she wasn't alone in the room. "… So, welcome Rena-chan…"

Rena couldn't help but sweatdrop at the girl who stood in front of her, with a blue visor covering her eyes, and her brown hair pulled back into a small tail, the girl spun around with her outfit flowing slightly, which consisted of a light red sleeveless shirt and skirt with a small metallic heart covering her chest. She had long black sleeves and leggings that ended in red matching gloves and boots, while in her hands she held a light blue guitar… but it didn't have any strings on it, and yet she was able to play a few notes.

'… _Nice style…'_ Rena thought raising an eyebrow. "Who in the world are you?"

The outrageously dressed girl stopped playing the music and smirked at Rena, "You don't remember? After all, I was the reason that you were able to defeat that masked freak, Eternity Angelo."

"… Huh?" Rena questioned with a few question marks appearing over her head. "You were? But I don't remember seeing someone dressed like that…"

With a slap to her head, the outrageously dressed girl groaned loudly, "… I suppose that's to be expected… after all, people don't tend to remember their dreams unless they are really memorable."

Rena Akira…

The outrageously dressed girl slowly walked towards Rena, her guitar slung over her back, "I wonder… are you even able to comprehend this sort of thing? What I am… what you are?"

Rena Akira…

"What… I am?" Rena questioned blinking a few times.

Rena Akira!

"Soon, the two of us will…" The outrageously dressed girl started…

"RENA AKIRA! PAY ATTENTION!"

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

"AH!" Rena shouted, her head snapping upwards from her desk.

Professor Kryancelo sighed loudly as he stood over the now awake Rena, "… Good to have you join us Miss Akira," Walking away from a greatly embarrassed Rena, Kryancelo coughed loudly, "And since you're wide awake, I think its time we get back to class."

Walking back the front of the classroom, Kryancelo lifted up the book he had placed on the front desk, holding it in front of his face, "As for where we were on the Mask Deck strategy…"

BAM!

Kryancelo turned his head towards the door… or at least where the door was, and with a slap to his head, Kryancelo had all of his will power to make sure that he wouldn't strangle the headache that had caused the door to fly off the hinges.

"Good afternoon class!" Alan announced lowering his arms in the air while making all of the students who were seated in the room sweatdrop at the sight of their principal acting like this.

Sighing loudly, Kryancelo rolled his eyes at the principal, "… And what do we owe this honor to, Principal Wright?"

"Ah Prof. K," Alan mused tilting his head to the side. "… What are you doing here?"

"I TEACH THIS CLASS!" Kryancelo shouted with his eyes narrowed down at the whacky principal.

"Oh right," Alan chuckled rubbing the back of his head with his eyes closed. "Sorry about that… anyway, I'm here to tell you that your classes are canceled for the next two weeks…"

"YAY!!!"

Kryancelo's left eye couldn't help but twitch from the numerous cheers from his students, "And may I ask why you're cancelling my classes for two weeks?"

"Festival time!" Alan announced, getting even more cheers from students. "That's right, the festival is only a week away, and our academy was lucky enough to be chosen for this year!"

'…_Oh joy…_' Kryancelo thought with a slap to his forehead.

"And I need you to help with the festival's preparation," Alan explained with his arms crossed over his chest. That's when several students began to pack up their things… However, this didn't go unnoticed by Alan. "However, all students will still be required to come to class… after all, the students themselves need to be able to participate in the festival. But a few students who I talked to already in here are going to be coming with me when I leave."

Groans erupted through the room as Kryancelo gathered his books with a smile, '_Serves ya right… ya damn punks…_'

"I saw that smirk Goth boy," Alan chuckled wagging his finger at Kryancelo.

"Damn it! I'm not a goth!" Kryancelo shouted with his eyes narrowed towards Alan.

"Language!" Alan sighed backwards with his eyes narrowed towards the scurrying away professor. And with another loud sigh, Alan turned his attention towards the students. "Anyway, as for you guys, I've got a few of you stationed in another classroom… but I do have someone to lead this class."

Turning towards the door, Alan motioned towards the door, "You can come in now…"

"Thanks sir!"

Rena's eyes widened at the sound of the voice, and with a slap to her forehead, she began to mutter under her breath, "Oh please… please don't let that be who I think it is…"

"So students," Alan continued as the young girl slowly walked into the room, her Ra Yellow uniform clinging to her petite body. "I'd like you all to meet your festival committee foreman… or fore-girl as it seems, Miss Yukino Armada!"

Indeed, it was the glasses wearing student that Rena had encountered only a day ago, and her Black Feather monsters almost crushing her easily. Rena slowly lowered her head down to the desk; there was a good chance that maybe Yukino wouldn't see her…

"Since Miss Armada was in a previous festival," Alan explained to the class as a small smile appeared on Yukino's face. "Her experience with events would prove valuable, as would be her ideas. But since she hasn't been here for long, I'd like to ask someone else to show her how we do things at this academy. So Yukino… Do you have any idea who you'd like to help you?"

'_Well… at least I don't have to worry about her picking me,'_ Rena thought with a sigh of relief leaving her mouth as she slowly sat up straight…

… Big mistake…

As soon as Rena had lifted her head up, Yukino had instantly spotted her and narrowed her eyes, "Rena Akira!"

The entire class stepped back from that exclamation… however Alan just smiled with his gaze turning to Rena and then back to Yukino, "Ah! I see, you two know each other then… that'll make things much easier!"

"Wait, you're not going to suggest," Yukino gasped as realization struck her.

"Oh great…" Rena already knew where this was going.

"So, Yukino Armada and Rena Akira," Alan chuckled with his grin getting bigger and bigger with each passing second. "I hereby appoint you two as the heads of this class's festival committee! Your jobs are to come up with a classroom festivity, something fun… something cool… something to get students to come visit your classroom! So, work hard you two! And you too students!"

Everyone couldn't help but sweatdrop as Alan walked out of the room, his laughter echoing through the halls as a few of the students who were informed ahead of time of this followed him out.

And what remaining students could feel the tension rising in the air… mostly from Yukino who was glaring at Rena. '_… It's official… I'm doomed.'_

After a little more tension, Rena and Yukino stood in front of the classroom, Rena could the glare seeping from Yukino's glasses covered eyes, "… I'm sill going to get a straight answer out of you about Lord Riko…"

A large sweatdrop rolled down the side of Rena's head from that proclamation, only to grow when Yukino turned her head to the side at the rest of the students in the classroom with a warm smile, "But now then, what should we do for our class for the festival? If anyone has any suggestions, please write them down and we'll review them…"

The students in the room began to whisper amongst themselves, some of them actually writing the ideas down until a few volunteers brought up the papers at the front desk. Since Yukino was shooting Rena a rusty glare, Rena took the papers and read a few of the common events out loud, "Uh, l-let's see here… a class play, game booths, movie marathon…"

"They had the same things at the mainland academy," Yukino sighed as she wrote the ideas on the board behind her and Rena for everyone to see. "Sure they were a hit, but…"

"… Well, there are a few others," Rena stated looking at a few other pieces of paper, a small grimace appearing on her face along with a small blush. "But…"

"Well, what are they?" Yukino stated taking a look at the papers. "… Date café? Romance Roulette? Who came up with these two?"

In the back of the room, Klein couldn't help but get a low five from Van and then Rukia, all three of them sporting a smile on their faces while Koji groaned softly to himself.

Writing the ideas on the board, Yukino turned back to the class, "Alright… I've seen some joke ideas, but those take the cake."

Truthfully, if Yukino could get Lord Riko to participate in either of these two events… then there might be a good chance that she could…

A large blush crept on her face…

"So… we've got five ideas…" Rena muttered, a little worried about where this might lead. "Do we vote for one of these?"

"Uh, yeah," Yukino muttered through her daze of what might happen between her and Lord Riko.

Rena lowered her head slightly, "… I have a really bad feeling about this…"

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

Meanwhile in the blue dorm…

"Ah, the festival!" Tony sighed with relief as a grand grin appeared on his face as he threw his backpack onto the large bed in the room. "A time for fun! A time of relaxation! And…"

Tony couldn't help but blush as a picture of him and Rena hugging each other popped into his mind, his Obelisk Blue jacket around her shoulders as their faces grew closer and closer, "And a time of romance!"

"Wow, how pathetic is that?"

Tony's eyes shot wide open as he turned towards the opened door to see Luntina leaning up against the doorframe with a large grin on her face, "W-What the hell!? How'd you get in here?!?"

"Heh, you left the door open," Luntina answered with an evil smirk as she closed the door behind her. "So, from that little speech, are you actually going to tell your feelings to her?"

"You better believe it!" Tony laughed sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head with a blush creeping on his face. "And I've got a great idea as for how I'm going to proclaim it to the heavens and her!"

"Hmm… well, I don't know about that," Luntina stated with her hand on her chin. "I don't think that'll work."

"You haven't even heard what the plan is," Tony growled with a blood vessel appearing on his rugged face. "So what makes you think that it isn't going to work?"

"Because last time I checked," Luntina chuckled pushing some of her hair from her face. "Hell didn't freeze over."

Now that was just a rusty knife being plunged in Tony's back, and Luntina was slowly turning the blade.

"I'm just kidding," Luntina chuckled walking towards Tony. "Anyway, I'm here to get yours and Riko's help. We've got a couple of our guests arriving tonight… all the way from the Pacific Academy and I'd appreciate it if you and Riko would come greet them with me tonight."

"… The Pacific academy?" Tony questioned before he crossed his arms. "Oh! Is that one guy… that 'Die Hard Pain' in the ass coming?"

Luntina couldn't help but giggle slightly at the name, "Heh, yeah, you've got it… but he's not the only one to join us. He told me that he actually managed to talk one certain to join us for the festival. But because of some misfortune, not all of the Pacific Academy reps will be able to join."

"So they're just relying on two people from the Pacific?" Tony muttered raising an eyebrow.

"Pretty much," Luntina answered. "So, will you do it?"

"Hmm… Well, only if you can get this Die Hard guy to help me," Tony replied with his arms crossed. "From what you've told me… he's quite the romancer."

"… He wishes, but he knows how to smooth talk," Luntina admitted rubbing the back of her head. "So, I think he'd be willing to help you out Tony."

"Then I'm in," Tony replied with his arms crossed. "So, what time are we going to greet them?"

"… Midnight," Luntina answered bluntly.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?" Tony shouted with his eyes widened. "Midnight?!? Why so late?!"

"Do you know how long it takes to get to get to here from the Pacific Academy?" Luntina asked with her eyes narrowed down towards Tony. "It always takes time to get here, and it's a nonstop trip. Besides, you said you'd join me… otherwise, you're on your own to get a certain brown haired Red student's affection."

"Grr… Fine!" Tony huffed with his arms crossed over his chest. "But, you have to promise he will help me!"

"No worries," Luntina replied before turning towards the door. "Now then… If you excuse me, I need go talk to Riko… he hasn't been himself for a while so I figured I'd see you first."

"… That's a nice thought," Tony sighed loudly lowering his head.

**0-0-0-0-0**

Meanwhile, back with the classroom committee…

"… You've got to be kidding me," Rena muttered looking at the board where the votes had been tallied.

"Well, the people have spoken," Yukino replied with a grimace, although in her head, a small chibi version of herself began to pump her arms. '_First phase… Complete!'_

The class had indeed spoken… and they all chose the Date Café!

'_Yes!'_ Klein, Rukia and Van thought at the same time before slapping their hands together in victory.

"… So, how exactly are we supposed to do this?" Rena asked raising an eye at the Date Café idea. "Truth be told… I have no clue what a Date Café is…"

"Well… I don't either," Yukino replied with a few blinks. "Does anyone have any idea as to what we're supposed to do for a date café?"

"We do!" Rukia and Klein shouted at the same time, this time Van decided to stay out of this little scheme.

"Rukia, please tell me that this wasn't your idea…" Rena pleaded with a slap to her forehead.

BA-DUM!

It felt like Rena's head was splitting in two, making her rub her temples a few times, '_I… I really need to relax more…'_

BA-DUM! BA-DUM!

"So then," Yukino announced with her arms crossed. "Since you two seem to have a grasp on what a 'Date Café' is, why don't you explain it to everyone else?"

"Not a problem!" Rukia and Klein announced jumping from their seats.

"You see," Klein stated holding up what appeared to be a thick manga book. "What we want to do is make a café that serves the regular drinks. However, we randomly pair up the guys and gals together at tables…"

"Oh, and the romance happens automatically?" Yukino continued, not noticing that Rena continued to hold her head, this time clutching it as if she was in pain.

"In a sense," Rukia responded rather quickly.

BA-DUM! BA-DUM! BA-DUM!

Rena's head felt like it had really split in two, and she couldn't take it any more…

… This was finally noticed by Yukino, who sent a suspicious look towards Rena, "Not that I care… but are you okay?"

"I… I…" Rena started…

Only to fall face first into the ground with a loud bam, making all of the students in the room stand up, even making Yukino step back slightly, "W-What the?!"

However, a certain gray haired student couldn't help but sigh and shake his head. He knew what he had to do… and he wasn't looking forward to it.

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

When Rena opened her eyes, she realized she was back in that candle lit room, the darkness slowly starting to weed its way back around her body. "… Great… here I am again…"

Slowly the candles went out, the darkness sweeping over the room and around Rena's body…

"So, you've returned," a familiar musical voice sounded through the dark room as a large spotlight shone over the darkness, revealing the pink dressed girl from earlier. "Last time we were interrupted before we really got anywhere."

"Uh yeah," Rena muttered slowly standing up, dusting off her skirt slightly. "You really weren't making any sense last time."

"Well, then allow me to put it in words you can understand," The outrageously dressed girl replied slinging the guitar over her shoulder, making it fit over her back. "I am you, and you are I. One in the same, and yet different… like the two halves to a coin."

"I am, Lyra Musician."

"… I don't know how to respond to that," Rena replied with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of her head.

Lyra Musician sighed with a slap to her head, "Don't you get it? We're one in the same! I am you, and you are me!"

Rena just eyed this 'Lyra Musician' with a raised eyebrow.

"… Heh…" Lyra Musician scoffed to the side. "I can see that you're as dull as ever… turning your eyes away from the truth, but, this time… there is no way that we can…"

… Hey, wake up!

"What the?" Lyra Musician yelped with a slap of her head. "Oh, not again!"

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

"AH!" Rena shouted sitting up in what appeared to be a bed in the medical office, she knew where she was since she did spend a week in here after that Twilight fiasco. The falling sun outside the window informed Rena that the remainder of the school day had passed, but the exact time was a mystery to her at the moment.

That's when the pain in her head struck again, there so many questions racing through her head, and her headache wasn't helping too much either. "Ugh… it feels like someone bashed a rock against my head…"

"… That tends to happen when you fall face first into the hard ground."

Rena's eyes snapped wide open as she turned her gaze over to the side to see Ganryu sitting in the corner with a small book in his hands, his eyes focused on the book and not her. "G-Ganryu? W-What are you doing here?"

Pulling his book down slightly, Ganryu's glare turned to Rena, "… Someone had to make sure you didn't swallow your tongue."

Truth be told, it was actually Ganryu who lifted Rena in his arms to take to the medical office. Unfortunately, someone had to stay with Rena during that time and since the rest of the class was busy with the festival and since Ganryu didn't want to get involved in that sort of crap…

"Um… how long was I out?" Rena asked blinking slightly.

"… Two… three hours tops," Ganryu answered coldly flipping the next page in his book.

"WHAT?" Rena gasped with a large blush appearing on her face.

Snapping his book shut, Ganryu sighed loudly.

"Oh, uh, sorry," Rena sheepishly chuckled the blush growing with each second. "I-I know that I annoy you when I get like that."

Ganryu didn't speak, rather he just place his book at the window (which unfortunately was opened, and the book fell out the window) and began to search his pockets.

"Hey, Ganryu…" Rena started rubbing the back of her head, not noticing that Ganryu had found what he was looking for and stood up. "Can I ask you a question?"

That's when something happened that Rena didn't expect, "… What is it?"

A little taken back, Rena didn't expect Ganryu to actually respond to that, so it took a few seconds for her to register that. "Uh, I haven't really had a chance to ask this… and this has been bugging me for quite some time now…"

"… Get on with it," Ganryu sighed holding up a small crystal like card, crushing it in his large grip, with the sound of breaking glass lightly echoing through the room. A small light blue aura warped around Ganryu's body before disappearing. '_This better be worth it… Big Boss…_'

"G-Ganryu, w-why did you help me into the academy?" Rena asked her gaze turned to the side, so she couldn't see that Ganryu was slowly getting closer and closer. "A-And then you help me with Dias… then you visit me while I'm getting better… I-I don't under…"

Before Rena could continue, Ganryu's firm grip had grasped her by the chin, turning the young Elf Duelist's face towards the Samurai duelist's. Their eyes met, and Rena couldn't help but notice that Ganryu's cold grey eyes seemed to soften slightly, with a small tint of cobalt surrounding his irises.

Time seemed to slow to a snail's crawl… and yet the blush grew on Rena's face, as a tint of red began to show itself on Ganryu's face. Rena tried to speak, however, all she could mumble, "G-Ganryu…"

The blood in Ganryu's face seemed to overflow, his entire face blushing greatly although his eyes just looked straight into the pools of emerald that were Rena's. And then, slowly, Ganryu's face began to close the gap between his and Rena's.

She could feel Ganryu's body next to hers, his weight on the bed drawing her closer to him… so close she could feel his increasing body heat against Rena's bare arms. The two's breaths danced in between each others', until they both held their breaths.

The ticks and tocks of the clock that pended on the nearby wall seemed to halt as only a centimeter seemed to be the only obstacle between the two red students' faces…

**Too be continued…**

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Yep…**

**To be continued…**

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

…**right now.**

Ganryu's grip fell limp on the jaw line of Rena's face, he didn't need the strength at the moment. And when he leaned forward, the two teens' lips met…

Rena made no move to fight, only her eyes flickered with surprise and then softened as she closed them.

It was almost as if a cool blue aura of serenity flowed around the two young teens, the moments that they shared in their kiss seemed to last an eternity, and the aura seemed to die around Ganryu's body… and yet, he still didn't pull away from Rena.

This felt like a moment that could've lasted forever…

CLICK!

Until both teens broke their kiss to see Klein standing in the door way with a small digital camera in his hands, "Well, well, well, Rukia asked me to check up on you Rena… But I guess Ganryu's got you covered! Ha!"

That's when the calm serenity that had momentarily appeared in Ganryu's eyes disappeared, replaced by his usual cold demeanor and eyes of hatred. "You little… get back here you bastard!"

Klein just ran out of the room, laughing loudly, Ganryu giving chase afterwards with Klein shouting something about blackmail or whatever.

That just left Rena alone with her stupor, Rena slowly touched her lips as the blush on her face glowed a little brighter. "A… ah…"

W-Whatever the case, Rena needed to leave… and since she was feeling better for some reason.

As Rena gathered her things (which she thought that Ganryu brought when she collapsed), she failed to notice that there was a faint blue aura around her body.

'_Heh…'_

"Huh?" Rena questioned looking around, but she was the only one left in the infirmary. But with a shrug, Rena brushed it to the side and hastily ran out of the medical office to make sure she wouldn't faint again… this time from the unexpected kiss.

Meanwhile in the Blue Dorm again…

"AARRGH!" A certain chess playing duelist screamed loudly in pain.

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

The sun was slowly disappearing over the ocean's horizon, but Rena didn't get a chance to see that, she had to get back to her dorm and in order to make sure that she didn't run into anyone to see her blush and ask her what had happened. '_I just hope that Rukia is still at that meeting…'_

BA-DUM!

"Urk!" Rena yelped holding her head once more, the pain struck her head once more, making her fall to her knees in pain. "W-What is going on?!"

"_I am you… You are I… Accept it!"_

Rena fell to her knees, her fingers running through her hair as she fell to her knees, "W-What the?!"

Although she couldn't see it, the bright light blue aura surged around her body, slowly forming into a familiar aura like figure, slowly transforming, "… I don't know why…"

Rena's eyes widened as she stumbled around, her irises shrinking at the sight in front of her. "W-W-What in the world?!"

Standing in front of Rena… was Rena herself?!? The only differences were that the Other Rena was the fact that her brown hair was now black and her emerald eyes were now red. "… Why am I always the one faced with this sort of thing?"

"W-What?" Rena questioned slowly standing up, eyeing the Other Rena.

"When I came to this island," The Other Rena mused with her hands clasped and tears began to form around her eyes. "I just wanted a regular high school experience! But I have to face against psychos and crazy people! Why me!?"

The Other Rena then began to chuckle evilly flicking some hair from her eyes, "How pathetic are you?"

"E-Excuse me?!" Rena gasped taking a step back.

"You always act like you are nothign more than a sweet and innocent girl," the Other Rena sneered with her eyes narrowed down at Rena. "But in reality, you're just afraid… just like a fox. And when cornered, you'll lash out… but that's against your façade now isn't it?"

"W-What are you talking about?" Rena snapped throwing her arm to the side. "I… I just don't like violence! I would never do that!"

"Oh… is that a fact?" The Other Rena asked with a large smirk on her face. "Don't you remember with Dias?"

"_So…now do you see my reasoning?"_

"…_That's your reason?" Rena asked with her hair covering her eyes._

"_A mere shot for survival," Dias commented with a smug look on his face. "It's basically primitive nature actually. Everyone wants to survive when faced with death, willing to take any path to live on. This was the one way for me to thrive…and it's working so far!_

"_I haven't coughed blood all night, I haven't stuttered, and I managed to get my new health along with it! As you could see from my muscular physique."_

"_And what happens to the people who have lost?" Rena asked not looking up._

"_Hmm…what does it matter?" Dias retorted wagging his finger towards Rena. "But if you must know…if the losers' bodies were absorbed, then they're in a limbo. However, like your friend Ganryu there, he's still technically alive but his mind is in limbo leaving his body nothing more than a vegetable."_

"_You're willing to make these people suffer…along with their families, just to survive?" Rena asked, her shoulders starting to shake._

"_Of course…I told you earlier, humans are weak," Dias sighed in anger rubbing his temples. "We'll do anything to survive…it's in our hearts."_

"_That's enough!" _

_Everyone blinked in confusion as Rena stood up, her hair still covering her eyes. "What gives you…what gives you the right to do this!? Do you think you're better than everyone else, so much so that you could use them as sacrifices to save yourself?"_

"_Okay, now we're just going around in circles," Dias chuckled snapping his fingers over his other face down card._

"_Dias…with all you've done, do you honestly think that you deserve a new chance at life?" Rena asked raising her head up, to show that her eyes were narrowed…_

…_but that wasn't what made Dias take a step back, it was the fact that her eyes were glowing slightly red. "You have no right! And I'll make sure that you won't get away with this scheme!"_

"_Words are c-cheap!" Dias stammered taking his ground back. "Action is where it's at!"_

"Telling a person to die," The Other Rena chuckled shaking her head. "Does that really sound what a normal girl would say to person? He was only trying to live…"

"B-But…" Rena stammered taking another step backwards. "He… He hurt so many people…"

"That's looking over the point," the Other Rena replied as a bright light slowly began to flow over her body. "You still essentially told him to give up on life. So forgive me if I don't really take to your ideals."

"W-What do you know about me?!" Rena shouted throwing her arm to the side. "You're just talking gibberish!"

"… Gibberish?" the Other Rena chuckled as a metallic pink heart popped over her chest, slowly creating a light pink aura around her body. "You're still acting like a little girl… You can't even face against your true self! Even when I helped you against that masked idiot Eternity Angelo, I was the one who managed to finish him off!"

"B-But… But…" Rena stuttered until a bright pink light engulfed the Other Rena.

"Don't even try to deny it," The Other Rena replied through the bright pink light. "You're just some kid who can't even see the clues in front of your face… always holding your hand out to have someone help you!"

"Shut up!" Rena shouted stomping her foot into the ground. "You talk as though you are me! Well, I'll tell you something… I am myself… I am nothing like you!"

"Heh… Heh!" the Other Rena cackled as the pink aura shattered, this time revealing that her outfit had changed… forming into the very person that Rena saw in her dreams, Lyra Musician. "Yes, that's right! I'm not you… I've become something better, something stronger!"

That's when the guitar around Lyra Musician's back flew in front of her left arm, engulfed in a powerful light until it melded into a light blue duel disk, already loaded with a deck in it. "All that's left… is to erase the mistakes of the past." (LMLP: 8000)

"… You want to duel?" Rena asked reaching into her backpack, pulling out her own duel disk.

"This won't be like the other duels you've been in," Lyra Musician chuckled as she watched her deck shuffle itself in the deck slot. "I just hope your ready…"

A little scared, Rena shuffled her deck immediately into her duel disk, activating the device, "If I have to… I will!" (RLP: 8000)

"Duel!"

"I am the true self," Lyra Musician chuckled with her arms crossed over her chest. "For trying to think you're better than what you really are… you're pathetic!"

"Pathetic?!" Rena questioned before she snatched her sixth card. "You come out of no where in a weird outfit and you start talking me to that you're better than me!"

"Oh? You think you're strong?" Lyra Musician mused with a grin on her face. "Fine then… I'll just have to give you a good show."

"If I recall… It's my move!" Rena announced holding up her newly drawn card. "And I'll start by summoning Lunar Elf in attack mode!"

In a bright flash of purple light, the young green cloaked elf appeared on the field, her blond hair concealing the crescent moon mark on her forehead (1400/900), casting a glare towards Lyra Musician. "Next, I'll set a card face down… and leave it to you 'true self'!"

Lyra Musician couldn't help but smirk brightly at Rena, "Heh… you better be careful what you say to people… They might take offense…"

"Draw!"

Without even looking at the card, Lyra Musician slapped the card onto her duel disk, "And I'll show you my true strength… or, your true strength as it were. I summon Arch Elf Archer in attack mode!"

A green star appeared in front of Lyra Musician, popping into a young, chibi elf girl with shoulder length blond hair that was covered with a spiked bandana with a matching green tunic, armored gloves and boots. Lifting her hands up, a small green metallic bow appeared in her hands (500/300).

"Um… Okay?" Rena questioned, raising an eyebrow at the weird Elf.

"I can see you're unaware of this elf," Lyra Musician giggled wagging a finger. "They were added recently to the elf tribe… and there are more and more! But for now, I activate the spell card, Call to Arms!"

That's when the spell card appeared, revealing three Hero Kids leaping into action, making the Arch Elf Archer glow a bright green. "By selecting one warrior monster on my field with five hundred or less attack points, I can special summon all copies I have of my Arch Elf Archer to the field! But, I only have two in my deck total… so I get another Archer!"

A second green star popped over the field, transforming into a carbon copy of the original Arch Elf Archer appeared next to the original, making both elves wink at each other (500/300 x2).

"Unless you have Double Summon in your hand," Rena admitted rubbing the back of her head. "I don't get your move…"

"And here I thought you would at least pay attention in your classes," Lyra sighed shaking her head. "Otherwise, you would've at least waited till the move was over… you see, both of my elves can attack your life points directly!"

"W-What?!" Rena yelped as both of the Arch Elf Archers pulled back on their bows before taking two shots at Rena's feet, causing a surge of green energy to sweep over her body. "Ack!" (RLP: 7000)

"Hmm," Lyra Musician mused with her hand on her chin. "How does it feel?"

"T-That was weird," Rena admitted trying to catch her breath, it was like she just ran a ten mile jog.

"Well, going out of existence tends to do that," Lyra Musician pointed out with her finger gesturing towards Rena's feet.

"Huh?" Rena questioned lowering her gaze to her feet, her emerald eyes widening as she noticed that her feet had faded out of existence, how she was standing was a mystery to her. "WHAT THE!?!"

"I told you this duel would be one that you've never been in before," Lyra Musician explained wagging her finger before she fitted a card into her duel disk. "Every time you lose a thousand points, you'll slowly disappear… And when your life points drop to zero… well, I'll become you and have what remains of you as a small keepsake…"

"And… And does this apply to you as well?" Rena gulped raising her hands to her mouth in surprise.

"Of course," Lyra Musician replied pushing up the visor over her eyes. "But don't think that you'll even get a shot on my life points."

"We'll see about that," Rena stated pulling the top card from her deck slowly, turning the card over for her to see the card art. "I summon Mallet Elf in attack mode!"

Leaping from the trees above, the familiar hammer wielding elf appeared on the field (1200/900), spinning the large mallet over his head of red hair. "And since you left those two wide open…Mallet Elf! Attack…!"

"I activate my trap card!" Lyra Musician announced as her face down card flipped up, revealing several soldiers being lifted up into the air. "Zero Gravity activates and switches the modes of all monsters on the field!"

A powerful force of energy erupted over the field, making all four of the elves taking a knee to the ground. Rena couldn't help but blink at the monsters wondering if everyone was starting to use that card, "I… I end my turn."

"Aw… you're trying so hard," Lyra Musician cooed with a smile on her face as she drew her next card. "Tell you what… I'll make this next move go by fast, I summon Arch Elf Crossbowman!"

A large dark green star crashed in between the two Arch Elf Archers, forming into a fancily green dressed elf girl that resembled the Arch Elf Archers save that her clothing now consisted of a fancy emerald crown and cloak. Throwing her cloak up into the air, the newest elf revealed that she had a pair of green and gold crossbows in her hands (1200/600). "Next I'll switch my two Archers to attack mode… and have them attack you directly once more!"

Rena's eyes widened as she stepped to the side, barely dodging the other two arrow… but the rush of green energy that flowed from them crashed into her, making her moan in pain as her legs up to her knees disappeared. "N-No!" (RLP: 6000)

"And here's the real kicker," Lyra Musician giggled as the Arch Elf Crossbowman spun the two crossbows in her hand before taking aim. "My Arch Elf Crossbowman can attack twice! And guess where those attacks are going!"

Rena's eyes widened as the Arch Elf Crossbowman unleashed a furry of arrows directly into both of her elves, making them scream loudly before shattering into millions of pixels.

"How do you like that?" Lyra Musician asked with her arms thrown behind her back with a great smile on her face.

Rena slowly lifted her head up, her eyes slightly narrowed at Lyra Musician as her hand reached for her deck, "Actually… I do, since you destroyed my Lunar Elf, I can draw a card for every two stars on the monster that destroyed it! And since your monster was a level four, I can draw two cards!"

"Put on a good face if you want," Lyra Musician replied holding up two of the remaining four cards in her hand, and then slid them into her duel disk, making them appear behind her three small elves. "But you won't be able to keep that up for too much longer! Turn end!"

"Then you don't know me as much as you think you do!" Rena announced pulling up the seventh card into her hand. "And I'll start by activating my face down, L – Life Force!"

The face down card flipped up into a bright green L, transforming into the grinning Mallet Elf, slamming his mallet into the ground. "And he's back in action! But he won't be allow, I activate the effect of a monster card in my hand!"

Lyra Musician raised an eyebrow as Rena fitted another card into her hand. "By discarding one 'Elf' card from my hand I can special summon my Sonic Elf to the field!"

A powerful blast of wind erupted over the field as a beautiful black haired elf appeared on the field appeared, her black robe and dress flowing over her sleek body (800/200). "Since I special summoned her… I can now sacrifice both of my monsters in order to summon…"

Both elves nodded to each other before they leapt into the air, disappearing into a bright light. The light crashed down into the ground, transforming into a large and powerful silver armored dragon that roared loudly into the air as its body began to shine greatly (2000/1100). "Neo Dragon!"

"Uh…" Lyra Musician muttered with her gaze looking down at the two face down cards on her field. "That's a pretty impressive monster…"

"Well, I'm not going to risk attacking while you have those two face down cards," Rena stated before she held up another card from her four card hand. "I activate the spell card, Giant Trunade!"

Lyra's eyes widened as her two face down cards popped back into her hand, leaving her three elves to fend for themselves. '_Well, well, well… Let's see what you've really got, 'Real' Me.'_

"And you're not the only one with a few special monster effects," Rena replied throwing her hand up towards the three Arch Elves. "My dragon has the ability to attack all monsters on your field!"

Lyra's eyes widened greatly, but before she could protest, the Neo Dragon unleashed a powerful surge of silver energy crashed into all three of her Arch Elves, making them scream loudly until they disappeared in the light. (LMLP: 4200)

After the dragon roared loudly, Rena couldn't help but notice that Lyra Musician's legs had disappeared up to her waist… how she was standing was beyond Rena. "Heh… Not a bad shot… 'Real' Me…"

"I may not have any clue what might be going on," Rena stated holding up a single card up before she slid it into her duel disk. "But, if you intend to make me disappear… I won't go down without a fight!"

"Well, at least you're putting up a decent fight," Lyra admitted reaching for her deck. "Draw!"

However just before Lyra drew her next card the Neo Dragon slammed its head to the ground… and began to sleep? Lyra raised an eyebrow and was about to ask, before Rena raised her hand up, "Um, yeah, my Dragon shifts to defense mode after he attacks…"

Lyra admitted with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of her head as a few 'Z's began to float over the Neo Dragon's head. "I-I see…"

Unknown to the two dueling, a familiar silver haired young man watched the duel from behind his perch in the trees besides the two girls.

"Heh, too bad this duel is about to get even harder!" Lyra announced snapping up another card into her hand. "Because, thanks to you, I can activate the spell card Elemental Life!"

Lyra's newest spell card appeared on the field, forming into a picture of a large elf with a large ax slung over his shoulder, standing guard in front of a tree. "You see, this spell card makes it so by removing two Elf cards in my graveyard with the same Attribute, I can normal summon another monster from my hand with the same attribute. So, I'll remove my Arch Elf Archer and Arch Elf Crossbowman from my graveyard."

As the two cards popped out of her graveyard slot, Lyra slapped another one of her four cards onto her duel disk. "And that allows me to summon out Arch Elf Ranger!"

This time a powerful green light crashed into the ground, forming into a serious looking white haired elf woman, her sleek body dressed in a short leaf green dress with her hair falling past her thighs with a large armored bow in her hands (1800/2400). The young elf woman couched down with her bow covering her chest. "When summoned, my elf goes to defense mode. And she has other abilities…"

Rena couldn't help but look at the new elf… she had to admit that these elves were pretty cool and seemed to have unique abilities so far. But her train of thought was interrupted as Lyra lifted up another card from her hand, "But that'll soon be revealed! I activate the card I just drew, Pot of Greed!"

As the giggling green pot appeared on the field, Lyra pulled off the top two cards from her deck… but Rena was more concerned with the green orb that was slowly floating around the Arch Elf Ranger's body. "Uh… What is that?"

"Heh, it's a Spell Counter," Lyra explained with a grin as she looked at her two newest cards. "Whenever a spell card is activated, my Elf gets one. And she'll get another because I'm activating the spell card, Double Summon!"

Indeed, a second Spell Counter floated around the Arch Elf Ranger as Lyra's spell card emerged on the field. "And now, I can normal summon a second time this turn! And I summon… Arch Elf Soldier!"

A red flame popped onto the field, shattering to form into a young, chibi elf girl with her tied back red hair dressed in rather revealing yellow and iron armor. With a battle cry, the elf girl spun a large bladed spear in her hands (1000/0 + 200/0). "And my soldier has a powerful ability, for each Spell Counter on the field, she gains one hundred attack points!"

Rena lifted up her duel disk in a defensive manner, "W-Well…"

"Meaning it'll be easier for her to beat your dragon!" Lyra announced throwing her hand to the side, prompting the fiery chibi elf girl to charge towards the sleeping dragon.

"Or it would if I didn't activate my trap card!" Rena announced as her face down card flipped up, creating a powerful vortex between the chibi elf girl and the Neo Dragon, forcing the elf girl skidding backwards. "Negate Attack… well… that just explains what it does right there…"

"Hmm…" Lyra growled under her breath as she fitted the last two cards into her duel disk, making them appear behind her two elves. "… Turn end! Show me… 'Real Me'! Show me that I'm wrong!"

"V-Very well," Rena muttered slowly reaching for her deck…

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Card Stats**

**Arch Elf Archer / Wind / LV. 2 / ATK: 500 / DEF: 300 / Warrior/Effect:** This card is considered as a Spellcaster monster in addition to a Warrior type monster. This card can attack your opponent's life points directly.

**Description:** A young, chibi, elf girl with shoulder length blond hair covered with a green spiked bandana with a matching green tunic, armored gloves and boots. In her hands is a metallic, green bow with an arrow armed on it.

**Arch Elf Crossbowman / Wind / LV. 4 / ATK: 1200 / DEF: 600 / Spellcaster/Effect:** This card can attack twice during the battle phase.

**Description:** A fancily green, dressed elf girl wearing a fancy emerald crown with a large green cloak while wielding dual green crossbows with yellow armor on it.

**Sonic Elf / Wind / LV. 3 / ATK: 800 / DEF: 200 / Spellcaster/Effect:** By discarding one card from your hand with 'Elf' or 'Half-Elf' in its name from your hand, you may special summon this card from your hand. When this card is normal or special summoned, double the amount of Spell Counters on all cards on the field.

**Description:** A young elf girl with long black hair that goes past her black robes with a beautiful white dress underneath

**Neo Dragon / Dark / LV. 7 / ATK: 2000 / DEF: 1100 / Dragon/Effect:** This card may attack all of your opponent's monsters (this monster cannot attack your opponent directly after doing this). During the end phase this monster attacks, switch this monster to defense mode.

**Description:** A large black dragon in silver armor covering it's body with a pointed horn on it's head.

**Elemental Life / Spell / Effect:** Remove two 'Elf' monsters from your graveyard with the same attribute. You may then normal summon one monster from your hand with an attribute that is the same as the two removed monsters.

**Image:** A large elf with a large axe on his shoulder standing guard in front of a tree.

**Arch Elf Ranger / Wind / LV. 6 / ATK: 1800 / DEF: 2400 / Spellcaster/Effect:** When this card is summoned, switch this card to defense mode. Each time a spell card is activated, place one 'Spell Counter' on this card. While this card is in defense mode, during your main phase, by removing two 'Spell Counters' from your side of the field, this card can attack your opponent's life points directly this turn (all battle damage done by this effect is cut in half.)

**Description:** A serious looking white haired elf woman wearing a short leaf green dress with her hair falling past her thighs with a large armored bow in her hands.

**Arch Elf Soldier / Fire / LV. 2 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 0 / Warrior/Effect:** For each 'Spell Counter' on the field, increase this card's attack points by 100 points.

**Description:** A young, chibi elf girl with tied back red hair dressed in rather revealing yellow and iron armor with a large bladed spear.

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Rena:** Man, this is one weird duel…

**Lyra Musician:** Well, when you face against yourself, what do you expect?

**Rena:** Why exactly are you doing this?

**(From the Shadows) Ganryu:** '_Is this what you had in mind…?'_

**Rena:** W-Well… Bring it on!

**Luntina:** Let's get away from that… We actually get to meet the two reps from the Pacific tonight!

**Rena:** W-What?! But I'm in a crisis here!

**Luntina:** The world doesn't revolve around you…

**Tony:** My world does Rena…

_**Watch out for the next chapter! **_

_**Chapter 54: … Persona…**_

**Rena:** … Why is it named that?


	55. Chapter 54: Persona

"_**Who are you?"**_

_**That is a question that we all must ask ourselves at one time or another. However, when that time comes is different for everyone.**_

_**I guess that time for me is right now.**_

_**As I stand in front of this Other Me, or as I'll call her, Lyra Musician, I can't help but feel that she does know me very well. After all, she's been able to counter my moves rather easily, but I can't help but feel like she's somewhat different…**_

_**This is strange…**_

_**And yet, I can't really say that this event is stranger than any other that I've had to deal with since I've been here.**_

_**But at this point in time… I can't say much, but I know what needs to be said…**_

_**DRAW!**_

_**0-0-0-0-0**_

_**Chapter 54**_

… _**Persona…**_

_**0-0-0-0-0-0**_

"_Hmm…" Lyra growled under her breath as she fitted the last two cards into her duel disk, making them appear behind her two elves. "… Turn end! Show me… 'Real Me'! Show me that I'm wrong!"_

"_V-Very well," Rena muttered slowly reaching for her deck…_

Time seemed to slow down as Rena placed her hands onto her dueling deck, taking a moment to look at the field in front of her. Currently, Rena held four cards in her hands, while the only thing she had on the field was her currently defending Neo Dragon (2000/1100). In life points, Rena was a head greatly… (RLP: 6000)

… But for field advantage, that went to Lyra Musician. With her two face down cards laying in front of her, Lyra Musician had her two Arch Elves, the Ranger (1800/2400) and the Soldier (1000/0 + 200/0), along with two Spell Counters on her Arch Elf Ranger. (LMLP: 4200)

But there was another twist to this duel… as their life points would disappear both duelists' would disappear as well. Thankfully, Rena only had to experience this up to her shins… but Lyra Musician had this up to her waist.

"Are you going to make a move?" Lyra asked crossing her arms over her chest. "Or should I consider this a forfeit?"

"Uh, no," Rena stated clicking the next card into her hand, as she held the card up to her eyes, the card's art making her eyes lit up. '_… Hey… it's…'_

This didn't go unnoticed by Lyra, '_Hmm… I wonder what she drew?'_

"Now then, I switch Neo Dragon to attack mode!" Rena announced as the dragon awoke suddenly, a mad look appearing on its face as it slammed its tail into the ground. "And now… I may not be able to get past your Ranger, but I can take down your soldier! Neo Dragon!"

Just as the dragon was charging energy, Lyra snapped her fingers up, "Sorry to interrupt, but I activate the trap card, Aegis Guard!"

A single card popped out of Lyra's deck, making her spin it around to reveal a young orange haired elf, "My trap card allows me to discard one elf monster from my deck. And during the turn this card is activated, neither of us can declare an attack!"

A large shield crashed down in between both duelists, its main body blue with a red phoenix on it, its metallic sheen glowing brightly in the sun set's light. Both Rena and the Neo Dragon couldn't help but sweatdrop at the large shield. "F-Fine… I'll set a monster and end my turn!"

The shield almost practically dissolved into nothing as Lyra drew her next card, "So then, we will continue… Real 'Me'."

"Can you stop it with the 'Real Me' stuff?" Rena asked with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of her head.

"Nope!" Lyra simply replied looking at the newest card she drew, but then spun it around to reveal the card. "I activate the spell card, Coins from Heaven! Now, we draw till we hold six cards! And I get another Spell Counter to boot!"

Rena grimaced as both duelists began to draw their cards, mostly at the fact that another orb of light appeared around the Arch Elf Ranger, powering up the Arch Elf Soldier (1200/0 + 100/0). "And now… let's make this more interesting shall we? I'll release my Arch Elf Soldier…"

The small red headed elf just waved goodbye before transforming into a large orb of light that flew a little higher into the air. "Allowing me to advance summon the Arch Elf Sword Master in attack mode!"

The orb of light exploded in a fury of flames, flying about the air as a vicious form slowly stepped from the fire. As the flames died down, the form was revealed as a young vicious looking elf girl, her fiery red hair falling over the black and red armored dress, a heavy, thick, two-handed sword with many bolts popping from it was strapped on her back (2000/800).

"O-Okay," Rena muttered, knowing not to bring up the point that this elf warrior was weaker than her dragon… after all, she was proven wrong before.

"I know what you're thinking," Lyra giggled, shaking her head to make her brown hair fall in front of her visor for a few seconds. "For a tribute monster, she's not that strong..."

That got Lyra a large glare from the Sword Master, making the elf warrior draw her sword immediately (2000/800 + 600/0), "B-But, for each Spell Counter on the field, she gets two hundred attack points! Making her stronger than your dragon, so… without further ado!"

"Sword Master! Attack the Neo Dragon!"

Spinning the large blade over her head, the red haired Arch Elf leapt into the air with a loud battle cry shattering the silence that floated in the air. The Neo Dragon lifted its head up, only to receive a powerful slash through the dragon's head, making it screech out in pain before it shattered into millions of pixels. (RLP: 5400)

"Um…" Rena muttered fitting the Neo Dragon card into her duel disk's graveyard.

"And as much as I would love to use my Ranger's effect," Lyra admitted holding up two more of her five card hand, sliding them into her duel disk. "I have to use it during the main phase… so you're safe for now."

'_I'm willing to bet that won't last long…_' Rena thought slowly clicking the top card from her deck, giving her a full seven cards. "… So, I'll start off by releasing my own face down monster, in order to summon…"

The face down monster shattered into a million shards, flying high into the air as many branches began to snap and break, allowing a slightly muscular elf his sleek silver hair combed back as his black armored clothes clanked when he landed on the ground. And as the warrior stood up, he drew the two swords that were strapped to his back (2450/1600), "The Magical Swords Elf! And he may not be able to tackle your sword master… but your Arch Elf Ranger… She's another matter! And if she's gone, so will her three Spell Counters!"

The Ranger's normally calm eyes widened in shock as the Magical Swords Elf charged forward, spinning both swords in his hands as he came closer and closer to the Arch Elf.

"You'd think that wouldn't you?" Lyra asked pushing a button on her duel disk, "But I still have my three face down cards! I activate my trap card, Elf's Pure Magic!"

A large barrier appeared before the Arch Elf Ranger, catching the two powerful blades before they managed to strike her, however, two of the Spell Counter orbs shattered around her, making the Arch Elf Sword Master growl in protest (2600/800 – 400/0). "By removing two Spell Counters from my field, I can negate any attack against an elf monster!"

"Well… that makes an interesting trap card," Rena admitted rubbing the back of her head. "I'll just set a card face down, and end my turn."

'_At least I managed to weaken her strongest monster so far…'_ Rena thought with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of her head.

"Now then," Lyra giggled pulling up the top card from her deck, and spinning it around a few times before she lifted up the newest card. "I think its time that we continued with our little match… I activate the spell card, Enemy Controller!"

Rena gasped as a large game controller appeared in front of Lyra, and immediately shot out to her Magical Swords Elf, surprising the magical warrior. However, that was when two orbs of magic, one around the Ranger and the other around the Sword Master (2200/800 + 400/0). "Not only does my spell make your monster take a knee in defense mode, but, thanks to my monsters' effects, they both gain a Spell Counter!"

"… Great…" Rena sighed loudly, lowering her head slightly.

"But now, I activate another trap card!" Lyra announced as three orbs of dark energy appeared around her. "My Pitch-Black Power Stone gives me three more Spell Counters… and you know what that means!"

With a powerful battle cry, the Arch Elf Sword Master drew her sword, ready to charge at a moment's notice (2600/800 + 600/0). Rena stepped back slightly from the sight of the powerful monster, "Y-Yikes!"

"So, I'll switch Ranger to attack mode," Lyra stated as the bow wielding elf stood up tall, her bow ready and aiming at the Magical Swords Elf, her eyes gleaming with revenge teaming from them. And that was when the Ranger unleashed a large arrow of light towards the Magical Swords Elf, "And now… Attack her Magical Swords Elf!"

"No!" Rena shouted snapping her duel disk to the side, causing a large barrier of light to appear in front of her. "I activate the trap card, Mirror Force!"

Lyra's eyes narrowed as the arrow struck the wall of light, her smile disappearing with a nasty scowl, "… You think putting up a barrier will help? Too bad that won't help! I activate my spell card, Spell Guard!"

Lyra's final face down card flipped up, revealing a young spellcaster kneeling behind a large glass-like barrier, "By removing three Spell Counters from my field, to negate your trap card and destroy it!"

Cracks began to web through the Mirror Force, making Rena step back just before the arrow shattered the glass barrier and flew directly into the surprise Magical Swords Elf's chest. After a few seconds, the sword wielding elf merely fell face first into the ground before he shattered into millions of pixels.

"Of course, since I played a spell card, both of my elves gain another Spell Counter," Lyra explained as the Arch Elf Sword Master growled (3000/800) since there was one less Spell Counter out on the field. "Of course… This isn't the time to say that… This is the time for the Arch Elf Sword Master to attack you directly!"

A large joyful smirk appeared on the sword wielding elf before she charged at Rena, spinning the large sword over her head. And with a loud battle cry, the Sword Master began to bring down the sword on Rena…

Until countless brown puffballs appeared in front of her, all of them with large dark blue eyes and green claws, taking the slash from a confused looking Arch Elf Sword Master. Even Lyra Musician was confused slightly, "W-What the heck?"

"I discarded my Kuriboh," Rena sighed lowering her head slightly. "Thank goodness I didn't update my deck since that incident."

"… So, you dodged the bullet… again," Lyra snarled with a nasty glare being shot at Rena. "Typical."

"Hey! I resent that!" Rena yelped clapping her hands together slightly. "When have I ever dodged the bullet?"

"Heh," Lyra snickered pushing up her light blue visor. "I'm so glad you asked that question… after all, isn't that the reason why you're here in the first place?"

That statement echoed through Rena's head.

And since Rena wasn't talking, Lyra merely continued with her little speech, "What's the matter? I thought I didn't know what I was talking about… But, here's the truth, you came to this school in hopes of getting a regular high school life, trying to actually become a regular high school student.

"But that didn't come to pass now did it?"

"S-Shut up…" Rena muttered taking a step back.

"Oh? But this is where it gets good," Lyra continued lifting her arms up slightly. "During your first year of high school, you were treated by dirt by everyone, just because you expressed yourself in a different manner. It's a story that can be seen in any high school teen drama now-a-days, everyday you hoped that it would get better…

"Too bad those hopes died in the long-run…"

"P-Please stop," Rena stuttered slowly sliding to her knees.

"And what do you do?" Lyra Musician asked as her two elves shrugged her shoulders in confusion. "Oh, that's right, you ran away from the problem, begging your father to give you the chance to come to the Duel Academia… and so when the time came, you were given that chance.

"But, even then you screwed up by showing up late for the academy entrance exams! Heck, if it wasn't for Ganryu being there, you wouldn't even be standing here at this moment!"

From his hiding spot, Ganryu couldn't help but lower his head slightly, knowing full well that this 'Lyra' character was right. '_… From the way this is going, it looks like Big Boss made a big mistake here…'_

"… You're right," Rena admitted with her hair covering her eyes. "… I due owe a lot to Ganryu… And maybe I did run away from everything…"

Tears began to fall from Rena's eyes, but as she snapped her head back up, her eyes only narrowed down with determination, "But! That's why I'm here now! After all I've been through… I, I know I can take anything!"

"… Big talk from someone on their knees," Lyra pointed out fanning another card up. "I'll set a card face down… and call it a turn."

Slowly Rena got to her feet, her hands reaching for her deck before she snapped off the top card, "… I'll show you! I won't kneel anymore!"

"It's easy to say that," Lyra chuckled darkly. "Doing it is another matter."

"I know… but that's why I'm trying!" Rena announced pulling up her next card. "And I'll show you by setting a monster face down on the field… and that's that!"

"Oh, you just keep making this so much, much more interesting!" Lyra shouted pulling up the next card into her hand. "And speaking of interesting, let's make this duel more interesting! I summon myself, Lyra Musician in attack mode!"

Lyra Musician smirked greatly as she stepped forward a guitar popping on her back (1400/1350, making Rena's eyes bug out slightly, "W-What the?!? You're a duel monster card?!"

"Not just any duel monster card!" Lyra corrected wagging her finger at Rena, a large smirk appearing on her face. "As you can see, I'm a unique monster that can combine with the duelist… But that's not important, now… Ranger! Attack her defense monster!"

With a quick pull, the Ranger unleashed a powerful arrow that flew directly into the face down monster, making it flip up into a small emerald half beast with cute large black eyes and pointy ears. As the arrow made the creature cry out before it shattered into millions of sparkling jewels (200/300).

"Now then… 'Real Me', its time we make this end so much faster," Lyra Musician mused as the Arch Elf Sword Master lifted her sword up into the air and Lyra drew her guitar. "Sword Master and I shall attack you directly!"

With two loud shouts, both Lyra Musician and the Arch Elf Sword Master leapt high into the air, both of them holding their weapons up high into the air…

… Not noticing that Rena had a large grin on her face, "I activate the effect of a monster you just destroyed! I remove Reflect Carbuncle from my graveyard…"

That's when the same emerald furred beast appeared on Rena's shoulder, rubbing up against her cheek making the red duelist blush slightly. Then both Rena and the Reflect Carbuncle turned towards the surprised Sword Master and Lyra Musician, "And since I have done so… all monsters on your field in attack mode get destroyed!"

"W-WHAT!?!" Lyra Musician shouted before the Reflect Carbuncle leapt high into the air, shattering like glass to unleash a powerful bolt of green light charging through the air, crashing into the Arch Elf Ranger, the Arch Elf Sword Master and Lyra Musician herself. "A-AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

The two elves shattered into millions of pixels as their duelist fell to the ground, her body surging with electricity with cackles popping all around her. Rena couldn't help but giggle at Lyra Musician splashing about on the ground, "Hee… Ha! Ha! Ha! I-I guess you shouldn't have summoned yourself! Ha!"

"S-Stop laughing at me…" Lyra growled, her body slightly smoking from the electrical trap she ran into.

"Hmm… you rank on me for being weak," Rena snickered slowly lifting up her next card up, her eyes turning at the card she had just drawn. "And when I get the advantage, you start to complain… And here I thought you were the 'Other Me'?"

Ganryu couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

"Well, I think its time I prove that there's only one of me!" Rena announced slapping the card she just drew onto her duel disk. "I summon Sylvarant Elf Swordsman in attack mode!"

As Rena called out his name, the light blonde haired elf appeared in front of her, his purple and black clothes billowing in the wind as he drew his sword (1000/1000) in front of him with a large smirk appearing on his face. "And I'll outfit him with a personal favorite weapon… Excalibur!"

A bright light erupted in front of the Sylvarant Elf Swordsman, making the young swordsman step backwards before he threw his sword to the side and reached into the light, pulling out the legendary sword and lifting it over his head, light raining over the field as his body began to bask in the same light (1000/1000 + 1000/0). "Attack Lyra Musician directly!"

Lyra's eyes widened from behind her visor when the elf appeared directly in front of her, and before the musical themed monster could comment, the legendary sword swept through her midsection, making Lyra scream out in pain as her body slowly began to disappear up to the heart emblem on her chest. (LMLP: 2200)

And with a satisfied grin, the Sylvarant Elf leapt back to Rena's field, spinning the legendary sword in his hand before he stabbed it into the ground in front of him. "Heh… How do you like me now?"

"… How could I have been careless…" Lyra spat out, narrowing her eyes at Rena. "Don't think for a second you've won this!"

"Well, I'll try anyway," Rena replied holding up two more cards from her hand, and immediately slid them into her duel disk. "Because like this duel, time will change everything, whether it's a building, a continent or even a person!"

"Nice try," Lyra announced snapping the top card from her deck. "But nothing changes just like that! It hasn't even been a year since you came to this academy, and you say that changed? Ha! Nothing changes just like that!"

With that, Lyra's face down card flipped up, making the ground turn over to the side, allowing an enraged Arch Elf Sword Master (2000/800 + 600/0), her strength increasing due to the fact that the Pitch Black Power Stone was still on the field. "And I'm going to make sure you get that through your head! I activate my Call of the Haunted trap…"

Without waiting for her duelist's command, the Arch Elf Sword Master leapt forward, slicing the surprised Sylvarant Elf in two, making the elf shatter directly backwards into Rena, "A-AH!" (RLP: 4800)

Holding up another card from her hand, Lyra couldn't help but smirk as Rena began to disappear up to her waist, "See what I mean? Even though you managed to come up with the advantage, I can turn this back to a stalemate! Cause now, I activate the spell card, Mystic Wok! So, bye bye Arch Elf Sword Master… And hello twenty-six hundred life points!"

The surprised elf turned towards Lyra, ready to smack the musical themed duelist down… only to disappear in a red mist that flew around Lyra Musician, returning her body back to where she was before Rena's most recent attack, "Ah… so refreshing." (LMLP: 4800)

'_N-No… after all that hard work…_' Rena thought lowering her head slightly, tears starting to form back on her eyes.

"And to end my turn, I'll set a monster face down," Lyra announced as the set monster appeared in front of her face up two trap cards. "So, show me what you can do… 'Real Me.'"

Taking a deep breath, Rena released a stress filled sigh, "Well… if you want me to knock you down… I'll be more than willing to give a hand in that!"

A large sweatdrop rolled down the side of Lyra and Ganryu's heads, '_… I hope she meant that in another manner…'_

"First, I'll activate the spell, Pot of Avarice!" Rena announced as five cards slid out of her duel disk's graveyard. Taking the cards, Rena began to shuffle her cards furiously before she slammed her deck back into her duel disk. "So by shuffling five of my monsters back into my deck… I'm allowed to draw two more cards!"

"I know how the card works," Lyra pointed out pointing to her head. "Remember, I am you in a sense, so I know how your cards work."

"Um… R-Right," Rena muttered tilting her head to the side slightly before she drew off her next two cards. "S-Sorry about that, a-anyway, I summon Edge Elf in attack mode!"

A dark orb appeared in front of Rena, shattering to allow the sleek dark elf with the two katana blades in his hands (1700/1300). "And I select himself! But that's not important! What is important is the trap card I'm activating, one that you used! Call of the Haunted! So, I'll special summon Obnoxious Celtic Guard in attack mode!"

And once more, the sword wielding green armored elf appeared on the field (1400/1200), his emerald eyes piercing at Lyra. "And now… Obnoxious Celtic Guard! Attack her face down monster!"

Pulling his sword back over his shoulder, the Celtic Guard charged towards the face down monster, stabbing the blade directly through the face down monster's back. The card form shattered away, revealing a small chibi elf girl, her purple hair falling around her cute face (300/500). The young girl cried tears as her purple wand shattered, with the rest of her following. "Heh… Nice try, but that was my Arch Elf Mage. And when destroyed in battle, I can special summon an elf from my deck with one thousand or less attack points!"

A single card popped out of Lyra's dueling deck, allowing her to slap it onto her duel disk, making it form into an exact duplicate of the same Arch Elf Mage (300/500). "And since she counts for it… I might as well summon another one."

"Well… Edge Elf!" Rena announced.

The sleek dark elf looked at the cute elf monster, and then turned towards Rena with a look that seemed to say '… Are you serious? I can't attack something that cute.'

And with a sweatdrop, Rena rubbed the back of her head, "Since did my monsters give me looks like that?"

From his hiding place, Ganryu shook his head.

With a grumble, the Edge Elf stomped towards the now in tears Arch Elf Mage, and with a nasty glare, the Edge Elf forced the smaller elf to run off into the woods.

Rena couldn't help but blink at the weird attack, "Um… Whatever works I guess…"

"True, but I still get to special summon another elf from my deck," Lyra announced holding up her next card to summon. "And the monster I choose is Arch Forest Elf!"

A large amount of leaves began to fly around the field in front of Lyra, thickening and thickening until the leaves scattered about to reveal the newest elf. This one a rash looking elf boy with wild orange hair that was held back with the green headband with horns attached to it. His small body was covered with green and black clothes and resting on his shoulder was a large battle axe (950/400).

"Well, I don't have any more monsters to attack with," Rena stated looking down at her remaining face down card. '_And I shouldn't have to worry, I've still got a few tricks up my sleeve…'_

"So that leaves me with this!" Lyra announced pulling up her next card, and with a gleam in her eyes, Lyra pulled up one of the cards in her hand. "And I've got just the card combo! I activate the spell card, Mystic Tag!"

This spell card revealed the Arch Forest Elf blushing with a pink haired elf clinging to his chest, the real Arch Forest Elf grinned greatly before he vanished in a roll of leaves, "By removing one of the Arch Elf Mages from my graveyard, I can send my Forest Elf to the graveyard…"

That's when a pink heart popped on the field in front of Lyra Musician, shattering to reveal the very pink haired elf that was on the Mystic Tag spell card, she was even cuter in person than on the spell card, with her hair tied up in twin tails with flowers holding them up, and her cute frame was shown thanks to the black dancing clothes she had on her body (0/0). "In order to special summon the Arch Elf Dancer in attack mode!"

"B-But why did you want to get a zero point monster?" Rena asked tilting her head to the side as her two elf warriors did the same… both of which were starring at the cute elf girl in front of them.

"Heh, ironic to hear you say something like that," Lyra admitted placing a hand on her hip. "You use weak monsters all the time, but they have awesome effects. And my dancer here empowers all spellcasters, warriors, and beast-warriors on my field by four hundred points… and she's a spellcaster herself!"

Blowing a few kisses towards the opposing elves, the Arch Elf Dancer couldn't help but giggle at the two elves' reaction to the kiss (0/0 + 400/0).

"Uh, I get that it's a good effect," Rena admitted rubbing the back of her head. "But it's still not…"

"But I'm not done," Lyra stated sliding her next card into her duel disk. "I activate the spell card, Monster Reborn! And now, come on back Arch Elf Sword Master!"

A bright light erupted in front of Lyra, shattering to form back into the snarling red haired elf, spinning her sword over her head (2000/800 + 600/0 + 400/0). "And now… it's time to battle! Destroy the Edge Elf!"

With a sadistic grin, the Sword Master slid in front of the surprised Edge Elf, bringing down the large blade down on the Edge Elf. The dark elf brought up his two blades in a defensive stance, only to have the weapons break from the powerful slash, the blade cutting right through him until he shattered back into Rena's body. "A-AH!" (RLP: 3500)

And with that last attack, Rena's body began to disappear just under her small chest, and Lyra couldn't help but cackle slightly, "And with that… I'll end my turn!"

"Huh?" Rena questioned raising an eyebrow as she pulled up her next card. '_Why did she do that? Sure she still has her Elf's Pure Magic, but why would she want to waste her Spell Counters?_'

Shaking her head, Rena looked at her next card, her eyes widening at the card art on it, '_… Hey…'_

"What's the matter?" Lyra asked twiddling some of her hair in her fingers. "A little over powered and you fall to your knees?"

"N-No!" Rena announced slapping the card onto her duel disk, "I summon Berserker Elf in attack mode!"

With a loud roar, the large, muscular dark skinned elf crashed onto the ground, his eyes narrowed down at Lyra's two elves, making the Arch Elf Dancer hide behind the annoyed Arch Elf Sword Master (2000/0). "And next, I'll activate the spell card, Magical Stone Excavation!"

Holding up two cards from her hand, Rena narrowed her eyes as one spell counter appeared around the Arch Elf Sword Master (3000/800 + 400/0) and the Berserker Elf, but that didn't last long as Rena pulled out a single card from her graveyard, "And this allows me to take Excalibur from my graveyard and into my hand!"

"Oh joy…" Lyra sighed shaking her head, not really caring where this was going.

"And now, I'll play the card I drew last turn," Rena announced as she slid her next card into her duel disk. "I activate Pot of Greed! Allowing me two free cards!"

"Yeah, yeah," Lyra muttered wagging a finger as another Spell Counter appeared on the Arch Elf Sword Master (3400/800 + 400/0) and Berserker Elf. "I played that card earlier remember? No need to tell me what it does."

"Yes, well… uh," Rena stated looking at her newest cards. '_Yes!'_

Ganryu crossed his arms, '_… Unbelievable…'_

"Now then, I activate the spell card, Excalibur!" Rena announced as the legendary sword appeared in the Celtic Guard's hands (1400/1200 + 1400/0).

"Big deal!" Lyra shouted throwing her hand to the side as a third Spell Counter began to float around the Arch Elf Sword Master (3800/800 + 400/0) and the Berserker Elf for the third time this turn. "You're just making this easier and easier!"

"You'd think that now wouldn't you?" Rena asked wagging one of the newest cards she had drawn.

"W-What?" Lyra stuttered raising an eyebrow.

"I activate another spell card!" Rena announced fitting the newest card into her duel disk. "GO! Magical Drain!"

The Berserker Elf roared loudly, all of the Spell Counters on the field (including the two new ones) being sucked into his large mouth. Both of the Arch Elves' eyes widened (4600/800 – 2200/0). That's when the Berserker's body began to glow a bright gold, increasing his muscle mass (2000/0 + 1500/0), ripping the black overcoat on his body.

Lyra's eyes widened greatly as she stumbled backwards. "W-What the hell?!?"

"This spell card can only be activated when I have a Spellcaster on the field," Rena explained fitting the card into her graveyard. "I get to destroy all Spell Counters on the field and for every two, one Spellcaster on the field gains three hundred attack points until the end of the turn!"

"N-Nice…" Lyra gulped.

"Berserker Elf! Attack the Dancer!" Rena commanded as the large Berserker pulled its larger fist back, making the Arch Elf Dancer cry rivers of tears from her eyes.

Just as the Berserker Elf threw his fist, the Arch Elf Sword Master leapt in front of the Dancer, taking the powerful fist before shattering back into Lyra. (LMLP: 4350)

"Wait a minute!" Rena shouted throwing her hand into the air. "I was attacking your dancer!"

"Well too bad," Lyra growled as her Arch Elf Dancer stuck her tongue out at Rena. "As long as I have an Elf monster on the field, my Dancer can't be attacked…"

"… But you don't have any other elves out," Rena pointed out as the Obnoxious Celtic Guard lifted up Excalibur, making the Arch Elf Dancer cry tears again.

"Oh… R-Right," Lyra stated, realizing that her Elf's Pure Magic trap card was no longer of use with her Spell Counters now gone.

"Obnoxious Celtic Guard!" Rena shouted as the Guard stomped in front of the bawling Arch Elf Dancer.

However, instead of attacking, the Celtic Guard stabbed Excalibur into the ground, surprising the Arch Elf Dancer and Lyra at the same time. Even more surprising, the Celtic Guard knelt down in front of the cute young elf and took her small hand…

CAPU!

… and kissed her delicate hand, making a large blush appear on the Arch Elf Dancer's face, hearts appearing in her eyes until she ran off into the woods. Lyra couldn't help but sweatdrop at the weird way her monster was defeated… although, that still didn't stop her from disappearing up to her neck, leaving her head and arms floating in mid-air. (LMLP: 1950)

"And with that…" Rena stated as her Berserker Elf slowly began to turn back to normal (2000/0). "I end my turn!"

A few moments of silence filled the air as Lyra crossed her arms.

This made Rena blink a few times in confusion, "Um… you okay?"

Lyra didn't speak, instead, she did something that Rena didn't expect…

… She smiled…

And then silently, Lyra lifted up her duel disk and hand, slowly placing the latter on top of her deck, making both of the elves and cards on the forest field disappear.

"W-What?" Rena asked blinking as hers and Lyra Musician's bodies returned to normal. "You're giving up?"

Lyra Musician nodded, before a pink light engulfed her, "… That was a trial of the mind…" The light shattered, turning Lyra back into the 'Other Rena', her eyes now a calm green like the original's, "You see, everyday, people put on masks, whether its too much make up, wearing a style that a person isn't accustomed to, or even tries to become something they're not. You broke that mask…"

"I… I did?" Rena asked with a question mark as the 'Other Rena' slowly walked up to her.

"Yes…" The 'Other Rena' answered with a calm smile on her face, holding up a deck of duel monster cards, the very deck that she was using a few moments ago. "So congrats… You deserve this power and this skill… Use it wisely."

A little wary, Rena's hand reached for the deck… and then slowly took the cards from the smiling 'Other Rena', "I… I will…"

And with a soft smile, the 'Other Rena' began to disappear in soft pink light, leaving the slightly confused Rena standing in the woods with a puzzled look on her face, '_… Well that was weird… but not any weirder than what I'm used to…_'

From behind the tree, Ganryu started to walk away, pulling out a small cell phone from his pocket. And with a quick push of the button, Ganryu lifted the phone up to his ear. "… Yeah, it's me… And you were right."

"… I understand…"

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

Midnight…

The cold dead night swept over the small Atlantic Duel Academia Island, basking the island in darkness and a faint glow from the moon that pended perilously over the small body of land in the endless water. More specifically, at the port area, where the moon's light reflected off of the ocean's main body, a trio of shadowed figures stood tall on the docks, watching as a boat that was once in the distance slowly began to crept closer and closer on the surface of the salty water. Each one standing in silence with each second bringing the ship closer and closer…

"_If the flame of the united souls points at your chest, is a resonance stronger than words being heard now?_"

… Well, almost in silence…

"Tony! Turn off that racket!" Luntina hissed, her eyes glaring daggers at the Chess Loving duelist.

As the fast paced song continued onwards, Tony waved the source slightly in the air in front of him, revealing a small portable iPod that had a handsome gray haired man in a large white overcoat playing the tune on his dark purple guitar, "Look you said that since I agreed, I'd have to be here… but there's no reason to be bored for an entire hour."

"He's got a point there Luntina," Riko added tapping his foot along with the beat that was playing from the iPod's speakers. "It was a little boring to be out here."

"Yeesh, but did you have to play his music?" Luntina asked pointing towards the screen. "You know if Principal Wright hears that we'll have to deal with the family photos again and how this guy became such a success and how he's so proud of him…"

"I already checked," Tony replied before getting back to dancing to the music slightly. "The codger's already in dreamland. 'sides, what's wrong with listening to this guy?"

"Ugh… you have to ask that when we're about to meet the two reps from the Pacific Academy?" Luntina grumbled with a slap to her forehead, not noticing that the ship was a lot closer than it was a few moments ago. Luntina remembered what her contact from the Pacific Academy had told her about what had happened about roughly a year ago…

… Just before he became Kaiser of his academy…

"Forget it," Luntina sighed crossing her arms. "I need to tell you two a few things about these two guys."

"Like what?" Riko asked, raising an eyebrow as he tilted his head to the side. "Aren't they respectable duelists like us?"

"… I guess you could call them that," Luntina mumbled turning her head to the side slightly.

"Then there shouldn't be a problem," Riko stated.

"But these two aren't your typical duelists," Luntina stated getting an odd look from Tony.

"Oh right, that one guy… uh, wasn't he named after a car or something?" Tony asked turning the volume down on the iPod he had in his hands. "I forget… but didn't you say he was a little like me?"

"… Well… I'd say he's more like a perverted ladies man," Luntina sighed loudly lowering her head a bit lower. "He thinks he's god's gift to women… don't get me wrong he's a nice guy, but, not the sort of guy you'd want around girls for too long… trust me."

"Alright…" Riko muttered with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head, the boat slowly getting closer and closer to the dock. "Anything we should know about the other one?"

"… Don't… and I can't stress this enough," Luntina warned raising her hands up in a defensive stance, not noticing that the boat was quickly in the final docking procedures. "No matter what the situation… no matter what anyone might prompt… what ever you do, do not, and I repeat…

"DO NOT! CALL THE GUY…"

"YO!"

Luntina was interrupted, prompting both her and Tony to crane their heads up, both of them surprised to see that the boat was here so soon. But was more surprising was the fact that there was a young man leaning over the side of the boat, his slick black hair (with a few red highlights in it) billowed in the night's wind in perfect sync with the sky blue scarf he had wrapped around his neck. "LUNTINA!"

That's when the young man did something that Luntina and Tony didn't expect…

He jumped over the side of the boat!

"WHAT THE HELL!?!" Tony shouted watching the black and crimson haired young man glide though the air, his Obelisk Blue uniform flapping through the air as he got closer and closer to the concrete dock.

"Wait! What's going on?" Riko asked turning his head left and right.

"… Relax," Luntina sighed as the young man began to spin through the air, becoming nothing more than a blue and white blur in the midnight sky, dropping to the ground. "He always pulls crazy stunts like this."

Stopping his spin, the young man seemed to float in mid-air for a few seconds before he landed on the dock gracefully. "Have no fear! The Die Hard Kaiser, Mustang, is here!"

Tony couldn't help but have his jaw drop to the concrete, Riko had a few question marks popping over his head, and Luntina… well, she just had a large sweatdrop rolling down the side of her braided hair at this young duelist's proclamation. "… Still pulling the same stunts again Mustang?"

"Heh!" Mustang laughed loudly with a large goofy grin on his handsome face. "Admit it Luntina… you love me and my dramatic entrances, so stop denying it."

"… This guy is like me?" Tony questioned with a sad look on his face. "I am not this ridiculous!"

"Hey, hey, hey!" Mustang snarled with a pair of large flames appearing in his eyes as he glared at Tony. "Who ya calling ridiculous, Wooly?!"

Tony tugged on his wool cap slightly, before he narrowed his eyes right back at Mustang, "Well, if the bad styled scarf fits…"

"GRR!" Mustang and Tony snarled loudly at each other, both of them barring their sharp teeth at each other.

"Oh for the love of…" A rather rough yet strong voice snarled loudly, getting everyone's attentions. "Will you two please just shut up! My internal clock is already messed up, and I can't even get a decent nap on the ship!"

Everyone (save for Riko who only turned his head) turned their sights towards the ship, now having a staircase drawn to the dock. And on that staircase was a rather short, young man, his messy white hair slightly covering the top of his eyes while his short (yet sleek) body was covered with a large baggy blue uniform overcoat with longer sleeves that covered his hands.

The moment that he stepped off the staircase, the short young man crossed his arms at Mustang. "Besides… I agree with the wool capped guy, you're pretty ridiculous."

"This coming from a pip-squeak," Mustang cackled, getting a widened eyed look from Luntina.

A large blood vessel appeared on the side of the white haired teen's head, his dark eyes narrowing into pure white versions of themselves, "WHO ARE YOU CALLING AN ANT THAT YOU COULDN'T EVEN SEE WITH A MAGNIFYING GLASS?!?!"

"Um… Luntina…" Riko whispered leaning toward the Kaisaris, not knowing that the little guy was throwing a few punches at Mustang, only to have them miss only by an inch. "That Mustang guy didn't say anything like that…"

"Yeah… that was what I was going to warn you guys about," Rena sighed lowering her head slightly. "This guy, Cain Sonryu is a little, well… a little sensitive about his short height."

Cain's ears twitched slightly as he turned towards the three duelists, it was almost as if he could hear Luntina's comments from that distance. "HEY! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!? I'M NOT A MIDGET!"

"Cain… they didn't say anything of the sort," Mustang sighed shaking his head. "You're just being a little over dramatic…"

"DON'T… SAY… LITTLE!" Cain snarled loudly throwing his right arm to the side before he slammed his foot into the ground.

"Um… anyway, should we show these two to their rooms?" Riko suggested lifting his hand up to get some attention. "After all, it is midnight…"

"Good plan!" Mustang laughed loudly slapping Cain on the back, making the short duelist fall face first into the ground.

"URK!"

"I'll expect at least one of you to show us around the island tomorrow!" Mustang laughed noticing that some staff that was stationed at the dock began to take his and Cain's luggage. "After all… from the reports I heard, this islands supposed to have a mess of sweeties!"

Tony couldn't help but glare at the Die Hard Kaiser, and already his mind was thinking of ways to torture this duelist if he ever laid a hand on a certain Red, Elf Duelist…

"We would Mustang," Luntina chuckled helping the short duelist up to his feet. "But, Principal Wright would like it if you could help Tony, Riko, and myself greet the rest of the guests who are coming tomorrow…"

"… Someone mind explaining to me why we couldn't come until tomorrow?" Cain growled with a dulled look on his face.

Too bad Cain was ignored, mainly thanks to Mustang, "What?!? B-But… I wanted to meet that fan club for the hottest guys on the island that you told me about!"

Tony, Riko and Cain couldn't help but sweatdrop, none of them were aware of such a club's existence.

"Well too bad!" Luntina growled grabbing Mustang by the ear, making the young Kaiser howl in pain. "You're going to help, or lord help me I'll rip this ear right off!"

"N-NO!" Mustang shouted before Luntina began to pull the Die Hard Duelist away from the dock, making the sweatdrops on Riko, Tony and Cain's heads grow slightly bigger. "O-OW!"

Blinking at the short duelist, Tony lifted his hand up, "Uh, it's nice to meet you Mr. Sonryu… I'm Tony Havoc, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Cain raised an eyebrow, but then shook his head as he took the hand with his left hand, "Havoc, huh? Well, it's a pleasure to meet someone with some self-respect and decency to introduce themselves in a good manner."

"Right back at ya," Tony chuckled as Riko walked up.

"And I would also like to welcome you," Riko stated with a bow to Cain. "It's not everyday we get the Alchemic Duelist, winner of the Arch Isles tournament, to visit our island. I hope that I, Riko, can make your stay comfortable, just let me know."

"Heh, I get treated better here than at my home academy," Cain chuckled turning to the academy's main building. "… I think I might just enjoy my stay here for a while…"

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Card Stats**

**Aegis Guard / Trap / Effect: **Send one 'Elf' monster from your deck to the graveyard. During the turn this card is activated, neither player can declare an attack.

**Image:** Many shields guarding a small elf girl.

**Arch Elf Sword Master / Fire / LV. 5 / ATK: 2000 / DEF: 800 / Warrior/Effect:** Each time a spell card is activated, place one 'Spell Counter' on this card. For each 'Spell Counter' on the field, increase this card's attack and defense points by 200 points. When there are three or more 'Spell Counters' on this card, this card inflicts piercing damage

**Description:** A vicious red haired elf girl, with her long red hair falling over her armored black and red dress with a heavy, thick, two-handed sword with many bolts popping out from it.

**Elf's Pure Magic / Continuous Trap / Effect:** When your opponent declares an attack against a face up 'Elf' monster, by removing two 'Spell Counters' from your side of the field, you may negate that attack.

**Image:** A large barrier appearing around the Arch Elf Warlock.

**Spell Guard / Instant Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when your opponent activates a spell or trap card that would destroy a monster(s) on your side of the field. Remove three Spell Counters from your field to negate that card's activation and destroy it.

**Image:** A young spellcaster kneeling behind a large glass like barrier.

Lyra Musician / Wind / LV. 4 / ATK: 1400 / DEF: 1350 / Spellcaster/Effect: Once per turn, this card cannot be destroyed as a result of battle (Battle damage still applies).

**Description:** A young girl with a blue visor covering her eyes, and her hair pulled back into a small tail, wearing a light red sleeveless shirt and skirt with a small metallic heart covering her chest. She had long black sleeves and leggings that ended in red matching gloves and boots, while in her hands she held a light blue guitar… but it didn't have any strings on it

**Arch Elf Mage / Water / LV. 2 / ATK: 300 / DEF: 500 / Spellcaster/Effect:** When this card is destroyed as a result of battle, you may special summon one 'Elf' monster from your deck with 1000 or less attack points from your deck.**  
Description: **A cute young purple haired elf girl dressed in a lightly armored purple dress with a short wand in her hands.

**Arch Forest Elf / Earth / LV. 3 / ATK: 950 / DEF: 400 / Beast-Warrior/Effect:** ???

**Description: **A rash looking young elf boy with wild orange hair wearing tight forest green clothes with horns popping out from his large green headband. At his back is a large green battle axe.

**Mystic Tag / Instant Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you have a face up 'Arch Elf' monster on your field. Remove one 'Elf' or 'Celtic' monster from your graveyard. Send one face up 'Arch Elf' monster from your side of the field to your graveyard. You may special summon one level four or lower monster from your deck with the same attribute as the monster you sent to the graveyard.

**Image:** The Arch Forest Elf blushing with the Arch Elf Dancer clinging to his chest.

**Arch Elf Dancer / Earth / LV. 3 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 0 / Spellcaster/Tuner:** While there is a face up 'Elf' or 'Celtic' monster on the field, this card cannot be attacked. Increase the attack points of all Spellcaster, Warrior, and Beast-Warrior monsters on your side of the field by 400 points.

**Description: **A real cute pink haired elf girl, her hair tied up in twin tails with flowers on her hair and loose black clothing that shows her cute figure.

**0-0-0-0-0**

**Rena:** Whoa…

**Klein:** I didn't think it was possible…

**Leo:** Hmm… interesting…

**Ganryu:** …

**Yukiko: **What in the world are you guys doing? We've got to work on the…

**Cain:** … Hmm…

**Yukiko:** Wow… who let the little kid in here?

**Cain: -A large blood vessel appears on the side of his head-**

_**Next time, with an elite here on the island, will this **__**short**__**-fused young duelist cause a stir? **_

_**Next time – **__**Chapter 55: Big Things, Little Package**_

**Cain:** … That had better not be the title for next chapter… Grr…


	56. Chapter 55: Big Things, Little

_**Author's Note:**__ Warning! This chapter contains short jokes, short tempers and a short parody of a internet fad! You have been warned, so don't blame me in the reviews if you didn't get it or if you get scared._

_**DAMN IT!**_

_**I didn't want it to be this way!**_

_**Why did it have to be this way!?!  
**_

_**WHY DID THE AUTHOR HAVE TO USE THIS DAMN TITLE!?!?**_

… _**Urgh… Fine! **_

_**It seems that no matter where I go, I always find a damn idiot who keeps referring me as… As… ACK! I can't say it! No matter what! I won't say it! NEVER!**_

_**Anyway, I hate the fact that I even here, with the crap that I deal with on a daily basis, what happened with that damn ninja freak and that stupid… Hell, I don't know what call that thing…**_

_**But that's besides the point, once again, I'm forced to do something that I don't want to do, and yet here I am again. Is it my fate that I'm bound to idiots for the last of my life?**_

_**Ugh…**_

_**I do have to give idiots, including this new batch of idiots I just met, something though.**_

… _**They sure do know how to make things interesting….**_

**0-0-0-0-0**

**Chapter 55**

**Big Things, Little Package**

**0-0-0-0-0**

It was early morning, the sun was barely rising over the academy, but in a currently rented out Obelisk Blue room, a familiar white haired duelist was busy at work. He couldn't sleep, and so, he decided to do some repair work…

"… Toss in this card," Cain muttered throwing the other card onto the pile of cards that were scattered all over the desk. "And I suppose this is done for now…"

With a shake of his head, Cain leaned back into his chair. He never felt so tired before, but with the ship ride last night and the time change, his internal clock wouldn't allow him to sleep until it was night again.

But it was a surefire bet that Mustang was asleep in the next room, heck if Cain didn't make a sound, he could hear the Die Hard Pain in the ass snore. '_And he says that he's a gift to women…'_

Rubbing his sleep deprived eyes, Cain turned towards the window with a loud sigh. A new island and the only person he knows is that very pain in the ass snoring loudly. But according to that girl Kaiser, whose name escaped Cain, he was more than allowed to roam the island while she along with the other top duelists on the island were sleeping.

Personally, Cain would've preferred to beat himself senselessly with his own right fist…

… But at this point, Cain was good for at least a walk around the island.

Taking a look out on the island, Cain couldn't help but notice that he wasn't the only student up at this hour. There were too many to count, but it was easy to see that in the clearings on the island, Cain saw that the students were probably getting ready for that festival that Mustang told Cain on the ship.

"… I guess a little walk around couldn't hurt," Cain stated looking at his uniform overcoat that he had thrown on the bed last night. '_… But first… I need a shower to wake me up…'_

As the glare from the morning sun reflected off the window, Cain looked at his right arm, shaking his head, "This is always a pain…"

**0-0-0-0-0**

"So… Tell me why we're building this?"

On the island grounds, more specifically the area near the Ra Yellow dorm where students were setting up the apparent Date Café, Van, Klein and Koji were building the top of the extra large gazebo, Van carrying the support beams while Koji and Klein nailed them in place.

"Huh? What was that Koji?" Klein asked, spitting out the nails he kept in his mouth.

"Why are we doing this?!" Koji asked again, this time getting Van's attention. "Van… I can understand why you're doing this… Rukia's on the committee and you want to get a good impression."

Van didn't need to say a word, as he pulled his hat down in front of his face, the two brothers could see that his face was turning red, which was hard for him since his other arm held a large board of wood.

"But what in the world would possess you to do this?" Koji asked tilting his head to the side slightly. "I mean… There isn't a girl in this for you, is there Klein?"

"Of course not you idiot!" Klein shouted standing up straight, trying to get his footing right. "I'm doing this for one reason and one reason only… And it's a reason that you're familiar with!"

"Don't tell me that its money…" Koji sighed with his head lowering slightly.

"YES! Money!" Klein exclaimed with flames roaring in his eyes. "That's the only love I need! And with coffee, drinks and other things that couples want… It's a goldmine!"

Koji and Van looked at each other for a few seconds as Klein laughed loudly into the air, then with a cough, Van decided to burst his friend's bubble, "Uh, Klein, you do realize that you're not going to see any of that money?"

"… What?" Klein asked with his eyes drained of life.

"Yeah, all money we get goes to the academy," Koji answered blinking behind his large glasses.

"ACK!" Klein shouted before his entire body seemed to stiffen up into pure stone.

"… It's almost a shame that his eagerness disappeared just like that," Van admitted pushing his hat back up.

"Van!"

Van turned his head to the side, wondering who called his name, but out of the corner of his eye Van smirked greatly as he slowly began to turn around, "Ah! Hey! Rukia!"

Unfortunately, Van forgot that he was holding onto the wooden beam, and had smacked the board right into the back of Klein's head, "ACK!" And with that, Klein was knocked off the makeshift roof and onto the hard flat ground.

BAM!

It wasn't until the loud crashing sound that made Van and Rukia turn towards the fallen shorty, "Oh… Uh, sorry Klein! My bad!"

As Klein was trying to stand up, Yukino walked past him with a clipboard in her hands and a yellow hardhat covering her hair, "… Should I even ask what happened here?"

"… I'd prefer if you didn't," Klein groaned rubbing the newest bruise on his head.

"Whatever, Moe," Yukino sighed continuing on her way as Van ran past her to help Klein up. "Hey, Rukia!"

"You called boss?" Rukia asked walking up to Yukino, adjusting the matching yellow hardhat on her head.

"Yeah, you're roommates with that Rena right?" Yukino asked getting a nod for an answer from Rukia. "Well… Do you know where she is? She was supposed to help out as well this morning."

"Um… Well, I'm not sure where she is," Rukia answered rubbing her chin. "But I know that she was awake when I left… And she looked like she was thinking over something…"

"Perfect," Yukino groaned, and as much as she didn't want Rena around, Yukino needed all the help they could get with the Date Café's set up. Holding the clipboard up to Rukia, Yukino sighed, "Look, I'm going to go find her. I just need you watch over things here… Make sure this place doesn't catch fire or whatever."

Taking the clipboard from Yukino, Rukia saluted, "Yes ma'am!"

**0-0-0-0-0**

Speaking of Rena, she was just locking the door to her dorm hut, her dueling deck clasped on the back of her skirt's belt. Leaning her head against the door, Rena sighed loudly, ever since her match with Lyra Musician yesterday (which was still quite weird); she was in deep thought…

… But not because of what Lyra had said…

_Ganryu's firm grip had grasped her by the chin, turning the young Elf Duelist's face towards the Samurai duelist's. Their eyes met, and Rena couldn't help but notice that Ganryu's cold grey eyes seemed to soften slightly, with a small tint of cobalt surrounding his irises. _

_Time seemed to slow to a snail's crawl… and yet the blush grew on Rena's face, as a tint of red began to show itself on Ganryu's face. Rena tried to speak, however, all she could mumble, "G-Ganryu…"_

_The blood in Ganryu's face seemed to overflow, his entire face blushing greatly although his eyes just looked straight into the pools of emerald that were Rena's. And then, slowly, Ganryu's face began to close the gap between his and Rena's._

_She could feel Ganryu's body next to hers, his weight on the bed drawing her closer to him… so close she could feel his increasing body heat against Rena's bare arms. The two's breaths danced in between each others', until they both held their breaths._

_The ticks and tocks of the clock that pended on the nearby wall seemed to halt as only a centimeter seemed to be the only obstacle between the two red students' faces…_

_Ganryu's grip fell limp on the jaw line of Rena's face, he didn't need the strength at the moment. And when he leaned forward, the two teens' lips met…_

_Rena made no move to fight, only her eyes flickered with surprise and then softened as she closed them._

_It was almost as if a cool blue aura of serenity flowed around the two young teens, the moments that they shared in their kiss seemed to last an eternity, and the aura seemed to die around Ganryu's body… and yet, he still didn't pull away from Rena._

_This felt like a moment that could've lasted forever…_

A large blush crept up on Rena's face as she shook her head furiously. So many questions were rushing through her head, '_Why… Why did he kiss me?! What's going on here!?! And… And what's up with Ganryu!?!'_

There was one thing that Rena had to do… And that was to find Ganryu and ask him straight out. And nothing was going to…

"Good Morning Rena," Leo chuckled appearing dramatically behind Rena.

It took a few seconds for Rena to have that registered, and when it did, Rena jumped up into the air with a surprised look on her face, "AAAH! LEO!?!"

"Not just Leo-kun!" Kimatori announced popping up from behind Rena just as she landed on the ground.

"AAAAH!" Rena stumbled backwards, making her deck case clip off of her belt and bounce on the ground a few times. "W-Where in the world…!?!?"

"Leo-kun's been teaching me!" Kimatori giggled running behind Rena for her deck case.

Holding his hand towards Rena, Leo smiled his trademark grin, "I do apologize for that Rena. But how are you doing today?"

"Ugh… Well, I'm wide awake now," Rena answered, using Leo's hand to pull herself up, and as she dusted off her skirt, Rena sighed loudly.

This didn't go unnoticed by Leo, "… Rena? Is there something the matter? Normally you're screaming or lecturing me about scaring you…"

"Huh?" Rena questioned with a few question marks appearing over her head, a large blush appearing immediately afterwards. "Uh… N-Nothing's on my mind…"

"Then why does Rena-chan have a red face?" Kimatori asked holding up Rena's deck case to the Elf Duelist.

"Urk!" Rena muttered, slowly taking the deck case from the little girl.

"She does have point Rena," Leo pointed out with a smirk on face as he crossed his arms. "Now, you can tell us now in a calm manner… Or we can do some sneaking around…"

"NO!" Rena shouted, making both Leo and Kimatori step back slightly. With her face turning redder than before, Rena looked around before she ran off. "SorrybutIgottagetgoing! I'llseeyalaterLeo!"

Leo couldn't help but blink at Rena's reaction, but then a large smirk appeared on his face as he turned to Kimatori, "… Well then… Should we get to work with the other members of our group?"

"Nah!" Kimatori replied with a large smile on her face. "We should follow Rena-chan!"

"Great minds, Kimatori," Leo chuckled tapping his forehead a few times. "… Great minds."

**0-0-0-0-0**

It wasn't too long since Cain trekked out on the island, but personally, there was something about this island that seemed to make Cain a tad bit more relaxed…

… But it wasn't enough to fully calm him down.

"Wow! I didn't think we allowed kids at the academy…"

"Dang, look at that shrimp!"

"Whoops! Didn't see you there tiny!"

It too all of Cain's will power not to pummel each and every one of those students into the ground. That and the fact that if Cain got in trouble while he was on another island, he would more than likely get in trouble when he got back to the Pacific Academy.

So, biting his tongue and holding his fist back, Cain was merely standing at the side entrance of the main building, since there wasn't a lot of people there at the moment. Heck he was the only one there, so he could enjoy the small veggie drink he managed to bring before he got on the boat.

"Ah!" Cain breathed a sigh of relief as he leaned up against the large building, messing with the can of veggie drink. "At least this stuff calms me down…"

Because of all those comments that were shot towards him earlier, Cain didn't really have the patience to be sociable with the current student body. That would be why he was at this area at the moment, it was almost completely void of the very students that would…

"Excuse me."

With his train of thought derailed, Cain opened his eyes and turned his gaze to the side, seeing a Ra Yellow girl with slightly long dark purple hair and a pair of large glasses on her smiling face. Yet, Cain still wasn't in the mood to deal with people, "… What?"

"Ah yes, have you seen…" Yukino started holding her hand up.

"No…" Cain answered immediately, returning to his veggie drink.

"Uh, I didn't say who I was looking for," Yukino muttered with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of her head. "I'm looking for a Red student, a girl with a petite figure, slightly longer brown hair with red highlights…"

"Does it look like I care?" Cain growled as he crushed the can in his right hand's powerful grip, the remaining drink staining his black gloves.

"Uh… I'll just be going then, heh," Yukino sheepishly chuckled before she ran off away from the annoyed Cain.

That's when it dawned on Cain that he crushed his drink in his hand, "Aw crap! That was my last drink!"

Tossing the ruined can the side, Cain slapped his forehead with his left hand with a loud groan, '_Why does it always end with me getting the short end?'_

Cain lowered his head as he slowly walked away from his former private hiding place, now that someone had found him and knowing his luck he was more than likely going to find that more and more people are going to find him.

So slowly, Cain began to turn the corner of the building, his eyes closed…

Not the smartest idea…

WHAM!

"URK!"

"AAH!"

Being thrown the ground wasn't something that Cain was used to, so when he stumbled over his legs and landed on the ground, it took a few seconds for it to register with him. "Damn it! What the hell was that about?!"

"Uh… Sorry!"

When Cain opened his eyes, he immediately changed his gaze into a glare that was shot at the red uniform dressed girl he bumped into. But as he looked at her, with her slightly long brown hair (which had a few red highlights in them) billowing over her apologetic face, Cain raised an eyebrow.

The girl immediately stood up and bowed slightly towards Cain, surprising the short duelist, "I'm so sorry! I was looking for someone and… And, uh, let me help you up!"

Cain blinked as the girl immediately took his left arm and tried to pull him up…

Key word there was 'tried'.

"Ugh!" The girl moaned releasing Cain's left arm. "You're pretty heavy for a little guy…"

SNAP!

"WHAT THE HELL!?!" Cain roared jumping to his feet as he stomped up to the now surprised red girl. "First you knock me down, and then you insult me!?! Why kind of people are on this island anyway?!"

"Well, I'm sorry!" The brunette gasped lowering her head slightly. "I was just in a hurry!"

"… Huh?" Cain backed up slightly, surprising the girl once more. "Why are you in a hurry? I was told that classes were cancelled during this time."

"Well… I'm looking for someone," The girl answered rubbing the back of her head, a small blush appearing across her face in the process. "Did you happen to see…"

"Yeesh, what's with people asking me if I've seen someone else today?" Cain muttered rolling his eyes.

Unfortunately, this comment didn't reach the ears of the girl, "… A gray haired guy, kinda tall with cold eyes? He was wearing a red uniform that's slightly ripped…"

"No, I haven't seen anyone like that," Cain sighed rubbing his forehead.

"Oh well, thanks for your time," The girl sighed lowering her head before walking past Cain.

"… Weird…" Cain muttered watching the girl walk away until he turned his head forward.

Just as he took a step forward, Cain's foot collided with something, prompting the young duelist to shift his gaze to the ground… Seeing a small deck case at his feet, picking up the case of cards, Cain raised an eyebrow at the name written on it, "… 'Rena Akira'… This must be that girl's…"

More than likely, the girl dropped the deck case when she and Cain walked into each other, and didn't realize she had dropped her deck in the process.

Looking at the deck case, and then in the general direction where the girl, Rena went, Cain sighed as he pocketed the deck case.

**0-0-0-0-0**

It was a while since she ran into that overly enraged, yet strange short Obelisk Blue student, but Rena's search for Ganryu had gone as well as it usually went. Taking a break from her search, Rena sat down on a bench nearby another class's area throwing her head back over her shoulders. '_I'd like to learn how Ganryu can disappear into thin air… Or how Leo can appear out of anywhere…'_

A few yards away…

"Alright! Alright! Keep it up, ya know!"

"Asche," Cleo stated crossing her arms as she walked up to the larger Obelisk Blue student standing in front of the large stage. "How are things going on construction?"

"Oh! Miss Cleo!" Asche chuckled rubbing his nose's bridge as he turned from the large stage where several people were adding the final touches to the stage. "We've almost finished with the stage, ya know!"

"Good, so we're almost ready for the pageant," Cleo giggled with a wink with a large heart popping from her eye's corner. Clasping her hands together, a large red curtain appeared behind her as she spun around. "So, it'll only be a matter of time till my beauty is a known fact around the entire island!"

Holding up his duel disk, Asche gulped slightly as he took out the field spell card he had slipped it into it. "Uh, Miss Cleo… C-Can I ask a favor, ya know?"

As the holographic curtain disappeared, Cleo blinked a few times at Asche, "Huh? Oh, sure Asche. What can I do for you?"

"Actually, me and some of the other guys, ya know," Asche stated waving his hand up, getting a few of the workers behind him to jump off the stage, one of them carrying a stereo. "Wanted to perform a show before your pageant, we've even got an act, ya know."

"Oh?" Cleo raised an eyebrow. "And what kind of act did you have in mind?"

"You're going to love it ya know!" Asche exclaimed with a snap of his fingers, getting the one student with the stereo push a button on it.

Back with Rena…

"… Oh man…" Rena sighed lowering her head a little bit more towards the ground. '_Am I ever going to be able to find Ganryu?'_

"Hey…"

Rena's head shot back up, seeing the short Cain standing in front of her, his arms crossed over his chest in a manner that he was the one looking down on her (which was weird cause even sitting down, Rena was still taller than him). "Oh, you're that one sh… One Obelisk Blue Duelist."

"… I'm glad you remembered me," Cain stated, not losing his cool cause the girl actually caught her mistake.

"So, what are you doing here…?" Rena asked, remembering that she didn't catch this young white-haired man's name.

Cain tapped his forehead with his left hand a few times, "… Cain Sonryu… My name in case you're wondering Rena Akira…"

"Oh, nice to meet you Cai…" Rena started until it dawned on her that Cain knew her name. "W-Wait! How do you know…"

That's when Cain produced a familiar deck case, that had Rena's name stitched into it, "You dropped this when you bumped into me. So that answers any questions you have about me, I assume?"

"Uh… Pretty much I guess," Rena chuckled sheepishly as Cain dropped the deck case into her open hands. "Thanks."

"… No worries," Cain replied and was about to walk away…

"AAAH!!"

"WAIT MISS CLEO! YA KNOW!"

That's when Cleo ran past the two, tears streaming from her eyes and a cloud of dust being swept up behind her. Because of the dust, Asche wasn't able to keep up with Miss Cleo, "You still haven't told us what you thought about our act, ya know!"

Cain couldn't help but sweatdrop at the weird blue's choice of words, '_… Whatever act you did to make a girl run… I'm sure the answer is easy to know…'_

"Huh?" Asche questioned turning to the side. "Oh! Miss Rena, good day!"

"Hey there Asche," Rena chuckled rubbing the back of her head. "Um… Should I even ask what's up with Cleo?"

"Oh, she's just going off to think about the act me and the guys were planning," Asche explained with a nod of his head and a large grin on his face. "Ya see, she's in charge of that Miss Duel Academia pageant in a few days, and I wanted to perform before that, ya know!"

"Really?" Rena questioned raising an eyebrow, not knowing that Asche was one for wanting attention. "Well, what was your act?"

"We're going for a musical number, ya know," Asche explained placing his hands on his hips with a large grin appearing on his face. "Hey, ya wanna see it and tell me what ya think of it, ya know?"

"Ha!"

Both Rena and Asche turned towards Cain, his eyes narrowed down at Asche with a smirk on his face, "I think you've already got your answer Mr. Muscles."

"Huh, ya know?" Asche questioned, a small blood vessel appeared on the side of his head. "What the hell are you talking about shorty?"

This time a blood vessel appeared on Cain's head, "Look, you towering titan! From that girl you call 'Miss Cleo' and her reaction to your act; I'm willing to say that it's a safe bet that you're act sucks!"

"WHAT!?! YA KNOW!" Asche snarled slamming his foot into the ground in front of Cain and lowering his head to be eye level with Cain. "I dare ya to say that again ya little pipsqueak!"

"Your act is probably so scary that it could raise the dead and run away!" Cain shouted back with his neck veins starting to appear.

"RUNT!" Asche roared with his eyes slitting slightly.

"PEA-BRAINED IDIOT!" Cain shouted throwing his fist to the side.

"Uh… I don't think this is how Obelisk Blue students here are supposed to act," Rena stated looking left and right, turning from Cain to Asche. "Besides, don't you guys have like a code of honor or something?"

"Huh?" Cain questioned turning his enraged gaze from Asche.

"That's just a myth, ya know," Asche explained with a fist to his chest. "Besides, I've never even seen this shorty till today!"

"But, he's a blue and…" Rena stated with confusion popping through out her head.

"… I'm getting tired of this," Cain growled lifting his right fist up towards Asche. "And I'm getting tired of hearing crap being sputtered from your mouth."

"You little," Asche growled lifting his own face up. "You looking for a fight, ya know?"

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" Although she didn't know what was going on, Rena knew she couldn't let a fight just break out right here! So stepping in between the two blue duelists, the elf duelist lifted her arms up between the two of them. "C-Can't you two settle this other than by fists?"

Cain scoffed to the side before turning back to Asche, "… She's got a point… If you want to settle this…"

Reaching for something underneath his uniform, a small clicking noise echoed through the air as Cain held up a small black deck case, "Then we'll settle this little argument with a duel."

"Fine by me!" Asche snarled pulling up his own sky blue deck case. "But, when I win, not only will you eat your words, but you'll be in our little act!"

"… Sure," Cain snickered turning towards Rena. "You wouldn't happen to have a couple of duel disks on ya, would you?"

"Does it look like I do?" Rena asked holding up her empty arms.

"I happen to have a pair of duel disks," Leo stated holding up a pair of duel disks up while Kimatori sat on his shoulders.

…

"AAAH!" Rena, Cain and Asche screamed loudly as they all jumped back.

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!?!" Cain snapped stomping his foot into the ground.

"Stop doing that!" Rena shouted.

A few minutes later, Rena and Kimatori sat on the bench while Leo stood behind them, watching as Cain and Asche shuffled each other's decks furiously. "So, Rena, mind if I ask who this young white haired blue duelist is?"

"Huh? You too Leo?" Rena questioned as Cain and Asche walked away from each other, both of them activating their duel disks with their decks loaded in them. "I thought between you and Asche, I figured at least one of you would know this guy."

"Sorry," Leo replied with his usual smile on his face. "But he's a new face to me."

'_And yet… There's something about him that I just can't put my thumb on…'_

"You can go first shorty, ya know," Asche chuckled looking at his five card hand. (ALP: 8000)

"Before we begin, I have to say something," Cain stated holding his right hand up slightly.

"Huh?" Asche, Rena, Leo and Kimatori questioned.

"Ready…"

"Set…"

"DUEL!" Cain shouted!

"… Wow… that was so lame," Asche chuckled with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head.

'_I'll make you eat those words,_' Cain thought pulling his sixth card up to his eyes. "I'll start off slow… I set a monster face down in defense mode! And I'll set a single card face down!"

The two face down cards appeared in front of Cain, allowing the short duelist to cross his arms, "So that'll be that."

"Oh come on, ya know!" Asche announced pulling up his next card from his deck. "If you're a blue, you should at least have a big opening in a duel, ya know!"

"… Yeesh, you haven't seen a real opening, ya know!" Cain spat out with his tongue sticking out.

"Oh, I'm so going to enjoy this, ya know!" Asche shouted slapping a card onto his duel disk, creating a powerful burst of electricity forming over his head. With a loud roar, the electricity shattered into a large cybernetic serpent dragon, roaring loudly as electricity surged through its body (2100/1600). "I summon Cyber Dragon in attack mode!"

Cain's eyes widened at the large steel dragon, but then immediately barred his teeth, '_… K-Kazica…'_

"And since that was a special summon," Asche announced slapping another card on his duel disk, creating a powerful flame around his body, the flames flying of its body to reveal a large cybernetic phoenix that screeched loudly into the air (1200/1600). "I can normal summon Cyber Phoenix immediately!"

"Cyber Dragon! Attack his face down defense monster!"

A powerful blue flame erupted from the cybernetic dragon's mouth, crashing into the face down monster, just in time to allow it to flip up into a fancy young man dressed in flowing green clothes, a small book in his hands before he shattered into a million pieces (1000/800).

And yet, Cain kept his white hair overshadowing his cold eyes…

"Boo-ya!" Asche shouted throwing his arm to the side. "Too bad I didn't attack with my Phoenix, that would've been more damage… Oh well, Phoenix! Attack the shorty directly, ya know!"

With a loud screech the cybernetic phoenix flew towards Cain, its wings set ablaze…

And it would've set Cain ablaze if it wasn't for that mysterious shadow that landed directly in front of the short duelist, kicking the steel phoenix back to Asche's field, "W-What the heck?! What just happened ya know?"

"You big guys need to pay attention," Cain growled lifting his head up, revealing his sharp eyes. The shadows around his monster disappeared, revealing a young man standing in front of him; his wild red hair covered his right eye while his red shirt and black pants were covered with silver armor. With a nasty scowl appearing over his face, the man drew a large red and steel chain covered sword from his back (1500/1000). "Otherwise, you would've realized that the monster you destroyed was my Noble Alchemist…"

At that word, everyone in the area turned towards the duel, and yet Cain just continued on as a red aura appeared over his body, "And when flipped, I can special summon another alchemist from my deck or removed pile. And I chose my Alchemist Swordsman. After which, I take two hundred points of damage times the summoned monster's level…" (CLP: 7200)

"But that's a cost that I'm willing to pay."

"A-Alchemists…" Asche gulped taking a step back.

Rena's eyes widened Cain and then his alchemist monster, sure she had only seen two of this guy's alchemists, but it was only coincidence that he ran the same deck as the Kaisaris…

Even Leo seemed to shift his normal calm behavior to a more serious look as he rubbed his chin.

"… What's the matter?" Cain asked narrowing his eyes at Asche. "Don't tell me you're throwing in the towel yet! I haven't even attacked yet and you're already in the lead!"

"Uh… I'll set a card," Asche announced as the face down card appeared behind his two Cyber monsters. "And that'll be what I've got, ya know."

"Leo! What's going on here?" Rena whispered as Cain silently drew his next card. "How does Cain have Luntina's deck?"

Leo's eyes widened slightly as he turned towards Rena, "Rena… Did you say that his name was Cain?"

"Y-Yeah, Cain Sonryu," Rena replied raising an eyebrow. "Why?"

"… Allow me to explain a few things…" Leo suggested leaning towards Rena with his hand close to her ears.

Looking at his newest card, Cain immediately looked at his next card, "… Well now… I didn't expect to do this so soon."

"Huh?" Asche questioned before Cain slapped his next card onto his duel disk, causing a large dust storm to erupt from the ground, making everyone cover their eyes.

The dust storm shattered, revealing another young man only with grayish brown hair dressed in a brown jacket and white shirt underneath. While around his waist was a large sword that he immediately drew (1900/1000) with a smirk at the Alchemist Swordsman. "Now that I have Rogue Alchemist… I can bring out my deck's favorite move…"

"Wait… You can't mean…" Asche shouted as a large red transmutation circle erupted from underneath the two Alchemists.

"Alchemic Fusion!"

Both of the Alchemists nodded towards each other before they disappeared in the light of the red transmutation circle, combining them into a powerful figure basking in a bright red light. The red light shattered, revealing a young brown haired man with his hair combed down except for two large hairs in the front, wearing a red vest with a leather brown jacket with the sleeves rolled up. Around his dark red pants was a large dark blue belt connected to a large sheathe with a large sword in it. In his right hand was a large four bladed windmill that spun in his hand (2200/1500). "Arise Alchemist in Arms!"

"It… It can't be possible!?!" Asche shouted taking a few steps backwards. "But how can you…"

"Don't sound so surprised!" Cain shouted as the Alchemist in Arms spun the bladed windmill in his hands before he threw it towards the Cyber Dragon. "Alchemist in Arms! Attack his Cyber Dragon!"

And yet, Asche couldn't help but smile as his face down card flip up, "Sorry to disappoint you shorty! But I've got my Attack Reflector Unit! Allowing me to release my Cyber Dragon…"

The Cyber Dragon wrapped itself in a bright blue light, bulking up the cybernetic dragon until the light shattered to reveal the Cyber Dragon with a large satellite addition strapped to it's neck (800/2800). "… Allowing me to special summon Cyber Barrier Dragon!"

"Well, since you summoned, I get a recall," Cain explained before snapping his right arm to the side. "But I'll ignore it! Alchemist in Arms! Slay that Cyber Dragon!"

The windmill blade continued towards the Barrier Dragon, only to be stopped in its place thanks to a large shield of light that appeared around the dragon's body, sending the windmill blade back into the air. "HA! Looks like someone didn't know that once per turn my…"

Asche's boast was cut short as the Alchemist in Arms ran directly in front of the Cyber Barrier Dragon, spinning his sword around before he stabbed it directly through the Cyber Barrier Dragon's head, making the machine bulge slightly before exploding right in front of Asche, "AAAAH!" (ALP: 6400)

"I said my Alchemist would slay your dragon," Cain restated as his Alchemist in Arms leapt backwards, catching the windmill blade while in mid-air. "You see, my Alchemist in Arms can attack twice a turn."

"Urk…" Asche growled as Cain looked at his hand.

"I'll end this turn with a set card," Cain wrapped up as the second face down card appeared in front of him. "And that'll be that."

"Then it's my draw!" Asche roared pulling off the top card from his deck, and as he looked at the card a small smirk appeared on his face. "First things first! I activate the spell card, Graceful Charity!"

Pulling off the top three cards from his deck, Asche nodded his head immediately as he fitted two cards, Proto-Cyber Dragon and Photon Generator Unit. "Next, I'll set two cards face down and a face down monster in defense mode. And to end my turn, I'll switch my Phoenix to defense mode… Turn end!"

"Running scared, big guy?" Cain asked plucking off the top card from his deck with ease. "I guess it can't be helped… And with this guy, you'll be running with your tail between your legs! I summon Sync Alchemist in attack mode!"

A powerful twister swept the field, allowing a familiar golden masked alchemist to land onto the field (1500/1300), his arms crossed as he shot a glance towards the Alchemist in Arms. "And next, I'll enter my battle phase! Alchemist in Arms! Get rid of those two monsters he has on the field!"

Spinning around a few times, the alchemist in arms unleashed the windmill onto the ground, tearing up the earth that it came crashing through, until it sliced right through the face down monster and Cyber Phoenix, the dirt flew up into Asche's face as he fitted the two cards into his duel disk's graveyard, "W-What the?!" (ALP: 5200)

"I forgot to mention that my Alchemist in Arms has a trampling effect," Cain chuckled as his alchemist caught the windmill blade in his hand easily again. "But more importantly, I can attack you directly with Sync Alchemist!"

Asche's eyes widened just before the Sync Alchemist slammed his foot directly into his stomach, sending Asche to the ground. "Urk!" (ALP: 3700)

"… _I can't tell who's the bad guy here…'_ Rena thought with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of her head.

"N-Not bad," Asche coughed pulling up two cards from his deck. "But both of those monsters were Cyber Phoenix cards… And when destroyed I can draw a card for each of them! And that's two ya know!"

"And that's my turn…" Cain sighed tapping his forehead a few times with his left hand.

"Heh…" Asche snickered before he jumped back onto his feet, pulling his next card into his hand. "You fell for it, ya know!"

"Huh?" Cain questioned raising an eyebrow.

"I activate my trap card, Call of the Haunted! Allowing me to special summon," Asche announced as a small serpent like dragon made out of steel (1100/600). "Proto-Cyber Dragon! And since I special summoned him… I can activate my face down spell card, Inferno Reckless Summon! So, you get to special summon all copies of…"

"I don't have any copies of the monsters on the field," Cain stated with his eyes narrowed.

"Then that just makes things so much easier!" Asche announced as two cards popped out of his deck and then one from his graveyard. "Because now I can special summon the three headliners from my deck! Arise… Cyber Dragons!"

Three orbs of blue electricity appeared around Asche's body, before all three of them shattered into the three Cyber Dragons (2100/1600), all of them roaring loudly through the air. "And I know what you're thinking… How'd he…

"Proto-Cyber Dragon is treated as Cyber Dragon," Cain growled with his eyes narrowed down at Asche. "I know what the card is capable of."

"Then I guess I don't need to explain what this next card can do," Asche stated holding up one of the remaining three cards in his hand. "I activate, Polymerization! Fusing all three of my Cyber Dragons into…"

All three of the dragons began to warp together, forming into the titan of power, with all three of the Cyber Dragons' heads (4000/2800). "CYBER END DRAGON!"

"Well, there's Asche's signature move…" Rena muttered pushing some of her hair out from her eyes.

"… Is that supposed to scare me?" Cain asked taking this moment to spit on the ground.

"No… It's supposed to destroy your Alchemist in Arms!" Asche shouted as all three of the Cyber End Dragon's heads charged up a powerful blue energy that was immediately erupted towards the surprised armed Alchemist.

Cain lifted his right fist up just as the blasts crashed into the ground, engulfing his Alchemist in Arms, shattering the alchemic warrior into millions of shards that flew back into Cain's body, "Ugh!" (CLP: 5400)

"Heh, ya know!" Asche laughed as several other Obelisk Blues in the area (save for Leo) laughed loudly. "Looks like you're just a copy cat Alchemist Duelist!"

"… Copy cat?" Cain asked lifting his head up, showing his white glowing eyes slightly. "I don't think so! I activate my trap card, Alchemy – Tears of Hyanthe! Since you destroyed a monster, I can remove one on your field! And I choose your Cyber End Dragon!"

"No you don't!" Asche roared sliding another card from his hand into his duel disk. "I activate De-Fusion! So, Cyber End Dragon be gone! And your target is gone, ya know!"

Cain's eyes widened as all three of the Cyber Dragons (2100/1600 x3) roared back onto the field. "… You lucky little…"

"Luck has nothing to do with it!" Asche laughed loudly throwing his hand forward, prompting one of the Cyber Dragons to fly over his shoulders. "Cyber Dragon number one! Attack the Sync Alchemist!"

The cybernetic dragon roared loudly as it wrapped itself around the Sync Alchemist's body, tightening and tightening the monster until a loud cracking sound echoed through the air. (CLP: 4800)

"Ew…" Rena and Kimatori flinched at the same time before the Cyber Dragon shattered as well.

"Hate to be the bearer of bad news," Cain growled looking at his field that only had one set card on the field. "But when destroyed in battle, your Cyber Dragon get's removed from play…"

"Like that matters now!" Asche shouted throwing his arm one the field, making the two Cyber Dragons and Proto-Cyber Dragon roar loudly into the air, "Cyber Dragons! End this duel! Triple Evolution Burst!"

All three of the Cyber Dragons took aim with their energy bursts…

"I activate my face down spell card!" Cain roared as his face down card flipped up.

"Nothing can save you, shorty!" Asche shouted as all three of his Cyber Dragons unleashed the powerful energy that flew towards Cain and his field as a small figure appeared in front of Cain.

The three bursts of energy crashed into the ground in front of Cain, engulfing the short duelist in the holographic smoke and debris.

"Ha! Looks like we've got a new dancer in our act, ya know!" Asche laughed as all the members of the same act clapped each other's hands.

…

"Why is it that all big muscled guys don't listen?"

From the smoke and debris, everyone's eyes widened at the sight of Cain with his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes narrowed down on the larger Blue Student. "W-What… H-How…"

That's when a small ghostly figure appeared around Cain's body, making the smaller man smirk at the winged brown puffball (300/200). "Gotta love the classic combos, Flute of Summoning Kuriboh and Winged Kuriboh." (CLP: 4800)

"Wow… Asche fell for the oldest trick in the book," Leo chuckled rubbing his chin at Asche stomping the ground at his feet.

"Fine! Ya know!" Asche growled spinning the last card in his hand into his duel disk. "I'll end my turn with the spell card, Different Dimension Capsule! Allowing me to put a card from my deck into my removed from play pile so I can get it in two turns!"

"If you last that long!" Cain shouted snapping off the top card from his deck, looking it over as a smirk appeared on his face. "… And it looks like it won't last that long! I summon Wandering Alchemist in attack mode!"

A small shadow appeared in front of Cain, making everyone look up to see Cain's monster falling to the ground, his large red overcoat billowing over his short black clothed body. When the young man landed on the ground (surprisingly he managed to pull off a soft landing), he stood up with a smirk on his face while his long blonde hair billowed slightly in the air, showing that it was braided into a tail (1500/1300).

"Ah… Could it be possible that he…" Leo mused with his smirk on his face growing larger with every few seconds.

"Huh? Do you know something Leo?" Rena asked shooting a weird look at the noble duelist.

"Of course not," Leo chuckled with a large smirk on his face.

That's when a card shot out of Cain's deck, allowing the short duelist spin the card in his fingers before he tossed it into his hand. "And when summoned, I can add one of three different kinds of cards from my deck to my hand… But for now, I'll activate the spell card, Double Summon! Now, I can summon once more this turn…"

Slapping another card from his hand, a small red transmutation circle popped next to the Wandering Alchemist, turning into a small blonde haired kid wearing an oddly familiar red overcoat holding onto a small book with a transmutation circle on it (500/500). "My Trainee Alchemist is my choice!"

"What in the world are you up to, ya know?" Asche asked before a large blood red transmutation circle erupted from under the two alchemists' feet. The light covering their bodies with both of them with smirks on their faces. "W-Wait! Don't tell me that…"

"Ya know, you're right," Cain chuckled as the two alchemists shattered. "You see, my Trainee Alchemist can allow me to use it as a Fusion Material for any alchemist fusion monster…"

The blood red transmutation circle immediately transformed into a cool blue version of itself, immediately shattering like glass to unleash a new Alchemist on the field this one a taller version of the Wandering Alchemist with dyed white bangs, his red overcoat was replaced with a blue one and with two thin swords strapped to the back of his waist, the young alchemist drew the weapons at the same time (2750/2500). "Especially for a favorite, Dark Steel Alchemist!

"And next, I'll outfit him with the equip card I got with Wandering Alchemist," Cain announced as a powerful green glow appeared around the Dark Steel Alchemist's swords (2750/2500 +700/0). "And now… Dark Steel Alchemist! Slay that proto-type!"

Like the calm breeze, the Dark Steel Alchemist slid right in front of the Proto-Cyber Dragon, bringing both of his swords down at the same time to destroy the machine in a quick second. (ALP: 850)

Asche stood back, mostly at the fact that his opponent summoned a monster that was almost equal with his Cyber End Dragon… But who knew what this Alchemist was capable of…

"Is… Is that all you've got, ya know!" Asche shouted throwing his arm to the side. "That big baddie doesn't scare me!"

"I'm not aiming to scare you," Cain replied snapping his fingers as the Dark Steel Alchemist slashed the blades in the air a few times around his body, creating a steel like aura around his body. "I'm aiming to end this charade of a duel! You see, my Dark Steel Alchemist has an effect similar of another alchemist you saw earlier in this duel…

"Care to guess which one?"

Asche tried to remember the effects of Cain's new alchemists, he was only familiar with the Alchemic deck that Luntina played, "Uh… I, I don't know, ya know."

"He holds the same ability for double attack like my Alchemist in Arms!" Cain shouted throwing his arm to the side getting several gasps from the crowd.

"DARK STEEL ALCHEMIST! END THIS!"

Like a blue and silver blur, the Dark Steel Alchemist swept through one of the remaining two Cyber Dragons, slicing its head off to make the machine explode violently into millions of electric blue flames. Asche's eyes widened at the sight of his favorite monster being destroyed so easily and as his life points dropped to zero, the larger duelist fell to knees, "… N-No way… ya know…" (ALP: 0)

"And that's how a real Obelisk Blue duels," Cain sighed spinning on his heel, putting his back to everyone as his Dark Steel Alchemist disappeared into thin air. Throwing his right arm to the side, Cain revealed his thumbs up… But then changed it to a thumbs down. "So before you go running your mouth off… Learn how to fight properly…"

"… You were the one who shot the first insult," Rena pointed out, making Cain sweatdrop greatly with a dull look on his face.

"That's not the point…" Cain muttered placing his right hand to his chin.

"Then what was the point of the duel in the first place?" Rena asked with a large sweatdrop rolling down the side of her head.

"Now, now, now, Cain Sonryu has always been a confusing duelist," Leo chuckled with his arms raised slightly.

"C-Cain Sonryu?!" Asche shouted falling backwards. "Y-You mean, I dueled against the second best duelist from the Pacific Academy!?!"

"Second best?" Rena gasped, not believing that she actually met one of the top duelists from another school… Well, more than that was the surprise that someone that short was a major duelist from another academy. That's when Rena turned towards Leo, "Wait, did you know who he was in the first place Leo?"

"… Oh, I had my suspicions," Leo admitted with sneaky smile on his face. "But, when I saw that Wandering Alchemist… Those suspicions cleared up in a matter of moments."

"I hate it when you do that," Rena moaned with a slap to her forehead.

A few minutes later, at the stage site that was back under construction by most of the students who were watching the duel, Rena and the others were standing in front of a sighing Asche. "… I just wanted my act to lead off the Miss Duel Academia Pageant… Ya know?"

"… I never said that you couldn't do it," Cain sighed rolling his eyes. "You just need to keep me out of it."

"For real?" Asche asked with the glimmer of hope returning to his eyes. "Does that mean that I can show you guys our act?!"

"N-Now, let's not get…" Cain started with a cold bead of sweat appearing on the side of his face…

… Only to get Rena to clamp her hand around Cain's mouth, "Of course Asche! Just go get ready and we'll wait."

"Alright ya know!" Asche shouted running towards the group of students behind him.

Breaking free from Rena's surprising strong grip, Cain glared daggers at Rena, "Do you realize you could've killed me?!!?"

"Well excuse me!" Rena replied placing her hands on her hips as she leaned towards Cain. "But you need to learn a few manners! You could at least let him perform his act! It won't kill you!"

"If it made people run and scream in terror," Cain retorted with his eyes narrowed. "Then I've got good reason that it just might!"

"Leo-kun, shouldn't we try to stop them?" Kimatori asked from her perch on Leo's shoulders.

"Nah, best to let them get it out of their systems," Leo chuckled rubbing his chin. "Then again… That only works for guys…"

Taking a step forward, Leo lifted his hand up getting both Rena and Cain's attentions, "So, Mr. Sonryu, if may I ask what the pleasure is that we have you on our humble island?"

"Humph," Cain scoffed to the side with his arms crossed. "No real mystery. I was dragged here by that Die Hard Dumbass of a Kaiser we've got back on the Pacific Academy. Told me that was the reason for that was for the festival… Although, I think was a way for me to get away from the chaos of our academy…"

Rena blinked at this, "Why? What's going on at your…"

"We're ready!" Asche announced, getting everyone to jump and turn towards the stage.

Asche and several guys were standing on the stage, one of them standing on the ground with a stereo over his shoulder. "Hit it… Ya know!"

The one student on the ground pushed a button, getting a jumpy upbeat techno like song to play from the stereo while Asche and the students on stage tapped their feet on the stage to the beat.

All the while making Cain's and Rena's eyes widen in surprise while Kimatori and Leo bobbed their heads to the beat…

And that's when Asche and the students on stage lifted their hands up over their head and began to sway their hips. "We are wondering if you'd join us now…

"Hands in the air, we will show you how! Come and try, caramel melody you guys!

"So come and move your hips – Oa-a-a!"

"NOOO!" Cain shouted with tears in his eyes as he turned towards a shocked Rena. "Now do you see?!"

"Uh…" Rena was almost speechless as she turned towards Leo and Kimatori… Her eyes widening at the sight…

"O-la-la-la! You and me… Can sing this melody!"

"I find it quite invigorating!" Leo chuckled as he and Kimatori mimicked the swaying hips and flapping hand motions.

"Ooh! Ahh! Oooh!"

"You would ya freak!" Cain snapped with a blood vessel appearing on the side of his head.

"Dance to the beat, wave your hands together!

"Come feel the heat, forever and for ever!

"Listen and learn! This is the time for prancing…

"Now feel the beat with Caramelldansen!"

"O-o-oa-oa! O-o-oa-oa!"

Meanwhile, in an area far enough to barely hear that Swedish pop beat, but close enough to see the group, another duelist who's origins trace back to the Pacific Duel Academy watched Cain pulling his white hair.

"… What the hell is he doing here?!?"

**0-0-0-0-0**

On the ocean front, a lone cruiser was floating on the oddly calm waters, its destination only a few hours away. On the main deck of the ship, two people sat at the single table, several cards placed in a clockwise manner on the table in front of the two men. "Hmm… Well, according to the cards, we might just be getting an interesting time at the academy…"

The other person just sighed, his sight set on the sea.

"What's the matter, Mao?" The first man asked gathering up the cards in his hand. "Normally you'd call this a bunch of hooey with my card tricks…"

"… I would…" The second man named Mao replied, not turning his gaze away from the sea. "… But this time, you just might be right sir…

"After all… From the reports we've gotten, the Atlantic Academy is said to have a good crop of duelists this year…"

"Indeed Mao," The first man cackled crossing his arms, joining his companion in watching the sea. "I do believe you're right…"

**0-0-0-0-0**

**Card Stats**

**Noble Alchemist / Wind / LV. 3 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 800 / Spellcaster/Effect:** [Flip]: When this card is flipped up, you may special summon one level four or monster with 'Alchemist' in it's name from your removed from play pile or deck with 1500 attack points or less. After the selected monster is special summoned, inflict 200 points of damage to your life points times the level of the special summoned monster.

**Description:** A blonde haired man wearing fancy green clothes with a book in his hand.

**Alchemist Swordsman / Fire / LV. 4 / ATK: 1500 / DEF: 1000 / Warrior/Effect:** When this card battles another monster, you may remove up to three cards from the top of your deck from play. For each card removed with this effect, increase the attack of this card by 300 until the end of the turn this effect was used.

**Description:** A young man with fiery red hair combed over one eye. His red shirt and black pants are covered with slight armor and a large red sword is strapped to his back with many chains.

**Alchemy - The Tears of Hyanthe / Trap / Effect:** This card can only be activated when a monster on your side of the field is destroyed. Remove from play one of your opponent's monsters.

**Image:** An ancient Statue with tears coming from her eyes.

**Rouge Alchemist / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 1900 / DEF: 1000 / Warrior:** A young man who actually failed his state alchemist license exam. As a result, he practices alchemy on his weapons hoping to become a famous alchemist.

**Description:** A young grayish brown haired man wearing a brown jacket over a white baggy shirt. Around his blue pants is a small belt connected to a large sheathe and sword.

**Alchemist in Arms / Wind / LV. 6 / ATK: 2200 / DEF: 1500 / Warrior/Fusion/Effect:** [Alchemist Swordsman + Rouge Alchemist] You can Fusion summon this monster by removing from play the above monsters from your side of the field. This card may attack twice during the battle phase. When this monster attacks a defense mode monster and this monster's attack points are higher than the target monster's defense points, inflict the difference to your opponent's life points.

**Description:** A young brown haired man with his hair combed down except for two large hairs in the front, wearing a red vest with a leather brown jacket with the sleeves rolled up. Around his dark red pants is a large dark blue belt connected to a large sheathe with a large sword in it. In his right hand is a large four bladed windmill spinning in his hand.

**Wandering Alchemist / Dark / LV 4 / ATK: 1500 / DEF: 1300 / Warrior/Effect:** When this card is Normal, Flip, or Special summoned successfully, you may add one card from your deck with "Alchemy", "Alchemic" or "Transmuted" in its name and add it to your hand.

**Description:** A short young man with golden hair braided backwards. His long red overcoat covers the ground and his black under clothes.

**Alchemic Elixir / Equip Spell / Effect:** This card can only be used when equipped to a monster with 'Alchemist' in the card's name. Increase the equipped monster's attack points by 700 points. When this card is destroyed, remove from play one monster on the field.

**Image**: A gauntlet with a powerful red liquid in tubes attached to the weapon.

**Trainee Alchemist / Light / LV. 2 / ATK: 500 / DEF: 500 / Warrior/Effect:** You may substitute this monster for a fusion material monster written on a fusion monster with "Alchemist" in it's name.

**Description:** a little blonde haired boy wearing an extremely large familiar red overcoat over his shoulders. In the kid's hands was a small book with a transmutation circle on it.

**Dark Steel Alchemist / Dark / LV. 8 / ATK: 2750 / DEF: 2500 / Warrior/Fusion/Effect:** [Wandering Alchemist + Ash Alchemist] You can Fusion summon this monster by removing from play the above monsters from your side of the field. This card may attack twice in a battle phase. Your opponent cannot chain spell or trap cards to monster's attack(s).

**Description:** A taller version of the Wandering Alchemist with dyed white bangs, his red overcoat has been replaced with a blue one and with two thin swords strapped to the back of his waist

**0-0-0-0-0**

**Cain:** I'm going to have nightmares for weeks now…

**Leo:** Oh come now… It's not that bad to enjoy a show…

**Cain:** Dancing like that isn't a show! It's a tumor in training!

**Leo:** My, my, my… No need to be rude, especially since there's a couple of new duelists on the island.

**Cain:** … I know… I'm one of them, remember?!?

**Leo:** Ah, but I'm referring to the other duelists… Especially the next Kaiser to join in on the festivities…

_**Draw your deck and your cards… This next chapter will throw the gauntlets down! **_

_**Next time on Duelist Twilight – **__**Chapter 56: DRAW!**_

**Leo:** Hmm… Simple… But I like it…

**Cain:** You would you freak…


	57. Chapter 56: DRAW!

_**... I am the bone of my sword…**_

_**Steel is my body and fire is my blood.**_

_**I have created over a thousand blades…**_

_**Unknown to death,**_

_**Nor known to life…**_

_**Have withstood pain to create many weapons…**_

_**Yet… These hands shall never hold anything… **_

_**This is my curse… And my strength…**_

_**0-0-0-0-0**_

_**Chapter 56**_

_**DRAW!**_

_**0-0-0-0-0-0**_

A few hours after Cain's duel with Asche had passed, and a certain former Dark Prince Duelist was currently rushing through the crowds, dodging students left and right as his purple dyed uniform billowed behind him. '_Why?!? Why the hell is he here!?'_

Meanwhile…

"Someone mind telling me why we're building this?" Xander asked crossing his arms at the sight of what he and the other members of Vic's group were setting up for the Duel Academia festival.

With a shrug Bravo just continued setting up the booths that were strangely designed by the Artist Formally known as Morty, what with the weird structures that looked like they could fall at any given moment, "Beats me… But if Vic wants us to participate in the festival, with that freaky strength, I'm not going to be the one to argue."

"Indeed," Morty chuckled from his seat as he gently sipped on his tea. "Besides, it could be fun to participate in this sort of thing. Especially with the games I've designed."

"Hey! Get off your ass and help us!" Xander growled waving a hammer at Morty.

"I'm the supervisor," Morty coolly replied with a smirk on his face. "And I'm supervising that you two don't make any mistakes."

"So, you're a heroic manager," Bravo stated getting a few blank stares from both Xander and Morty. "What?"

"How the hell do you know what means?" Xander asked with a question mark appearing over his head.

"Did you think that my hair was the only thing coming out of my head?" Bravo retorted before he went back to work on the game booths. "I have brains too ya know!"

"Odd how you rarely use them though," Xander replied earning him a death glare from Bravo. "Oh come on now, you walked right into that one."

"If you two want to blame someone," Morty chuckled placing his teacup on the chair's arm rest. "Then blame those two goons that Vic brought with him, they haven't even shown up yet."

That seemed to strike a chord in Xander and Bravo's heads, making them blink at each other slightly before turning to each other. Indeed, the two weird goons that Vic seemed to disappear to some unknown location.

"Who were those two anyway?" Xander asked raising an eyebrow.

"They were grunt members of the Yokai," Bravo answered spinning a hammer in his hands before nailing a few nails into the boards. "They were exceedingly lazy and always complained about being stuck with grunt work. However, they do have skills that did indeed attract Beck to hire them."

"… Dare I ask what kind of skills?" Xander questioned sending a passing glance towards Morty… Why the hell Beck was interested in an artist was beyond him.

"Ya know the usual," Bravo explained turning away from the stands slightly. "They need to use a duel disk, be able to have a swift tongue and be able to bring something new to the group… Or at least we used to. By now, the Yokai have probably been rounded up or have scattered to the four corners of the globe."

"And lucky us…" Xander growled lowering his head to rub his eye patch covered eye. "We're stuck on this back watered island… Full of hicks no less!"

"I dunno, I think the local color is quite thrilling," Morty chuckled flicking some of his hair from his eyes.

"You would think that," Bravo commented rolling his eyes.

The trio continued their mindless chatter, unaware that the very duelist who had employed them (well, threaten was a better term at the moment) skidded right in front of all three of them, an enraged look on his eyes since his mouth was covered with a cloth.

Morty waved his hand towards the evil leader, "Hello Baron von Evil Satan, how are you today?"

"Listen… Wait, what'd you call me?" Vic asked raising an eyebrow. But with a loud cough, Vic regained his cool composure. "Uh, never mind… So, how is the progress coming along?"

"Oh, very well sir," Morty replied with a large smile on his face. "We should be done with the games at the end of the day at this rate."

"Well, that's one good thing coming out of today," Vic muttered rolling his eyes. "So, where are Maroon and Orange?"

"We were just talking about those two," Bravo stated getting some more materials to work with.

"Yeah, and we have no clue as to where those two idiots are," Xander added setting up the clothes on the booths.

"Hmm… Then they must still be on that mission I requested them to perform," Vic mused with his hand on his chest.

"Mission?" Morty questioned…

Meanwhile…

When Duel Academy needs a villain…

When supremacy stands alone…

When evil needs to be upheld… There's only one place to turn!

Through the cover of day, Vic's top agents will destroy our liberty for those who wish to cause us harm. Let's join special agent – Orange and secret agent – Maroon! Two of the finest unofficial official spies of all time!

"… Hey, did you hear something?" Orange asked rubbing his orange hair slightly in confusion as the two forced members of Vic stood in front of a large computer.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Maroon questioned as he furiously typed on the computer's keyboard searching for a few files that Vic had ordered the two to find. "Whatever, just shut up, we need to get these files…"

CLICK!

"Huh?" Maroon questioned turning around to Orange lifting up a small pistol. "… What the hell are you planning on doing?"

"Bye, bye Mr. Computer!" Orange chuckled, taking aim with the small pistol. "Oh, you should probably duck…"

BANG!

"What the hell?!" Maroon questioned jumping to the side as the tranquilizer dart shot through the computer's screen. "You're an idiot! Now we gotta find another computer!"

"Dood, don't be pissed," Orange chuckled tapping his tranquilizer gun against his shoulder a few times. "It was only a joke."

"… Just shut up!" Maroon groaned standing up from the seat.

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

"I must say Wright… You've done an excellent job with the festival this year…"

Alan couldn't help but sigh for the twenty-seventh time that day, only an hour had passed since the newest arrivals on the island had appeared, and unfortunately, the Kaisaris and the other top duelists on the island were asleep, so that left the task up to him…

… And personally, he was getting ready to throw the headmaster that decided to come with the representative from North Academy into the ocean. "I realize I'm a greenhorn at being a headmaster for an academy…"

"Just take the damn compliment," The North Headmaster replied pushing up his thin glasses on his sharp face, almost hiding behind the long bangs of blonde hair that curved around his face. Covering his sleek body was a fancy silver version of the uniform that most headmasters were required to wear… Save for the three belts he had wrapped around his waist, each with a deck case on it.

"You'll have to forgive me, Headmaster Croix," Alan sighed rubbing the back of his head. "I'm just a little on edge…"

Headmaster Croix snickered crossing his arms, "You don't give yourself enough credit. For a young headmaster, you've been doing a good job."

"Ah, hearing that from you is always a compliment," Alan chuckled with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head. "By the way, are you sure its okay to have your representative wandering about the island without a tour?"

"Do not worry about Mao," Croix replied turning towards some of the students that were setting up a café of sorts. "He didn't become Czar for nothing you know… I doubt that he'd get lost…"

… Good thing that wasn't a bet.

'… _Damn it… I think I'm lost…_'

At another point on the island, the very duelist that the two Headmasters were discussing was standing directly in front of the Red Dorm's cafeteria, blinking in confusion. It was only a handful of hours since he arrived on the island, and when he requested to walk over the island, he had no idea where he was…

… This would be a chapter of his life that would never come to pass him if anyone ever learned of this.

But needless to say, being lost did grant him a few chances to see the student body at work here at the academy, and he did have to admit that he was impressed with the work ethic of the students.

However, being lost did take its toll on this Czar's body, which is why he's relieved to find a place to eat, '_… Just please don't let it borscht… I can't take another bowl of that crap…'_

Slowly opening the dual doors with both of his hands, the young academy student walked into the cafeteria, either blissfully unaware or didn't care that everyone inside had turned their heads to watch the young man…

… Or almost everyone…

"How many times do I have to say sorry?" Rena moaned lowering her head.

"I don't care if you have sorry tattooed on your head!" Yukino growled with her eyes narrowed down at Rena. "You didn't show up and we still have a ton of work to do!"

"… If that's the case," Cain sighed rolling his eyes as he lifted up his drink. "Shouldn't you be more concerned with getting back to work than yelling the girl's brains out?"

Yukino couldn't help but sweatdrop at that fact.

"Indeed," Leo continued tapping his spoon against his tea cup a few times as Kimatori giggled so hard that she almost coughed up the drink she was enjoying. "In fact, she was closer than you to the work station your class was assigned to…"

"Get off my back!" Yukino growled with a blush appearing over her face, unaware that the lost student took the seat, his back to the four students. "Besides, we're on lunch break anyway…"

"Then there shouldn't be a problem," Leo chuckled before he took a sip of tea from the cup. "Besides… We were showing our newest guest around the island."

That got the attention of the newly seated duelist, his head turning away from the menu, making him take notice of who was seated behind him, '_Hmm… Interesting… I guess myself getting lost was a plus…'_

"Yeah, I'm not liking your tour so far," Cain admitted narrowing his eyes at Leo and Rena. "So far, I was forced to duel against a meathead, watch said meathead dance an annoying dance that made my eyes bleed, and then you show me this cafeteria where most of the food here is almost the same quality as ninety-nine cent ramen."

"Yeesh, you sure don't hold back," Rena commented with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of her head.

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

"Hey Maroon…"

As the two goons walked through the halls of the nearly empty, Maroon kept his eyes forward, preparing to smack someone upside the head while Orange kept close to him. "Hey, Maroon, are you mad?"

Narrowing his eyes, Maroon clenched his fist tightly as the two goons walked around the corner. "…"

"Maroon… Are you mad?" Orange asked again as Maroon looked left and right.

"No Orange," Maroon replied crossing his arms. "I am not mad…"

"You sound mad," Orange replied before Maroon pushed him into a nearby doorway. "ACK!"

"Shut up!" Maroon growled slapping his hand over Orange's mouth. "Someone's coming!"

As the two hid in the shadows, two familiar professors walked through the halls next to the two spies, "So, Maria… How's that pageant thing coming along?"

"Hmm, well…" Maria thought out loud as she tapped her chin before she turned towards Kryancelo. "We're almost finished with the stage itself… But we need some contestants; all we've got are two girls so far."

Kryancelo stopped, just by the doorway where Maroon and Orange hid, "Well… Since you're a professor, couldn't you just sign people up yourself?"

"I would," Maria replied with her back to Maroon and Orange, both of which were starting to sweat greatly. "But Headmaster Wright said that it wouldn't be fair for the organizer of the event to do that."

"Heh… Then I have just the plan," Kryancelo chuckled with an evil grin appearing on his face. "How about you let me submit a few names? After all… I'm not a part of any committee for the festival and I…"

BANG!

"URK!" Kryancelo yelp as he rubbed the back of his neck, feeling something like plastic was jammed into the back of his neck… But that was when he began to close his eyes and fall to the ground. "O… ow…"

Maria raised an eyebrow as Kryancelo fell face first, snoring rather loudly, "Professor K? Are you al…?"

BANG!

A few seconds later, Maria was asleep atop of Kryancelo… Both of them snoring loudly.

"Yeesh, are you that pissed off?" Orange asked looking over the tranquilized professors.

"If I was," Maroon growled refilling the ammo in his tranquilizer gun. "Would I be using tranquilizers?"

"… Point taken…" Orange replied stepping over the two professors with Maroon following him.

"Now hurry up, we've got a mission to finish," Maroon growled fitting the gun into his back pocket.

BANG!

"URK!" Maroon snapped in pain as his eyes twitched before he too fell face first into the ground, snoring loudly as he fell. "… D-Damn it…"

Blowing on the barrel of the gun, Orange slipped it into his back pocket, "Alright that ought to keep him calm for a while."

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

"Hey guys…" Rena asked as the group of four duelists and young girl walked through the school grounds, trying to get back to café in progress area. Unfortunately, Rena was looking left and right the whole time they were walking. "Do you get the feeling we're being watched?"

"Hmm… Going crazy, are we?" Yukino questioned with a smirk appearing underneath her glasses. "Excellent… Most excellent."

"I'm not going crazy!" Rena retorted with her eyes narrowing. "I'm just concerned with the fact that we're being followed!"

"Ha! Keep telling yourself that, crazy!" Yukino laughed holding her hand up to her chin to make her laughter slightly louder.

"What in the world is your problem?" Rena replied with a small blood vessel appearing on the side of her head.

While the two girls were almost on the verge of a fight…

"… She's right ya know," Cain muttered narrowing his eyes as he slowly turned his gaze over to Leo…

Who was giving Kimatori a ride on his shoulders, but Leo only smiled as he slightly turned his head towards Cain, "… I hope you don't mind, but Sonryu… Could you be kind as to tell me who's following us?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know anyone on the island?" Cain retorted with a sharp glare towards Leo.

"Hey! You be kind to Leo-kun!" Kimatori ordered sticking her tongue out at Cain.

"You little runt…" Cain growled with a blood vessel appearing on the side of his head.

"Now, now, now, you two get along," Leo chuckled with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of his smiling face. "We don't need any more fights on the island…"

Indeed, the suspicions of the group being followed were duly founded… But, while it was true, that didn't mean that it was clear that their follower was easily seen…

Watching the group from behind a completed stage, the young man raised an eyebrow… Almost as if he was watching the group… But not just at the group themselves, but as if he was trying to look deeper…

'_Hmm… I suppose I do owe some credit to Croix… He was right about this island, I've never seen so much potential before… The shorty and girl in red seem to posses a large amount of it…_

'_The other girl student… Hmm, her potential is fluxing… and the tall guy with the kid on his shoulders, I've never seen a potential like his… It's almost…'_

He would've continue his trail of thought, but the group of five was slowly walking away and so he continued his pursuit, his hand reaching for the deck case at the back of his belt.

**0-0-0-0-0**

"… Are you still mad?" Orange asked looking over Maroon's shoulder at the glowing computer screen.

"You shot me!" Maroon snarled turning away from the computer. "In the back, no less!"

"And I woke you up," Orange countered with a smirk on his face.

And that was when Orange noticed that he had a gun barrel pointed right his forehead, belonging to none other than an enraged Maroon, "Back up!"

"Hey! Take it easy!" Orange yelped with his hands lifted up into the air as he slowly backed up towards an open window in the room.

"Just keep backing up!" Maroon snarled standing up from his seat.

"L-Look, we're working together," Orange explained not realizing he was just about to go over the edge of the window. "S-So we should… AAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Putting away his tranquilizer gun, Maroon slowly walked back to the computer, his back to the window that Orange just fell out of. "Finally… I can get some work done."

**0-0-0-0-0**

Back at the café set up area… Well, set up wouldn't be the best word choice, the café was practically already finished! With a fancy theme with a gazebo top with a fresh white paint job with red curtains that barely reached the ground. Even the ground was covered with a large, fancy red carpet to make it match the white tables under the gazebo.

"I don't believe it," Yukino stated with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of her head.

"W-Wow…" Rena gasped with her eyes widening greatly at the sight before her.

"… Uh… Okay?" Cain questioned raising an eyebrow.

"Hmm… Looks pretty good," Leo admitted as Kimatori crossed her arms over his head.

"Damn right, it looks good!"

The group of five turned towards the entrance, seeing Klein (who had shouted), Koji, Vaan, Rukia and the rest of the students who were to made to make this project standing up tall, all of them with grins on their faces along with white paint.

"I'm impressed," Leo whistled with a large smile on his face. "For someone so small, he was able to make something so impressive."

"… I hope you're not referring to me," Cain growled with a blood vessel appearing on the side of his head.

"Oh, no, I was talking about him," Leo replied pointing towards Klein who was removing his yellow hard hat from his sweat drenched hair. "He's the only shorty I see here."

"… I see…" Cain growled looking at the oddly shorter man than him.

"Anyway, we worked on this bad boy during lunch," Vaan laughed leaning up against one of the beams that held the entrance up. "So we managed to get it done rather quickly…"

"I'm surprised that you guys can work that fast," Yukino admitted walking towards the entrance of the café. "Is there anything left that's on the list I left you?"

"Actually, we still need to make a sign," Rukia answered with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of her head. "That and we need to come up with a name for the café as well…"

"We never did decide on that now, did we?" Rena pointed out making Yukino narrow her eyes slightly behind her glasses.

"Yeesh," Yukino sighed loudly lowering her head.

Unknown to the group, there was already a visitor inside the makeshift café, sitting at one of the few tables that was set up with his feet on top of the table. '_… I hope you actually provide a challenge…'_

**0-0-0-0-0**

With his mission complete, Maroon casually walked through the halls of the Duel Academia, patting the CD that he had in his pocket a few times. '_Save for a few mishaps, we managed to gather the data that Vic wanted… I don't know why he wanted this, but I'm not going to be the guy who stands up to that freak!'_

Just as Maroon reached the doors of the school, he noticed something and turned to the side… "… Aahh!"

"Hello," Orange replied smoothly with a large smile on his face.

"You fell like, ten, fifteen stories!" Maroon protested.

"And would you believe at the bottom of those stories was a crate full of marshmallows?" Orange asked bobbing up and down slightly.

Raising an eyebrow, Maroon scoffed to the side, "No."

"And you'd be right," Orange commented.

"So how the hell did you live?" Maroon asked.

"Love."

"Love?"

"Yes, love."

"Who's love?"

"Your love."

"My love…"

"Hmm-hum."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Maroon asked with a slap to his head.

"I dunno," Orange chuckled with a large smile on his face. "I landed pretty hard on my head."

"… Do you remember your name?" Maroon questioned, a little concerned for his unexplainable alive partner.

"… Thor-axe?" Orange guessed with a few question marks appearing over his head.

"… Close enough," Maroon replied.

**0-0-0-0-0**

'… _How long do they plan on making me wait?'_

Seriously, as the young Czar tapped his foot against the table, he watched as the entire group of students cheering at the entrance of makeshift café. He wasn't ignored at his academy… But, here, he was at another blank face in the crowd.

Truth be told, he sort of liked it.

"Hey! Who's that?"

Well, there goes that feeling…

"Uh, e-excuse me sir," Rena stated walking up to the table where the Czar was relaxing.

"About time you noticed me," The Czar replied waving a hand through his sharp black hair, allowing a few of the sharp bangs to pop back in front of his tanned, sharp face. As he waited, the young Czar had unzipped his gray uniform overcoat, revealing the form fitting shirt that exposed his muscular body. "I'll have a cup of coffee… Black, no sugar, no cream…"

"We would, but…" Rena started, a small bead of sweat rolling down the side of her head.

"We're not open yet," Yukino finished with her arms crossed at the young man. "Besides, even if we were, we don't even have a name for this place so…"

"… You make it sound like it's my problem," the Czar retorted with a narrowed brow. "Now I'd like my coffee within the next five minutes…"

"It is your problem because we're not open yet!" Yukino shouted back with fang like teeth.

"I didn't travel half the world," The Czar sighed rolling his sharp dark eyes before he glared at Yukino. "… Just to get blown off when all I want is a simple cup of coffee."

'_Travel?'_ Leo thought as he let Kimatori run over to Rukia.

"… Hmm…" Cain mused rubbing his chin as he walked up to the table. "The Die Hard Pain in the ass told me that we weren't the only students coming here from another academy. And since you're wearing a different kind of uniform…"

"You are indeed correct," The Czar replied slamming his feet into the ground before he stood up. "I am from the North Academy… Not only as the representative, but as the Czar of that prestigious academia – Mao…"

"Never heard of ya," Cain replied with narrowed eyes.

"That's to be expected," Mao sighed crossing his arms over his chest. "After all, my name is only known among the highest ranked duelists among academies and through out my own academy's student body."

"… So, you're the Czar?" Leo stated with a smile. "How thrilling…"

"Hmm? You know of me?" Mao questioned raising an eyebrow.

"Leo, you know this guy?" Rena asked blinking in confusion.

"Heh…" Leo chuckled as everyone began to gather around the royal duelist. "Of course I do not."

It took everyone a few seconds for it to register, but when it did, everyone in the makeshift café (save for Leo of course) face faulted first into the ground. Rena was the first back to her feet, "DO YOU HAVE TO ACT THAT WAY!?!"

"… Yes," Leo replied making Rena face fault once more.

"Q-Quite an interesting character," Mao coughed standing up to dust off his gray uniform overcoat. '_And I can't get a good read on this guy anyway… This could be a good opporitunity…'_

"Tell you what," Mao chuckled lifting a hand towards Yukino. "If you give me a taste of what the duelists are like here… Then I'll leave…"

"Fine!" Yukino announced pumping her fist towards the dark haired Czar. "Someone give me a duel disk and…"

"Unfortunately," Mao sighed, his towering height overshadowing Yukino rather easily… Making the glasses wearing girl step back. "You're not the sort of flavor I was referring to… I prefer to face an elite here…"

"I'd take your challenge," Cain commented getting a weird look from everyone. "But I'm not from his island."

"True, shorty," Mao replied.

"… Although I might make an exception!" Cain growled clenching his fist tightly.

"Hmm… Then I would guess you're referring to me," Leo guessed with a large smile on his face.

"Heh…" Mao cackled.

"Very well…" Leo stated tossing one of the duel disks he had lent during Cain's and Asche's duel to Mao, who caught it rather easily. "Then I hope that I can represent my academy to your standards!"

The moment that Mao caught the duel disk, the gray uniformed young man leapt backwards, spinning through the air until he landed on the table he was seated at only moments ago. Sliding the blue plated duel disk, Mao unhooked the deck case on his belt and slid its contents into the duel disk, "Only one way to find out!" (MLP: 8000)

"Come one Lord Leo!" Yukino cheered along with the rest of the student body who was involved with the café. "Show this wannabe that the Atlantic Duel Academy isn't to be messed with!"

"… Lord Leo?" Rena questioned with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of her head.

"I shall do my best," Leo replied sliding his deck into his duel disk. (LLP: 8000)

"DUEL!"

"First turn honors are yours… Lord Leo," Mao chuckled before his eyes and face turned serious at his five card hand.

"Ah, I see that manners are still alive today," Leo stated flicking his sixth card into his hand. "… And I will gracefully accept your offer. Hmm… What an interesting path that destiny has dealt us…"

"You sound like my headmaster," Mao spat. "I hope you don't run a deck that's similar to his otherwise this duel will sour up my taste."

"Hmm, after my last few duels," Leo stated taking up a new card from his hand and slapping it onto his duel disk. "I assure you… I will not sour up anything… And I'll start by summoning Airknight Lancer in attack mode!"

Countless feathers erupted from the air above the two duelists, forming around until they combined together to form into an older woman dressed in yellow and white robes that wrapped around her slightly muscular body with her angelic wings flapping through the air (1700/1200) as she spun a golden lance over her head. "And to end my turn… A single set card."

"An average move I suppose," Mao admitted holding up his sixth card. "But in a duel of this caliber, one cannot guess that to be the case. And I'll start with the spell card, Battle of the Warlords!"

Spinning his card around, Mao fitted one of his cards into his duel disk's graveyard, "By discarding my Arms Crescent, I can add one other warrior from my deck and place it into my hand."

A single card popped out from Mao's deck and into his hand, allowing him to spin it around onto his duel disk's blade, "And I summon the very monster… Arise Arms Hiro Senior!"

Surges of flame erupted from all over the make-shift café, crashing into each other directly in front of Mao. The flames built onto each other, until they scattered into the wind, revealing a rough looking your man with fiery red hair dressed in makeshift armor that clanked around as he drew the large steel broadsword that was strapped to his back (1200/800).

And with a smirk, the Arms Hiro Senior tapped his foot into the ground.

"That's a weird monster," Rena stated staring at the smirking warrior and then at the scowling Mao. "Especially from him…"

"Now, for his ability," Mao continued as a fiery aura appeared around the Arms Hiro Senior (1200/800 + 300/0). "For each Arms monster on the field, he gains three hundred attack points. That includes himself."

Holding up half his remaining four cards, Mao slid them into his duel disk, making them appear behind the Hiro Senior. "End of the turn."

"Hmm… Not really something I would expect from a top duelist," Leo admitted pulling off the next card from his deck.

"Not all have fun with their strategies," Mao explained wagging a finger. "Mine happens to be serious…"

"You'll have to forgive me if your monster contradicts that statement," Leo chuckled with a bright smile appearing on his face.

"… Yes… I realize that," Mao sighed as his monster snickered greatly.

"And since I have no idea what your face down cards are," Leo smiled greatly as he lifted his hand up. "I'll refrain from using any more cards at the moment, and attack your Arms Hiro Senior with Airknight Lancer!"

With a loud battle cry, the angelic lancer spun the very weapon that gave her that name over her head before she flew towards the smirking Arms monster…

"I activate my trap card!" Mao announced pushing a button onto his duel disk.

'… _As I thought… He's probably about to use a Mirror Force or an attack blocker…_' Leo thought as he closed his eyes.

"Go! Limit Reverse!"

Leo's eyes widened at the sight of the trap card lifting up, allowing a large flame to erupt from the trap card and erupt in front of Mao, "Now, thanks to my trap card, I can special summon a monster with one thousand or less attack points from my graveyard!"

The flame scattered through the air, allowing a fiery young looking man dressed in yellow and red armor to appear in front of the gray suited duelist. The countless chains attached to his armor jingled as he lifted up a large crescent blade in his gauntlet covered arms (800/1000). "Like for example… My Arms Crescent!"

'_Alright… It's not that strong…'_ Leo thought raising an eyebrow at the kid like monster before turning towards the Arms Hiro Senior (1500/1200 + 300/0). '_But thanks to it's presence, his monster got stronger.'_

"However, since there was a field change," Leo interrupted as his Airknight Lancer flew back to his field, a scowl on her face. "I have the ability to recall so…"

"Did I say I was done?" Mao asked with his eyes narrowed as a powerful fiery aura erupted around the Arms Crescent's body (800/1000 + 700/0). "I still have my Arms Crescent's ability! For each other Arms Crescent on the field, he gains seven hundred attack points!"

"But hold on!" Yukino shouted throwing her hand out. "You don't have any other Arms Crescent…"

"Except when on the field and in the graveyard," Mao explained wagging a finger at Yukino. "My Arms Hiro Senior is considered to be an Arms Crescent."

"Still, that doesn't cancel out my chance for an attack," Leo countered with a snap of his fingers, making the Airknight Lancer smirk greatly. "Lancer, change your target to the Arms Crescent!"

With her lance high into the air, the Airknight Lancer flew directly towards the serious looking kid warrior…

"And yet, you continue to underestimate me!" Mao roared pressing a button onto his duel disk. "I activate the continuous trap card… The Thrill of Battle!"

As Mao's face down card flipped up, a demonic smile appeared on both of his monsters' faces, both of them becoming sadistic versions of themselves (1800/1200 + 300/0) (1500/1000 + 300/0). "When activated, I select a monster type… And for each monster of the declared type, my monsters of the declared type gain one hundred and fifty attack points… And I chose warrior!"

Leo's eyes widened slightly as the Arms Crescent leapt towards the Airknight Lancer, spinning around with his powerful crescent blade, "And unfortunately, this doesn't constitute a recall… So Crescent! End this!"

Before the angelic warrior could complain, the crescent blade sliced through her waist, making the Airknight Lancer shatter into millions of feathers that flew into Leo's body. (LLP: 7900)

"Just a scratch, Lord Leo!" Yukino shouted along with the other crowds of students.

"… Hey, is he a prince or something?" Cain asked looking at Rena.

"I'm not the one to ask," Rena answered with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of her head.

"Not a bad move," Leo mused as a card popped out of his deck and immediately fell onto his duel disk. "However, when destroyed in a battle, my Airknight Lancer provides me with a little parting gift. And that gift is being another Airknight to take her ranks, just so long as it possesses less than fifteen hundred attack points…"

Several white feathers flew from the ground in front of Leo, forming into the familiar Airknight Shield, his body covered in a light blue aura (1000/1500). "And my Airknight Shield will do nicely for now."

Plucking another card from his hand, Leo set the card on his duel disk, making it appear next to his Airknight Shield. "And to make sure my normal summon isn't wasted this turn, I'll set a monster in defense mode."

"Defense…" Mao growled pulling off the top card from his deck. "Against me… That's meaningless!"

"Oh?" Leo raised an eyebrow as Mao slapped the card onto his duel disk.

"I summon Arms Lancer!"

Like with the previous Arms monsters, this warrior leapt from many holographic flames dressed in clanking red armor that covered her slim figure and fiery red hair, and spinning around in her hands, the three pronged spear in her hands slammed into the ground (1300/1200 + 450/0) next to the Arms Hiro Senior (2100/800 + 450/0) and Arms Crescent (1800/1000 + 850/0). "And with my army ready… Arms Hiro Senior! Attack that face down monster!"

Leo simply pushed a button onto his duel disk as the sword wielding Arms monster leapt high into the air, bringing his sword down onto the revealed monster, turning into a small pinked haired angel with countless cloths around her arms and small wings (0/0). "Ah, my Airknight Priestess…"

'_Hmm… A zero defender?'_ Mao questioned raising an eyebrow as his Hiro Senior landed directly in front of the surprised Airknight Priestess. '_… Could it be a mistake on his part? No, I don't think he would have that weak of a monster without a back up plan…'_

Before Mao could continue his train of thought, the powerful warrior sliced his broadsword right through the angelic priestess, shattering her into millions of feathers that flew around Leo's body. "But that doesn't matter! Since my Arms Lancer is on the field, all Arms monsters gain the trample ability!"

And yet, Leo could only smile as he lifted up his duel disk, revealing that the life point score didn't change.

Making Mao narrow his eyes, "… You mind explaining to me how the hell I just made myself look like an ass?"

"I wouldn't say you did that," Leo chuckled as a bright pink aura appeared around his body. "After all… You didn't know that I had this little number in my deck."

"… Pink?" Mao, Rena, Cain and Yukino questioned at the same time.

"Actually it's called the Kind Aura," Leo explained holding up the trap card. "And it's a decent little trap card that during the turn it's activated, no battle damage can be inflicted to either player. There's also an additional effect, during the end phase my trap card is activated, for each monster that was slain in battle, both of us can draw a card."

"Hmm… Are you always so…" Mao chuckled raising an eyebrow at Leo. "Prim?"

"Not so," Leo stated as a card popped out from his deck, immediately allowing him to slap it onto his duel disk. "And I should also mention the effect of my priestess. When flipped up, I can special summon another Airknight… So a copy of my shield will do nicely."

And just as Leo spoke those words, a second Airknight Shield appeared on the field next to the original (1000/1500 x2).

"Perhaps," Mao comment as his remaining two warriors leapt towards the angelic shield wielders. "But thanks to your trap card, we can easily make this turn useful… Slay those two angels!"

It was only a matter of seconds, but both of the Airknight Shields shattered into millions of feathers, flowing through the air as the fiery auras around the Arms monsters seemed to dwindle slightly. It was then that another face down card appeared behind the three fiery warriors, "End of the turn…"

"And with that end," Leo stated snapping off three cards from his deck. "My Kind Aura grants us both a card for each monster that was destroyed in battle…"

"Thank you, by the way," Mao chuckled holding up his three new cards to his remaining one.

"Think nothing of it," Leo replied pulling off his next card, giving him a total of eight cards. "After all, with a cleared field and a hand full of cards, I helped myself just as much."

"Alright! Go Lord Leo!" Yukino cheered loudly, almost being overshadowed by the other students in the makeshift café.

"Now then… To start this turn," Leo announced holding up his duel disk. "As much as I hate to cover up the fine work that my peers have done, I have no choice… I need to use the Sanctuary of the Sky!"

Countless upon countless of clouds erupted from the ground, wrapping around the student body, and in the clouds behind Leo's body created a large ancient sanctuary with runes of the sun around it. "Hmm… Now it appears defense does pose an issue to you…"

Mao remained silent as he looked at the large field spell.

Holding up three of the seven remaining cards, Leo slid them into his duel disk to make them all appear directly in front of him, "Now, I'll set three of my cards face down, and end my turn!"

"W-What is Leo thinking?!" Rena muttered with a large sweat drop rolling down the side of her head.

"… You'd be surprised," Cain stated narrowing his eyes at the three face down cards in front of Leo. '_If he's running a deck like this… Then that means I can take a guess that two of those face down cards. But, it doesn't matter what I know, it all falls on what that North Academy duelist knows…'_

With narrowed eyes, Mao snapped off the top card from deck, "… Now then… I summon Arms Bracer in attack mode!"

Unlike the previous Arms monsters, this warrior stood up from the clouds behind Mao, revealing an older night dressed in dark purple armor, two large shields covering his board arms (0/2000 + 600/0). That's when the dark armored knight crouched down, raising the shields around Mao, "But when summoned, my Bracer goes to defense mode."

"Ah, but he's not the one I should be worried about," Leo pointed out gesturing towards the Arms Hiro Senior (2550/1200 + 450/0), the Arms Crescent (2650/1000 + 150/0) and the Arms Lancer (1750/1200 + 150/0).

"Indeed… And you haven't seen a thing yet," Mao announced slipping another card into his duel disk. "I activate the powerful spell, known as the Allied Forces!"

The fiery aura erupted around the four warriors, strengthening them into roaring versions of themselves (3000/1200 + 800/0) (2800/1000 + 800/0) (1900/1200 + 800/0) (600/2000 + 800/0). "And with this… I end this!"

Roaring loudly through the powerful flames, the Arms Hiro Senior, Arms Crescent, and Arms Lancer all charged towards Leo, all of them thirsting for blood…

"I activate my face down spell card!" Leo announced with a large smile on his face as the set card flipped up. "Flute of Summoning Kuriboh!"

Parts of the clouds appeared in front of Leo, scattering to reveal a small brown puffball with white wings (300/200) chirping loudly. "And thanks to its effect, I can special summon my Winged Kuriboh. And of course, this can call a recall for you to…"

"Wipe out that puffball!" Mao roared as the three warriors continued to charge.

"… Oh well," Leo mused with a quick push on his duel disk before he fitted two cards into his duel disk's graveyard. "I tried to give you a chance… I activate my other face down card, Transcendent Wings!"

A powerful bright light appeared around the Winged Kuriboh, changing it into a bright orb of light. "And so, by releasing two cards from my hand and my Winged Kuriboh… I can make him evolve!"

The orb of light exploded, releasing a more fearsome looking version of the Winged Kuriboh, dressed in gold armor that resembled that of a dragon with its wings popping out from it (300/200). "All the way to Winged Kuriboh LV 10! And since it's your battle phase… I activate his effect!"

"Kuriii!" The Winged Kuriboh LV 10 roared loudly, becoming engulfed a powerful light that blinded everyone in the makeshift café…

… However, Mao couldn't help but smirk greatly as the light began to cover the entire field…

"KKKUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!"

A powerful explosion of light erupted over the field, making all three of the charging Arms monsters, shattering them like glass. And as the light began to dwindle down, Leo snapped his fingers into the air a few times, "And thanks to my Winged Kuriboh's effect, you take damage equal to your monsters' base attack points…"

As the light began to roll off of the many clouds, allowing the students to see the field once more…

And the fact that Mao was standing in between the two shields of his Arms Bracer (350/2000), his arms crossed to show his duel disk. (MLP: 8000)

At this sight, even Leo had to step back with a confused smile on his face, "A-Ah… But…"

"Arms Bracer," Mao stated as a matter of fact while the Arms Bracer pulled his arms back. "As long as this card remains face up on the field, all effect damage done to me is lowered to zero."

Leo's eyes widened as Mao picked up another card from his hand, "I'm still in my battle phase… And I activate the quick play spell, Quick Summon! Now, I am allowed to summon once more, and I release my Bracer!"

As Mao picked up his dark warrior's card, the knight shattered into the clouds slowly encircling Mao's entire body…

'_Could he have planned all of this?'_ Leo thought as the shattered remains caught ablaze.

"In order to advance summon…" Mao continued as the flames began to merge into his body, changing his uniform's color from a dark gray to a vibrant red, and began to rip. When the flames began to reach his head, Mao's face became scared and his hair bleached to a pure white sheen.

And with a smirk, Mao lifted his hands up, pocketing his remaining two cards in his hand (1800/1600 + 350/0), "The Arms Lord…"

Although it was unknown to both of them, Cain and Rena's eyes widened at the sight of the transformed Mao, '_…! He's just like…!'_

"My, my, my," Leo mused looking at Mao quite weirdly as a card popped out from Mao's graveyard slot. "That's a unique card…"

"You haven't seen a thing yet," Mao growled spinning the card from his deck into his duel disk. "You see, by removing my Arms Bracer I can equip one equip spell card to my warrior, and I choose Dual Blades – Dark Caliburs!"

Several feathers erupted from Mao's back, half of them white and the other half black as Mao grasped the feathers, transforming the feathers into a pair of powerful blades (2150/1600 + 300/0). "And now… Since I've preformed this effect, I activate the trap card, Blood Effect!"

A powerful bloody aura erupted around Mao's Arms Lord form, prompting two cards to pop from his graveyard, "By removing one monster of the same type as my Arms Lord, I can activate my effect again! So I remove the Arms Hiro Senior and Arms Lancer in order to equip Odin's Spear – Gungnir!"

A bolt of lightning crashed into Mao's back, transforming into fancy black spear, cackling with electricity (2450/1600 + 600/0). "And now… Attack!"

Mao spun the two blades in his hands, making him run towards Leo with great speed, the clouds from the Sanctuary of the Sky, "Hmm… Not a problem, I activate my trap card… Nega…"

Before Leo could even finish, the Arms Lord appeared right in front of him, bringing his blades right through Leo's torso, making the noble duelist skid backwards with countless black and white feathers flying into the air. "A-AHHH!" (LLP: 4850)

As Leo took a knee to the ground, Mao stood directly in front of him, a dark look appearing on his face, "My Dark Caliburs, when the equipped monster attacks, you cannot chain any spell or trap cards…"

Leo looked up taking note of the dark eyes that were in Mao's head, "… I'm surprised that you're a part of the elite… You can't even perceive my counters…"

It was then it hit Leo…

The second time Leo had felt this feeling…

… Fear…

**0-0-0-0-0**

**Card Stats**

**Arms Hiro Senior / Fire / LV. 4 / ATK: 1200 / DEF: 800 / Warrior/Effect:** While this card is face up on the field or in the graveyard, you may treat this card's name as 'Arms Crescent'. For each 'Arms' monster on the field, increase this card's attack by 300 points.

**Description:** A rough looking young man with fiery red hair dressed in makeshift armor with a large broadsword resting on his shoulder.

**Arms Crescent / Fire / LV. 4 / ATK: 800 / DEF: 1000 / Warrior/Effect:** Increase the attack of this card by 700 for each other 'Arms Crescent' on the field.

**Description:** A young fiery man dressed in yellow and red armor with a large crescent blade in his arms along with several chains attached to his armor

**The Thrill of Battle / Continuous Trap / Effect:** When this card is activated, declare one monster-type. As long as this card remains face up, for each monster of the declared type, increase the attack all monsters on your side of the field with the declared type by 150 points.

**Image:** Several knights fighting against a large dragon.

**Arms Lancer / Fire / LV. 4 / ATK: 1300 / DEF: 1200 / Warrior/Effect:** As long as this card is face up on the field or in your graveyard, treat this card's name as 'Arms Crescent'. As long as this card is face up on the field, when an 'Arms' monster attacks a defense position monster with a lower defense than it's attack, inflict the difference to your opponent's life points.**  
Description:** A young woman dressed in red armor with a large three pronged spear in her hands.

**Arms Bracer / Dark / LV. 4 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 2000 / Warrior/Effect:** As long as this card is face up on the field, all effect damage done to you is reduced to 0. When this card is summoned, it is switched to defense mode.

**Description:** An older knight dressed in dark purple armor with two large shields on both of his arms.

**Blood Effect / Trap / Effect:** This card can only be activated when a monster effect is activated when it is summoned. By removing one monster card from your graveyard with the same type as the effect monster, you may activate its effect once more this turn as if it was summoned.

**Image:** A young man with his back to several blood covered demons.

**The Arms Lord / Fire / LV. 6 / ATK: 1800 / DEF: 1600 / Warrior/Effect:** This card is considered to be a DARK monster in addition to FIRE attribute. When this card is successfully summoned, by removing one Warrior-type monster from your graveyard, you may take one equip spell card from your deck and equip it to this card.

**Description:** A sleek muscular man dressed in a tight, yet ruined red cloak with long coattails with black and silver light armor underneath. With his white hair spiked back and stained with blood. Despite his name, it appears he doesn't have any weapons.

**Dual Blades – Dark Caliburs / Equip Spell / Effect:** This card can only be equipped to a Warrior-Type monster. Increase the equipped monster's attack by 300 points. When the equipped monster attacks, your opponent cannot chain trap cards.

**Image:** The Arms Lord spinning a pair of blades, one white and one black in his hands.

**Odin's Spear – Gungnir / Equip Spell / Effect: **This card can only be equipped to a FIRE or DARK Warrior-Type monster. Increase the equipped monster's attack by 600 points. The equipped monster gains a piercing ability.**  
Image:** A black spear with lightning cackling around it.

**0-0-0-0-0**

_Duelist Stats_

_Name: Cain Sonryu_

_Deck: Alchemist Powerhouse _

_Information: Origins – Pacific Duel Academia – Known as the Alchemic Duelist and winner of the Arch Isles tournament from over a year ago._

_Being a short man, Cain managed to prove that size doesn't always matter, especially in his fights (that he usually starts). Known to be a master of a rough fighting style, Cain does the same in his dueling style. He mostly works on instinct and so far, that seems to work for him._

_His main deck strategy falls under the category of remove from game, allowing him to access the vast cards that could follow the RFG strategy… Along with a few other cards that make his deck slightly unpredictable…_

… _Just a word of advice…_

_Don't call him short…_

_Name: Mao_

_  
Deck: Endless Arms_

_  
Information: The Czar of North Academia – Known as the Arms Czar. _

_As a man who searches for a reason to fight, Mao seems to possess the ability to sense another's potential… And because of this, Mao thirsts for the thrill of battle and is often disappointed… _

… _Why this is, is a mystery even to him…_

_His deck strategy seems to show that very thirst for blood, showing that it can change from a powerful rush into an excellent titan strategy revolving around his monster – change form: The Arms Lord._

_Although he seems to only focus on offense, as demonstrated Mao has great foresight and unusual defenses that pop out when you least expect them. _

_What his real reasons are… Those will come to light in due time…_

**0-0-0-0-0**

**Mao: ** Through the heavens, I will stain these gracious feathers with your blood…

**Leo:** As the fight between the Majestic Noble and Armed King continues, can the noble pull a win out at the last minute or…?

**Mao:** … Or will these heavenly clouds be stained in blood?

**Leo: **_**Next time! One Almighty Heavenly Leonardo's Kingdom – Final Episode: **__**Leo's Shattered Angelic Wing.**_** Can the hero pull his final move? The one that could end his very life?**

**Mao:** … Well, that's interesting…

_**Chapter 56 – Broken**_


	58. Chapter 57: Broken

_**Elegance of a blade,**_

_**Pulled gently from it's sheath,**_

_**The sound of steel sliding from bone, **_

_**A Samurai, Elegance of a blade.**_

_**A perfect blade of beauty and fear,**_

_**Carved with detail and feeling.**_

_**The handle perfected to hold the balance,**_

_**The blade so smooth, sharpness won't ever fail.**_

_**As light as a feather, powered with lust,**_

_**Dangerous object, an honored presence.**_

_**\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\**_

_**Chapter 57**_

_**Broken**_

_**/-/-/-/-/-/-/**_

_Mao continued as the flames began to merge into his body, changing his uniform's color from a dark gray to a vibrant red, and began to rip. When the flames began to reach his head, Mao's face became scared and his hair bleached to a pure white sheen. _

_And with a smirk, Mao lifted his hands up, pocketing his remaining two cards in his hand (1800/1600 + 350/0), "The Arms Lord…"_

_Although it was unknown to both of them, Cain and Rena's eyes widened at the sight of the transformed Mao, '…! He's just like…!'_

"_My, my, my," Leo mused looking at Mao quite weirdly as a card popped out from Mao's graveyard slot. "That's a unique card…"_

"_You haven't seen a thing yet," Mao growled spinning the card from his deck into his duel disk. "You see, by removing my Arms Bracer I can equip one equip spell card to my warrior, and I choose Dual Blades – Dark Caliburs!"_

_Several feathers erupted from Mao's back, half of them white and the other half black as Mao grasped the feathers, transforming the feathers into a pair of powerful blades (2150/1600 + 300/0). "And now… Since I've preformed this effect, I activate the trap card, Blood Effect!"_

_A powerful bloody aura erupted around Mao's Arms Lord form, prompting two cards to pop from his graveyard, "By removing one monster of the same type as my Arms Lord, I can activate my effect again! So I remove the Arms Hiro Senior and Arms Lancer in order to equip Odin's Spear – Gungnir!"_

_A bolt of lightning crashed into Mao's back, transforming into fancy black spear, cackling with electricity (2450/1600 + 600/0). "And now… Attack!"_

_Mao spun the two blades in his hands, making him run towards Leo with great speed, the clouds from the Sanctuary of the Sky, "Hmm… Not a problem, I activate my trap card… Nega…"_

_Before Leo could even finish, the Arms Lord appeared right in front of him, bringing his blades right through Leo's torso, making the noble duelist skid backwards with countless black and white feathers flying into the air. "A-AHHH!" (LLP: 4850)_

_As Leo took a knee to the ground, Mao stood directly in front of him, a dark look appearing on his face, "My Dark Caliburs, when the equipped monster attacks, you cannot chain any spell or trap cards…"_

_Leo looked up taking note of the dark eyes that were in Mao's head, "… I'm surprised that you're a part of the elite… You can't even perceive my counters…"_

_It was then it hit Leo…_

_The second time Leo had felt this feeling…_

… _Fear…_

"Lord Leo!" Yukino shouted along with a large amount of other students, some of which were glaring at Mao who only spun his two Dark Caliburs at his waist as he walked away from Leo.

"Feh," Mao scoffed walking away from Leo, pulling out the two cards from his pocket, revealing that only his two equip cards, Dark Caliburs and Odin's Spear – Gungnir, were equipped to his Arms Lord form (3050/1600), also empowered by the A. Forces and the Thrill of Battle cards. (MLP: 8000)

Slowly, Leo stood up, looking at his three card hand and his field. With his Winged Kuriboh LV. 10 combo being snuffed out, that only left him with his face down Negate Attack and his field spell card, Sanctuary in the Sky, '_What is this strength?'_ (LLP: 4850)

However, Rena was more concerned with what Mao was able to do. He merged with his monster, just like with what happened with Lyra Musician and Rena's other self and even with that Eternity Angelo, '_Is… Is he just like me?'_

Cain however was silent.

"I end my turn," Mao announced flipping his cards in front of him. '_… He does have potential, but he cannot access it fully… Something is chaining him down to this level…'_

"Hmm, not bad good sir," Leo chuckled jumping to his feet with his arms crossed in the process. "I have to admit that you have quite the ability there."

"… But of course," Mao replied with a nod.

"However, I have not yet begun to fight," Leo announced pulling out his next card from his deck.

"At least you have a spark in your body," Mao commented lifting a finger to his forehead, tapping against his head a few times. "However, I don't know if you can turn that spark into a raging flame or if it will disappear at the power of my blades."

"Time will only tell, now won't it?" Leo said with a smile appearing on his face as he took the card he drew and slipped it into his duel disk. "I'll set a monster card to the field and call it my turn."

"I guess that flame will remain a spark," Mao cackled sliding his next card with his middle and ring fingers.

"You make it sound like you know me," Leo stated raising an eyebrow at Mao, his smile remaining on his face. '_Merging with his monster… Countering my own counters… It's almost like he can read a person without even trying.'_

Mao refrained from responding to Leo's comment, but rather he took another card from his hand and slipped it into his duel disk, "I activate the equip spell – Volt Masamune!"

The clouds around Mao's body began to darkened, erupting into a powerful jolt of electricity that Mao caught in his hand, refining it every second until it sparked into a sleek katana, still cackling with electricity in the Arms Lord's hand (3050/1600 + 500/0). "Tell me… Leonardo was it?"

"I prefer Leo actually," Leo replied with his arms crossed. "But you're more than welcomed to call me that."

"Very well, Leonardo," Mao coughed to the side, placing his three remaining cards back into his pocket. "Tell me something… Do you know what separates a man from a great man?"

"… A great man?" Leo questioned blinking a few times as he rubbed his chin. "Would it have to be what a man can accomplish in his life time?"

"That's a good answer," Mao admitted spinning the Volt Masamune around his body. "But that is a past event, and by the time a man would receive that respect long when his life would be snuffed out. To be talked in the past tense, is that what all of us want?"

Some students whispered, some of them wondering what the Czar was talking about.

"Ah, interesting," Leo exclaimed with a nod his head.

"Leo? You actually understood what he was talking about?" Rena asked blinking in confusion.

"… Not a clue," Leo mused with a large grin on face.

All at once, everyone who heard that fell face first into the ground, including Mao! "Are you kidding me?!"

"Nope," Leo replied as Mao leapt to his feet, drawing his fallen Volt Masamune.

"… You certainly are an interesting character," Mao stated spinning the katana in his hand before he charged forward. "I attack your face down monster! Blade of the Bane!"

Spinning around, the Arms Lord – Mao brought down his katana, slicing the face down card into millions of blood covered feathers that flew high into the air, revealing a young brown cloaked angel dressed in a fedora hat and harp in his hands (1700/1300), only with his wings sliced off from his back and him shattering into the Sanctuary of the Sky.

Leo grimaced as he fitted the card into his duel disk's graveyard, "… So much for Airknight Troubadour."

"Just be glad that thanks to your field spell," Mao retorted pulling his two cards from his pocket. "Odin's Spear gives an equipped monster the ability to pierce through defense."

"Lucky me," Leo chuckled slowly reaching for his deck.

That's when his duel disk began to spark up, making Leo step back slightly as he pulled his next card, "Ack!" (LLP: 4350)

"Volt Masamune, effect number two," Mao explained gesturing to the blade that was to his right. "During my opponent's standby phase, I can inflict five hundred points of damage to you. Eventually, even your defensive strategy will not be able to protect you from my onslaught of damage."

'_Hmm, he's got a point,_' Leo thought looking at his four card hand, grimacing at a few of the cards that he had draw before hand. '_…'_

Mao raised an eyebrow before he lifted his fist into the air, "Come at me Leonardo! Show me the pride of the Obelisk Blue students here! The best of the best! The crème of the crop! The future of our dueling world!"

Leo blinked a few times before he shrugged, "What do you think I have been doing?"

"… Continue deluding yourself," Mao simply retorted.

"Whatever do you mean?" Leo asked before he shook his head before he slapped another card from his hand onto his duel disk. "Never mind, I'll just set a monster card… Turn end."

"Why isn't Lord Leo fighting back?" Yukino questioned, turning towards Rena.

"I really dunno what goes on in Leo's head," Rena sighed lowering her head down. "I doubt that anyone does."

"I know what Leo-kun thinks!" Kimatori announced with a large grin on her face.

"DRAW!" Mao roared pulling off his next card, only to slip it into his pocket. "And now, I go back on the offensive! Arms Lord attacks the face down defense monster!"

Drawing the two Dark Caliburs from his back, Mao leapt high into the air bringing the weapons down on Leo's face down monster that flipped up, revealing a sleek and confident dark haired angel dressed in a gold and white military uniform. With his arms crossed, the angel revealed that his left eye was covered with an eye-patch (1400/0).

And all Leo did, was continue to smile, even when his angel was sliced to ribbons.

This didn't go unnoticed by Mao as he lifted his blades at Leo, "You seem calm for someone who's wide open…"

"… Indeed I am," Leo stated as the very monster that was destroyed only seconds ago appeared right behind him, the confident Angel smirking at Mao. "Mainly because that monster that you destroyed was my Airknight Colonel and by removing him and one other Airknight from my graveyard… Such as my Airknight Priestess…"

Holding up the two cards, the Airknight Priestess appeared at the Colonel's back and wrapped her arms around his neck, a large blush appearing on his face as he held up his arms and his wings flowed around the Priestess. "I gain the option of destroying one card on the field… And my choice is – The Arms Lord!"

"WHAT?!" Mao roared before both Airknights flew high into the air, feathers scattering all over the clouded café as the cheers of students began to call out Leo's name.

"You said that I was deluding myself," Leo stated holding his hand up over his head when a bright light erupted over his head. "Looks like the tables turn, and I was only deluding you! Taste the judgment from above!"

Mao craned his head up straight, his eyes nearly popping out of his skull when the powerful pillar of light crashed onto his body, making the Arms Lord form of his dissolve from his body, "GGRRRRRR!"

When the light diminished, Mao was left standing where his monster form was, his gray uniform slightly singed for dramatic effect and his head lowered down to have his dark hair overshadow his eyes, "Yes…"

"Hmm?" Leo questioned blinking a few times in confusion.

Snapping his head back, Mao began to laugh like a mad man, his dark hair falling to his shoulders as he lifted his arms up to waist high, "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I should've listened to Headmaster Croix! He was right about this island!"

"Headmaster Croix, you say?" Leo mused crossing his arms. "I see…"

"Wait; does Leo know who that guy is?" Rukia asked picking Kimatori up over her shoulders so she could watch the duel easier.

"Well, do you Leo?" Rena questioned, a little afraid of the answer.

"… Yes actually," Leo answered, getting a few shocked eyes from the crowd, actually knowing what he was talking about.

Cain closed his eyes and nodded, "I've heard of him too, from that Die Hard Pain in the Ass," he confirmed. "He was a seasoned Duel Monsters Competitor – Rumors says that he still enters tournaments for the last six years, despite his position as a Duel Academy Headmaster. Thing is, he's been successful through out his entire career, not even a single loss. His full name was Croix Akabara."

'_But then again, that's all I know since I don't normally listen to Mustang…'_

"Then, why exactly is he a Headmaster?" Yukino wondered.

"Hmm, if you wish to know," Mao cut in with his narrowed eyes. "It was because while he is a seasoned player, he's a smart one as well. He knows that his reign won't last forever, and so he's looking for an apprentice… Or was looking."

Leo's brow furrowed slightly while he maintained his trademarked smile, "Ah, and let me guess, you're that apprentice?"

"Why else do you think I'm here?" Mao retorted with his arms lifted as he waved a single card up. "This is somewhat of a test for me, I may be the Czar of North Academy, but titles don't mean squat when you're on the floor of defeat. I was granted the chance to go directly in the pro-leagues if I fulfill this challenge."

"And what challenge is that?" Leo asked raising an eyebrow.

"One hundred…" Mao answered tapping his selected card up against his forehead. "One hundred duels… One hundred consecutive wins. That's the stipulation that I must fulfill."

"Ah, so that's why you're so eager to challenge me," Leo pieced together with a wag of his finger.

"Yes, and that is why I cannot lose in my first match!" Mao shouted snapping his next card into his duel disk. "I activate my quick play spell card, Weaponry Recall!"

Mao's spell card appeared in front of him, revealing many rusty blades being brought to an iron-smith, "This card can only be activated when a monster with an equip card attached to it. Then, for each equip card on it, I can draw one card.

"And since there were three equip cards to the Arms Lord's name, I can draw three new cards!"

"Hey! That's no fair!" Yukino booed as Mao snapped off the top three cards from his deck.

"If the peanut gallery would be quiet for a moment," Mao turned towards Yukino. "I was going to say that this turn; I'm not allowed to use those cards this turn."

A small blush crept on Yukino's face.

"So," Mao continued on placing a card into his duel disk. "I'll end my turn with a set card… That's about all I can do anyway."

"Let's hope that fate doesn't have the same in stored for me," Leo chuckled pushing up his hair out of his forehead before he flicked off his next card.

"Fate? Fate has no hold on this game," Mao scoffed lifting his hand to his neck. "Only we with our abilities can craft the outcome as such."

"I agree my friend," Leo replied reaching for his next card from the top of his deck. "Fate doesn't really hold any grounds in a duelist's match. Skill and chance are what matters, and both have granted me this next little trick, I activate the effect of my Airknight Troubadour, I hope you remember him from when you attacked him."

"… Of course," Mao murmured under his breath.

Leo held up the card he was referring to before he slid it into his front pocket. "Well, he's known as a wanderer," Leo explained holding up another card from his hand. "But can be gracious to his fellow wanderers of light. So, by removing him from play, I can lower the level of one light monster in my hand by two stars."

Two clouds exploded next to Leo, forming into millions of feathers that flowed around his body, "And I've got a real winner! I summon Airknight Parshath in attack mode!"

Riding in from the clouds was the angelic centaur dressed in blue and gold armor with several wings strutting out of its back with a golden sword and shield in its grasp (1900/1400), "The original Airknight, and still a powerful form."

"Indeed it is," Mao admitted crossing his arm over his chest.

Leo smirked as he held up his arm, "Then you can say that this attack is also powerful!" And Parshath leapt from the clouds, its sword held into the air before it brought the weapon down on Mao's torso, "EARGGH!!"

The crowd of students went wild as Mao staggered backwards thanks to the attack. "Alright Lord Leo!" Yukino cheered louder out of all of them, her arms thrown into the air. "With that victory is in…"

Mao stepped forward, lifting his duel disk up. (MLP: 8100)

"… The blasting area of a nuke," Yukino wrapped up with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of her head. "How the hell did he do that?"

Rolling his eyes, Cain shook his head to clear it slightly. "It's simple really if you paid attention. Mao's face down card was obviously Emergency Provisions. And since he had the A. Forces and the Thrill of Battle out, he used them as life point fodder."

"Little shorty knows his tactics," Mao commented with a cough.

Cain gritted his teeth loudly, "SHORTY!?!" he roared.

"Nevertheless," Leo said, ignoring Cain's tantrum as he drew his next card. "My monster still inflicted battle damage to you my fine opponent, and thus, I'm allowed to draw one card."

"Is that all?" Mao asked looking at his five card hand.

"Sure, go ahead," Leo chuckled with his regular smile on his face.

Mao carefully scrutinized the Airknight Parshath before he placed his two fingers on top of his deck, "Then… DRAW!" Mao roared snapping off the next card from his deck. Slowly he brought the card to his eyes and slowly closed them, "… I see…"

"Hmm?" Leo questioned raising an eyebrow.

"I activate the spell card, the Warrior Returning Alive!" Mao announced pulling off one of the cards he grasped. "Now, I return the Arms Lord back to my hand from my graveyard. A neat little trick if I do say so myself."

Nodding in reply, Leo kept his arms crossed. "Yep, there's no level limit on that card," He replied poking his forehead with his finger, "Alas, your monster is a different story."

"Or it would if I didn't activate the spell card, Battle Driven Rivals!" Mao retorted as his spell card appeared in front of him, revealing a pair of silver haired men crossing a broad sword and a katana. "This card can only be activated when I have no monsters and you have at least one. You select one monster you have."

Surprised at the move along with everyone else, Leo merely shook his head when he pointed towards his Airknight Parshath, "Very well, I have no other choice than my Airknight."

Mao nodded back, "Of course. Then, my spell allows me to normal summon one monster card from my hand with a level higher or lower than your Airknight."

"Five," Leo sighed with his arms crossed over his chest. "That's the level of my monster."

"And I'll choose a level six monster!" Mao roared as the powerful fiery aura erupting over his body, eventually shredded to reveal the Arms Lord (1800/1600) form had reappeared over his body, his now-white hair spiking upwards. "It doesn't take a genius to guess which monster I chose."

"No it doesn't," Leo chuckled.

"And once more, I remove one warrior from my graveyard," Mao continued pulling out the card from his graveyard slot. "And next, I can equip my monster with one equip spell straight from my deck. And I choose the equip spell – Red Queen's Blade!"

Snapping his arm to the side Mao's hand grasped onto the newest weapon in his almost endless arsenal that shot out of the clouds. Slowly, his gloved fingers wrapping around the motorcycle clutch like handle connected to a beautiful crimson blade that seemed to pulse with pure fiery energy. "And since I don't possess a way to eliminate your face down Negate Attack, I'll end my turn."

Leo couldn't help notice that Mao began to rev the clutch loudly as a flame erupted into the air, "Hmm, I have to say, that's a unique weapon. No power boost? It must have a powerful ability then."

"Then why don't you attack me and find out?" Mao challenged resting the Red Queen Blade on his shoulder. "After all, you do have the stronger monster."

'_He's right… But still,'_ Leo thought slowly clicking off his next card, nothing of use for him this time. "… I shall pass turn."

"A wise move," Mao drew a card to replenish his hand and then smirked at the sight of the card. "However… Against me, that's not so wise. I activate the spell card, Mystical Space Typhoon!"

A powerful storm swept over the cloud ridden field, raging on the ground and making everyone lift their arms up to cover their eyes (while the girls had to keep their hands on their skirts to keep theme down). However, Leo was more concerned with his face down card shattering thanks to the wind.

Mao sneered as he pulled up another card from his hand, "Now, time for me to activate my own field Spell card… Death Match Coliseum!"

All at once, there was a loud rumbling sound, and then suddenly, all of the clouds flew into the air, all around all the duelists sprung up a massive Roman Coliseum, riddled with broken weapons and bones. Some of the students gagged at the sight in front of the two duelists.

"Now, to make sure that there aren't any questions," Mao spoke up, looking at the remaining four cards in his hand with a triumphant smirk. "From this moment forward, both of us take double the battle damage we take."

"Hmm, from no damage to double," Leo muttered closing his eyes. "An interesting double-edged sword technique."

"True… But at the moment," Mao retorted fitting his cards into his pocket as he pulled up the Red Queen Blade. "That doesn't matter! I attack!"

"What?!" Rena, Yukino, Rukia and Kimatori shouted.

Mao leapt high into the air, heading straight towards the Airknight Parshath, both of them raising their blades up. Leo narrowed his eyes while he kept his smile on his face, '_I knew it… There is an effect to that blade…'_

Just as Mao was right in front of the angelic knight, the Parshath swept its blade at the monster-combined Mao.

CLANK!

Only to have Mao block the blade with the large sword he clutched, "Now I reveal the Red Queen Blade's special ability! When equipped to a monster that doesn't attack, it gains a Rev Counter. And for each Rev Counter, the equipped monster gains 400 attack points!" (1800/1600 + 400/0).

"What?" Leo questioned just as Mao flipped over the Airknight Parshath with the Red Queen Blade igniting into a powerful flame that danced along the metal until the Arms Lord sliced the Airknight directly in the back, making the entire angel catch ablaze.

The angel screamed loudly as the flames continued to feast upon its body until it was nothing more than several ashes on the coliseum's floor. "And don't forget!" Mao announced jumping back to his side of the field (1800/1600), "My field spell doubles all battle damage!"

Just as Leo was about to comment about that, a powerful flame erupted around his body, making him jump up slightly, "Aaah!" (LLP: 3750)

"Come on Leo!" Half of the crowd shouted out as the Noble duelist stumbled backwards…

… While the other half of the crowd seemed to flip, "Mao! Mao! Beat him down!"

"What the?" Yukino questioned turning towards the students who now cheered for Leo's opponent. "Why the heck are they against Lord Leo now?"

"You'd be surprised what the admiration of pure strength can do," Cain muttered under his breath as he lowered his eyes. '_Kinda reminds me of how Goliath was able to empower people.'_

Mao, however, scoffed. "You hear that, Leonardo?" He questioned Leo. "Human nature is quite amazing, isn't it? With a flick of my wrist, I've managed turn at least half of the students here against you," Pulling out two cards from his hand, Mao placed the cards into his duel disk. "Although, I can't really blame them, people naturally follow the strong, and with these two set cards, I'll soon have the rest. End of turn!"

Leo didn't have much to say; instead he gazed down at his deck slot. '_Human nature is rather amazing actually. And while it is true that half of them has turned against me._' Leo's eyes turned over to his friends, and his smile turned warmer. '_I know that at least eight people in this crowd will never turn against me…'_

Then he drew. And slowly Leo looked at the card he had plucked from his deck, his smile getting larger by the second, "… Tell me Mao. You told me that fate has no hold on this game correct?"

"Indeed," Mao restated raising an eyebrow.

"But faith, that's another matter!" Leo announced snapping his next card into his duel disk, allowing a graceful light to emerge over his body. "And my faith has awarded me with Angelic Choir!"

Two cards popped out from Leo's graveyard, allowing him to lift his free hand into the air, "And by removing my Airknight Parshath and Airknight Lancer from my graveyard, I can special summon two Airknight Archer Tokens to the field!"

The graceful light began to split, forming into two identical blonde angelic warriors, both of them dressed in white and blue robes and armor, both armed with a bow (1000/1000), their wings flapping to keep them afloat in the air.

"Pretty impressive monsters," Mao remarked with his eyes narrowed. "And what do you intend to do with such interesting monsters? Use them as tribute fodder?"

Leo shook his head with a smile on his face, "Unfortunately, my tokens have a restriction that prevent me from using them to advance summon my monsters. But they have another purpose. Especially since I have two light fairy type monsters on the field, I can normal summon this next monster without tribute."

"Alright! Lord Leo!" Yukino cheered loudly.

"Seriously, why do you call him that?" Rena asked blinking a few times.

"Sorry! Club secret," Yukino winked at Rena.

Meanwhile, back on the field, feathers began to pour from the sky above… Only this time, they were pitch black, falling on the shoulders of Leo's newest monster. Unlike the previous monsters, this one didn't possess that same aura of divinity. Dressed in a dirty brown overcoat and matching fedora, this rugged man lifted his hands up, revealing the black wings on his back that flew into the air, making his long brown hair fly up into the air (1500/1200). "Allow me to introduce," Leo mused, taking a bow at his newest monster. "The Fallen Airknight."

"Hmm… Now you've got me interested," Mao admitted, raising an eyebrow and showing some actual emotion other than his blood-lust. "This one is quite different than your other Airknights."

Leo nodded in return. "I appreciate that." He answered with his arms crossed. "You see, what you see before you is the martyr of the Airknights. In order to prevent a great tragedy from befalling the Celestial Kingdom, this Airknight committed one of the greatest sins known to angels and man kind. As a result, he was proclaimed to remain on our human plane until the end of time or until he has atoned for his sin."

"What kind of sin was it this guy committed?" Mao questioned.

"… That unfortunately was lost to the sands of time," Leo answered as five ghostly figures began to appear behind the Fallen Airknight. "However, despite the fact that his friends sent him to an eternity of atonement, he never forgot who he cared about… And it's that memory that empowers him to continue!"

That's when the ghostly figures became visible enough for people to see the Airknights Lancer, Parshath, Colonel, Priestess and Troubadour appearing behind the scowling Fallen Airknight, reaching into his overcoat to pull out his two silver pistols (1500/1200 + 1500/0). "In game terms," Leo explained with his arms crossed. "For each Airknight that is removed from play, he gains three hundred attack points."

"That… That's why you were removing all those cards?!" Mao gasped taking a few steps back. This Leo character was leading him on, and while those earlier cards did indeed make for good moves, the noble duelist was just putting on a ruse.

Nodding back, Leo lifted his hand up with a single card in his hand, "Indeed, my weapon-loving foe! And now for the coup de grace! I activate the spell card, Virtuous Mission! This spell card allows me to increase the attack points of all level four or lower light monsters by five hundred points until the end phase!"

A bright aura erupted around the two Airknight Archer Tokens, both of them pulling up an arrow (1000/1000 + 500/0).

"Not bad," Cain whistled rubbing his right arm. "If these attacks go through, then that angel guy's got this in the bag."

"How do you figure?" Rena asked.

"Simple, thanks to Mao's own field spell," Cain sighed, not really in the mood to explain this. "He'll take double the damage. And I'm willing to bet my right arm that Mao's face down cards are related to Equip Spells since for the last few turns he's been focused on using one monster and one monster alone."

"Wow, for a little guy you sure know your stuff," Rena admitted, but then backed off at the glares being shot at her by the shorter, yet older duelist. "Uh, I meant, you sure know your stuff Mr. Sonryu!"

"Humph," Cain growled rolling his eyes.

Spinning the two handguns, the Fallen Airknight ran across the bone ridden coliseum ground before he leapt high into the air, "I hope you're ready Mao," Leo chuckled when countless black feathers flew over head. "This is a taste of what the duelists here at the Atlantic Academy are capable of! Fallen Airknight! Attack with Endless Black Feather Barrage!"

With precise aim, the fallen angel fired countless bullets from the two pistols, first piercing through the floating black feathers before they landed at the ground at Mao's feet, dust flying up around his body as he spun his sword into the air. "Humph!"

Dust continued to fly through the air, covering Mao's Arms Lord form, and when the Fallen Airknight landed on the ground, his wings folded up while he hid his twin handguns, a smirk on his face. "I hope you're still there, Mao," Leo chuckled with a bright smile on his face.

The dust finally began to fall to the ground, revealing a silhouette amongst the dust. "Trust me, Leonardo…" Mao's voice echoed through the dust as quite a few strands of white hair began to poke up from above the dust cloud, until it was revealed that Mao's Arms Lord form (1800/1600) was remaining on the field. "I have no plans of disappearing." (MLP: 6400)

All of the teens in the makeshift café froze at the sight of the Arms Lord, only to have a few seconds later having the Mao supporters to roar loudly into the air.

Rena rubbed her eyes. "What the, how in the world did the Arms Lord survive that attack?"

"In case you're wondering Leonardo," Mao scoffed holding up two cards from his duel disk, a trap card and a spell card. "I activated the trap card Weapon Reformat. And by destroying the Red Queen Blade, I was able to exchange it for another equip card from my deck.

Mao slipped his trap card into his duel disk's graveyard. "And the card I selected was the equip spell – Sword of the Gather Clouds of Heaven. Not only does it give the equipped monster three hundred and fifty points of attack, but when the equipped monster would be destroyed in battle, the weapon takes the hit instead."

"Ah, then you managed to pull out a quick recovery," Leo mused looking at the remaining cards in his hand. "Unfortunately, I don't have anything I can use at the moment. So, my turn is over."

Immediately Mao clicked his next card into his hand. "Hmm… Then this will be most interesting… But thanks to your spell card's effect, your two angels go back down to normal status."

Indeed, the warm glow around the two Airknight Archer Tokens (1500/1000 – 500/0 x2) began to die down, both of them annoyed at the fact that they couldn't get in a single shot.

"Now then, it's time for my little trick," Mao continued holding up two cards from his hand. "I activate the equip spell cards, Twin Fury and Cerberus Cannon!"

At first nothing seemed to happen when Mao played his two equip cards, but that's when two orbs of darkness appeared at his waist, forming into a pair of gun holsters, armed with a pair of silver and black hand guns (1800/1600 + 300/0).

And then, Mao lifted his arm up into the air, allowing a large tunnel of dark matter to wrap around his hand, forming into a large three cylinder cannon with wolf like markings wrapped around it (2100/1600 + 500/0), how Mao was able to keep the weapon held over his head was a marvel. "Now then, I've got a little explaining to do, for you see…"

"Your Twin Fury allows an equipped monster to attack twice," Leo interrupted wagging his finger in the air at the surprised Mao. "I actually saw another duelist use the same card quite a while back. However your Cerberus Cannon is a new one to me."

Slamming the cannon into the ground, Mao leaned up against it, "Well then, maybe I should just show you what this little number can do." Throwing the cannon over his shoulder, the Arms Lord – Mao began to charge energy into the cannon. "And my target is your first Airknight Archer!"

The cannon unleashed a powerful dark blue energy, crashing directly into the surprised Airknight, leaving only a few broken arrows and the shattered bow on the ground next to the scarred Fallen Airknight. (LLP: 2150)

Mao scowled. "Check your duel disk." He ordered with his finger lifted at Leo. "You should've lost even more life points."

"Oh, no doubt," Leo mused holding up a card from his graveyard. "But, I was prepared. You see, by removing an Airknight Shield from my graveyard, I can cut any battle damage done to me in one instance in half. Or in this case, its regular damage took its place."

However, Leo stopped short when he noticed a small spark of electricity surging through his duel disk, "Hmm?"

"Then I guess it's a good thing that my Cerberus Cannon holds another effect," Mao explained pointing his thumb towards the named weapon. "When a monster equipped with it destroys a monster as a result of battle, you take three points of damage, and it's considered to be battle damage. So my field spell takes effect!"

Leo's eyes widened as the electricity erupted from his duel disk, making the smiling duelist wince slightly, "Urk!" (LLP: 1550)

"And now… To continue my turn," Mao chuckled charging the energy in his cannon once more, this time taking aim of the second Airknight Archer. "I attack!"

**/-/-/-/-/-/-/**

As the duel continued onward, Vic stood at the docks, his purple uniform billowing as he gazed at the ship that had just pulled in.

"Vanhemer…"

At the call of his surname, Vic turned his eyes to the side, seeing Maroon standing tall next to him… While Orange was on the dock, possibly asleep or either knocked out (not that he really cared for either). "We were able to achieve the data you asked for," Maroon reported holding up a small CD case to Vic. "We had a few… uh, incidents, but nothing that could really hold a candle to our success."

Vic merely nodded as he took the CD case, but then his gaze turned towards the KO'd Orange.

"Oh, yeah, well…." Maroon chuckled rubbing the back of his head looking down at the star gazing Orange. "He was a part of those incidents."

A loud growl could be heard – The look from Vic's eyes spoke of its origins. "I don't need this crap," He snarled underneath his cold mask. "At least we don't have to keep up with his shenanigans…"

"Who says shenanigans now-a-days?" Maroon asked.

"AH!" Orange shouted, throwing his arm up into the air. "I see!" Both Vic and Maroon jumped as Orange leapt to his feet. "If you have a friend named Reinhart the Dancing Monkey Boy, don't let him shot the computer… Let 'em DANCE!"

"… Do I even have to ask?" Vic muttered combing a hand through his dark hair.

"I wouldn't," Maroon simply answered. "So, any reason why you asked us to come here?"

Vic shrugged. "Simple really," he answered. "I received a conference call from my employer while you two were stumbling about your mission. I am supposed to greet the next top duelist, this one from the Western Academy – one Flay Vallery, known as the Eternal Commander."

"Is he an ally?" Maroon asked, trying really hard not to stare at Orange dancing like a moron.

"Unfortunately," Vic spoke up crossing his arms as a short figure began to walk down the ramp that connected the boat to the dock. "We're only to keep an eye on him, and… What the hell?"

"Whoa…" Maroon questioned raising an eyebrow at the figure that walked down the ramp.

"It's the King of France!" Orange cheered loudly!

**/-/-/-/-/-/-/**

"ACK!" Leo yelped as the electricity erupted through his body, making him stumble backwards and onto his back. "OOF!" (LLP: 0)

"Leo-Kun!" Kimatori shouted jumping from Rukia's shoulders.

"Lord Leo!" Yukino yelped.

Even Rena and Cain ran to there stunned friend as the Arms Lord form shattered from Mao's body, allowing the Czar to turn off his duel disk, '_… That's one…'_

"Are you okay Leo?" Rena asked holding her hand out to Leo.

Taking his friend's hand, Leo immediately pulled himself back to his feet, "Ah yes." He chuckled with a calm smile on his face, "Nothing seriously bruised, save for my pride."

"Ouch that has to hurt," Cain muttered.

"It was…"

The stern voice made the teens (and Kimatori) turn, seeing Mao standing in front of Leo, his hand held up, "It was… An excellent duel, one worthy of being the first of my many lined up victories."

Taking his opponent's hand, Leo submitted a powerful handshake to the Arms Czar. "I hope your list of victories will be successful."

"Indeed…" Mao replied.

KLAP! KLAP!

All of the students parted, turning towards the opening where two of the most powerful men on the island stood – Alan and Croix, the former still clapping loudly, "Bravo! Bravo! Encore! What an excellent duel! One for the record books no doubt!"

"Wright… You don't need to make a spectacle out of everything," Croix sighed with a large sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head.

Alan lowered his head. '_Yeesh, make up your mind at least…'_

Stepping past the crowds of students, Croix crossed his arms at Mao. "But, never-the-less, it was a good match for you Mao." He rewarded by placing his hand on Mao's shoulder. "One down, ninety-nine to go."

Mao narrowed his eyes before he slapped away Croix's hand. "Humph, just remember," Mao spat out before he began to walk past the Northern Headmaster. "I expect you to keep your word."

"But of course," Croix chuckled with a smile on his face…

… And Leo raised an eyebrow at the weird smile.

"Well, I can see that most of you met a few of our guests," Alan announced turning towards Cain and Mao (who was now out of the make-shift café). "And with our remaining guests arriving within the next twenty-four hours, I'll make the announcement here first."

Throwing his hand into the air, Alan's smile reappeared on his face. "In one day!" The headmaster boomed into the air. "Our academy will light up with the festival life! So, I hope each and everyone of you are ready for it!"

"You better believe it!" A random student shouted.

Croix couldn't help but sigh as the rest of the present student body began to cheer and shout, "Wright, remember that you shouldn't really start a student riot…"

"But, I'm not causing a riot," Alan pointed out with a question mark appearing over his head.

"I think this Headmaster Croix is a few screws loose," Rukia whispered to Rena, eliciting a small snicker from the elf duelist. "Even more than our headmaster."

While the students roared with anticipation, Leo kept his eyes at the exit of the café…

The look that Mao had… Sadness seeped from it.

And the smile that appeared on Croix's face…

… It was pure venom…

Meanwhile, outside the café….

As he continued to walk away, Mao reached under his undershirt's collar, slowly pulling out a small silver pendant. "… Anna…" Flicking it open, Mao lowered his head at the picture inside…

… A small glint of a tear rolling down the side of his face. '_I swear… I swear I won't lose. Not until you are in my arms safely again…'_

**/-/-/-/-/-/-/**

**Card Stats**

**Airknight Troubadour / Light / LV. 4 / ATK: 1700 / DEF: 1300 / Fairy/Effect:** By removing this card from your graveyard, you may lower the level of one LIGHT monster in your hand by two star levels.

**Description:** a young brown cloaked angel dressed in a fedora hat and harp in his hands

**Airknight Colonel / Light / LV. 4 / ATK: 1400 / DEF: 0 / Fairy/Effect:** When this card is destroyed as a result of battle, by removing this card and one 'Airknight' monster from your graveyard, you may destroy one monster on the field.

**Description:** A sleek dark haired angel dressed in a gold and white military uniform with his left eye covered with an eye-patch.

**Weaponry Recall / Quick Play Spell / Effect:** This trap card can only be activated when a monster card on your side of the field with at least one equip spell card equipped to it is destroyed. For each equip spell card that was on the destroyed monster, you may draw one card from your deck. During the turn this effect is used, you cannot use these cards drawn by this card's effect.

**Image:** Many rusty blades being brought to an Iron-Smith.

**Battle Driven Rivals / Normal Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you have no monsters on your side of the field while your opponent possesses at least one. Your opponent selects one monster on their side of the field. You may then normal summon one monster from your hand with one level higher or lower than your opponent's selected monster. The monster summoned with this effect is considered to be advance summoned. **  
Image:** a pair of silver haired men crossing a broad sword and a katana

**Red Queen Blade / Equip Spell / Effect:** This card can only be equipped to a DARK Warrior monster. During each of your end phases the equipped monster did not attack during that turn, place one 'Rev Counter' on the equipped monster. For each 'Rev Counter' on the equipped monster, increase the equipped monster's attack by 400 points when it battles a monster. When this card would be destroyed by a card effect controlled by your opponent, by removing one 'Rev Counter' on the equipped monster, you may keep this card on the field. When the equipped monster attacks, after the damage step, remove all 'Rev Counters' on the equipped monster.

**Image:** A beautiful crimson blade with a motorcycle clutch for the handle, a flame erupted from the base of the weapon.

**Death Match Coliseum / Field Spell / Effect:** Double all battle damage done to all players. **  
Image:** A blood drenched coliseum with two gladiators fighting amongst bones and broken weaponry

**Weapon Reformat / Trap / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you have a monster with an equip spell card equipped to it. Destroy the equip spell card. Then you may activate one equip spell card from your deck and equip it to the same monster.

**Image:** A large broadsword being traded in for a pair of hand guns.

**Sword of the Gather Clouds of Heaven / Equip Spell / Effect:** This card can only be equipped to a FIRE Warrior-type monster. Increase the attack points of the equipped monster by 350. When the equipped monster would be destroyed as a result of battle, you may destroy this card instead.

**Image:** A sleek sword with several black feathers whipping around it.

**The Fallen Airknight / Light / LV. 7 / ATK: 1500 / DEF: 1200 / Warrior/Effect:** Treat this card as a Fairy type monster. When you possess two or more Light Fairy-Type monsters on the field, you may normal summon this card from your hand without tribute. For each Light monster removed from play, increase this card's attack points by 300 points.

**Image:** A wandering Airknight, only with black wings and dressed in a tattered brown overcoat with a fedora hat covering his long brown hair. In his hands appear to be a pair of silver handguns.

**Virtuous Mission / Normal Spell / Effect:** Increase the attack points of all level four or lower light monsters by 500 points until the end phase.

**Image:** Three angels fighting against a single demon.

**Twin Fury / Equip Spell / Effect:** This card can only be equipped to a DARK-Warrior. Increase the equipped monster's attack by 300 points. The equipped monster may attack twice a turn.

**Image:** A silver haired man spinning a pair of black and silver handguns.

**Cerberus Cannon / Equip Spell / Effect:** This card can only be equipped to a DARK monster. Increase the equipped monster's attack points by 500. When the equipped monster destroys a monster as a result of battle, inflict 300 points of damage to your opponent's life points (this damage is considered battle damage).

**Image: **A large three cylinder cannon with wolf designs on it.

**/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/**

**Rena:** Yes! It's festival time!

**Yukino:** Heh!

**Rena:** … Uh… Is something the matter?

**Leo:** Hmm…

**Rukia and Vaan:** *Blush*

**Klein:** Heh, heh, heh! Time to shine!

**Koji:** *Sigh*

**Rena:** … Hello? Is anyone listening to me?

**Ganryu:** …

**Rena:** I kinda expected that…

**Cain:** *Yawn*

**Tony: **I agree my lovely little Rena! It is a lovely time for the festival! Shall we…

**Mustang:** -Pushes Tony to the side- Why hello there!

_**The mark of the festival! The time of joy! The endless memories! And we better toss in a duel just to keep things interesting! **_

_**Watch the fireworks fly next time – **__**Chapter 58: Romance by Fireworks**_

**Tony:** Damn it! You're supposed to help me!

**Rena:** Um… Would someone tell me what's going on?


	59. Chapter 58: Romance by Fireworks

_**Ya'll need to know this…**_

_**My love for her has been pure ever since the beginning of this year, when she leapt into my arms and cried into my chest. I could feel a bond that could last forever form on that day, and ever since, I have kept my eyes on Rena to make sure that no one would hurt her.**_

_**Sure, I may not have expressed by feelings directly to her, but… But that's all about to change tonight!**_

_**Love is in the air! As are the fireworks! **_

_**I can feel it in my very soul!**_

_**I've been waiting for tonight! Whoa! The fire in my heart is burning greatly, waiting to be set free into the burning passionate love between the two of us!**_

_**But… It looks like there's a hurdle that I must pass in order to get to my love! And with the way I'm feeling… Nothing's keeping me down!**_

_**/-/-/-/-\-\-\-\**_

_**Chapter 58**_

_**Romance by Fireworks **_

_**/-/-/-/-\-\-\-\**_

"I activate the spell card – Spell Gear, which allows me to send three 'Ancient Gear' cards I control to the graveyard!" The duelist's dark hair combed over his left eye and face, while still showing a cocky smile on his lips. His thin complexion was covered with his first year Obelisk Blue uniform and black pants. Even though he was dressed in the Obelisk Blue uniform, he didn't look to be over sixteen or seventeen years of age.

He snapped out his deck and lifted up one card from it, and another from his hand, spinning them both around to reveal the same monster card. "So Czar, I hope you didn't count on this being another victory! Because thanks to my spell, I can special summon one Ancient Gear Golem from my deck and one from my hand!"

The sand on the beach began to receded, allowing two identical large mechanical beings to stand tall, looming over the crowds with their large dark gray metallic bodies with many gears and cogs showing. The gears began to turn, rusty and sparks flying through the air as they both lifted up their clawed hands (3000/3000 x2). As soon as the two monsters appeared in front of him, he pushed a button on his duel disk. "Productive Attack is a powerful trap card that allows me to special summon the final Ancient Gear Golem from my deck!"

Another huge being erupted from the ground behind him. The light revealed that it was indeed the third and final Ancient Gear Golem (3000/3000), its rusty gears turning as it moved. "But don't think I'm done yet foreigner! I activate the spell card – Clockwork Gears! Since I possess three monsters with the same attack points, I can special summon another monster from my deck or fusion deck with the same attack points. My choice is Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Dragon (3000/2000)!"

A large rusted over gear dragon roared a loud rustic battle cry, smoke pouring from its large body as its metallic wings allowed the monster to keep itself off the ground. "After the effect of Clockwork Gears is resolved, I must pay a thousand life points, and sacrificed my battle phase this turn." (MiLP: 7000)

Miles Murphy chuckled as he gazed over the remaining two cards in his hand. '_First that damn goth… Then that stupid masked freak… This time I know for a fact that my newest deck – The Ancient Gear Beat Rush, will not let me down like my Demon Beat Down. There is no way in hell that I'm going to fall to this guy.'_

Plucking one of the other cards from his hand, Miles fitted the card into his duel disk, "I then activate the next spell card, Ancient Metal Coating! By paying another one thousand life points, this turn all my Ancient Gear Monsters cannot be destroyed by any and all card effects. So, my Productive Attack's effect, which would normally destroy my Golems at the end of the turn, will not go into effect!" (MiLP: 6000)

A single card appeared in front of him and he snickered at his opponent. "My turn's done."

Miles tapped his foot against the beach's sand, rolling his eyes at his opponent's lack of a move… Heck, he didn't even move to draw his card. "… You going to make a move or are you actually posing for a statue?"

Taking a deep breath, his opponent ran a hand through his white hair before he drew his next card, "My apologies. My mind was on other matters while a big windbag who's ego is only surpassed by the fact that he's in love with himself. I was thinking that I would get a decent challenge from another Obelisk Blue. But if this is all you can muster, then I guess that I had my hopes held too high."

Miles's eyes narrowed before he chuckled slightly, "I guess that the taste of victory can make people blind. In case you haven't noticed – I've got four three thousand attackers, all of them ready to pulverize that monster costume you've got on! The title of Czar must be reserved for fools!"

Mao yawned as he placed two of his fingers on top of his deck as his Arms Lord form's overcoat billowed in the sandy wind (1800/1500). "The weakest dogs bark the loudest." (MaLP: 8000)

"Better than being a dog that can't bark at all," Miles retorted.

"You know…" Mao sighed waving the five cards he had in his hand. "I was going to let you have another turn after mine – But that comment crossed the line."

"Heh, yeah right," Miles scoffed waving his free hands in the air. "The moment you pull that off, is the moment that I eat my own right shoe!"

With his right eyebrow raised, Mao lifted up three of his cards up into the air, "Very well. I hope you brought the salt…"

"For as long as I reside on this island! My lust for a pure one hundred duel victory will not be tarnished!"

The Czar sliced his arm in a horizontal manner, unleashing a powerful stream of red wind that swept over the field, crashing through not only the three Ancient Gear Golems, but also the Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Dragon.

At first, nothing happened…

But then, several cuts rode all four of the Ancient Gear machines' bodies, parts and gears began to fall to the beach, sand splashing all around Miles's body and making him jump to the left and right a few times until all four of the Ancient Gear monsters fell atop of him, covering Miles's body. "ACK!" (MiLP: 0)

As the holograms began to wisp away, Mao returned to his dark haired, gray uniformed original state, walking towards the dazed Miles, "Hmm… How'd a dog like you managed to claw his way into Obelisk Blue is beyond me."

Mao lifted up his right arm, revealing a small band on his arm, flashing the number '12'… only to have it blink to number '13'. "But, a victory is still a victory… And now, I think you have a little meal to attend to."

Thank goodness Miles always cleaned his shoes every morning…

**/-/-/-/-\-\-\-\**

There seemed to be a dim light around a certain Obelisk Blue dorm room's door, seeping out into the hallway…

Leo sighed loudly as he rested back on his dorm room's blue couch, his eyes focused on the darkened ceiling. Even though his alarm clock read seven o'clock and the sun was still shinning behind his closed curtains, the noble duelist had already decided to spend the rest of his day in the comforts of his room.

"_Tell me something… Do you know what separates a man from a great man?"_

Turning to the right, Leo placed his arms behind his head.

"_Human nature is quite amazing, isn't it? With a flick of my wrist, I've managed turn at least half of the students here against you."_

Leo shifted to his left, his gaze aimed at the seat of the couch.

"_I can't really blame them, people naturally follow the strong, and with these two set cards, I'll soon have the rest."_

He was restless…

Sitting up in the couch, Leo slumped forwards with his eyes trailing towards the blue carpet, adorned with his deck of Airknight cards. When he returned to his room after the duel (much to the protest of his friends), Leo simply dropped his duel disk and deck, spilling all of the cards that ran askew around the carpeting.

But there was one card that Leo's eyes trailed to – The Airknight Librarian. Whenever he looked at that card, Leo could feel his troubles plummet from his shoulders…

… Then… Why did he still feel so drained?

It wasn't the first time Leo lost at something, but he never felt this way before. It felt like something had snapped the moment that Mao's blades sliced away the remainder of his life points. Sure, Leo wasn't used to this manner, but he still felt this weird pain coursing through his veins.

Whatever the reason was behind this, all Leo knew was that he really didn't care for much of anything at the moment. Thankfully, Rena and Rukia were kind of enough to have Kimatori staying with them during the festival time.

At the moment, he didn't have the energy to keep up with her.

Leo didn't even have the energy to keep up his trademarked smile…

While the noble duelist was lost in his thoughts, in another Obelisk Blue dorm room, the light seemed to gush out the windows, door and air vents…

"FINALLY!"

Leaping from his seat, Tony held up the pad of paper that he had spent the majority of the day working on. With his cap removed, Tony's bright orange hair fluttered down the sides of his head and a large grin was painted on his slightly rugged face. "Finally!" He cheered spinning around with the aforementioned paper displayed overhead. "After toiling away the entire day… I have finally completed it!"

Was it a term paper?

Was it a new deck list?

If those were your guesses, then you haven't really been paying attention to Tony before now.

What he was working on for the majority of the day, was a schedule… With the fancily drawn title on the top that read in bold, gold and blue ink –

_**Tony Havoc's Key To Rena Akira's Heart**_

'_I've got everything all set!_' Tony thought bringing the pad of paper down to his eyes to read the list of events. '_With the extensive knowledge of romance from novels, anime, video games and soap operas, one of these ideas is bound to tie both Rena and me together – Lovely Bliss!'_

Tony jumped into his seat, somewhat exhausted mentally. "Ah…" He sighed in relief tossing the notepad onto his nearby desk. '_I wonder though… Which one will bind the two of us together?'_

_As the sunlight began to fall over the ocean's horizon, both Tony and Rena sat close to each other on one of the grassy knolls on the island, no one else around for miles. The silent breeze swept over the grass, sending a shiver up Rena's spine._

_Taking note of this, Tony removed his jacket and placed it on Rena's shoulders, "Here," Tony chuckled making sure that his jacket was fully covering Rena's shoulders. _

_A small blush crept on Rena's face as she pulled the jacket tighter, "Tony…" she cooed with the red on her face becoming more apparent – even in the red light of the evening sun. "… You didn't have to…"_

"_I know," Tony replied moving closer to Rena. "But – I wanted to."_

"_T-Thanks," Rena muttered, turning to the side to make sure that Tony wouldn't get a good look at her blush. _

"_Think nothing of it," Tony said with a large grin on his face as he lifted his arm up. _

_Slowly, Tony began to lower his hand onto Rena's shoulder, at first surprising the young Osiris Red duelist. But then – she slowly moved closer to Tony's torso, making the Chess loving duelist feel Rena's body heat. That was enough for Tony's face to turn beat red._

"_Tony…" Rena gulped slowing turning up to Tony._

"_Yeah?" Tony questioned, just realizing that both his and Rena's faces were only centimeters away from each other._

_No more words…_

"_What the heck is this?!"_

"_Huh?" Tony questioned blinking confusion._

"Wow! Look at all this gushy lovey-dovey crap!" Klein snickered reading the notepad that held Tony's love schedule.

"K-Klein?!" Tony sputtered having finally snapped out of his fantasy world. "How the hell did you get in here?!"

"You'd be surprised by how big the air-vents are in the Blue Dorm," Klein answered, not taking his eyes off the paper. "Plus, you guys gotta get those grills on the ventilations checked out – the screws are too old to even block a rat from breaking them down."

Tony never realized that the Obelisk Blue Dorm had a problem like that.

"So – You're actually going to tell the girly how you feel?" Klein asked tossing the notepad to Tony. "About time, actually."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Tony snarled, narrowing his eyes at the little man in his room.

"Oh come on, it's not like everyone is as oblivious as the girly to notice," Klein chuckled with his arms crossed. "Heck, some people took bets on when you would expose your feelings to Rena… I got my bets on tomorrow."

"… You've got a money complex, you know?" Tony questioned a little curious how many people were part of that bet.

"You say it like it's a bad thing," Klein retorted with a wag of his finger. "But, fear not! I am the Lonely Romancer of Duel Academia! And I'm willing to help you out my friend!"

"… And I would want your help because…?" Tony asked with sarcasm dripping from his tongue.

"Exactly!" A new voice sounded, making both duelists turn towards the window. "Why would he want help from a charlatan?"

Standing at the window was none other than Mustang, the supposed Die Hard Kaiser of the Pacific Duel Academy, his blue scarf billowing through the wind that blew through the room, "When he can have the skills of the infamous lady killer himself?"

"Why are people coming into my room!?" Tony asked to no one in particular.

"Who the hell are you?" Klein asked raising an eyebrow.

Mustang looked down at Klein, an eyebrow cocked up slightly, "Hmm…" He mused. "I didn't think it was possible… But there's someone just as short as the shrimp."

Meanwhile – In one of the spare Obelisk Blue Rooms…

"AAH-CHOOO! DAMN IT!"

Back with the trio of duelists…

Klein and Mustang shook each other's hands. "It's a pleasure to meet ya!" Klein announced with a toothy grin appearing on his face. "Mustang the Die Hard Duelist of Pacific Academy!"

"Right back at ya!" Mustang chuckled releasing Klein's hand. "Klein – the young romancer of Atlantic academy!"

"I have more titles," Klein pointed out with his arms crossed. "But since we both have a common goal, let's just leave it at that."

'_Damn… That was quick…'_ Tony thought before he rolled his eyes. "Do I even want to know what your guys' goal is?"

Mustang and Klein didn't even need to speak… All they did was grin evilly at Tony.

'… _I have a bad idea about this…'_

**/-/-/-/-\-\-\-\**

"… This is what you guys call a secret base?"

Vic growled with a slap to his head, "Flay, I know you you're used to the high life," he growled leaning up against one of the darkened walls of the Ra Yellow basement that he had commandeered earlier thanks to Morty and Xander… The two managed to pull a miracle and find this location. "But here, we need to make sacrifices in order to succeed."

Rolling his obsidian eyes, the young and short Flay lifted up his bare arms in a shrug that revealed his black sleeveless overcoat (that dragged on the ground), the white ripped shirt and baggy khaki shorts (which doubled as pants for him).

Flay wasn't that tall to begin with, in fact, his tall spiky black hair made up a good fourth of his overall height, almost reminded Vic of a certain white haired duelist who ran an alchemist deck.

"You make it sound like I should care," Flay replied sticking out his tongue at Vic. "Nope! I'm here for what I want… The big man though wants me to help you while I get my own agenda done."

"For someone so looking childish," Vic muttered walking past Flay and heading towards the computer that was set up in the middle of the room. "You've got a sharp tongue and grasp of the situation."

"… Heh… Well," Flay chuckled with his arms thrown behind his head. "… I've got an ace up my sleeve concerning that."

'_But you don't have sleeves…_' Vic thought as he continued to type information into the computer.

"So, what exactly are you working on here anyway?" Flay asked looking over Vic's shoulder (barely being able to).

"I getting my rightly deserved crown," Vic retorted, not taking his eyes away from the computer screen. "You see, I was originally supposed to become the Kaiser for the Pacific academy – but that was usurped away from me."

"And you said I was childish," Flay commented with a snicker.

"Do you even know what being the top duelist can do?" Vic asked, taking the time to turn towards Flay. "If you're a Kaiser, not only would you have sponsors from the pro leagues, but you would have recognition in the world market! There are so many paths for a person to take if they were the top dog in the academy!"

"Wow… If I'd known that," Flay admitted rolling his eyes. "I would've actually studied for those tests."

"Just having brains isn't enough," Vic returned to the computer. "Skills, a serious or suave look, pretty much anything you would expect from a pop idol to be. But in order to even considered for a Kaiser position, you need to be a Grade-A duelist. Thankfully, I was able to transfer my grades from my previous academy, but, in order to become Kaiser… I need to become the top duelist on the island."

"And how exactly are you going to pull that stunt off?" Flay asked raising an eyebrow. "Not like you've got enough time."

"True… But there was only one of me," Vic stated with a smirk appearing on his face. "If there are six of me, then it's not so farfetched."

"Huh?" Flay questioned.

**/-/-/-/-\-\-\-\**

The morning sun beamed over Tony's shoulders as he stood quietly in front of a certain red duelist's dorm hut… A cold sweat rolling down his head as he lifted his shaking hand towards the mahogany door, '_C-Come on Tony… You, you can do this! Just knock on the door and…'_

Alas – Poor Tony lowered his hand down. He didn't have the courage to pull this off…

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

Tony's head perked up, immediately noticing that Klein and Mustang had both appeared on either side of the door, both of them with painted on grins that could put the Cheshire cat to shame. "After all the hard work," Klein growled with his arms crossed. "You are not going to flake out on this!"

"… I never asked for your help," Tony admitted rolling his eyes.

"Too late for that," Klein chuckled holding up a small sheet of paper up to Tony. "We already drew up a bill up for you and managed to pay a few people to help out too!"

At the sight of the bill, Tony's eyes widened at the final amount written at the bottom of the paper, "What the hell?!" He yelped. "I can't afford this!"

"Never mind about that," Mustang stated lifting his fist up towards the door. "Klein was kind enough to create a payment plan for you and in three years, you'll be able to fulfill the payments. But for today, we only need you to enjoy your date with…"

He paused with a confused look on his face. "Hey, Klein, I forgot to ask in the hype," Mustang whispered leaning down to the shorter teen. "But… Who's this guy hoping to get hooked up with?"

"Heh, a flat chested girl named Rena Akira," Klein answered, not noticing that Tony was lifting his fist up into the air…

BAM!

"ACK!" Klein yelped falling to the ground with his tongue sticking out of his mouth.

Lowering his blood vessel covered fist, Tony narrowed his eyes at the knocked out Klein, "Don't ever speak ill of Rena like that again!"

"Regardless," Mustang coughed to hide his laughter from Klein's knocked out mumbling. "We still have your plan to enact… And we shouldn't let all the hard work we put into this be a waste, now should we?"

"You make it sound like we actually going to do it," Tony growled narrowing his eyes at Mustang. "I'm not going to do something that'll get me into debt…"

"Good point," Mustang stated with a serious look appearing on his face. "Allow me to retort in the following manner."

Mustang didn't even say anything. All he did was walk beside Tony, and then lifted his leg up slightly towards the door…

BAM!

Tony's eyes widened as Mustang continued to kick the door with all his strength a few times, "What the hell are you doing?!" Tony snapped with fire appearing in his eyes.

Throwing his arm around Tony's neck, Mustang continued to kick the door with all his strength, "Relax," He stated making Tony a little nervous. "This is all a part of the plan my friend. So just sit back and watch…"

The door began to open, freezing both Tony and Mustang in their steps as a pajama wearing Rena answered the door, her left hand at her eyes trying to rub the sleep out of them. "Ah… Who's knocking this…?" Rena yawned until she realized that Tony and Mustang were the ones on the other side of the door, her face turning as red as her pajamas. "AAAAH!"

And with that, Rena slammed the door shut in the two teens' faces.

"… Yeah, she's a keeper," Mustang chuckled, tightening his arm around Tony's neck.

"ACK!" Tony coughed out slightly.

Meanwhile…

"Man…" Bravo moaned tugging on the purple uniform sleeves (the same that Vic usually wore). "I can't stand sleeved shirts… Or jackets for that matter."

"Just be glad yours fits you," Orange stated lifting up the loose sleeves he had over his hands. "This one is a few sizes too big!"

What didn't really strike the two duelists, was the fact that they had mixed up their uniform overcoats… But either of them didn't realize that little fact, so it was a funny sight to see this early in the Red Dorm area.

"So, urk, what…" Bravo muttered unzipping the overcoat to release some pressure on his muscular build. "So, what did Vic want us to do dress like him again?"

"Heh, luckily, I managed to write down the mission specs," Orange replied digging into his large pocket until he pulled out a purple PDA. "According to this, we're supposed to locate one of the top three duelists on the island and defeat him…"

"… At what?" Bravo asked blinking a few times.

"Uh, you know," Orange stated blinking a few times at the PDA's screen. "I never did get a chance to write that down… All I did get was the original idea for it. I know that we have to defeat them at something…"

"Eh, when we get to that bridge," Bravo chuckled with a large grin on his face. "We'll just burn it."

"… I don't think that's how the saying goes," Orange sighed with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head.

"Like it matters," Bravo growled with his arms crossed. "Now then… Who are we targeting?"

"Indeed," Orange snickered tapping his finger on the PDA a few times until three pictures appeared on the screen. "There's the Kaisaris – Luntina, the second best duelist – Riko Kamika, and the third – Tony Havoc."

"Uh… I really don't think we should mess with Riko," Bravo pointed out waving his hands up.

"Any reason why?" Orange asked raising an eyebrow.

"… No… N-Not really…" Bravo whistled throwing his arms behind his head, remembering how his ass was handed to him by the blind duelist.

"Whatever," Orange muttered crossing Riko off the list. "That just leaves the top banana and the third best guy. And since I think that the top duelist on the island may be a little over the top for us… So, we'll just go after the weakest of the three. Tony Havoc is our winner!"

"Then… Why are we are the red dorm huts?" Bravo asked raising an eyebrow at the huts that surrounded the two of them. "If he's one of the top duelists here… Wouldn't he be at the Blue Dorm?"

Orange slid some information onto the PDA, making the text appear over Tony's face. "Well, yeah, but," He replied pushing a few more buttons on his PDA. "According to the information we got from the school's computers, he usually hangs out with Red duelists – One in particular he seems to have a thing for."

"Ah! We find that student," Bravo put two and two together. "And we find him!"

"Exactly!" Orange said pocketing his PDA. "So, we'll just have to do some scouting before we can come up with a plan to beat him."

"Right-o!"

**/-/-/-/-\-\-\-\**

"I'm really sorry about that Rena," Tony apologized as Rena closed the door behind her at the hut. "I kinda pictured you as a morning person."

Rena yawned loudly as she rubbed her eyes again, only this time dressed in her school uniform and a black short sleeved jacket over her blouse, "Oh… N-No worries," She yawned loudly, trying her hardest to keep awake. "I don't normally sleep at six in the morning…"

"Many apologies young lady," Mustang sighed throwing his arms behind his head. "We didn't mean to wake you. But, I asked Tony for a favor to help me."

"A favor?" Rena and Tony questioned blinking a few times.

"You see, I have a date today," Mustang explained wagging a finger at Rena. "And since I was nervous, my good friend Tony here offered to help me out by making it a double date, ya know to lessen the tension."

"A date?" Rena asked with a bright red flushing over her face.

"Huh?" Tony questioned.

"Yeah, you see, while you two are just having a good time helping me," Mustang explained with a slap to his chest. "It won't actually be a date for you two, but you'd still be helping me cause I've been meaning to ask her out for a while now."

"Oh," Rena and Tony muttered at the same time.

"So, will you help me out?" Mustang asked with a large smile on his face.

"Uh, just one question," Rena muttered raising an eyebrow at Mustang. "… Who are you?"

His smile growing larger, Mustang's teeth glinted brightly to unleash a spark into Rena and Tony's eyes, "Oh, I must apologize," He chuckled adjusting his scarf slightly. "I forgot to introduce myself. From the Pacific Duel Academy – The one and only: Die Hard Kaiser – Mustang!"

'… _What a show off…'_ Tony thought with a large sweat drop rolling down the side of his head.

"Are you with that Cain guy?" Rena asked thinking about the fore mentioned short duelist.

"Well… I suppose you could say that," Mustang chuckled with his arms pumped into the air. "We are classmates from that academy, but we don't get along that well… It's quite the mystery, after all, his sister and I go together like wolves in a pack."

'… _Is that even a saying?'_ Tony thought blinking a few times in confusion.

"So anyway, are you willing to help me?" Mustang pleaded with a shy look appearing on his face. Meanwhile in his mind, a dark smirk appeared on his face. '_This will be so excellent! Not only will this score points with me and Luntina – But, it looks like I can spend the day with another lovely young lass, and I can see why this guy likes her!'_

"Uh," Rena murmured rubbing the back of her head.

Tony and Mustang held onto their breaths, anxious to hear what the young red duelist's answer would be…

Then with an embarrassed smile on her face, Rena nodded, "Sure!"

"Well, that's too…" Tony started until Rena's answer sank in. "What?! Really?"

'_Awesome,_' Mustang mused to himself, his cocky smirk slowly appearing on his face. '_Simply awesome…'_

"I just need a few minutes," Rena continued, opening the door to her dorm room. "So, just wait a minute, and I'll be back."

The moment that the door closed in front of Tony and Mustang, the former blinked a few times at the Die Hard Kaiser, "I honestly can't believe that worked…"

"Urgh…" Klein moaned sitting up from the ground. "You make it sound we don't know how to do anything."

"You're still here?" Tony asked blinking a few time.

"Of course!" Klein growled with his eyes narrowed. "You punched me in the head, and I fell down. What did you think I would crawl away?"

"Well, you've got the height to do that," Mustang pointed out.

"Ha, those short jokes won't work on me!" Klein laughed loudly.

All three of the duelists didn't realize that they were being watched by afar…

"Target located," Bravo chuckled with his head popping over the side of one of the dorm huts. "… But you got any idea what they're saying?"

Orange looked up at his taller companion with a raised eyebrow, "Does it look like I have any spy equipment?" He spat out. "Look, we just found our target… And somehow, we need to defeat him in some way."

"Do you think that Vic wanted us to duel him?" Bravo questioned rubbing the back of his head. "I mean – It would make sense… We're at a duel academy, he wants us to defeat him, and we're both duelists… All of those reasons have the letter 'D' in them…"

"Yeah, that makes sense," Orange slurred, sarcasm slipping from his tongue. "Were you dropped on your head as a kid?"

"… Yes…" Bravo muttered sulking his head down, his long hair covering his face.

Too bad Orange didn't listen to Bravo at that moment, "Now, we need to follow them a while longer," He stated. "Since there happen to be a few more students with him, it looks like they may be planning something. Vic may have gotten some information concerning this and we have to stop them!"

Bravo blinked. "Oh! That makes sense!"

**/-/-/-/-\-\-\-\**

"I have to admit," Flay whistled curling some of his hair in his finger. "You've certainly have a creative way of thinking V-Man."

"Don't CALL me that," growled Vic continuing his typing on the computer in the secret base. "But, thanks… Nothing will stop my plans – no short-tempered shrimp with a stick up his ass, no Die Hard Dumbass, and no backstabbing deals will get in my way!"

"Heh, too bad you already sold your soul to the devil," Flay cackled waving his hand free from his hair.

Vic didn't reply to that.

"Big Boss may be a silly guy," Flay commented with a large grin on his face. "But, he's still the head honcho – Not someone you want to mess with or try to get the upper hand on…"

"… You make it sound like I'm not used to that sort of things," Vic sighed pushing away from the computer to stand up, reaching for the cold mask he had over his mouth. "I've hit rock bottom before, and I'll crawl my way back to the top, I'll step on anyone I have to… Besides, I think I deserve my shot to the top once more after all of my hard work."

Rolling his eyes, Flay spun on his heel with his shoulders shrugged. "I'll give you this much, V-Man," chuckled Flay. "You're a crazy son-va-gun that or brave, but I'm leaning over towards crazy."

"Grrr…" Vic moaned lowering his head. "Maybe you should tell me why the hell you're even here in the first place?"

"I don't mind telling ya my tale," Flay yawned. "But I just don't feel like boring you with the dramatics and details that would only weigh you down."

"You're a living, breathing contradiction you know that?" Vic commented with a dull look on his face.

"That's what life is all about man," Flay muttered. "We're born, live meaningless lives that are almost predetermined at the moment we take our first breath and then we return to the earth… And possibly start that mindless process all over again."

"You got a point to all this dribble?" Vic sighed rolling his eyes around.

"Yes actually," Flay replied with a sick grin on his face. "Since I'm going to be helping you out with your petty problems – I'll expect you to help me with my problems. Your fancy words won't be enough."

"A curry favor then?" Vic asked raising an eyebrow as he messed with the cough mask on his face. "I don't see the harm – What do you need exactly?"

"… I need someone…" Flay chuckled with a dark smirk appearing on his youthful face. "Someone who can merge with a monster card… I need to face them…"

Vic's eyes widened slightly, "A… Are you serious?"

This time, Flay's eyes slowly grew, "You… You know someone who has that ability?"

"Oh… Yes… Yes I do indeed…" Vic cackled with his eyes slowly curling up.

**/-/-/-/-\-\-\-\**

"Ah… Ah… ACHOOOO!"

"You sure you're okay?" Tony asked as he walked side by side with Rena through the stands that were just opening up.

"Ah, someone's probably just talking about me," Mustang chuckled rubbing his nose. "I get that all the time back home."

"If you don't mind me asking," Rena started raising an eyebrow at the Die Hard Kaiser. "Isn't the Pacific Academy supposed to be located for Japan?"

"Indeed it is," Mustang replied.

"Then… Why is your name Mustang?" Rena asked. "Not that it isn't a good name… But Mustang, or Cain for that matter don't really sound like something you'd expect from Japan."

"… Hmm… You do have a point there," Mustang admitted tilting his head to the side, taking note of a pair of Ra Yellow girls walking past the group. '_Hmm-Hmm-hmm… These lovely ladies are just as good as the ones back home.'_

Tony sighed loudly, not really expecting this day to turn out like this. He just wanted a nice day to spend with Rena, get a cup of decaf coffee, and if the lovely lady would allow – A chance to get close to her…

But no, that calm day was not to be permitted. Not as long as Mustang (and his mystery date) was nearby and Klein was somewhere hidden behind the group – Tony was cursed this day.

Unfortunately, Tony was unaware of the two purple overcoat wearing goons that were behind Klein, Orange equipped with a pair of binoculars, "Targets in sight…"

"Hey, how come you get the binoculars?" Bravo asked looking down on the crouching Orange.

"Because I paid for them," Orange growled not taking his eyes away from the binoculars that were aimed at the group. "So shut up so I can watch."

RING! RING!

"Oops," Bravo stated rubbing the back of his head before he reached into his pocket. "That's my phone…"

"… Don't you have better ringtone?" Orange asked shaking his head slightly as Bravo pulled out his cell phone.

Bravo didn't listen to Orange's complaints, "Hello…" He stated pulling the phone slightly to the side as a loud booming voice pulsed through the cellular phone, making Bravo cringe. "… It's Vic… And I think he wants to talk to you…"

"Gee, thanks," Orange growled taking the phone from Bravo's hand. "Yes sir?"

"Orange-boy," Vic growled from the other end of the phone. "Give me a status report of your mission. Have you defeated one of those three targets?"

"Sir, we're in the process of trying to interrupt a meeting that consists of Tony," Orange began to list off while keeping his binoculars at his eyes. "He along with a handful of other students are apparently doing something… And like your orders entailed, we plan on eliminating this group."

"… What the hell are you talking about?"

"Sir, they might have found our plans," Orange continued, making sure that he didn't speak too loud for other people to listen in. "And we need to…"

"You're a dumbass you know that right?"

Orange lowered the binoculars, cocking his eyes at the phone, "What was that for?"

"I thought I told you idiots to duel against the targets."

A large droplet of sweat began to crawl down Orange's head, there was no way that Bravo could've been smarter than him and was actually right. "… Are you kidding? Seriously?!"

"Of course," Vic sighed through the phone. "Why else would I tell you two to bring the duel disks and your decks on the mission?"

Orange had to give that up…

"But that doesn't matter. I have another mission for you two, I need you to locate a dark haired Obelisk Blue who has a blue scarf around his neck and seems to be…"

"… Somewhat of a womanizer?" Orange asked peaking back into the binoculars at the group.

"What the…? How the hell did you know that?"

"We're tailing one of the targets," Orange explained, trying to ignore how Bravo was sticking his pinky in his ear. "And he's with that guy you just described…"

"… I knew he was an idiot…"

"You say something sir?" Orange asked blinking a few times.

"Never mind that, you are to continue your mission. Challenge that one target you discovered when he's alone to a duel – Make sure that you win. And be sure to use that device that we designed."

"I understand sir," Orange sighed; it felt like someone kept kicking him in the shin as a reminder of his mistake.

"As for Bravo, hand the phone back to him."

/-/-/-/-\-\-\-\

At the stage near the outside café, a familiar brown haired girl leaned up against the stage, her eyes looming over the watch that she had strapped around her wrist. '_Damn it Mustang… You call me out early in the morning, and you're late to our little meeting… Yeesh…'_

"Ah! Luntina!"

The Kaisaris lifted her head up, seeing none other than the Die Hard Kaiser standing in front of her, only with Rena Akira and Tony Havoc standing behind him. "About time you got here, Mustang."

"Sorry about that," Mustang chuckled rubbing the back of his head. "I had to run by and pick up a couple people."

"Luntina's your date?" Tony asked leaning towards Mustang's ear. "How in the world did you pull that off?"

"What did he just say?" Luntina growled narrowing her brow.

Slapping his hand over Tony's mouth, Mustang chuckled loudly as he began to pull Tony over to the side, "Can you give us a moment?"

Before Luntina could reply, Mustang quickly pulled Tony away from the two surprised girls. "Uh," Luntina questioned turning towards Rena. "Do you have any clue what's going on here?"

Rena could only shrug her shoulders in response.

"Well, well, well, perfect timing you two!"

Meanwhile, Mustang finally released his grip over Tony's mouth when they reached the corner of the stage, "Whew that was close."

"What the hell are you doing?!" Tony snapped, trying to catch his breath from Mustang covering not only his mouth but his nose as well.

"What the hell am I doing?" Mustang retorted placing his hands on his chest. "What the hell were you thinking telling Luntina that she was my date?"

"I don't remember you ever telling me that was ever a rule or something!" Tony growled as he raised a fist up towards Mustang. "Ya'll are asking fer an ass whooping!"

"Bring it on you swampyard hick!" Mustang snarled cracking his knuckles.

"Yeesh, you two are just a pair of knuckleheads," Klein sighed popping right in between the two, surprising them both.

"What the?" Mustang questioned.

"When did you…" Tony started.

"You two idiots are totally messing up the plan!" Klein spat out at the two Obelisk Blue duelists. "Not only did you almost spill the plan's secret, but you both trotted away from the lovely ladies! That itself can ruin the plan!"

Even Tony and Mustang had to agree with Klein on that.

Tony gazed at Klein with surprised eyes, "Alright… Then what do you propose we do about it?"

"Mustang," Klein growled, his voice now completely serious. "You need to head back to the girls – Try to convince them that this was just a little mix up and that you and Tony want to take them to have some coffee or tea or whatever the hell teens drink now-a-days."

"Not a problem!" Mustang saluted before he ran off.

"And as for you…" Klein chuckled turning towards Tony. "Just let Mustang do all the talking while you're around Luntina… When you're alone with the girlie, then you can shoot your mouth off all you want. Who knows, it might even give you a kiss from her in the meanwhile."

"… Gee, you sure know how to inspire people," Tony muttered throwing his arms behind his head. "And why exactly should I even go along with your plans anyway?"

"Well, you really don't have much of a choice at this point," Klein explained narrowing his eyes. "Cause now that you're a part of his date, if you leave now then you'll look like a total flake in the eyes of the girl you love!"

Klein had a point there, and Tony knew it.

"Fine – I'll go along with this stupid plan," Tony scoffed, really annoyed that he couldn't do this on his own terms, and earn Rena's love with his own hands.

However, that's when he actually noticed something about the area – He and Klein were the only ones in the stage area! Only a few seconds ago, the festival grounds filled to the brim with students and professors, but it was almost as if they didn't exist in the first place. It also appeared that the entire world had lost it's color or to be better put – it was drained from the world. "Uh – Klein?"

"Don't even try to weasel out of this," Klein cackled as he began to push Tony towards the corner of the stage. "Now hurry up and get back out there!"

"Now wait a minute!" Tony sputtered, a little surprised by Klein's surprising strength. "Don't you realize the…"

"Enough already!" Klein spat out giving one final good push to make Tony stumble past the corner of the stage. "Now get out there and score yourself a hottie!"

Swinging his arms up slightly, Tony stumbled on the ground, almost dropping his hat to the ground. "Urk!" Managing to catch himself before he fell, Tony managed to glance around the front of the stage – And sure enough everyone seemed to be gone, including Rena, Luntina and even Mustang. "What the? Klein? Are you still here?"

"Dood! Don't talk to me!" Klein whispered from his hiding spot at the stage's corner. "I'm supposed to be incognito!"

"But… There's no one here," Tony pointed out turning around with his arms raised at a ninety degree angle. "How can you be incognito if you don't have anyone to hide from?"

"Well, there's someone standing right there!" Klein pointed out gesturing towards behind Tony.

Slowly, Tony began to crane his head around, looking dead on the only other person in the area besides him and Klein. His wild orange hair fell to the shoulders of his purple coat that was styled of that of an Obelisk Blue uniform. Covering his eyes was a pair of black shades and strapped to his left arm was an orange duel disk.

Orange sneered at Tony, his ever widening grin becoming sickening, '_I have to hand it to Vic – I didn't think he could jerry-rig something like this. But it seems a little much just to duel against someone…'_

Tony's eyes narrowed at the sight of the man. "You," he snarled. "I'm guessing _you_ dragged us here…"

Lifting his hands up into the air, Orange clapped them loudly together a few times. "Bravo! Bravo!" He cheered as he continued to clap his hands. "Well done – Good show! You should consider going on one of those game shows!

"Too bad the only prize you've earned – Is a one way ticket to loser-Ville."

"Yeesh – What's with the bad clichés today?" Tony asked to no on in particular.

"Clichés or not," smirked Orange as he lifted up his duel disk, revealing that there was a deck already slotted into it. "The fact of the matter is you are not going to be leaving until you duel – and lose – against me."

"A duel?" Tony questioned noticing that Klein was slowly walking out from his hiding place. "That's what you're here for? If you wanted to duel against me – All you had to do was ask."

"Trust me – I have no real interest in dueling a punk like you," Orange assured him. Pushing a button on his duel disk, Orange's deck began to shuffle itself in the deck slot, "But be it as it may – I was ordered by a certain someone to duel against you in this Colorless World. And I have no intention of saying no to the guy that signs my paychecks."

"I don't know where to start with that," Tony sighed rubbing his eyes. "First – What is the Colorless World? Who the hell is your boss? Why did you call me a punk when you're the one in cheap sunglasses? And why a duel?"

Orange didn't speak – All he did was make a signal that he had zipped his lips.

"Great, now this guy shuts up," Klein muttered rolling his eyes.

"Thanks a lot buddy," Orange growled lifting his duel disk up to his chest. "But the fact of the matter still stands – Neither of you can leave until this Blue Duelist duels against me… And even then, the only chance that both of you can leave is if you beat me."

"I would," Tony replied lifting his arms up. "I don't have a duel disk. Sure I have my deck but…"

Before Tony could continue, Klein rushed up to him and lifted up a small duel disk to the Chess loving duelist. "I'm not going to be stuck here because of you!" Klein growled. "So strap that duel disk on – And kick this guy's tail to next Tuesday!"

Tony sighed as he slid the duel disk over his arm and pulled out his deck from the deck case he had pending at his belt. "Fine…" He scoffed shuffling the deck into his duel disk. "Then let's get this duel over with!"

"DUEL!"

"And since I'm the challenger," Orange pointed out flicking off the top five cards from his deck. "I would assume you have no objections to me starting this duel off." (OLP: 8000)

"How about we try something a little different?" Tony offered pushing a button on his duel disk, allowing a coin to materialize in between the two duelists as Tony snapped off the top five cards from his deck. "You see, normally when I duel, I don't care who goes first or second – But since I've got a bone to pick with you now, we'll let fate decide for us. I'll even let you call it." (TLP: 8000)

"Then let's go with tails," Orange stated before the coin flipped high into the air.

"Fine, then coin toss!" Tony announced holding his hand up towards the midair coin.

All three of the duelists held their breaths before the holographic coin bounced over the ground a few times until it rolled around and fell to the ground with the blank side showing up.

"Hmm… Looks like fate has dealt me an Ace!" Orange cackled slowly flicking off the top card from his deck.

It was finally then that Klein craned his head around, taking note of the emptied dusty trails and color drained sky, '_What the hell? First we deal with darkness, then we deal with Twilight, and now this? Is this island cursed to be forever targeted by freaks?'_

Orange glanced at the six cards he had drawn earlier, blinking a few times at the sight of them, '_Hmm… Not bad, but nothing that can do some long term damage to him. I guess I'll just have to do a little bit of a stalling tactic._'

Plucking one of the cards, Orange merely placed it onto his duel disk, "And since I'm not one for big kick off moves, I'll just set a monster in defense mode for my turn."

'_Just a set card?_' Klein thought looking at the set monster. '_Does he think that Tony isn't that good of a duelist?'_

Tony eyed the face down monster, '_Not really something I can draw from in terms of strategy,_' He thought slowly drawing his next card. "Draw."

'_Come on… I know you want to attack…_' Orange mused holding up his duel disk like a shield.

"I summon Shinning Angel in attack mode!" Tony announced as the glowing six winged angel appeared on the field (1400/800), lifting his arms up in a regular manner.

"Huh? Since when was that in your deck?" Klein questioned raising an eyebrow. "I thought you used those weird chess themed monsters."

Tony just ignored Klein and threw his hand up towards Orange's only card on the field, "Shinning Angel! Attack that face down monster!"

Charging up a powerful light in his hands, the angelic being fired a powerful burst of light that slammed into the ground at the face down monster, flipping the card up to reveal a small frog with a pair of angel wings on its back (100/100). The glow of the light's burst shattered the small frog into nothing.

However, Tony's eyes widened as Orange slid the card into his duel disk's graveyard, '_I know that card! That was the Treeborn Frog, and I know for a fact that it's a key part of a certain tribute strategy – I should've guessed this guy ran Monarchs.'_

"Are you going to continue or should I just take my turn?" Orange asked pushing up his sunglasses. "Cause it doesn't matter to me."

"… I'll set one card face down," Tony announced as the face down card appeared on the field behind his Angel. "And that's all I've got for this turn."

"Ah, well then, I'll just continue my little strategy if you don't mind," Orange announced flicking the next card from his deck. "And since I don't have any spell or trap cards on the field. I'll be special summoning a familiar face from my graveyard!"

A loud croak erupted from the ground, allowing a small puddle to appear on the field, revealing the same small winged frog, crouching close to the ground (100/100). "So, welcome back – Treeborn Frog!"

'_Here comes a monarch!'_ Tony thought holding up his duel disk like a shield. '_Which one will it be? Frost? Flame? Thunder?'_

"… I summon Mother Grizzly in attack mode!"

Tony's eyes widened as the large blue bear appeared on the field, roaring loudly as it lifted its large muscular arms (1400/1000), "Wait… You don't run Monarchs?"

"Did I ever say that I did?" Orange chuckled throwing his arm forward, making the Mother Grizzly snarl loudly. "Now then, time to continue the turn! Mother Grizzly! Attack his Shinning Angel!"

"What?!" Klein shouted out blinking in confusion. "But that's a suicide!"

"Exactly!" Orange shouted as the Mother Grizzly charged towards the surprised Shinning Angel.

The Angel threw his arm back, creating another orb of light around its hands, and just as the Mother Grizzly brought her arm down on the angel, both monsters shattered like glass, both of them flying back into their individual duelists.

Orange smirked as he popped his deck from his duel disk, "Now… If I'm right – Both of our monsters have the same effect only for different attributes. Mine water…"

"While mine's for the light attribute," Tony growled under his breath when he pulled out his own deck.

"I'll let you choose your monster first," Orange allowed waving his chosen monster already. "After all… You're the one at a disadvantage."

"I'll show you a disadvantage!" Tony announced slapping his card onto his duel disk. "For the monster I choose to summon is none other than the Chess Golem – Checkered Pawn!"

A powerful light erupted over the field, forming into a large statue of a knight dressed in armor that resembled that of a pawn chess piece (500/500). "And when special summoned successfully – I can special summon the other two copies from my deck! And I'll put them in defense mode!"

Two more statues erupted around the original Chess Golem, only these two seemed to be crouched down in defensive positions (500/500 x2). '_I may take a little bit of damage from an attack he'll have… But, with what I've got planned, I might just be able to hold my own…'_

"And my choice – While not as flashy as yours," Orange admitted with a shrug before he slapped the card onto his duel disk. "Will be the monster known as Unifrog!"

A small puddle of water appeared in front of Orange, allowing a small purple frog to poke it's head out of the puddle – revealing that the small amphibian had a small horn on it's head (400/400).

"Well, that's weird," Klein muttered raising an eyebrow. "I was expecting something a little bit… Stronger."

"Appearances aren't everything," Orange stated pushing up his sunglasses. "A shorty like you should know that first hand."

"… Short jokes don't work on me," Klein pointed out.

Tony on the other hand glared at the weird little frog that 'ribbit'ed every few seconds, there was a reason that this weird character wanted that weak little frog… But that was beyond Tony.

"Doesn't matter anyway," Orange chuckled wagging a finger at Tony. "Because it's still my battle phase."

"Humph, you trying to psyche me out or something?" Tony questioned raising an eyebrow. "Despite their low strength, my three Checkered Pawns are still stronger than either of your frogs."

"Who ever said that your monsters were the targets?" Orange pointed out with his Unifrog leaping high into the air. "Unifrog! Attack!"

Tony was just about to command one of his pawns to take the attack and counter strike – But the Unifrog just sped past all three of the statues and stabbed it's horn right into his stomach! "GAK!" (TLP: 7600)

As the Unifrog pulled its horn from Tony's stomach, the young chess duelist grabbed his stomach – Taking note that there was a small splotch of blood appearing on his usual white uniform. '_W-What the hell?!'_

"Now then," Orange continued, either ignoring the blood stain or that he simply didn't notice it, as his Unifrog leapt back to his side of the field. "Since my little frog managed to inflict damage to your life points while I had another frog on the field – My Treeborn Frog – I can now destroy one spell or trap card you control. And since you only have one…"

Tony watched his face down card shatter. '_Great… There goes my Negate Attack… I didn't think that his monster could attack me directly.'_

"Now… To end my turn," Orange concluded holding up two of the four cards he had left in his hand before he slid them into his duel disk. "I'll set a pair of face down cards on my field."

"Now hold on a second!" Tony growled lifting his hand away from the small wound. "What the hell is going on around here?! I just got hurt from that attack! And I think I need to know what the cause was to it!"

"… Make your move," Orange continued with a smirk on his face… And a small bead of sweat rolling down the side of his head. '_… If he got hurt…'_

Growling slightly, Tony ran his fingers over the top of his duel disk, slowly clicking off the top card, "You want me to make my move?" He asked narrowing his eyes. "I'll be more than willing to give you a move! And so…"

"I activate one of my trap cards!" Orange shouted as a large puddle of water erupted in front of him, forming into a cute blue haired girl dressed in a large brown coat with long sleeves that covered her hands with a long staff ending in a dew-drop like jewel. "Meet the Spiritual Water Art – Aoi: One of the abilities of Water Charmer."

"… Should I even be worried about it?" Tony asked raising an eyebrow at the young girl who spun her staff in her hand.

"For the third best duelist on the island," Orange stated as his Unifrog disappeared in a purple mist that floated around the young Water Charmer. "You really don't know all that much of duel monster cards."

"He does have a point there," Klein added with a smirk on his face. "How did you get to become the third best duelist on the island?"

"Uh… Do you want the truth or my side of the story?" Tony chuckled with a large blush appearing on his face. "I am actually a good duelist on the island, but when it comes to tests – I have a few anxieties concerning them. So, don't expect me to memorize all the cards in the world and their card texts."

"Then allow me to help you study," Orange offered as he pointed his finger towards Tony. "My trap card allows me to tribute a WATER monster from my field, and then I get a peak at your hand, so let's see them!"

Tony sighed as the five cards he held appeared over his head: Pot of Greed (the card he just drew), a monster called Chess Golem – Ivory Queen, another monster card Chess Golem – Ebony Knight, the trap Covering Fire, and the spell Promotion of Chessman. Shaking his head, Tony lowered his head slightly, "There you saw them… Satisfied?"

"Not yet," Orange simply replied. "You see, my trap then allows me to select one of those cards, and force you to discard it."

"What?!" Tony yelped taking a step back.

"And since I don't like the looks of that tribute monster," Orange cackled pointing at the Chess Golem – Ivory Queen, making the card over Tony's head shatter into millions of pixels. "I choose your Queen!"

Tony jeered as he slide the monster card into his graveyard slot; he wasn't expecting a trap card like that.

"Now then," Orange sighed as the Water Charmer disappeared into the puddle of water at her feet. "It is still your turn – And you could still play that Pot of Greed you have. It might even give you something to work with."

'_He wants me to play Pot of Greed?'_ Tony thought looking at the spell card in his hand. '_Something smells in Demark – Sorry, but whatever you're up to, I'm not going to fall for it.'_

Instead, Tony lifted another card from his hand of four cards, and slapped it onto his duel disk. "I summon my Chess Golem – Ebony Knight in attack mode!"

The ground began to rumble and crumble away, releasing a large ebony knight-shaped golem, with large arms and leg armor with his helmet in the shape of a Chess Knight game piece (1400/1000).

"Yawn…" Orange said mockingly putting his pinky in his ear and began to twist and turn it to clean his ear in a crude manner. "Seen it…"

"Well, I guess it's my turn to teach you a lesson," Tony stated tapping the two horizontal cards on his duel disk. "First, I'll keep the two Checkered Pawns I have in defense mode stay as such – And now… Checkered Pawn number one! Attack that Treeborn Frog!"

The checkered knight's eyes glowed brightly, instantly coming to life as it drew the saber at its waist and leapt towards the crouched down frog. The saber sliced directly through the Treeborn Frog's body, making the monster splatter like water on the ground in front of Orange…

… Who was more interested in cleaning his other ear at the moment? "Then let me guess," Orange yawned loudly removing his pinky from his ear. "You're going to attack me directly with that large oversized statue?"

"Well… It'd be a waste not to!" Tony chuckled as the large Ebony Knight stomped forward, pulling it's fist back to sock Orange right in the face.

As the fist was about to collide with Orange's face, the orange haired duelist simply pushed a button on his duel disk, "Don't think so!" He announced as a powerful burst of wind erupted from the ground, making the large fist barely miss Orange's face. "I activate my trap card, Defense Draw! So, not only does your attack become zero, I can draw a new card!"

The moment that Orange pulled his next card up, he just realized that the other large fist of the Ebony Knight was flying right at him. But, before he could react, the fist collided right into his stomach, knocking the breath right out of him and sending him flying through the air until he fell to the ground with a loud thud. "GAK!!?!" (OLP: 6600)

"And I suppose I should've mentioned that if my Ebony Knight attacks after another Chess Golem," Tony explained as his Chess Golem – Ebony Knight stomped back to his field as Orange began to pick himself up. "He's granted the ability to attack twice during the battle phase."

"Heh, that was a cheap trick," Orange coughed shaking slightly as he stood up, fixing the four cards he held in his hand. That's when he noticed that his sunglasses were completely cracked. "… And I should point out – That these shades were custom made. You'll be getting a bill from me in the afterlife."

Orange slipped the glasses from his face and tossed the ruined shades to the side, "But I have to admit – You've gotten my full attention now!"

**TBC**

/-/-/-/-\-\-\-\

**Card Stats**

**Productive Attack / Trap / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you have two face up Machine-type monsters on your side of the field with the same name during your turn. Special summon all copies of those two monsters from your hand, deck or graveyard to your side of the field (ignore all summoning conditions). During the turn this card is activated, all monsters with the special summoned monster's name must attack this turn and are destroyed at the end phase.

**Description:** Three Cyber Dragons attacking a Red Eye Black Dragon

**Clockwork Gears / Spell / Effect:** This card can only be activated when you have two or more monster cards on your side of the field with the same attack points. You may special summon one monster from your hand, deck or graveyard with the same attack points as the monsters with the same attack points. After this effect is used, pay 1000 points and skip your next battle phase.

**Image:** A large clock with Axe Raider and Warrior Dai Grepher clashing their weapons against each other

**Ancient Metal Coating / Spell / Effect:** Pay 1000 life points. During the turn this card is activated, 'Ancient Gear' monsters cannot be destroyed by card effects.**  
Image:** The Ancient Gear Golem being covered with cybernetic armor.

**Chess Golem – Checkered Pawn / Light / LV. 2 / ATK: 500 / DEF: 500 / Rock/Effect:** When this card is successfully special summoned, you may special summon as many 'Chess Golem – Checkered Pawn' cards from your hand or deck.

**Description:** A large statue of a knight resembling that of a Chess Pawn Piece.

**Chess Golem – Ebony Knight / Dark / LV. 4 / ATK: 1400 / DEF: 1000 / Spellcaster/Effect:** If a monster with 'Chess Golem' in it's name attacks before this card, this monster can attack twice during the battle phase.

**Description:** A large ebony man shaped golem with a head shaped like a chess Knight piece

**/-/-/-/-\-\-\-\**

**Author's note:** Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! I must apologize for the extreme lateness of this chapter! I've been going through a lot of stuff at the moment, but that's no real excuse to you readers who have remained loyal to me.

Anyway, if you've noticed, I've changed my name from Vyser Dragoon to Lux-Nero. Why?

Just because I needed a change.

Anyway, at the rate things are going, this story will probably reach chapter 75-chapter 80 before its over. But don't worry, not only will I have my Drawn Back to the Basics story going for a while, I have a secret project that will end the trilogy of my GX stories (for those of you who are new here: A Tortured Duelist (finished), Duelist Open Destiny (unfortunately – Discontinued) and Duelist Twilight).

However, this won't be for quite a while. But once again, I need to apologize especially since I'm keeping the preview secret for the next chapter. Heh…

I'm an evil genius.

So, keep up those reviews and maybe I'll update even faster.


	60. Chapter 59: Colorless

_**Colorless…**_

_**Pretty straight forward as to what that is – The absence of color.**_

_**But besides that meaning, it could also mean characterless, lackluster, lifeless or ghastly. And frankly, this is exactly what's been happening around me at the moment – Everything looks dead.**_

_**And I'm pretty sure that this guy I'm facing is more than willing to make me the exact way. **_

_**But I wasn't ranked the third best duelist on this island for nothing!**_

_**It wasn't luck! **_

_**But pure grade-A skill!**_

_**And I'll show you how it's done! **_

_**/-/-/-/-\-\-\-\**_

_**Chapter 59**_

_**Colorless**_

_**/-/-/-/-\-\-\-\**_

_As the fist was about to collide with Orange's face, the orange haired duelist simply pushed a button on his duel disk, "Don't think so!" He announced as a powerful burst of wind erupted from the ground, making the large fist barely miss Orange's face. "I activate my trap card, Defense Draw! So, not only does your attack become zero, I can draw a new card!"_

_The moment that Orange pulled his next card up, he just realized that the other large fist of the Ebony Knight was flying right at him. But, before he could react, the fist collided right into his stomach, knocking the breath right out of him and sending him flying through the air until he fell to the ground with a loud thud. "GAK!!?!" (OLP: 6600)_

"_And I suppose I should've mentioned that if my Ebony Knight attacks after another Chess Golem," Tony explained as his Chess Golem – Ebony Knight stomped back to his field as Orange began to pick himself up. "He's granted the ability to attack twice during the battle phase."_

"_Heh, that was a cheap trick," Orange coughed shaking slightly as he stood up, fixing the _

_four cards he held in his hand. That's when he noticed that his sunglasses were completely cracked. "… And I should point out – That these shades were custom made. You'll be getting a bill from me in the afterlife."_

_Orange slipped the glasses from his face and tossed the ruined shades to the side, "But I have to admit – You've gotten my full attention now!"_

With the colorless world all around them, Tony lifted up his duel disk, showing his barely touched life points (although, the blood that was streaming down his uniform) while his four monsters, three Chess Golem – Checkered Pawns (500/500 x3) on his field along with the Chess Golem – Ebony Knight (1400/1000). And in his hand, the Chess Duelist held onto three cards, all of them were revealed only a few minutes ago. (TLP: 7600)

While his opponent, the mysterious Orange had a different kind of field. With a face down card and no monster cards, Orange held his four card hand gingerly. (OLP: 6600)

Klein watched the duel from the side of the stage, still a little freaked out by the colorless world that had engulfed the three…

"Aw man," Orange moaned rubbing his eyes. "I just remembered something."

"Huh?" Tony questioned, lifting his duel disk up in a defensive manner.

"Those weren't my sunglasses," Orange stated rubbing the back of his head with a sheepish look on his face. "They belonged to Maroon! Awe man, he's going to be pissed again!"

"… uh, okay…" Tony muttered rolling his eyes. "Are you always like this?"

"Only on Wednesdays and Fridays," Orange answered with his tongue sticking out.

'_Weird…'_ Tony rolled his eyes as he lifted up his hand. "Anyway… I hope you realize…"

"Hrm?" Orange questioned taking note of the two other Checkered Pawn statues standing on either side of him. "Oh, crap…"

Both statues slashed their swords through Orange's arms, making the orange haired man yell out with pain with blood staining his shoulders and trailing down his purple uniform's sleeves. Odd thing was, his uniform wasn't ripped. (OLP: 5600)

'_This is just weird…_' Tony thought looking over the remaining three cards before he fitted one of the cards into his duel disk. "I end my turn with one set card…"

"… Your Covering Fire trap card right?" Orange groaned lifting his arms up, the bleeding seeming stopped or it was just pooling up in his uniform's sleeves. "Well… don't think that it's going to be that easy – I activate my trap card, Zero Gazer!"

Orange's face down card flipped up, revealing two Ojamas battling in front of a large zero. "You see, during the turn I take a direct attack, for every five hundred points of damage, I can special summon one monster with zero attack points from my deck. However, they cannot attack, defend, and are destroyed when I enter my next main phase!"

"You took twenty four hundred points of damage," Tony muttered raising an eyebrow as Orange snapped out his deck of cards. "So you could summon four monsters… But why would you summon them just so they'll be destroyed?"

"Some monsters," Orange stated holding up three cards from his deck. "Are actually better destroyed and left in the graveyard, so meet my three monsters – three T.A.D.P.O.L.E.s!"

Three flashes of light erupted on Orange's field, forming into a trio of small green tadpoles that flapped about the field, almost in a threatening manner… But still cute (0/0 x3).

"… What the hell?" Klein snickered at the weird monsters. "What the –HA- the hell are those things?!"

"The beginning of your friend's end," Orange answered before snapping off another card from his shuffled deck. "And since I don't have any more spells or trap cards on my field…"

A large puddle appeared in front of Orange, allowing the Treeborn Frog (100/100) to leap from the water and onto the ground in front of him. "And now, since I'm in my main phase…"

All three of the tadpole monsters disappeared from the field.

"That seemed like a waste," Tony stated.

'_Oh ye of little faith,'_ Orange thought holding his duel disk up, along with his newly drawn card. "Now then… I think it's time we add a splash of color to his colorless world – I activate the field spell, Wetlands!"

Tony was about to ask, but that's when a small drop of rain fell onto his face, making him blink a few times in confusion. "… It's raining?"

"It's not the rain you should be worried about," Orange chuckled as the rain began to gather around his field, making the colorless grass turn a bright green. "You should be worried about the field itself!"

Tony looked left and right, taking note of the taller grass that was growing all around the stage and that the rain water began to reach his ankles. "What the?"

RIB-BIT!

Shaking his head, Tony couldn't help but notice that the Treeborn Frog was now about the same size as him now (100/100 + 1200/0). "Hoo-Boy…"

"My field spell card grants all level two or lower Water attribute, aqua monsters twelve hundred attack points," Orange explained waving another card of his. "And sure, the field card doesn't affect the next monster I'm going to summon, but he'll be more than a match for anything you have on the field!

"I summon Beeleze Frog in attack mode!"

A loud croak erupted from the wetlands, allowing a large black frog with several red runes covering it's body with a pair of blue wings on its back (1200/800) croaking a few times in sync with the Treeborn Frog.

"… Uh, okay…" Tony mumbled lifting up his duel disk in a defensive manner. '_I can't let my guard down… So far, the frogs he's summoned have these weird effects…'_

"And now, remember my T.A.D.P.O.L.E. cards?" Orange stated as a green energy began to flow into Beeleze Frog's body, making the frog grow larger with each passing second (1200/800 + 900/0). "Well, for each one in the graveyard, my Beelze here gains three hundred attack points!"

"Tony… Tell me that you've got a plan to stop that," Klein sighed.

'… _I really wish I did…'_ Tony thought with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head.

"Beelze Frog!" Orange shouted as the frog in question's skin expanded slightly. "I give you your target… Tongue Cannon!"

And with that command, the Beelze Frog shot its long, sticky tongue from its mouth, flying through the air until it crashed directly into the Ebony Knight, shattering the monster with the powerful force. (TLP: 6900)

"And since he's been attacked enough times," Orange stated as the Treeborn Frog leapt high into the air, its wings flapping greatly in the air. "Treeborn Frog! Attack one of those Pawns!"

With a loud croak, the sound waves rushed over the field, sending cracks spiraling through the Checkered Pawn's body… Before it shattered into millions of shards! (TLP: 6100)

"Urk…" Tony mumbled under his breath as he fitted the two monster cards into his duel disk's graveyard slot.

"Hey, chill out man," Orange advised waving the three last cards he had in his hand, one of which he fitted into his duel disk's blade. "If you act like that, you're going to burst a blood vessel."

"At this point, I doubt that a blood vessel is my biggest concern," Tony pointed out with a sweat drop rolling down the side of his head as he looked down at his slightly bloodied uniform. '_Especially with this… I can't go on a date looking like this!!!'_

He drew his next card, raising an eyebrow at the card.

"Let me guess…" Orange mused licking his lips, "You're going to activate Pot of Greed, draw two cards and try to make an attack against my…"

"I activate the spell card, Pawn Bomb!" Tony announced wrapping his fingers around the Checkered Pawn. "By tributing one Pawn monster, I can destroy one card on the field! And I choose your face down card!"

With a powerful toss, Tony threw the Chess Golem flying through the air… Only to have the pawn explode overhead! The blast sent several pieces to fly into the ground, shattering the face down card that Orange had set only moments ago.

"Oh, bugger," Orange gulped looking at the remains of his card before he slid the card itself into his duel disk. '_Now what?'_

"Next, I'll activate – Pot of Greed!" Tony announced fitting the card into his duel disk, allowing a large green giggling pot to appear in front of him. "So, I'll just continue by drawing two more cards, if you don't mind!"

"Not like I have a choice in the manner," Orange chuckled rubbing the top of his head as Tony snapped off the top two cards from his deck. "But you'll have to do better than that get my full attention…"

"Alright…" Slowly, Tony turned the two cards around, allowing him to look over the cards for a few seconds before he nodded to himself. "I summon, Chess Golem – Ebony Rook!"

A loud whistling sound flew through the air, only to allow a large ebony knight to crash into the wetlands, showing the helmet with a rook design of it (1800/1300) lifting it's large fists up. "Ebony Rook! Attack the Treeborn Frog!"

The frog's eyes widened as the towering knight crashed over the field, spinning around to slam its large foot directly into the frog, squishing it into the new bog around the two duelists. (OLP: 5100)

"Well… That's one frog down," Orange muttered shaking his head as he lowered his head. '_But… That'll help in the long run.'_

"I'll then set one card face down," Tony announced as the card appeared right next to the other set card. "Turn end."

'_That look in his eye,'_ Orange thought as he slowly drew his next card, staring at Tony's narrowed eyes. '_It looks like things are about to get as Boss Man V said they would – I suppose now's a good time as any…'_

"Now that I have your attention, tell me…" Tony started, startling Orange slightly. "Who exactly are you and why exactly are you coming after me?"

"… Nothing in the rules against that," Orange chuckled with a shrug. "I'll start with the last question, to put it simply, I'm just supposed to eliminate the competition for my boss."

"Competition?" Tony questioned blinking a few times.

"I get it," Klein chuckled with his arms crossed. "Your boss, he must have a target in mind, right?"

"I guess," Orange replied blinking a few times.

"And by eliminating Tony here," Klein continued nodding to himself. "Your boss would have a clean shot – At getting the girlie's heart!"

Both Orange and Tony couldn't help but sweatdrop at the reason that Klein gave.

"I… I kinda doubt that's the reason," Tony muttered closing his eyes by rubbing his eyes.

"My boss may have crazy eyes," Orange commented scratching the side of his head. "But I really doubt that he'd do something like this for some reason as mundane as that one…

'… _But reason that Maroon seems to think he has… That shorty's reason might not seem so dumb.'_

"Okay…" Tony sighed lowering his arms.

"Look, all I know is that my boss wanted us to take down the some of the best duelists on the island," Orange sighed with his arms raised slightly. "That and a few others that he added to his list before I challenged you… Who those are though, I'll leave that for whoever survives this little match."

"Yeah, speaking of that," Tony stated taking note of the colorless world. "What the hell is this anyway? Where did all the color go?"

"… You'd have to take it up with the boss man," Orange retorted holding up his duel disk to his chest as he pulled off a card from the device. "But for now, you'll have to deal with what I've got hidden up my sleeve. Because now, I release my Beeleze Frog!"

With a loud croak, the final frog leapt high into the air, disappearing into a large ring of light that floated over head. "And now," Orange continued slapping his newly drawn card onto his duel disk. "I summon – Des Frog!"

The light shattered, allowing another frog, this one with no real outstanding features save for it large size, to crash into the wetlands, sending water flying through the air as it croaked loudly (1900/0).

And slowly, Tony's eyes widened. "… Now…" He muttered with a gulp. "Now that monster… I know about…"

Two cards shot out from Orange's deck and directly into his hand, "Ah, so you know," he chuckled slapping the two cards onto his duel disk. "Well, then you should know that when he's successfully tribute summoned, I can special summon as many other Des Frogs from my deck equal to the number of T.A.D.P.O.L.E.s in my graveyard… But I'm only in need of two of them…"

Two loud splashes erupted from both sides of Orange, forming into two more Des Frogs, both of them croaking happily with their first brother (1900/0 x3).

"I know of the card," Tony stated taking a step back, the slosh of pond water flowing around his ankle. "And I heard there was a powerful combo with it, but the effect was something that I expected to be… A little more dangerous…"

"It isn't the effect you should be worried about," Klein shouted throwing his arms through the air. "If he has…"

"… Oh, don't worry little man," Orange stated holding up another one of his three remaining cards to his duel disk. "I do have it. And since he doesn't fully know the combo, I'll be more than willing to show him.

"I activate the spell card – Des Croaking!"

All three of the frogs started to 'ribbit' but then it began to grow louder and louder until the croaking was able to make the water and grass move to the side, shattering not only the two Chess Golems but the two face down cards into sparks.

As the sparks slowly floated around Tony's body, showing his surprised look on his face, "Wha – What just…"

"It's my spell's effect," Orange stated as all three of his frogs crouched down. "When I have three Des Frogs on the field, I can destroy every card on your side of the field… And that means you have no defense, no offense, and no way in hell to stop this!

"Des Frogs! Triple Tongue Cannon!"

Tony's eyes widened when all three of the powerful frogs shot out their tongues through the air and directly towards the wide eyed Tony…

**0-0-0-0-0**

As the duel in the colorless world continued on, the real world just kept turning – unaware of the deadly duel that was taking place in the unknown world. And in fact, the stage area had no traces of the duel, although there certainly were several students in the area.

Including, a certain group of girls with an interested Die Hard Kaiser leaning up against the stage, his hand at his blue scarf as he watched what was going on, '_Hmm… Very interesting… Most interesting…'_

"So, uh, Cleo," Rena muttered, still a little sickened by the over make up wearing brown haired beauty. "What exactly did you want from us?"

With a smile on her face, Cleo calmly placed a hand on her hip, "Well, my little wannabe duelist," She said coyly. "I've come to you to ask not only you, but our lovely Kaisaris for a favor…"

"… I don't know Sol," Luntina mumbled raising an eyebrow at Cleo. "I remember last year when you asked a favor. I still have that scar on my back from the last time… And whoever told you that electromagnets were a good idea deserves to be slapped upside the head!"

'_What the hell happened last year?'_ Rena thought blinking a few times in confusion.

"This time will be different," Cleo sighed lowering her head. "No magnets this time around… I just need some more contestants to the Miss Duel Academia pageant and since you two happened to be around…"

"Wait, the favor is for a beauty contest?" Rena asked tilting her head to the side. "I would've figured that you'd have all of your friends and have your club members fill up the slots?"

"I would, but Professor Maria wants there to be a more…" Cleo stopped her self for a few seconds, trying to find a word that would work but wouldn't insult. "A more… Diverse group of contestants for the pageant."

"… Diverse, huh?" Luntina questioned raising an eyebrow. "And you decided to ask the top duelist to compete because…?"

"Well, this is your last year here," Cleo pointed out with a calm smile on her face. "And why not have some fun? And to sweeten the deal, you both can keep the dresses and clothing that you wear in the pageant."

"Hmm…" Luntina muttered rubbing her chin slightly.

"Luntina in a dress?" Mustang questioned with a shrug of his shoulders, getting all three girls' attentions. "That's a sight people would pay to see… But it'd be a pipe dream; she's too much of a tomboy to…"

"Boot to the head!"

WHAM!

"ACK!" The heeled boot that collided with Mustang's forehead, sending him stumbling to the ground with his eyes replaced with swirls.

Luntina lifted her left leg up in order to make sure she wouldn't have her socks dirtied on the ground, but then turned back to Cleo, "Sure, I don't mind joining up," She said with a shrug. "But I have to see what exactly you want us to wear."

"Excellent!" Cleo cheered clapping her hands together before she turned towards Rena with a bright smile… which was obviously forced. "And you… Rena?"

"Well… I don't know…" Rena mumbled, her past experiences with Cleo didn't usually end well… "How do I know that you won't pull anything?"

"Oh… C-Come on," Cleo stuttered, knowing full well that she did have a few plans to embarrass Rena – But this was a serious manner and a serious suggestion. "I… I know when to stop, and this time I'm being completely serious and I have no intention of pulling any stunts…

"And if you don't believe me, I've got Professor Maria the professor seeing all of the preparations – And since I'm also a part of the pageant, I won't have time to prepare any sort of nasty tricks."

Rena couldn't help but sweatdrop, '_… Was she actually planning something if I did join?_' She thought with a shake of her head. "Alright, but if I even think you're trying something, I'm out."

"Very well," Cleo replied taking note that Mustang was slowly standing up, rubbing the slightly bruised area where the boot slammed against his head. "Oh, and you're the Kaiser from the Pacific Academy right?"

"Uh… Yeah," Mustang moaned, rubbing his forehead. '_Note to self - next time, insult Luntina when she's ten feet away and not wearing shoes or boots.'_

"Would you be interested in participating in something fun?" Cleo asked, ignoring the two other girls.

"That all depends," Mustang groaned tossing the boot right next to Luntina. "What'd you have in mind?"

"How about all three of you join me for lunch," Cleo stated with a smirk on her face. "And we can hammer out the details at the blue dorm's cafeteria…"

"As good as that sounds," Mustang coughed lifting his arms up slightly. "All three of us are kinda waiting for Tony to get back here. We were kinda on a date here…"

"Ah! A date?!" Cleo gasped looking at Rena with a dark look from her eyes. "How in the world did you manage to pull that off?"

"I was kinda asked to," Rena replied with a small blush on her face. "It was Mustang's idea and I was asked to join to lower the stress between…"

Mustang lifted his arm up slightly to stop Rena from talking, "Actually, that sounds like it might be a good idea where to eat," The Die Hard duelist stated. "But how about you and Cleo go reserve us a table, while me and Rena wait for Tony and we'll meet you at the cafeteria?"

"Whatever," Luntina sighed adjusting her boot back on her foot before she slowly began to walk away from the stage, Cleo shrugging her shoulders following the Kaisaris.

As soon as the two girls were out of sight, Mustang slowly turned towards Rena… Tilting his head slightly, "So – Luntina tells me that you've got a few good moves… When it comes to the dueling field."

"Uh, yeah, I guess so," Rena stated rubbing the back of her head. "I mean, I'm not as good as some other people here…"

"People sell themselves short all the time," Mustang chuckled crossing his arms as he walked towards the stage. "I used to think the same in my first year as well, but look at me now; I've gotten to become the top duelist at my academy…"

"… Even though you don't deserve it…"

Rena and Mustang's head perked up and turned towards the stage (which oddly enough looked to be drained of all color for some reason), seeing none other than Vic standing atop of the stage, his coat billowing dramatically in the wind as he crossed his arms down at Mustang.

Mustang's eyes widened slightly…

And finally, Vic spoke through his cough prevention mask – his voice as venomous as his form spoke out, "It's been a while, you Die Hard Pain in the Ass."

"Apparently not enough, Vic," Mustang retorted turning away from Vic with his eyes closed. "I thought you'd go back to your family's company after you were kicked out of the academy…"

"I got a transfer," Vic replied adjusting his cough mask. "Although, now that I see that you're here – I can see that it was the right choice."

"Man, don't you ever get tired of the revenge cliché?" Mustang asked waving his hand towards Vic.

"Make all the jokes you want," Vic growled with his eyes curving slightly. "But the last three months made me change dramatically."

"You two know each other?" Rena asked blinking at the two duelists.

Vic seemed a little shocked to see Rena standing in front of the colorless stage.

But Mustang didn't seem to notice, "We used to be classmates and rivals," he explained turning his head towards the slightly surprised Vic. "But after a stupid move he tried pulling earlier this semester by eliminating our principal, he was kicked out – And his reason was simple: He wanted to be the Kaiser of our academy."

"What?" Rena gasped, remembering back when she first met Vic and toured him around the campus. Leo and Cleo did say that he was a top duelist, but she never expected him to have a background like that.

"The past is in the past," Vic coughed out jumping off of the stage and landing right next to Mustang. "However, when you're looking the past in the face – It's kinda hard to bury it unless you've got a shovel."

Pushing off of the stage, Mustang groaned loudly, "So, are you going to try to take your shot at me?"

"I never said that I was going to be the gravedigger," Vic replied lifting his arms up. "You see – Like I said that I've changed over the last three months, I've managed to pull a few other strings and gotten my own power as well as a few followers. One who also seems to have a bone to pick with you."

"I don't actually have a grudge against him…"

Footsteps began to echo from the stage, making both Rena and Mustang turn back to the stage – Seeing the young Flay rubbing the back of his black hair, "I said that I was looking for someone who seems to have the ability that I'm interested in… It just so happens that you're that one someone."

"Uh, okay," Mustang questioned as Flay sat down on the side of the stage. "And you are…?"

Flay held his hand out to Mustang, "Flay Vallery, Western Academy – Known as the Eternal Commander," He introduced as Mustang shook his hand. "Pleasure to meet you Die Hard Kaiser."

"The Eternal Commander?" Mustang asked releasing Flay's hand. "And here I thought the Dark World Prince was a weird title."

"Hey!" Vic snapped, eliciting a giggle from Rena. "What are you laughing at?"

"Eh, works for me," Flay retorted, ignoring Vic's complaint. "Anyway – I was wondering if you'd be so kind as to duel against me."

"And if I say no?" Mustang yawned as he stretched his arms into the air.

"You're more than welcome to walk away," Flay replied with a smirk on his face as he took notice of Rena. "And so is your little red friend."

"Red friend?" Rena muttered.

"But I'd watch out where you walk," Vic cackled turning around with his arms lifted. "Cause you've stepped into my parlor – And there's no way out…"

Rena and Mustang blinked a few times they both turned around, taking note of the fact that all of the color around them in the area was now gone.

"… Unless you duel against Flay, Mustang," Vic finished crossing his arm at the Die Hard Duelist. "So, what's it going to be?"

"Huh?" Mustang questioned, running his hand down into the now gray grass. "How the hell did you manage to pull this off?"

If his mouth was visible, Vic would've smirked.

"Alright then," Mustang said standing up looking at Flay. "I'll take your challenge then… You got a spare duel disk on ya?"

"We've got everything set up on stage," Flay stated…

"AAAAAH!!!"

Everyone snapped their heads up, wondering what was going on.

"Was… Was that a scream?" Rena asked about to turn her head around the stage…

… Only to have Vic step in front of her, "It's unfortunate that you were dragged into this," he stated as Rena took a step back away from him. "But, I suggest that if you want to get out of this world, you stay where you are…"

RIBBIT!

"… Was that a frog?" Rena questioned with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of her head.

**0-0-0-0-0**

Mustang and Flay stood atop the stage with a few yards in between, both of them armed with a duel disk while Vic stood next to Rena, his arms crossed at the two duelists.

"I hope you don't mind the inconvenience," Flay stated slowly flicking off the top five cards from his deck. "But I've got no real choice but to do this…"

"True, but I didn't think that a duelist of your rank," Mustang stated slowly pulling off the top five cards from his deck, keeping the cards face down… Not willing to look at the cards until it was his first turn. "Would be willing to work for a wreck like Vic."

"I'm still standing here!" Vic protested… to be completely ignored.

"Oh, I would think that there is a small misconception here," Flay chuckled wagging a finger at Mustang. "But at the moment, that is of very little consequence… For now…

"It's time to duel!"

"Since I'm guessing that this weird world gives you a home-field advantage," Mustang stated pulling off his sixth card from the deck. "I hope you don't mind if I take the first turn." (MLP: 8000)

"Of course not," Flay replied crossing his arms, his duel disk covering both of his small arms. "Although I don't look it – I'm quite mature and understanding." (FLP: 8000)

'_Kinda makes me wonder about other people his size and their maturity level,'_ Mustang thought looking over his hand. '_But enough about that… According to what Luntina told me – There was that one weird time during that tournament, concerning the twilight realm…_

'_Monsters became real, the sky turned color and something bad seemed to happen to duelists who lost… One turned to sand, another turned into a flower, and one… Well… He's not even around any more._

'_Sure, it may not be twilight – But hell, this isn't normal either!'_

"Make a move Mustang!" Vic goaded.

"Fine!" Mustang stated slipping a card from his hand, spinning it around in his fingers before he slapped the card onto his duel disk. "If it's a move you want, then I'll give you a move! I summon Die Hard Lancer!"

A powerful flame erupted from the ground, forming into the air, changing and warping around to reveal Mustang's monster as a young handsome fighter with spiky black hair, dressed in black and white street clothes. But around his neck was a large billowing red scarf that seemed to be attached to his weapon of choice…

… Which happened to be silver arrow headed lance (1800/1200).

"That's… Kinda weird," Rena stated looking at the weird monster who smirked at her after pulling the scarf down slightly.

"You're about to enter a world of weird," Vic warned waving his hand.

"And to end my turn," Mustang announced as the Die Hard Lancer spun his lance into the air before stabbing it into the ground right next to him, making two face down cards appear behind him in a pair of flames. "A pair of set cards will work for me."

"Hmm… Interesting," Flay chuckled licking his tongue around his mouth as he drew. "I have heard about your style, using the mesh of cards that alone are decent… But I wonder how do you intend to duel with them?"

"Why don't you take your turn," Mustang suggested crossing his arms as his Die Hard Lancer did the same. "And find out?"

"I think will," Flay stated looking at his hand. "… And I'll start off simple – The continuous spell card, The Dark Door!"

Slowly a ghostly door appeared between Mustang and Flay, "An older card I realize," Flay cackled flipping another card from his hand and onto his duel disk. "But so is this one. I summon Sangan in attack mode!"

With a loud squeak the little critter monster appeared in front of Flay, its three eyes blinking in confusion (1000/600).

"… Turn end," Flay stated making his fiend chirp loudly in panic.

"Why'd he summon that monster in attack mode?" Rena asked as Mustang drew his next card. "I know that the Dark Door only allows one monster to attack each turn, but…"

"And this is why you belong to the Red Dorm," Vic stated as Mustang looked over his cards. "You don't understand strategy. You see, if Sangan was in face down defense mode, there was a chance for it to be removed from play thanks to a popular spell card that Mustang is sure to have. However, while face up, there's almost no way for the monster's effect to be negated.

"Also, since he revealed it, Mustang has to consider if he wants to help Flay…"

"Really? Just by summoning a common monster?" Rena asked blinking a few times.

"Ugh… And people wonder why there's a tension between the Blue and Red dorm," Vic groaned rolling his eyes at the red dressed girl.

'_Even though they're the peanut gallery,'_ Mustang thought fanning his cards out in front of him. '_Vic does have a point… He wants me to give him something to work with, but what? I've only heard rumors of his strategy – But I'm not even sure what to expect…'_

"Not that I don't mind," Flay muttered lifting his arms up. "But could you please hurry up?"

"As you wish!" Mustang announced spinning another card from his hand. "Since I can only attack with one monster, then I'll summon someone who can break that little rule!

"I summon – Die Hard Dual Blader!"

The ground began to recede allowing another handsome man to leap from the ground, his blonde hair falling around his handsome face wearing battle scared clothing with a pair of katanas that he spun in his hands a few times (1450/1100).

"Impressive display," Vic stated rolling his eyes as he remembered the monster well and what it could do.

"Just wait!" Mustang stated as his handsome swordsman leapt through the Dark Door. "Dual Blader! Attack Sangan!"

Spinning around, the Dual Blader sliced the little critter in two, shattering the monster into millions of shards…

… And yet, Flay didn't seemed bother as he snapped out his deck of cards, "I hope I don't have to explain what my monster can do." (FLP: 7550)

"True…" Mustang replied as Flay selected his card.

"And my choice is Fushi No Tori," Flay announced revealing the card in his hand as he tossed it into his four card. "An increasingly useful card…"

'… _A Spirit monster?_' Mustang thought as his Dual Blader stepped in front of Flay. "But while it is a useful monster, it can't do much in your hand! And my Dual Blader can attack twice! And since it's the same monster…

"Your Dark Door can't stop him!"

Flay's eyes widened just as the Dual Blader slashed both of his swords down on Flay's chest in an 'X' shape, making him stumble backwards as his life points steadily dropped… And his uniform coat seemed to show that it was cut as well! (FLP: 6100)

"Urk…" Flay coughed kneeling to the floor for a few seconds until he stood up. "Nice move…"

"Thanks… And that's my turn by the way," Mustang stated running a hand through his hair.

Flay silently drew his next card as he looked at his newest card – Making him pull two of his six card hand up. "Then to start off my turn, I'll activate two more continuous spell cards – Spring of Rebirth and Spring of Death!"

The stage began to rumble making both of the Die Hard monsters stumble backwards as two large fountains appeared on both sides of Flay.

To his right was a beautiful spring with an angel standing atop of the spring with crystal clear water flowing around her…

To his left was an evil looking spring with a devil seated at the top of the spring with dark red water (Rena and Mustang were both hoping that the liquid was blood) spurting around him.

"And now, my strategy can begin," Flay stated with a large smirk.

"I know about the Spring of Rebirth," Mustang stated raising an eyebrow at the other spring. "So can I assume that your Spring of Death has something to do with returning monsters back to the hand?"

"… Perhaps," Flay stated, not turning away from his four card hand. Then taking one card, Flay slapped it onto his duel disk, making appear in front of his Dark Door. "… One set monster. And that's all she wrote."

"Naw," Mustang stated pulling off his next card. "This won't be over… Not yet anyway! And now, to play a new addition to my deck – Reinforcement of the Army!

"This spell card allows me to add any level four or lower warrior monster from my deck directly to my hand! And since most of the Die Hard monsters are warriors…"

A card shot out of Mustang's deck and into his hand, "This is a must have card!"

"I always wondered something Mustang," Vic muttered rubbing his covered chin. "Why didn't you ever have that card in your deck back in the second year?"

"Truthfully," Mustang stated turning around slightly to look at Vic. "… I wasn't able to pull out a copy of my own from the packs."

"Are you serious?" Rena asked with a sweatdrop.

Mustang turned back, slapping his card down on his duel disk as he ignored Rena's comment, "I summon Die Hard Boarder!"

Several icicles erupted from the ground, only to shatter into a young teenaged man with wild icy blue hair held up with a white and black headband. As he flew through the air, his baggy dark blue jacket and shorts billowed over his thin body. At his feet was a light blue snowboard that seems to make ice as he landed on the stage (1000/1200).

"And I have a sinking feeling that you want me to attack that face down monster," Mustang chuckled as his Boarder chuckled as well. "Too bad though… My Die Hard Boarder can attack you directly when I have another warrior monster on the field!

"And like I said before… Most of the Die Hard monsters are Warriors! So – Attack!"

A powerful force erupted behind the boarder, sending him flying through the door and over the face down monster, slamming his board directly into Flay's tiny body, and sending him to the ground with icy shards flying all around his body. (FLP: 5100)

"Turn end," Mustang announced confidently as Flay slowly pushed himself off of the stage.

"Alright, you've had your fun," Flay announced clicking his next card off his deck. "But now it's my turn!"

Simply tossing the card into his hand, Flay reached for his face down monster, "And truth be told, while I did want my face down monster flipped up, I didn't want it to be destroyed… So meet my Dark Cat with White Tail!"

A loud meow echoed over the field, making the face down monster flip into a small black cat… With a white tail (800/500). "Now, when this monster is flipped face up, I can select two monsters on your field and one on mine," Flay explained pointing towards the Dual Blader and Lander. "And all three of them get returned to our hands!"

Mustang's eyes widened as both of his monsters popped off of the field and formed back into cards… Making him pull the cards from his duel disk while Flay did the same for his cat.

"And since monsters returned to our hands," Flay explained as a white aura appeared over his body while a dark aura appeared over Mustang's. "Both of my springs activate. For each card returned, I gain five hundred points… While thanks to my Spring of Death, you lose four hundred points for each card." (FLP: 6600)

"What?" Mustang questioned before the dark energy completely covered him, making him grunt in pain before it shattered like glass. "I kinda… I kinda figured that." (MLP: 6800)

Rena blinked a few times at Mustang, there wasn't much difference… But it looked like Mustang was a little…

Smaller?

'_Nah… It's just my imagination…' _Rena thought with a shake of her head.

Vic on the other hand was smirking under his mouth-guard at Flay… Who seemed to look a little taller and muscular.

"Next," Flay stated holding up his next card, spinning it around to reveal a familiar card art. "Since I don't want to see those two monsters again, I'll activate the spell card – Card Destruction."

"Fine by me," Mustang stated fitting the five cards into his duel disk's graveyard while Flay fitted the four cards into his duel disk.

Then they both drew.

"And thus, I have more options," Flay stated as a card popped out of his graveyard. "For example, by removing that Fushi No Tori that I had sent to my hand then to my graveyard, I can special summon a special kind of Spirit monster…

"Arise Yamato-No-Kami!"

A loud roar screeched over the stage, allowing a large muscular monster to crash into the ground, it's long black hair streaming over the six appendages that looked at best like added arms. And even though this monster was in the shape of a man, its scaly skin clearly argued with that (2200/1200).

"Ah, one of the only spirits that can be special summoned," Mustang stated lifting up his duel disk, not realizing that it was sliding down his arm a little bit. "But do you think he'll be enough?"

"We'll find out now shall we?" Flay asked as his spirit monster charged forward, pulling it's fist back towards the surprised Die Hard Boarder. "Attack his Boarder Yamato!"

Just as the spirit monster was about to slam it's fist into the young boarder, both of Mustang's face down cards flipped up, "Time for my signature combo! I activate my traps – Die Hard Rejuvenation and Mystic Battle!"

But the two traps didn't even faze the powerful spirit, and its attack pummeled directly into the Boarder…

"And since my spirit destroyed a monster in battle," Flay explained as the Boarder shattered. "I can destroy one spell or trap on the…"

"Sorry about that!" Mustang shouted as he shuffled his deck before he moved his hand towards his Mystic Battle trap card – Showing the picture that had two magical beings in a fist fight. "But thanks to my trap, once per turn, I can treat a monster's battle destruction as if it was destroyed by a card effect. So tough luck there…

"And then thanks to my Die Hard Rejuvenation, I can return a Die Hard monster that was destroyed in a card effect back to my deck, shuffle… and draw a new card!"

"True…" Flay chuckled… His voice slightly deeper now. "But you still take battle damage."

Mustang could only adjust his (now slightly larger) scarf. (MLP: 5600)

"Heh, heh, heh," Vic cackled as he adjusted his mask. '_Now I get it… An interesting idea you have there Flay… But, why is it affecting you as well?'_

"Um…" Rena stumbled a little bit, still trying to think about what was happening on the stage in front of her.

"But alas, I still have my normal summon for this turn to use," Flay continued setting the card onto his duel disk. "So a set monster will be my choice. And my turn is over, which then activates the normal abilities of a spirit activate, allowing me to return Yamato to my hand."

Transforming into an orb of light, the fierce spirit monster popped back into the card on Flay's duel disk, allowing him to pull it back into his hand, "And of course, since a monster returned to my hand," he explained as his body began to bask in white energy. "My springs activate. I recover and you get blasted." (FLP: 7300)

Mustang grounded his teeth as the dark energy surged over his body, "Urk!" (MLP: 5200)

"Now my turn is over," Flay mused rubbing his slightly more defined chin. "It's not too late to surrender with your life points in tact."

"Heh, what do you take me for?" Mustang asked pulling off the top card from his deck, giving him a full hand of six cards. "I'm not called the Die Hard Kaiser cause I give up! Besides, thanks to you, I've got a few ideas to work with in my hand."

"Then by all means," Flay chuckled taking a bow towards Mustang. "Please entertain us with those ideas."

"No need to ask twice!" Mustang announced holding up one of his cards. "And so, I'll activate the spell card – Die Hard Sacrifice!"

Mustang's newest card materialized in front of him, revealing several Die Hard monsters falling into an abyss with a pair of sharp red eyes narrowing at them. "Now, with this card, I have to take a chance. I discard the top five cards of my deck, and for each one monster sent to the graveyard that has 'Die Hard' in its name, I gain five hundred life points."

"That seems kinda risky," Rena stated until Mustang turned around with a gleaming smile.

"Hey! That's how a sacrifice is," Mustang chuckled before he snapped off the top five cards from the top of his deck, keeping them hidden from everyone else. "Even if you do that, there's always going to be a little risk. If this works, the best I can do is twenty-five hundred life points, but the worse is that all I do is send most of my spell and trap cards to the graveyard…

'_But at the rate I'm going, I only need two more monsters in the graveyard…'_

Slowly, Mustang lifted up the five cards that he had flicked off, turning them around to reveal Swords of Revealing Light, Die Hard Samurai, Scrap-Iron Scarecrow, Elemental Burst and Die Hard Magnum Gunner.

'_Yes!' _Mustang thought as he fitted all five of his cards into his duel disk. "And now, I gain a thousand points back!" (MLP: 6200)

'_Hmm… This means that I'll…_' Flay's smirk grew larger.

"I wouldn't be smirking if I were you," Mustang stated holding up another card from his hand. "Because thanks to you, I can now activate the spell card – Pot of Avarice!"

A large blue cloud of smoke popped in front of Mustang, forming into an odd pot with a goofy and jeweled face on it, "Now, by shuffling five monster cards from my graveyard into my deck, I can draw two new cards – And thus, I have five monsters to use in my graveyard."

As Mustang began to shuffle the five monster cards from his graveyard into his duel disk, Vic scoffed to the side. "Great," he mumbled getting Rena's attention. "He's still using his annoying strategy."

"Annoying strategy?" Rena asked.

"It's known as Deck Recycle," Vic explained as Mustang pulled off the top two cards from his deck. "It focuses on returning cards from either the field or graveyard and replace the cards after the deck's been refilled. Its difficult to pull off since there are a few recycle cards, but Mustang seems to have been able to scrap up enough to make a successful deck."

"So, you basically replaced the cards in your hand?" Flay questioned tilting his head to the side. "You'll have to forgive me if I didn't see much point in that…"

"Well then, how about I show you?" Mustang stated holding up another card from his hand. "You see, I'm about to summon one of my personal favorite monsters. And I'm sure Vic remembers him…"

Vic only narrowed his eyes.

"… And hiss potent effect," Mustang chuckled spinning the card in his hand. "During the turn I'm able to return two or more monster cards with the same type, I can normal summon this monster without tribute."

Slapping the card onto his duel disk, a ring of light erupted around Mustang's feet, spilling upwards into the air as Mustang's baggier clothing began to flap wildly in the air. "So, give it up for the Die Hard Captain!"

The light began to change Mustang's clothing, tightening it and changing it's color until the light shattered to show that Mustang had changed – forming into a rugged man wearing a silver overcoat and hat that covered his entire body that billowed over his smaller body. His black gloves, boots and pants seemed to gleam in the light as Mustang threw a few punches into the air (2500/2100).

Flay's eyes narrowed as a diabolic smile appeared on his face, "So… You can change forms when you summon a certain monster."

"An… Another person who can merge with a monster?" Rena gasped taking a step back.

Vic raised an eyebrow, "… Merge with a monster?" He questioned, knowing full well what that meant… But how did this girl know that? "You've seen this before?"

"W-Well," Rena muttered rubbing the back of her head. "There were a few people who were capable to do that… Just the other day, I saw that Mao character, the Czar of North Academy, do the same thing…"

'_Then again… I'm just like Mustang and Mao – Uh, only with that weird ability wise.'_

"Interesting," Vic chuckled rubbing his chin.

"So, you've got a powerful monster out," Flay sighed adjusting some his hair. "What's next?"

"Hmm… One of my favorite combos," Mustang stated spinning a card around in his gloved hand before he slipped it into his duel disk. "Starting with the spell card – Nobleman of Crossout!"

A gleaming sword appeared over Mustang's head, spinning around until the sword flew from his head and stabbed into the face down monster, "So, why don't we take a look at what you've got hidden down there? My spell removes that face down monster and if it has a flip effect, we remove all copies from our decks."

Flay growled as he turned the card around, allowing two more cards to pop out from his deck.

"Hane-Hane?" Mustang questioned as Flay fitted the cards into his jacket's pockets. "I didn't think anyone still used that card – Wasn't it in one of the original packs?"

"First generation to be precise," Flay growled shuffling his deck. "But it's a fairly useful card if played right. And since my deck revolves around returning cards back to the hand, well, it's a decent card."

"I'll give you that," Mustang admitted holding up another. "But how about I show you another decent card – One known as Assault Armor!"

A powerful golden glow washed over Mustang's Die Hard Captain form, strengthening his already powerful form (2500/2100 + 300/0). "But don't worry, I'm sending my equip card directly to the graveyard to activate it's second effect… But that'll come to play in a minute! For now…"

Mustang skidded through the Dark Door, appearing right in front of Flay with his free fist wound back, "I attack you directly!"

WHAM!

And with a powerful punch to his opponent's stomach area, Mustang sent Flay skidding across the stage, almost slamming into one of his Springs. "Urk!" (FLP: 4800)

"But don't think I'm done yet!" Mustang stated jumping high into the air, spinning around. "Thanks to Assault Armor's effect, I can attack you twice this turn!"

"WHAT?!" Flay and Vic shouted at the same time before Mustang's foot collided with Flay's shoulders, sending him to the ground with a loud slam.

"URK!" Flay spat out as he bounced on the stage a few times. (FLP: 2300)

And using that same force, Mustang pushed himself into a backward spin until he landed on the stage, still in a fighter's stance, "Boo-ya!"

"Damn that cocky bastard," Vic growled slamming his fist into the stage. "Come on Flay! Don't take that crap!"

Pushing himself off the stage, Flay slowly stood up, dusting off his jacket as if those last two attacks didn't mean a thing to him. "I intend to repay him for those, Vic," He replied adjusting his three card hand. "So trust me that I can do this with an arm tied behind my back."

Mustang smirked behind the large collar of his Die Hard Captain form, taking another card from his deck as he fitted it into his duel disk. "Then show me what you can do after I set this card."

"That was a cool move," Rena muttered looking at the cocky looking Mustang… But there was something that still seemed to be odd about both of the duelists that she took note of.

"Draw," Flay chuckled looking at the fourth card he just drew. "… I summon Inaba White Rabbit in attack mode!"

A big pop appeared on the field, forming into a small white rabbit that was standing on a large metallic stand with a pole that seemed to have a few flames around it (700/500). "And this isn't just any other kind of spirit monster – Inaba can attack you directly!"

"Wait, what?" Mustang asked.

Leaping off of the artifact, the small rabbit leapt towards Mustang, slamming it's foot directly into Mustang's chest, making him stumble backwards slightly… As he grew slightly shorter again. (MLP: 5500)

"Is that the best you've got?" Mustang asked rubbing his chest.

"You wish," Flay chuckled as his rabbit leapt back in front of him. "You see, Spirits tend to be pushed to the side mainly because their style tends to be slightly flawed when they return to the hand at the end of the turn. But this can be used to our advantage… I activate the spell card – Mystic Box!"

Mustang looked up, his eyes widening as a large black box appeared around his body, covered with question marks, "What the?! Hey! Let me out!"

A similar box appeared around Inaba as Mustang slammed his fists against black box, "Not a chance," Flay chuckled as many swords appeared around the black case in front of him. "Now then… Swords! Rain down from the sky!"

The countless swords flew into the box that held Inaba, completely piercing through the box.

"But… Why would you skewer your own monster?!" Rena shouted as the box began to open up.

"Who says I did?" Flay chuckled as the box opened up, revealing the Die Hard Captain's outfit being skewered. "My spell destroys one monster on my opponent's field and then I get to give him one of my monsters."

The other box shattered, revealing the slightly younger looking Mustang (back in his baggy clothing) and Inaba White Rabbit back onto the stage. "Dang it!"

"Heh, how do you like that?" Flay chuckled licking his lips.

"I have to say, thanks!" Mustang replied shuffling his Die Hard Captain back into his deck. "You forgot about my Die Hard Rejuvenation trap card? Since my monster was destroyed by a card effect, I can shuffle him into my deck and draw a new card."

"As if that'll matter in the long run," Flay cackled lifting his arm up, flexing his muscle a few times. "After all – I managed to get a few years back to me…"

That's when Mustang blinked a few times, taking note of his enlarged clothing, "Hey!" He shouted, his scarf falling off his smaller neck. "What the hell is going on here?! I look like I did when I was thirteen!"

'_He just noticed that?'_ Rena and Vic thought as large drops of sweat rolled down the sides of their heads.

"Heh… Heh… Heh…" Flay snickered as his hair began to overshadow his eyes. "Indeed… Enjoy your life… Enjoy your youth…

"Enjoy… My curse…"

**0-0-0-0-0**

**Card Stats**

**Pawn Bomb / Spell / Effect: ** Tribute one monster with 'Pawn' in its name on your side of the field and then destroy one set card on the Field.

**Image:** A chess pawn exploding amongst its comrades

**Chess Golem – Ebony Rook / Dark / LV. 4 / ATK: 1800 / DEF: 1300 / Spellcaster/Effect:** Negate the effect of an Effect Monster that is destroyed by this monster in battle.

**Description:** A large ebony man shaped golem with a head shaped like a chess Rook piece in the form of a large armored knight

**Die Hard Lancer / Fire / LV 4 / ATK: 1800 / DEF: 1200 / Warrior/Effect: **When this card attacks, your opponent cannot activate trap cards.

**Description:** A young handsome man with spiky black hair. A white shirt hung loosely over his skinny body, and his black pants were extremely baggy. A long red scarf is around his neck. And a red clothed lance is in his hands.

**Die Hard Dual Blader / Earth / LV 3 / ATK: 1450 / DEF: 1100 / Warrior/Effect:** This card may attack twice during the battle phase.

**Description:** A young handsome man with shaggy blonde hair. A blue shirt covered with a black vest covers his scarred arms. His black pants are ripped and in his hands are two light katanas.

**Spring of Death / Continuous Spell / Effect:** Each time a monster card is returned to its owner's hand, inflict 400 points of damage to your opponent's life points for each card returned.

**Image:** A fountain of blood with a devil resting atop of the spring

**Die Hard Boarder / Water / LV4 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 1200 / Warrior/Effect:** If you have another face up Warrior-type monster on the field other than this card, this card may attack your opponent directly.

**Description:** A young teenaged man with wild icy blue hair held up with a white and black headband. A baggy dark blue jacket covers up his upper body, while a pair of shorts that reach his shins flow. At his feet is a light blue snowboard that seems to make ice appear before it.

**Die Hard Rejuvenation / Continuous Trap / Effect:** As long as this card remains face up on the field, every time a monster on your side of the field with 'Die Hard' is sent to the graveyard by a card effect, you may return the monster to your deck. After shuffling the deck, you may draw the top card of the deck.

**Image:** the Die Hard Lancer being bandaged by an Injection Fairy Lily, while a second Fairy Lily is getting a huge syringe while Lancer's eyes are bulging.

**Mystic Battle / Continuous Trap / Effect:** As long as this card is face up on the field, once per turn, when a monster is destroyed as a result of battle, treat this destruction as if it was destroyed by a card effect.

**Image:** Two magical beings fighting with their fists

**Die Hard Sacrifice / Instant Spell / Effect:** Send the top five cards from your deck to the graveyard. Increase your life points by 500 points for each monster sent to the graveyard with this effect.

**Image:** Multiple 'Die Hard' monsters falling into an abyss with piercing red eyes watching them.

**Die Hard Captain / Light / LV. 7 / ATK: 2500 / DEF: 2100 / Warrior/Effect:** This card can be normal summoned from your hand without tribute during the turn when two or more monsters are returned to your deck from your hand, field or graveyard (Not including this card) with the same type.

**Description:** A rugged man wearing a silver overcoat and hat that covers his entire skin. His black gloves, boots and pants seem to gleam in the light.

**/-/-/-/-\-\-\-\**

**Mustang: **What the hell is going on with this duel?

**Flay:** Heh… Almost there… Almost done.

**Mustang:** Damn it! Why can't anyone give a straight answer in these kinds of duels?!

**Vic:** Oh, this is going to be sweet…

**Rena:** Usually, it's a good thing to get your youth back…

_**Next time – **__**Chapter 60: Gone are the Days of My Youth**_

**Mustang:** Damn it! I don't want to go through puberty again! I was handsome at age seventeen!


	61. Chapter 60:Gone are the Days of My Youth

_Author's Note: Sorry about the wait, but this chapters going to be a little short… But next chapter, oh, it'll make up for this…_

_**People say that the youth is wasted on the young.**_

_**And from what I've seen, that actually seems to hold water – Just look around your average high school, you have teenagers wasting time by either devoting themselves to studying, sports, or even committed to leave a legacy of criminal activity just to become legend in high school.**_

_**Little do they realize that their youth would soon eventually become a part of the past, hoping that they could desperately reclaim it… But that is only a pipe dream, never to come true no matter how hard they try.**_

_**But this guy… He's actually sending me back to my younger days!**_

_**However, what's more surprising, is the fact that he seems to be able to siphon my age into him… Why he would want this is beyond me…**_

_**0-0-0-0-0**_

_**Chapter 60**_

_**Gone are the Days of My Youth**_

_**0-0-0-0-0**_

"_Heh… Heh… Heh…" Flay snickered as his hair began to overshadow his eyes. "Indeed… Enjoy your life… Enjoy your youth…_

"_Enjoy… My curse…"_

The duel between Flay and Mustang was still going on the stage with Rena and Vic watching from the sidelines. And oddly enough it was almost as if Mustang and Flay had switched ages, Flay looking roughly eighteen and Mustang at age thirteen with his clothes barely hanging off of his younger body.

At his field however, Mustang just lost his Die Hard Captain thanks to Flay's Mystic Box spell card, having the box remain on his field, along with Die Hard Rejuvenation and Mystic Battle on his field. In his hand he held onto three cards. (MLP: 5500)

The teenaged Flay on the other hand had his Inaba White Rabbit (700/500) (which was hidden by the way) and his two continuous cards Spring of Rebirth and Spring of Death that were on both sides of his field. While he held two cards left in his hand. (FLP: 2300)

Given the circumstances…

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO ME!?!"

Flay could only chuckle as he ran a larger hand through his longer, more defined hair, "Aw… What's the matter?" He cackled licking his lips. "I would figure that having their youth returned would be what everyone would want… Don't you agree?"

"NO!" Mustang snapped stomping his foot into the stage. "Damn it! Do you know how long it took me to look handsome?!"

"… My guess would be…" Flay muttered rubbing his chin as he raised an eyebrow at Mustang. "From the start of the duel, it was what? Seventeen or eighteen years old?"

"Seventeen and a half," Mustang growled correcting Flay, tightening the scarf around his neck, trying to at least have some dignity.

"Hmm, this is quite interesting," Flay chuckled raising his hand up in front of his face, trying to stifle the laughter he had. "I was wondering if this Colorless World would have an effect on my power, but it looks like it hasn't really done much but make sure that the witness count would be lowered."

"That's basically all this world can do," Vic pointed out tapping his forehead. '_That and making the monsters become real…'_

"Now then," Flay sighed pushing his hair back out of his face as he held up his two cards. "I think we've spent enough time talking about this… Back to the duel so I can gain my rightful age!"

'_Rightful age?'_ Mustang thought raising an eyebrow as the Mystic Box began to open up in front of Mustang. "Huh?"

"There's a second effect of my spell," Flay explained fitting a card into his duel disk's graveyard. "You see, in return for destroying one of your monsters, I have to give you one of mine… Of course, since the only monster I had out was Inaba White Rabbit…"

As he said the name, Flay's White Rabbit appeared in front of Mustang, grasping onto the pole that was on the bowl. "Now… I'll end my turn with a set card… And when I end my turn, Inaba returns to its owner's hand."

With a snap of his fingers, Flay commanded the rabbit spirit monster to leap into the air, transforming into an orb of light. "Of course, since Inaba was my monster," Flay explained as the orb landed on his duel disk, allowing him to pull the card back into his hand. "He returns to my hand. Thus activating the next two parts of my combo!"

A powerful black light appeared over Mustang's body, making the younger duelist grit his teeth, "URK!" (MLP: 5100)

"My Spring of Death cuts some of your life points," Flay cackled with more and more white light showering over his body. "And Spring of Rebirth restores my life points!" (FLP: 2800)

"… You'll need them," Mustang stated holding up four cards before he drew his fifth card. "Because of your spell, I was able to activate Die Hard Rejuvenation's effect to draw another card from my deck. And thanks to that, you're in for a world of hurt!"

"Hmm?" Flay and Vic questioned.

"I play Monster Reborn!" Flay announced as a powerful light erupted over his body, reforming into the Die Hard Captain's overcoat and hat that billowed over his tiny body (2500/2100). "So, three guesses who I just revived… And the first two guesses don't count!"

Flay growled narrowing his eyes at the now younger teen, '_Damn it! And if he has another monster in his hand…'_

"And now, I summon another Die Hard monster…" Mustang growled pulling another card from his hand before he slapped it onto his duel disk. "This time a detective! The Die Hard Detective!"

A large pop appeared next to Mustang, forming into a teenaged young man with his long dark red hair falling onto his matching cloak that billowed over his English styled clothing (900/1950).

"Damn it…" Vic seethed through his cough-guard mask. '_If this goes through…'_

"Man, talk about luck," Rena commented with her eyes widening at the finishing move.

"Luck has nothing to do with it," Mustang replied holding up a peace sign towards Rena with his gloved hand. "It's all skill, little red."

'… _I don't think you have the height to call me that,'_ Rena thought with a sweatdrop.

"Die Hard Detective!" Mustang commanded as his detective produced a pocket watch, spinning it around on his finger. "Why don't you lead off this attack? Attack with…"

Mustang paused for a second.

"Ya know," He mused. "I've never really attacked with this guy before. I usually had him in defense mode and used his effect, so I never did come up with an attack name."

The Die Hard Detective blinked a few times in confusion before he lowered his head in shame.

"But now's his attacking debut!" Mustang announced brightening the mood of his monster, making it spin the pocket watch faster and faster. "And since he's got the thing out… Die Hard Detective! Attack with Pocket Watch Bash!"

Then with a flick of his wrist, the Detective threw the pocket watch through the air until it sailed right into Flay's right eye, "AH! MY EYE! WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY EYE!?!" (FLP: 1900)

"Heh, nice one," Mustang chuckled holding his hand up towards the Detective, getting a high five between duel monster and duel monster-dressed duelist. "And now to finish this!"

Mustang leapt into the air, the long coattails billowing through the air as he was preparing for a second direct attack.

And slowly, Flay reached for his duel disk a grimace appearing on his face as he closed his sore right eye. '_I could stop his attack and fix myself up a little… But being a teenager for now is more than enough…'_

"And with this…" Mustang shouted landing in front of Flay, spinning around with his fist pumped up. "I WIN!"

The fist slammed directly into Flay's torso, sending the older duelist flying into the Spring of Life with a loud splash following. (FLP: 0)

"Boo-ya!" Mustang shouted throwing his fist into the air as the Springs, the trap cards on Mustang's field and monsters disappeared into a dark mist…

… And with the Die Hard Captain form disappearing, Mustang couldn't help but blink in confusion. "WHAT THE HELL!?! WHY AM I STILL THIS YOUNG!?!"

"Heh…" Flay chuckled slowly pushing himself off the stage. "What would make you think that you'd get your age back?"

"Well…" Mustang muttered, thinking back to a few experiences he had in duels that had strange outcomes.

"Unfortunately, it doesn't fly that way when it comes to me," Flay explained running a hand through his hair. "If it did, then I should've lost years each time I lost a thousand life points… But, case in point…"

With that, Flay spun around, revealing that his baggy, yet sleeveless overcoat was now a little more honed onto his body. "I'm roughly seventeen years now, but I started out at thirteen, so our ages swapped basically… Well, physical ages to be precise."

"Physical ages?" Mustang asked.

"I may look young," Flay sighed dusting off of his sleeveless jacket. "But my real age is quite… Surprising. I won't say how old I really am, but I'll tell you how I gained this… Curse.

"Years ago, there were reports of an actual game that dates back to Ancient Egypt that had the ability to devour the lives of anyone who played it. The rules were simple for the game, every time a person made a move, they had to bet a number of years – And the loser would age that many years they wagered. When I first heard of it, my first thought was…

"_**What a load of bull!**_"

"And it sounds like it too," Mustang commented.

"Indeed," Flay chuckled removing his deck and duel disk. "However, as I studied more and more about the game – like the game was actually played a few decades ago between a master gamer and his apprentice – I became more and more interested in the topic. I interviewed the master gamer and learned of the origin of the game…

"So, I traveled to Egypt in hopes of learning more about this mysterious game… And think of this, if there was a game that could increase age, then it would stand to reason that there would be a way for someone to regain their youth! And think about how much money someone could make if there was a way to do that!"

"So, greed was what fueled you?" Rena asked blinking a few times.

"That was part of it," Flay admitted reaching into his pocket, pulling out an old photograph that he looked at. "But… There was another reason, one that was more personal to me. But I'm trailing away from that. You see, after asking around and hiring a few guides and hired men, I found the tomb where the cursed game originated from. I won't talk about the perils and the number of people I lost in the process…

"But, when I found what I was looking for… Well, let's just say I really hate idiots in the work place."

Everyone couldn't help but sweatdrop at that.

"They broke the artifact," Flay snarled slamming his foot into the stage, "And I was cursed to grow younger and younger, losing a year of age with each year that passed!"

"Wow," Vic muttered raising an eyebrow at the Spirit duelist. '_Now I'm curious as to how old he was…'_

"Thankfully, there was another cursed item in that tomb that I discovered," Flay continued walking past Mustang with a smirk on his face. "One that managed to allow me to steal the years of other people… Provided that I at least damage my opponent through a challenge, and each time a significant hit was created, I was given the ability to siphon off another year."

'_However, there had to be a special opponent… One who can immerse themselves into the challenge! And becoming a duel monster was just what I was looking for!'_

And with that, Flay jumped off the stage and walked next to Vic, "I assume that what I did was satisfactory for you?"

"Hey!" Mustang shouted running to the side of the stage. "Where do you think you're going?! I'm not done with you…"

"But I'm done with you," Flay retorted with a snarky look in his eyes. "You see, I'm a generous guy, now that I look at least old enough to have a driver's license, I can pull off a number of different things. Besides…"

With that, Flay revealed his duel disk, holding up the card that was inside the card's slot. Taking the card from his duel disk, Flay held up a single trap card, "I still had this face down…" He stated before he read the card's name aloud. "Compulsory Evacuation Device, a trap card that can return one monster card from the field to the hand. If I wanted to take another year from you and even continue the duel, I would've used it.

"So, consider yourself lucky… You runt."

"But don't think we're done," Vic chuckled spinning on his heel in order to walk with his accomplice. "Mustang, I'll be back to finish what Flay here has started… After the humiliation you gave me, it'll be a pleasure to use the jokes on you that you've used on the short stack for the two years you've known him."

"Bring it on Vic," Mustang growled adjusting his scarf for the third time this day.

Vic lifted his hand up, revealing that his hand seemed to have lost some color itself, "And I shall," He said before he turned his head back towards Rena. "And as for you… You should be expecting a visit from me as well in the near future."

"Huh?" Rena questioned with a confused look on her face.

Not continuing, Vic merely snapped his fingers in the air, sending cracks spiraling through the colorless sky, "You two have about five minutes until the colorless world returns to the normal – So if you want to go somewhere where no one will freak if they see you…"

"Um…" Rena stated blinking a few times.

"Hey!"

Turning her head back to the stage, the younger Die Hard Kaiser leapt off the stage in front of Rena, "Look, Rena, I need to ask a favor of you!"

"Um, okay?" Rena questioned.

**0-0-0-0-0**

A few minutes later…

"Hmm, the red dorm rooms here are much roomier than those back at the other academy," Mustang stated jumping atop of the bunk beds, his jacket flowing over his body.

"Ya know," Rena muttered making sure that the door was closed and locked to make sure that no one would be able to get in. "When you were talking about a favor, I didn't expect you to want to hold up in my dorm room."

"Not like I would want to be here," Mustang lied with his scarf covering his mouth. "But if people were to see me like this with my reputation, well, it'd be somewhat disturbing. Well that or I'd probably be called Chibi Mustang and get a few other fans who are into that sort of thing."

"Then why don't you go do that?" Rena asked with her hands on her waist.

"No can do," Mustang replied throwing his arms behind his head. "Too much of a farfetched shot, even for me. So, until I can figure out a way to get back those four years, I'll be staying here."

"Great, that's just perfect," Rena sighed taking a seat at her desk. '_Just how the hell am I going to explain this to Rukia? Although, Kimatori might like to have a new playmate who's closer to her age…'_

"Besides," Mustang stated turning his head towards Rena. "I'd feel a lot better if I was with you since Vic told you that he was coming to visit ya… That guy's a snake in the grass, but he's a little creepier than I remember."

"Well, thanks for your concern," Rena mumbled under her breath. "But I think I can handle myself… This isn't the first time I've had to deal with weird supernatural acts."

"Like with Dias and Eternity Angelo?" Mustang asked, taking note of the surprised look on Rena's face. "Don't look so surprised. I learned what happened from Luntina, we're friends and both the top duelists of our academies. We tend to learn a lot from each other and we know almost everything that happens on our islands…

"That includes any dark dealings. Heck, take the shorty for example, there are a few things that I know about him that he keeps from everyone else."

"Um, okay…" Rena muttered rubbing the back of her head. "But let's put the creepy surveillance aside, and look at the question at hand. Why would Vic even take an interest with me?"

"Well, if Vic hasn't changed since his days at the Pacific," Mustang mused rubbing chin. "His normal goals would include getting to the top… And in this case, the top of the academy's duelists. Those at the top can get a lot of advantages in the world, whether its for another school, the pro leagues or getting into the business world. So, it would be no wonder for Vic to want to get to the top."

"That… I did not know," Rena admitted with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of her head.

"Well, now you know," Mustang replied. "But why he's interested in you, that's a mystery I can't answer. It could be that he sees you as a threat, he's learned in the past not to underestimate people who were in lower dorms. After all, my first year, I was a red duelist and…"

"And you beat him?" Rena finished.

"Nope, he wiped the floor with me," Mustang answered pulling out his deck case and began to flip through his cards, not noticing that Rena had fallen out of her seat. "You see, back then, all I ran was a warrior toolbox deck, I wasn't too skilled with it and I never really managed to come up with the support needed with it… That includes Reinforcement of the Army.

"Heck the only monster I had that was with my deck at the time that I still have in this one was my Die Hard Captain. I guess he inspired me to continue with my strategy, and then a few months after my defeat, I managed to acquire more Die Hard cards… And, a few of the X series."

"X series?" Rena questioned.

"X-Sabers," Mustang replied placing his deck on the ground. "But, that's an experimental deck I'm working on. After I acquired my recycling cards, I was able to pull out several wins… And that attracted Vic's eyes on me again and decided to take me out… And he almost did with his Dark World Deck…"

"I'm guessing that's how he got the Dark World Prince as his title?" Rena questioned rubbing the back of her head.

"And tell her what she's won, Vera!" Mustang laughed loudly. "But seriously, yeah, he was a monster, willing to use any means to get what he wanted. Too bad that was his down fall at the academy. He made the deal with the devil and was punished for it thoroughly, he was kicked out of our academy… Although, it looks like he managed to pull a few strings with his family to get him to transfer here to continue his plans…"

"Well, at least he doesn't have as much respect as he does," Rena pointed out. "I know at the very least that transfer students have to start out in the Red dorm, so…"

"It's not that simple," Mustang interrupted, making Rena blink a few times in confusion. "From what Luntina told me about what's been happening here, there was an incident that she's marked as the Twilight Incident – and it concerned about how the island was basked in a weird light… Of course, I don't need to tell you about that, you faced the big boss…"

"Are you talking about that Big Boss guy?" Rena asked making Mustang's eyes widened. "Um… D-Did I say something wrong?"

'_She's met Big Boss?!'_ Mustang thought sitting up on the bed, remembering last year when he had met the mysterious man who was obsessed with gum. '_Did he have a hand in all this too? I need more information…'_

"Rena! Tell me what did…"

KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Hey! Akira! I know that you're in there!" A snotty, yet noble like voice sounded out from behind the door.

"That's not how you address someone!" A familiar, kind voice scolded beyond the door. "Rena? Are you in there? You and Mustang just disappeared."

"Crap!" Mustang growled jumping down from the bed. "It's Luntina and… And…"

"Cleo!" Rena gasped.

"Quick! Hide me!" Mustang yelped quietly as he and Rena ran frantically around the dorm room. "They can't see me like this!"

"Uh… Um… Just a minute!" Rena called out to the two Obelisk Blue girls outside her dorm room.

"See! I told you she'd be in there!" Cleo announced.

"Aw man! Where do you want me to hide?!" Mustang questioned trying to fit himself under the bunk beds.

"Ah, um, I…" Rena stuttered looking left and right until she spied on the closet. "There we go!"

A few seconds later…

"Sorry about that!" Rena gasped opening the door to see Cleo and Luntina both standing at the door, both of them giving Rena a weird look.

"Uh, okay…" Luntina muttered raising an eyebrow at Rena.

"Look, we'll just cut to the case," Cleo scoffed placing her hands on her hips, leaning slightly to leer at Rena. "Akira… Do you know where that cute Mustang went?"

"… You think he's cute?" Luntina gagged with a shake of her head. "Ugh, maybe it's just me."

"Anyway," Cleo sighed. "Thanks for ditching us when we needed to talk to you, I really appreciate that."

"Uh, sorry about that… again," Rena muttered with a blush on her face. "But I just…"

"Look, I could care less about excuses," Cleo growled with a large blood vessel appearing on the side of her head. "But if you could be so kind to come with me to…"

"Sure!" Rena yelped, shutting the door behind her. "Let's go!"

Luntina and Cleo blinked a few times at each other before turning towards the nervously chuckling Rena, "Alright," Luntina muttered. "Rena… I can tell when someone's hiding something. Knowing Mustang for a long time, it naturally came to me when I was trying to find some of his more… Personal effects."

"Oh! I-I'm not hiding anything!" Rena chuckled nervously as a blush crept on her face. "So… C-Come on!"

Meanwhile, inside Rena's bedroom closet…

"Ow… Damn it, there was no need to throw me in here! And another… Thing… Ooh! Frilly things!"

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

"So… Let me get this straight," Xander questioned adjusting the eye patch on his face as he turned towards Flay and Vic. "The guy next to you was that little brat who managed to somehow siphon the age from people he duels, right?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Flay answered.

"Well, hell, it makes as much sense as anything else on this island," Xander scoffed leaning up against the wall near the door. "By the way… Orange got back while you two were out."

"Ah, yes," Vic muttered rubbing his hands slightly. "So… Where is he?"

"He's taking a nap," Xander replied. "Taking a few punches to the head will do that to a guy."

"Uh, wouldn't that give him a concussion?" Flay questioned.

"Do I look like a doctor?" Xander retorted with a dominate pose.

"No, you look like a man who won't mind getting his ass handed to him," Vic growled narrowing his eyes. "Why did he have the bruises?!"

"All I know is that he got crushed by some opponent and Bravo literally dragged him back to the base," Xander sighed rolling his one good eye. "He might've gotten a few of the bruises that way… But from what Bravo tells me, Orange may have lost against the character you sent him after."

"… Damn it," Vic cursed under his breath. "Well, where's Bravo now? And for that matter Morty and Maroon?"

"Bravo went to get something to eat," Xander growled, not liking to be treated as everyone's keeper. "Morty decided to sign up for the Mr. Duel Academia pageant for some odd reason or another. And Maroon…

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

_He's doing the job you sent him to do at the blue dorm…_

Maroon walked through the large hallways of the blue dorm, not really caring for the looks he was getting from some of the students. '_I hope that this will be worth this… After all, I'm going out of my way to do this… Especially since I developed this deck just to take down most of these blue duelists…'_

Meanwhile in a nearby room in the Obelisk Blue Dorm…

"So, it's a rarity for you to actually visit another Blue Duelist…"

"Hmm, well, it's not like there are a lot of people I can talk to about this."

Sen rolled his eyes, standing at the stove as he prepared the tea for his brother Riko and their guest – Leo Childsman. Normally, Sen wouldn't have allowed Riko a guest, but from the reputation the Childsman family held, Sen was more than able to welcome the Angel using duelist.

'_Still… It is rather odd…_' Sen thought to himself, adding the proper tea herbs to the tea kettle, making sure that he would make a mess of the stove. '_I may not be in the loop as these duelists are, but I thought that Mr. Childsman here would be the last person to ask for help…'_

Riko placed his arms on the armrest of the couch he sat on, his sunglasses covering his eyes. "So… This has to do with that defeat that Mao handed you?"

Despite his smile, Leo's eyes would've given him away with anyone else, "It's not so much the defeat," he replied. "But… it was more of what he said that struck a chord with me…"

"_I don't know if you can turn that spark into a raging flame or if it will disappear at the power of my blades."_

"I… I don't know why," Leo muttered pulling his hands closer to his mouth, taking note that his hands were shaking slightly. "But, every time he drew a card, I could almost… I could almost feel a grip of fear clutch its fingers around my neck."

"_But that is a past event, and by the time a man would receive that respect long when his life would be snuffed out. To be talked in the past tense, is that what all of us want?"_

"I've never felt this way against an opponent before… Let alone a person," Leo continued lowering his head before a familiar greasy haired person appeared in the back of his head. '_Although… When I first met 'him', I got the same feeling after the first time we met...'_

Riko continued to nod along with Leo's explanation. "Leo," he called as he crossed his arms. "Tell me something… I heard that you used angels and beings of heavenly origin. Why do you use them?"

"Why?" Leo questioned, being genuinely confused with the question. "Well, that really all falls on a card that I acquired from a good friend of mine years ago… And so, I decided to build my main deck around that genre of cards that fell to the judgment of above…"

_Mao, however, scoffed. "You hear that, Leonardo?" He questioned Leo. "Human nature is quite amazing, isn't it? With a flick of my wrist, I've managed turn at least half of the students here against you," Pulling out two cards from his hand, Mao placed the cards into his duel disk. "Although, I can't really blame them, people naturally follow the strong, and with these two set cards, I'll soon have the rest."_

"Hmm, I see," Riko muttered as he rubbed his chin. "Well, this isn't my concern Leonardo, but perhaps when you faced against Mao, he pointed out a few faults in your deck and perhaps your reason for using those cards."

"My… My reason?" Leo muttered nodding his head up and down.

"A lot of people question their tastes and reasons," Riko stated as Sen set the tea cups in front of the two on the table between them. "It's nothing new, besides while angels do seem to fall under your category my friend, perhaps your strategy belongs to another."

"Heh, perhaps you're right," Leo chuckled leaning back as he took the tea cup. '_Maybe it is time that I should drop the past…'_

"If you're not ready to let go of the past," Riko sighed blowing on the cup slightly. "No one will blame you for that. Sometimes the past is the only thing that can chain us to reality."

"I'll keep that in mind," Leo said with a smile before he sipped the tea. "Hmm… Herbal?"

"Yep!" Sen announced as he lifted up a cup of coffee. "My own personal blend I might add."

"Then any reason why you are not drinking it?" Leo asked not looking at the lightly colored beverage.

"… I lost my taste for tea when I was working on perfecting that brew," Sen explained swirling the remaining coffee in his mug. "Poisoning yourself can really turn a guy away from almost anything."

Leo couldn't help but sweatdrop.

Meanwhile, outside the door to that dorm room…

Maroon flipped his PDA in front of him, making sure that he had the correct room number… This time. '_Riko Kamika, the Second Best duelist on the island,'_ He thought as he read the information on the device. '_Deck specialty – Revival. Well, that doesn't really help me… Does he happen to run what I…'_

"Hmm? Looks like a roach crawled it's way into the princes' castle."

Maroon jumped slightly in the air, turning to the side of the door to see none other than Mao standing next to him, adjusting the weird arm contraption on his right arm. "You… You're that…"

"Let's see, with that last duel, I'm at twenty-nine straight wins," Mao continued, ignoring Maroon, apparently not caring that Maroon was in front of him. "So, I need to find another duelist before the day is out to get an even thirty. I've already surpassed a quarter of my goal…"

"Um…" Maroon cleared his throat.

Blinking a few times, Mao lifted his head up towards Maroon, quickly narrowing his eyes at the sight of the color named duelist, "… You…"

"Y-Yeah?" Maroon questioned taking a step back, he had heard the rumors flying about this particular duelist. The one who was on a pure winning streak ever since he landed on the island, sure, Maroon thought that he could have probably gotten on Vic's good side if he won… But…

"You wouldn't happen to know if this room," Mao suggested gesturing towards the dorm room. "Belongs to one Riko Kamika, would you?"

"Uh, maybe…" Maroon admitted turning his eyes to the side of the door. "I mean, I think it does…"

Mao narrowed his eyes at Maroon, "What do you mean you think? Do you or do you not know if this is the room?"

Gulping, Maroon lifted up his duel disk, "H-How about you face me in a duel…" He suggested. "I… I heard about your declaration and it would…"

"Fine," Mao sighed reaching for the deck case on the back of his belt. "It matters not if the duelist I face is in the lowest of the red dorms, or one of the top three best, or even if they aren't even worth the dirt that's on the bottom of their shoes."

"… Was that a shot at me?" Maroon questioned activating his duel disk.

"What do you think?" Mao retorted.

**0-0-0-0-0**

"Damn it," Tony growled slamming his hand into the wooden stage, scaring a few other students nearby. "Where's my lovely Rena?!"

"What did you expect?" Klein asked leaning up against the wooden stage. "We were trapped in a parallel dimension where time could most likely stop and when you were physically attacked by many frogs that sent you…"

"You say one more word," Tony snarled turning towards Klein. "And you'll wish that you were never born with a tongue! And where the hell is that 'ladies' man' _Mustang_?" Tony's tongue seeped with venom as he mentioned Mustang's name. "I thought that if I paid for someone's services, I'd get what I'd paid for?!"

"Oh, quit your belly aching," Klein sighed throwing his arms behind his head. "I've had worse things happen to me in the past… And I'm still in debt to that cold-hearted bastard of a duelist, although… He seems to have pulled a disappearing act as well somehow."

"Focus little man!" Tony shouted, making even Klein jump a little. "I was hoping to have Rena and I become… 'Official' before the end of this semester! But now all I've got is…"

"Perhaps it's not too late," A silky voice sounded, making both Klein and Tony turn to the side…

… Seeing none other than Yukino standing at the corner of the stage, her glasses reflecting the bright light off of their lenses as she smiled. "And I know exactly how to help you… But I'll require a favor…"

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

**Card Stats**

**Die Hard Detective / Light / LV4 / ATK: 900 / DEF: 1950 / Warrior/Effect:** Once per turn during your standby phase while this card is face up on the field, you may shuffle one card from your hand back into your deck and then draw another card from your deck.

**Description:** A teenaged boy with dark red hair, a crimson checkered cloak covers his shoulders and a light gray shirt. At his tight black pants are armored crimson boots.

**0-0-0-0-0**

**Yukino:** Set the lights! Ready the stage! And send out the contestants!

**Cleo:** Now is the time for us to enjoy the festival's official beginning!

**Ganryu:** …

**Cain:** How the hell did I get dragged into this?

**Chibi Mustang:** -snickers evilly from Rena's closet that has Rena's frilly things in it-

**Rena:** -Blush-

**The Artist Formally Known as Morty:** This is simply marvelous!

**Leo:** I knew I had to reinvent myself, but… Heh, even I might find this weird…

_**Let the fan service begin! Next time on – **__**Chapter 61: The Drawn Curtains**_

**Ganryu:** I'd rather commit seppuku instead of doing this… But I might as well make these two idiots suffer instead.


	62. Chapter 61: The Drawn Curtains

_**Hi! Yukino here!**_

_**I think it's safe to say that everyone has attended at least one kind of festival, carnival, extravaganza or even a party. As such, you should know that there has to be some sort of entertainment in order to keep people interested in the festivities.**_

_**Whether it could be a band playing rocking tunes, or a series games to get the crowd involved…**_

_**As for our school festival, we have a few students doing that, but for the main attraction for today…**_

_**Oh! **_

_**I don't want to spoil it!**_

_**Let's just say… That the show's about to begin!**_

_**If you excuse me, I need to get ready.**_

_**0-0-0-0**_

_**Chapter 61**_

_**The Drawn Curtains**_

_**0-0-0-0**_

"… And now," Flay explained running a hand through his longer hair. "Mustang is nothing more than a snot-nosed pre-teen while I'm a respectable adult."

"Wow…" Xander, Bravo and Orange sounded at the same time, although Orange had to wince slightly since his chest was still sore.

Vic rolled his eyes with a loud sigh.

Ever since he and Flay had returned to the main base, Vic was bombarded with several questions from three of his five subordinates. Mainly concerning with who Flay was, if he was really the same kid as he was beforehand and how he was able to become like this.

Personally, Vic was annoyed, but he wasn't going to start complaining.

After all, one of his largest headaches was now half his original size. And that just brought a laugh to Vic whenever he heard it.

'_And with one headache down for the count,'_ Vic thought as he pulled out a deck of duel monster cards from the back of his belt. '_My conquest is all but closer… There are only a few more pawns in my way, and then I can take out bishops, the knights, and eventually, the king and queen._

'_Then… It'll only be a stone throw away to my goal – Total Conquest.'_

"By the way," Flay stated out of the blue, looking over the three subordinates. "Weren't there five of you guys?"

"Yeah, Morty's out somewhere getting ready for a pageant or something," Bravo muttered under his breath with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head. "Or, hell, I don't know."

'_Hmm… I may need to look into that,'_ Vic thought as he looked at a certain name on the list.

"And Maroon," Xander said before he stopped speaking to think for a few moments. "… Well… If I had to guess, he's still probably dueling or whatever."

"I hope he fails as badly as I did," Orange groaned before he fell back onto the floor, his eyes closed.

"Boot to the head!"

WHAM!

"ACK!" Orange yelped as he held his head.

"Don't wish ill towards the group!" Vic snarled slamming his now bootless foot into the ground.

"Don't injure the wounded!" Orange retorted.

"I'll do whatever the hell I want to do!" Vic snarled before he spun back towards his laptop and began to leaf through the list of names and photos that were on the screen. "Now, if you all excuse me, I need to come up with…"

Before Vic could continue, the door slammed open, getting everyone's attention in the room. However, due to the light that was pouring into the room through the door, all they could see was a slumped form in the door's frame. "… T-Too much… Power…"

And with a boom, the shadowed figure fell into the ground, "Ugh…"

"Is that…" Xander mumbled pulling out a small stick of gum from his pocket.

"Yeah," Orange sighed rubbing his stomach. "It's Maroon…"

"Not that I really care," Flay stated with a large sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head. "But… Shouldn't someone help him up? He kinda looks bruised and battered."

A weird silence flowed through the room, save for the cricket that chirped in the corner.

"… Someone pick Maroon up off the ground," Vic sighed loudly with a slap to his forehead. '_Morons… Complete morons…'_

**0-0-0-0-0**

Things were not all calm on the Atlantic Duel Academy Island – One Kryancelo could testify to that.

After having a rather embarrassing episode earlier, the fiery professor was in a rage that could be best described as a stick of dynamite inside a match factory. All Kryancelo needed, was a spark and we would've exploded.

"Kids think that festivals are all fun and games," He grumbled as he leafed through the papers that were on his desk. "They have no idea how much work has to be done in order to…"

He stopped.

Kryancelo had come across the newest item that was thrown onto his desk.

A list of names and events for tomorrow's Miss Duel Academy and Duel Academy Festival King pageant… As Kryancelo read the list of names, he raised an eyebrow at a few of the names.

One name in particular caught his eye.

Looking over the list of events that the contestants were going to compete in… The usual, talent, dressing up… Yadda, yadda, yadda…

A wicked smile appeared on Kryancelo's face as he booted up his laptop, and opening a word file on his computer. If the students were allowed to have fun, then so should the teachers…

… Right?

'_Heh… Tomorrow will be a day that no one will ever forget…'_ Kryancelo thought as he furiously typed up the 'replacement' events.

"What are ya'll doing, Prof. K?"

"GAAAH!" Kryancelo yelped.

He spun around, and standing behind him, swirling a small cup of coffee was none other than Hughes. His cowboy hat covering his one eye with the rim of the headpiece. "… Well, howdy ya'll too."

"What are you doing here!?" Kryancelo shouted about to close his laptop…

… Or he would have, if Hughes hadn't already placed his free hand on the device to keep it from closing. "It's the teacher's lounge," The western styled professor explained before he took a sip from his coffee. "…The only place on the island to get a decent cup of coffee."

'_Damn it…'_ Kryancelo thought to himself, knowing full well that fact…

"Hmm… I don't remember this being a part of the list of events," Hughes whistled as he quickly read the events in his head. "Ya'll up to somethin' K?"

Kryancelo cursed under his breath.

That was all the confirmation Hughes needed.

"Now, I could turn ya in," Hughes stated with a smirk. "But… I'm not gunna."

"Say what?" Kryancelo muttered raising an eyebrow.

"I've grown bored with this here festival," Hughes admitted taking a seat on another desk, his mug of coffee placed behind him. "And I think that we should, as a fellow colleague of mine once said, throw in a dash of spice in the mix!"

"Who the hell said that?" Kryancelo asked with a large sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head.

"Never ya'll mind that," Hughes replied with a smile. "Now then, we don't have a lot of time, so we'll have to work hard in order to get this little scheme off the ground."

Kryancelo sighed loudly lowering his head. "… Dang it, why does everything have to be so complicated?"

"That's how the world makes it," Hughes replied before Kryancelo began to type up a storm.

_**0-0-0-0-0-0**_

While the two teachers were working on the list of events for the school pageant, a familiar scene was taking place on a beach of the duel academy…

"I attack you directly with the Arms Lord!"

A loud scream echoed the air as the transformed Mao brought the two black and white metal swords down on an unsuspecting duelist, sending the remainder of his life points down to a dreadful zero with a loud buzzing sound.

And with a spin of his heel, Mao was back to his regular black haired form, his right arm lifted to gaze at the counter.

It read forty-two.

"Humph… No one can win," Mao muttered as he walked away from the sobbing duelist he just defeated, kicking up a little sand behind him.

CLAP! CLAP!

Mao's eyes widened slightly as he turned to the side and there, sitting on the sand, was none other than Headmaster Croix. "You're getting closer and closer to your goal my young friend."

"Grr… Don't call me your friend," Mao snarled with his eyes narrowed as he stood away from Croix. "That's just an insult to my pride."

"Oh just relax," Croix suggested lifting his hands up in a defensive manner. "Besides, I thought I'd lighten the mood before I get down to the serious stuff."

"I'd prefer if you didn't," Mao replied closing his eyes.

Shaking his head, Croix reached into his blazer and pulled out a small black PDA, "Very well," He sighed. "Then allow me to show you something. I believe you remember that there was one final condition to our deal correct?"

Mao slightly opened his right eye.

"I'll take your silence as a yes," Croix continued as he tossed the PDA through the air towards Mao who instantly caught the device in his hand. "Well, its nothing to difficult. I was going to save this condition when you were halfway to your goal, but you're close enough so my boss decided to give you the condition right now.

"Anyway, you're required to simply have this person as your final opponent…"

"Is that all?" Mao asked eyeing the picture on the PDA.

"Well, yeah," Croix replied with a shrug. "The big man thinks that if you duel this person as your last opponent, you'll try your hardest since in order to accomplish your half of the deal, and thus push them to do their best in the match."

"Humph… If you wanted me to duel this person," Mao growled tossing the PDA back to Croix. "Then you didn't have to keep it secret from me this long. I'll be more than willing to face this person last…"

And with that, Mao began to walk away from Croix, his hands dug deep into his overcoat's pockets.

Unaware of the smirk that appeared on Croix's face, '_Glad to know that you're more than willing to participate,'_ he thought looking at the picture on the PDA. '_And even though I have no clue why the big man wants him to duel against this girl… But no reason for me to question the request…_

'_Mainly because I have to make the girl have her all in the duel as well… And that means I can improvise!'_

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

"Greetings Duelists!"

A crowd of students roared in front of the finely decorated stage, large curtains covering the stage as two familiar characters stood atop of the stage…

"Weevil! This is stupid!" Rex growled through his teeth as he pulled the microphone away. What really got to him was the large red novelty bow-tie he had around his neck.

"We're getting paid extra to do this," Weevil muttered through his cheap smile. "So just suck it up!"

With a cough, Weevil stepped towards the crowd with the plastic smile he had, "A-Anyway, are you all having a good time at the Festival?!"

As the crowd of students roared in return, Rex couldn't help but roll his eyes. '_They don't pay me enough to do this…'_

Taking a deep breath, Rex figured this was better than to deal with Alan's constant photo flashing of his family. "I guess welcome to today's main event… The Duel Academy pageant. Where two of our students shall win the titles of Miss Duel Academy and Duel Academy King…'

Even though his voice was dulled, somehow Rex as able to elicit a roar from the crowd of students, '_… That's just wrong.'_

"And we're your hosts!" Weevil announced with a cackle in his voice. "The pro duelist of insects – Weevil Underwood!'

'_And you're liking this too much,_' Rex thought before he spoke into the microphone. "And I'm the Dino Duelist – Rex Raptor."

"Now then," Weevil started with a wag of his finger. "After some deliberation and double checking, we don't really have that many contestants to this little event. But before we introduce them, we have our three judges who will decide the winners of our little pageant here!

Weevil threw his arm towards the side of the stage, revealing a desk that had three silhouetted figures sitting behind it. "Our first is the professor who suggested the idea for this pageant in the first place, the lovely Professor Maria!"

A spotlight went up over the first figure, revealing that it was indeed Professor Maria, waving to the crowd with a warmhearted smile on her face. "Great to be here!"

"Next, we have a guest judge," Rex moaned into the mic, lowering his head. "All the way from the Pacific Duel Academy, we have the Alchemic Duelist – Cain Sonryu."

The next light popped up right up to Maria, showing none other than the short, white-haired duelist with an obvious scowl covering his face. '_Damn it Mustang! You were supposed to be a judge here! Now here I'm stuck judging some damn pageant! I'm so going to get revenge…'_

"And for our last judge," Weevil announced as the final light appeared over the last judge, casting fancily dressed masked individual who adjusted his hat during his introduction. "It took a while to find this guy, but here he is – The heir of a long line of thieves – De Masque!"

Indeed, it was the thief-duelist sitting patiently behind the desk with his arms crossed before his chest.

'_Hate Mustang…'_ Cain growled in his head before he slammed his face into the wooden desk.

Meanwhile in the crowds…

"So, was getting the shorty to become a judge your doing?" Kryancelo asked taking his seat away from the students.

"Nope," Hughes replied pulling his hat down to cover his eyes. "Turns out that Mustang kid disappeared… Or called in sick, I dunno."

"Doesn't matter," Kryancelo sighed throwing his arms behind his head. "Since we managed to have Maria agree to become a judge, then we've done…"

"You've done what now?"

Kryancelo and Hughes felt a shiver run down their spines, making them turn around to see that the Headmasters Alan and Croix were standing directly behind them. Alan lowered his head in between the two professors and grinned brightly, "Now then… As you were saying gentlemen?"

"Uh…" Hughes started.

BEEP! BEEP!

"One moment, sir," Kryancelo interrupted holding up a PDA to his eyes, and after pushing a few buttons on the device, bringing up a small message on it. "Oh, sorry sir, but me and Hughes have a little trouble with our students' stands that need our full attention at the moment."

And with that, the two professors ran off, making a sweatdrop roll down the two headmasters' heads.

Croix rolled his eyes slightly before his lips quirked up, "You certainly have an interesting staff here, Wright."

"Well, I'm sure you have your quirky professors too," Alan retorted with a snicker.

"Sadly – yes," Croix sighed.

**0-0-0-0-0-0**

Meanwhile…

As the students in front of the stage were cheering loudly, the students on the stage and behind the curtains, behind the stage was actually quite quiet… With only one certain gray haired student leaning up against the wooden stage with his normally cold eyes gazing down at the duel disk he had strapped to his arm.

Ganryu Dashiben sighed loudly.

He had no clue why he was even at this stupid festival, or why he was even still on the island for that matter. Ever since he made that deal, Ganryu was promised to be the 'main character of his story'.

But so far, all he gained through this little excursion was…

"ARF! ARF!"

'_Stupid little mutt,_' Ganryu thought in his head as he knelt down at the small blonde furred dog and rubbed the dog's ears eliciting an excited tail wag. "Why in the world do you follow me around?"

The dog merely panted in excitement as a response.

'_Perhaps Beck's become a complete animal,_' Ganryu thought as the dog named Beck rubbed his head around Ganryu's wrist. '_And his memory is being washed away… Well, I guess I've always wanted a pet…'_

"ARF!"

"But you're still annoying," Ganryu mumbled rolling his eyes at the little dog.

"I didn't think that you'd be crazy enough to talk to dogs…"

Ganryu stood up straight, his eyes leering at the sight of Bravo and Xander standing across from him, both of them with a duel disk on their arms.

"I didn't think he'd actually show," Bravo muttered with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head.

"I guess the boss was right," Xander cackled with his revealed eye closed. "The guy here couldn't help but accept a challenge."

Ganryu narrowed his eyes, his cold glare becoming colder by the second.

**0-0-0-0-0**

"Now then! It's time we introduce the contestants for our first event!" Weevil announced as the crowd roared to life. "We'll be doing the Duel Academy King contest first! And to start off the competition, we introduce a first year red duelist – Van Tenka!"

Weevil threw his arm towards the side of the stage, expecting the young hero duelist to walk out onto the stage.

But after a few moments of nothing, Weevil cleared his throat once more, "Um… Give it up for – Van Tenka!"

"FORGET IT!" A familiar voice shouted from the side of the stage. "I'M NOT COMING OUT LOOKING LIKE THIS!!!"

De Masque and Cain looked at each other, blinking a few times in confusion as a question mark appeared over Maria's head.

"… We're not going to wait for you!" Rex growled into the mic, making everyone in the audience sweatdrop as he stomped over to the side of the stage. "Every moment I'm up here, I'm getting embarrassed beyond belief, and I'm not going to stand for it!"

Weevil lowered his head slightly, "Rex, your microphone's on…"

"LIKE I CARE!" Rex roared back just as he looked over the side of the stage. "So, Mr. Tenka you're… Getting… Ou… Wh-Wh-Wh-What the hell?!?"

"Rex! What's wrong?" Weevil gasped as Rex turned around to reveal the insanely disturbed look on his face.

"… I have an announcement to make," Rex coughed as the disturbed look disappeared into a slightly evil smirk. "Looks like we've got a little change in programming, we will now be hosting the "Miss" Duel Academia pageant right now…"

"Wait, what?" Weevil questioned as Rex made a grab at something at the side of the stage.

"Anyway," Rex announced pulling out a struggling figure from the side of the stage, making the figure stagger onto the stage. "From the first year red class, our first contestant is from the streets with the deck of a hero – Say hello to Van-chan!"

'… _Did he just say 'chan'?_' Weevil thought as the spotlight over the stage lit up over the figure…

"NO!"

And that's when everyone gasped at the sight that stood on the stage. With his body covered by a black Japanese school uniform with an extra long black skirt that went down to the soft shoes. Covering his blue hair was a long dark blue haired wig that was braided into a long ponytail that rested over his shoulder. "… Crap…"

It was Van!!!

A large amount of students were swept up in laughter, some of them gagged and then there were the three judges.

De Masque lowered his hat over his mask's eyes.

Cain slammed his head into the table once more.

And Maria… Well, she was one of the people who were laughing.

'_I gonna kill myself,_' Van thought with a tremendous blush creeping on his face.

As the laughs echoed through the air, the curtains pulled away slightly, revealing a surprised and enraged Yukino. '_What. The. HELL?!?'_

"So… Tell the crowd about yourself!" Rex snickered into the microphone before he held it in front of Van.

"W-What?" Van yelped, a little confused as to what was going on.

"What the hell?!"

"Ew! Gross!"

"… I thought the girl competition was second?"

**0-0-0-0-0**

"… Did you two contact me?" Ganryu asked standing up with the dog Beck in his arms, before he realized that he was actually carrying the mutt in his arms.

"And he speaks too!" Xander cackled with his arms crossed over his chest. "Actually, our boss is the one who sent you the message, Samurai-Boy."

'_Samurai-Boy?_' Ganryu thought with a blood vessel appearing on his head. "And who's your boss?"

"Now," Bravo started with a wag of his finger. "We ain't allowed to tell ya who hired us… That's rule one that our boss told us. And I'll be damned if I'm going to have Vic rip my head off because one of use blabbed and broke that first rule."

A dramatic breeze blew between the three duelists.

"You idiot!" Xander shouted slamming his fist into Bravo's face. "You just broke the number one rule!"

"Ouchie!" Bravo yelped as he staggered a few feet to the side.

"So, your boss is Vic?" Ganryu asked running his hand through Beck's fur. "Interesting…"

"Crap…" Xander and Bravo muttered under their breaths.

Truth be told, Ganryu had no clue who this Vic character was – But, from what Ganryu could gather from these two dolts and his experience with evil (or from his experience, idiotic) masterminds, he would need any and all information he could get.

"Since you're challenging me," Ganryu stated placing Beck on the ground, a little annoyed that the little pup was curling around his legs with his curly tail wrapped around Ganryu's ankle. "I can assume that this Vic character could see me as threat towards his plans."

Xander and Bravo gulped at the same time and huddled together, "C-Could this guy actually know this plan?" Bravo asked with a few beads of sweat rolling down the side of his head. "Vic would kill us!"

"You dolt!" Xander hissed. "It's impossible for him to know Vic's plans! He's just bluffing!"

"But what if he's not?" Bravo questioned, the bead of sweat growing larger with each passing second. "There is always the chance there was a leak in information that wasn't caused by me…"

"Uh…" Xander was slightly dumbfounded. He didn't expect an argument like that to come from Bravo of all people. "Well… Look, let's just deal with him and then talk it over with Vic later. Good for you?"

"Right!" Bravo announced as the two stepped away from each other, both of them glaring at the yawning Ganryu.

"You two chickens done clucking?" Ganryu muttered rolling his slightly closed eyes. "Or do you have an actual purpose here?"

"Indeed we do," Xander replied as he and Bravo lifted up their duel disks, revealing the decks in both of the devices. "As you surmised, we're here to challenge you."

"And why would I want to duel against two uniformed dolts?" Ganryu questioned with his eyes closed…

… And because of that, Ganryu didn't notice the dark grey auras that appeared over the two goons. "Oh… We're not giving you a choice in the matter," Bravo answered as the color around the area began to drain from the sky. "Ain't that right Xander?"

"Indeed," Xander cackled as he licked his lips.

**0-0-0-0-0**

Meanwhile, back on the stage, apparently Van wasn't the only one who was in the competition for "Miss" Duel Academy as Rex had described it.

Although, there were a few people who were actually quite taken to the cross-dressing event, although a number of the contestants were not too thrilled with the idea… But there they were standing on the stage.

There was Van of course, dressed in his school uniform, but when compared to the next competitor, he was feeling a little bit better about himself. Especially since the competitor was Klein (how the hell he got roped into this was beyond everyone) dressed in what would be best described as a mockery of a ballerina skirt mixed with a costume shirt you'd see in a Shakespeare play, along with a large amount of make up that looked scribbled on by a two-year-old.

And like Van, he wasn't too happy about this either.

Unlike the next guy, who seemed to be ecstatic about being in a yellow frilly dress on his surprising thin frame… Of course, Van knew who this purple haired young man, and thought that he'd never see this guy again.

It was Morty, spinning around slightly with his dress flowing slightly – Oddly enough, thanks to the make up he had applied he did look like an attractive woman that resulted in a few creepy cat calls. "Hi everyone!"

He wasn't the only one who looked feminine… The third competitor was a first year Obelisk Blue student dressed in a fancy navy blue Japanese Sailor Fuku Uniform with long black leggings and a matching bow in his short black hair… And his trademarked warm smile managed to alert everyone who this was the instant he stepped on stage.

'_I'm not really into this sort of thing,_' Leo thought with his eyes closed in order to continue his warm smile. '_But, Riko was right… I am believe that changing myself will be for a better… But I really doubt that when he suggested this to me that he meant that I become a completely different gender…'_

No kidding.

The next guy, well he was furious that he was tricked into doing this, especially since the reason he was tricked into doing it – Well, since he was in a long bright yellow sundress (that showed off his tan muscular body, which elicited a few howls from the girls in the crowd) with a wool cap covering his orange hair, it was pretty obvious that this Chess Loving duelist was in pure discomfort. '_Tony Havoc what in the world did you get yourself into?'_

"This is wrong on so many levels…" Weevil muttered into the microphone looking at the five oddly dressed teenage boys.

"Heh, now Weevil, where'd that energy you had before go?" Rex questioned with a snicker.

"The better question is why you have all this energy now…" Weevil retorted.

"But now we should hear from our judges," Rex stated ignoring Weevil's comment. "What do you three think?"

Maria held her mouth in order to suppress her laughter, but taking a deep breath, the young professor smiled brightly, "I… I have to admit I never expected the contestants to dress like this." She admitted with a hint of snickering in her voice. "But, I do have to admit that it's certainly quite an interesting sight."

"… My eyes will never recover," Cain muttered with his brow narrowed.

"… Uh, I don't think this was in the job description," De Masque admitted with a large sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head.

"I suppose we should just go on with the questionnaire then…" Weevil sighed walking towards Tony. '_I just hope I don't get socked in the face for this…'_

**0-0-0-0-0**

Ganryu raised an eyebrow as his eyes trailed over the gray covered landscape and stage, and then back at the two goons who were now standing a few yards away from each other. "… Can I assume that you two are behind this strange turn of events?"

"So the silent detective speaks," Xander mused with a tap of his eyebrow. "Then allow me to be the first to greet you to the Colorless World…"

'_First Darkness, then Twilight, now Colorless?_' Ganryu thought rolling his eyes as he pulled out a deck of cards from the back of his belt and snapped it into his duel disk. "And let me guess… This isn't just some color change, and I need to beat you two dolts in order to get out of here, right?"

"Wow…" Bravo gasped taking a few moments to blink in confusion as he turned towards Xander. "Are you sure we don't have a leak in this operation, Xander?"

"Hell if I know," Xander muttered back rolling his eye before he turned it towards Ganryu. "And as for your, you'll be facing against Bravo and myself in a two on one duel."

"You two idiots against me?" Ganryu questioned pointing towards the two duelists. "… Seems almost unfair for you two to fight against me."

"Oh that's it," Bravo growled slamming his foot into the ground. "After this duel's done, I'm gonna make you lick the bottom of my boots! And trust me, with what I've been stepping in you won't be…" (BLP: 8000)

"Enough!" Xander shouted, not wanting to hear any more. "Let's just get this over with." (XLP: 8000)

"… I can actually agree with you for once," Ganryu sputtered as he snapped his shuffled deck into his duel disk. "Too bad I won't be the one licking boots in the end." (GLP: 8000)

"Let's duel!"

"ARF ARF!"

Ganryu sweatdropped, he didn't expect the dog to come into this world as well.

But with a shake of his head, Ganryu fanned his six cards in front of him, "Draw!"

'_Rude as I heard,'_ Xander thought looking at his five card hand.

"… I set a monster face down," Ganryu announced as the face down card appeared in front of him. "And then, I'll set a single card face down… Turn end!"

"Well, that was quick," Bravo muttered pulling his sixth card into his hand. "Of course, I don't intend to be that fast… We both know all about your powerful rush strategy!"

Ganryu looked down at Beck, completely uninterested with Bravo's claim.

"… He ignored you," Xander snickered.

"I know!" Bravo roared snapping a card from his hand. "I'll start by activating the continuous spell card – DNA Denial Magic!"

Bravo's spell card appeared in front of him, forming into the familiar doctor from the DNA series implanting a surge of energy into a patient with his two nurses behind him. "Now, like the other DNA cards, this card allows me to declare a monster type. Then, every monster of the declared type will be removed from the game.

"And I declare Warrior!"

Ganryu's eyes widened as he realized what was happening. If they were playing a card like that, the two weren't using the decks they were interested in, but rather decks that could possibly lock down his deck.

"Heh, and to end my turn," Bravo stated slapping another card onto his duel disk. "I'll just set a monster card face down, and leave it to Xander!"

"Bravo, Bravo!" Xander applauded before he drew his sixth card into his hand. "Now that we've sealed off his graveyard accessability, we won't have to worry about his monster-graveyard support!"

"You think that scares me?" Ganryu asked narrowing his brow.

"If that doesn't," Xander announced sliding a pair of cards into his duel disk, making them appear in front of him. "Then these two cards face down will! Turn end!"

Ganryu slowly drew his next card.

And winced at the sight.

What a time for him to _not_ draw Heavy Storm or Mystical Space Typhoon.

But that didn't mean that Ganryu wasn't going to implement his plan.

"I activate the spell card – War Torn Battle Cry!" Ganryu roared as he fitted the card into his duel disk, revealing the spell card showing the Flame Swordsman roaring loudly with plenty of battle wounds covering his body. "By destroying one monster card on my field, I can add a level four or lower monster from my deck!"

The face down monster shattered like glass as a card popped out of Ganryu's deck and into his hand. "And for the record, my face down monster was a winged-beast. So your spell card has no effect on it."

'_I didn't know he had a winged-beast in his deck,'_ Bravo thought as Ganryu slapped a monster card onto his deck.

"And now, I summon the monster I searched for," Ganryu stated slapping the card onto his duel disk. "I summon Six Samurai – Kamon!"

"W-WHAT?!" Xander and Bravo gasped loudly as a large red flag appeared behind Ganryu.

The flag erupted into a powerful flame, unleashing a slightly futuristic samurai dressed in crimson armor that was strapped with several sticks of dynamite. And with a slightly crazed look on his face, the warrior revealed a small match stick in his hands (1500/1000).

"You two sound surprised," Ganryu commented running a hand through his hair. "Didn't you know? I ran Samurai."

"Yeah! But didn't you run those five samurai that allowed you…" Xander started narrowing his good eye. "Search for each other?"

"You're talking about my main deck," Ganryu replied flatly as he pushed a button on his duel disk, making his face down card flip up. "I have more than one deck, I won't tell you how many I have, but I will tell you that all of them have a Samurai theme to them… But now, I activate my trap card, Ultimate Offering!"

The trap card lifted and immediately glowed brightly. (GLP: 7500)

"Now, by paying five hundred points," Ganryu announced slapping another card onto his duel disk, a large blue flag appeared behind him. "I can normal summon once more during my main phase! So, come out Six Samurai – Yaichi!"

The flag flew into the air, revealing the futuristic sea-green armored samurai with his bow ready to fire the arrow he had pulled from his quiver of arrows (1300/800).

"And now… I activate both of my monsters' effects!" Ganryu called out as Yaichi took aim and Kamon pulled out a stick of dynamite from his armor and lit it up. "These two clear the way for the other Six Samurai… Kamon takes care of face up spell and trap cards while Yaichi deals with the face down ones…"

Xander and Bravo's eyes widened greatly as the two samurai unleashed their attacks and destroyed not only the DNA Denial Magic, but also Xander's face down card on the left that was revealed to be Gravity Bind.

'_No…'_ The two thought at the same time.

"Next," Ganryu stated holding up another card from his hand. "Since I already had one on the field, I can special summon this guy from my hand!"

A blur appeared in front of Ganryu, forming into a grizzled old man with long gray hair that flowed over his black and golden cybernetic armor underneath a large gi (2100/800), and with a growl, the man drew a long sleek katana from his side. "The Grandmaster of the Six Samurai, slay that face down monster!"

With a loud battle cry, the Grandmaster ran towards the face down monster, flipping the monster up to reveal a small robot that looked to trapped inside of a small visible crystal (0/0). But with a slice of his blade, the Grandmaster made the robot a part of history…

… Or so Ganryu thought…

"Heh! Thanks!" Bravo announced pulling out his deck of cards and fanning it in front of him. "That face down monster was Clear Cube! And when destroyed, I get another to summon to my field!"

That's when the glass shards that remained after the Grandmaster's attack began to rebuild themselves into an exact duplicate of the tiny crystal encased robot (0/0).

"So sorry, but no dice!" Bravo announced as he licked his lips.

'… _Clear Cube?_' Ganryu thought looking at the weird monster card before he turned to his two remaining cards. "I'll set one card face down… And that's all for…"

"I activate my trap card!" Xander announced as his face down card flipped up, allowing a bright light to emerge over his body. "Go Solemn Wishes!"

'… _Didn't expect that…'_ Ganryu thought with his arms crossed. "Like that really matters."

"Oh you'll be singing a new tune," Bravo warned as he drew his next card. '_Besides… It's not like I only have one DNA Denial Magic card in my deck… I just haven't drawn it yet. But if either me or Xander can draw that field card then this game is still ours! Ganryu still has the elements in his deck, but they'll turn against him soon!'_

"You planning on making a move," Ganryu inquired as he knelt down and rubbed the dog that was still with him behind the ears. "Or are you hypnotized by your cards' artwork?"

"Grr… Don't patronize me," Bravo warned slapping a card onto his duel disk. "I summon Clear Phantom in attack mode!"

A bright light emerged onto the field, forming into a crystal encased demonic skeleton with a long tail and a gaping eye that turned left and right to view the field (1200/800). "And that is the end of that!"

'_Does he really think that'll stop me?'_ Ganryu thought blinking a few times.

"My draw!" Xander announced pulling his next card, activating his Solemn Wishes trap card's effect. '_Damn it! This isn't!'_ (XLP: 8500)

'_I put three copies of that card and two copies of Terraforming in my deck, and how the hell do I not draw any of them? Oh well… Gotta go with what ya got.'_

'_I should've brought a magazine,'_ Ganryu thought rolling his eyes at the two dolts.

"To start this turn," Xander continued on finally as he slapped a card onto his duel disk. "I summon Clear Rage Golem!"

Another crystal emerged onto field, this one encasing a large floating golem made up of silver stones that made the creature resemble a knight (1600/1800), like the previous two clear monsters, this monster wasn't too keen on moving too much in it's prison.

'… _Are they both using Clear monsters?'_ Ganryu thought raising an eyebrow at the golem.

"Clear Rage Golem!" Xander shouted as he threw his hand towards Kamon. "I give you your target… Attack Kamon!"

Suddenly, the crystal seemed to melt around the golem, allowing the rocky monster to stumble out into the air, coming to life as it charged towards the dynamite totting samurai, its 'arm' raised up to smash the samurai.

"I activate my trap card!" Ganryu announced pushing a button on his duel disk, creating a powerful barrier that appeared in front of his samurai, sending the Golem staggering back. "… I'm sure even you know what this card is capable of."

"Grr…" Xander muttered as he fitted two cards into his duel disk, making the two cards appear behind his re-incased golem. "I'll set two cards face down… Turn end!"

Ganryu remained silent again as he drew his next card, giving him two cards in his hand to work with. '_I've… I've heard of these Clear decks. But, the only thing I heard was that they can cripple any kind of deck using the monsters against them. But all I'm seeing so far is just some regular cards that could be used in standard decks…_

'_I guess I'll just have to push the envelope…'_

"Grandmaster!" Ganryu commanded as the samurai grandmaster spun his katana until he held it with the blade away from his body. "Slay that Phantom!

"It's time to…"

**0-0-0-0**

"To announce our winner!" Rex announced as most of the competitors in the "Miss Duel Academy" blushed, mostly due to the embarrassing questions that they were asked of.

"_What's your most prominent feature?"_

"_Do you normally dress like this?"_

"_What were your reasons for entering this contest?"_

"… _How come you have the ability to appear and disappear in thin air?"_

"_And what's your deal with barrels?"_

Needless to say, the only one who was willing to give a complete answer was Morty… Sorry, the artist formally known as Morty – and his answer was as thus…

"_My reason? Oh! I wanted to stand out and make a shout out!"_

… Yeah, creepy…

And how were the judges taking this as they were jotting down who should win?

Well, Maria was barely able to contain her laughter as she wrote down her decision…

De Masque was probably the only one who was seriously thinking who should win… And how he was lucky that he lost the coin toss to see if he would enter or not…

And Cain? Well, in order to keep this fiction at Teen-rated – his thoughts will remain private… And yet he still managed to make a decision.

"Seriously Rex, you're way too into this…" Weevil commented with his head lowered.

Ignoring Weevil's comments and reading the votes by the three judges, Rex nodded to himself, "And we have a winner… And that winner is…"

**0-0-0-0-0**

"I activate my trap card!" Xander announced as a familiar vortex appeared over his and Bravo's fields, knocking the Grandmaster back a few feet. "And it's one you're familiar with – Negate Attack!"

Ganryu cursed under his breath.

"You should've used Yaichi's effect!" Bravo laughed loudly with his head thrown back. "Then you had a chance to not walk into…"

"I have my reasons," Ganryu stated fitting the last two cards from his hand into his duel disk, making them appear next to his Ultimate Offering. "Turn end!'

"And you insult us," Bravo muttered slowly clicking his next card off of his deck. "But now it's our turn to fling the insults!"

Slowly, Bravo turned the card around and his eyes widened at the art the depicted a shadowed covered man standing under a gleaming crystal. "… Xander… I-I drew it!"

"What?!" Xander yelped a little confused why Bravo was able to draw the card.

Ganryu raised an eyebrow while Beck slinked back slightly.

"And now… I'm gunna activate it!" Bravo announced as his field card zone flipped open. "I activate the field card…

"Clear World!"

**0-0-0-0-0**

**Card Stats**

**  
DNA Denial Magic / Continuous Spell / Effect:** Declare 1 Type of monster. As long as this card is face-up on the field all monsters of the declared type are removed from play instead of being sent to the Graveyard.

**Image:** A doctor with three eyes placing a surge of energy into a patient with two nurses behind him

_This card was used by Izimu Makoto in the Yugioh GX Episodes of 163-164. All creative credit goes to the writers of the show._

**Clear World / Field Spell / Effect:** Pay 500 Life Points during each of your End Phases. If you do not, destroy this card. Apply the following effects to a player depending on the attribute9S) of the monsters they control:

- LIGHT: Keep your hand revealed

- DARK: If you control 2 or more monsters, you cannot declare an attack.

- EARTH: Destroy 1 face-up Defense Position Monster you control during your Standby Phase.

- WATER: Discard 1 card during your End Phase.

- Fire: During your End Phase, you take 1000 points of damage.

- WIND: If you do not pay 500 Life Points, you cannot activate Spell Cards.

**Image:** A large blue crystal unleashing a powerful light over a shadowed form.

_Clear World is a promo card that is going to be in Limited Edition Pack 15._

**Clear Cube / Dark / LV. 1 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 0 / Machine/Effect:** This card is not treated as a DARK monster while it is face-up on the field. When this card is removed from your field (except when used for tribute), you can Special Summon 1 'Clear Cube' from your deck.

**Description:** a small robot that looked to trapped inside of a small visible crystal

**Clear Phantom / Dark / LV. 3 / ATK: 1200 / DEF: 800 / Fiend/Effect:** This card is not treated as a DARK monster while it is face-up on the field. When this card is destroyed by battle, destroy 1 monster your opponent controls, and your opponent sends the top 3 cards from their deck to the graveyard.

**Description:** a crystal encased demonic skeleton with a long tail and a gaping eye

**Clear Rage Golem / Dark / LV. 4 / ATK: 1600 / DEF: 1800 / Rock/Effect:** This card is not treated as a DARK monster while it is face-up on the field. When this card attacks your opponent directly and inflicts Battle Damage, inflict 300 points of damage to your opponent for every card in their hand.

**Description:** a large floating golem made up of silver stones that made the creature resemble a knight inside a crystal.

_The previous three cards were used by Yusuke in Yugioh GX._

**0-0-0-0**

**Who will be crowned "Miss Duel Academy"?**

**What do Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber want with Ganryu?**

**Bravo and Xander:** HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

**And why am I asking you like this?**

**Find our next time in…**

_**Chapter 62: Colorless Clear**_


	63. Chapter 62: Colorless Clear

**Author's Note: **Greetings to one and all! This chapter contains the following: Fan service of some cute/hot characters, kick ass Ganryu, crude comedic relief and TUNA!

…

… Okay, there's no tuna, but there is a chance for you people to make a fun choice! There will be five contestants in the Miss Duel Academia and you – the reviewers – get to choose who will be the winner!

That's right!

And your choices will be listed later – But don't worry, if you think that you're not getting anything out of this, then think again.

As everyone knows, I've been known to dabble in the art work world.

And thus, whoever wins shall be drawn and uploaded up on my deviantart account in the very same 'costume' they are wearing in this chapter. So get those reviews a coming and posted!

And the winner will be posted next chapter (of course).

**0-0-0**

_**Let me pose a question onto you fine people. **_

_**If you walk along a path that you are unfamiliar on, and you came to a fork in the road which path would you take? The right path or the left?**_

_**Too vague? Fine…**_

_**On the left path, you see a forested area with several streaks of light coming through the leaves. On the right you see that the trees are dead and there are storm clouds popping over head.**_

_**Now, which one would you chose?**_

… _**More than likely you would've chosen the easier path, the one that had a 'bright' future. **_

_**But sometimes the easier choice isn't the right choice.**_

_**0-0-0-0**_

_**Chapter 62**_

_**Colorless Clear**_

_**0-0-0-0-0**_

_Slowly, Bravo turned the card around and his eyes widened at the art the depicted a shadowed covered man standing under a gleaming crystal. "… Xander… I-I drew it!"_

"_What?!" Xander yelped a little confused why Bravo was able to draw the card. _

_Ganryu raised an eyebrow while Beck slinked back slightly. _

"_And now… I'm gunna activate it!" Bravo announced as his field card zone flipped open. "I activate the field card…_

"_Clear World!"_

In the colorless realm, the duel between Ganryu and the two knuckleheads, Xander and Bravo, was continuing.

Ganryu had his field slightly covered with Six Samurai monsters – Yaichi (1300/800), Kamon (1500/1000), and the Grandmaster (2100/800). While he had no cards in his hand, he had two set cards and Ultimate Offering. (GLP: 7500)

Meanwhile, on Xander's field, he possessed a powerful golem known as Clear Rage Golem (1600/1800) as well as a face down monster. Meanwhile, his hand had three cards remaining in it while his Solemn wishes and one face down card. (XLP: 8500)

Bravo on the other hand, his field was glowing with his Clear Phantom (1200/800) and Clear Cube (0/0) being engulfed in a powerful majestic light. He had a single set card, but thanks to his field card, he now possessed four cards in his hand. (BLP: 8000)

All the while… Beck just yawned greatly as he curled around Ganryu's feet.

Suddenly the colorless world was basked in a cool blue, turning the ground and the stage behind Ganryu into pure crystal, "Heh… In case you weren't paying attention," Bravo chuckled as he lifted his hands up into the air. "This is Clear World… And depending on our monsters, its effect will determine our fates."

"… Think before you speak," Ganryu advised rolling his eyes slightly.

"What he means is this," Xander scoffed a little annoyed that Bravo managed to get the field card out before he did. "Depending on the attributes that our face up monsters have. If any of us have Light monsters on the field, then our hands are revealed. If we have Fire monsters, we take a thousand points of damage, and if we possess Water monsters, then a card in our hand is discarded.

"And note, that you have all three of the mentioned monsters are on your field…"

"I see…" Ganryu growled looking at the three revealed monsters at his opponents' fields. "And your monsters are what attribute again?"

"That's not really a concern to us," Bravo stated with his arms crossed. "You see, thanks to our Clear Monsters' effects, they're not counted as DARK monsters. So we're not inhibited by my field card's effect."

Ganryu and Xander had to blink a few times.

"What?" Bravo questioned.

"You actually used that word correctly," Xander gasped with his eye widened to the size of a dish.

"You think I'm an idiot?" Bravo questioned with an insulted look on his face.

"Do you really want an answer to that?" Ganryu and Xander asked at the same time, making Bravo take a step back.

"Smartasses," Bravo grumbled looking over his cards with a nod. "It's still my turn and now… Clear Phantom! Attack Yaichi!"

With a loud screech, the crystal captured demon flew out of the crystal towards the surprised Yaichi, its body glowing a bright dark.

'_What are you planning?'_ Ganryu thought blinking a few times.

Yaichi brought his bow up and slammed the weapon directly into the Phantom's head, creating a powerful dark rip that shattered the phantom into millions of crystals. (BLP: 7900)

"Now, since Clear Phantom was destroyed in battle," Bravo announced as a dark aura appeared over Kamon's body, making the warrior groan loudly. "I can destroy one monster you control and make you send three cards from the top of your deck to the graveyard!"

"What?!" Ganryu shouted as Kamon shattered like glass, destroying the monster. And with a snarl Ganryu pulled off the top three cards form his deck (Necro Gardna, The Warrior Returning Alive and Reinforcement) and slide them into his duel disk's graveyard slot. "Grr… You'll pay for that…"

"Sorry, out of cash," Bravo joked with a shrug. "However, I'll end my turn. And thus, I am forced to pay five hundred life points in order to keep my field card out on the field." (BLP: 7400)

"Bravo you dolt!" Xander snarled as he drew his next card, prompting his Solemn Wishes to grant him an additional five hundred life points. "Don't you realize that we could've knocked off a thousand points if you had destroyed the other monster on his field, we could've knocked off a thousand points of damage from his life points!" (XLP: 9000)

"Well, there was always the chance that he could've drawn another samurai and destroy Clear World," Bravo retorted with his arms crossed. "Besides, not like his little grandmaster can really hide any secrets from us."

"Well then, I think I'll keep him in the dark," Xander announced as one of his face down cards flipped up, revealing a demonic tapir crashing through a wall of glass that has a young man standing in it. "I activate – Memory Snatcher!"

"Hmm?" Ganryu questioned looking at his duel disk, taking note that there was a dark cloud hovering over his duel disk's graveyard. "… How annoying…"

"I hope you have a good memory," Xander suggested with a cackle. "Cause as long as this card is out, you're not allowed to look through your graveyard. And if you activate a card that targets any card in the graveyard, you have to declare the card(s) that are targeted."

"Hmm, still annoying as hell," Ganryu spat out to the side.

"Then you're going to just plain hate this," Xander cackled fitting the card he drew into his duel disk. "I activate the continuous spell card – Clear Wall!"

The ground at Xander's and Bravo's feet, creating a large circle that was made up of countless runes. "And this spell card has a very, very, very useful effect! But for now, I'll have my Clear Rage Golem clean up the mess that Bravo started!

"Rage Smash on Yaichi!"

The large golem melted out of the crystal, stomping towards the exhausted samurai, and before the samurai could react, the golem slammed its fist into the warrior, shattering it into millions of pixels.

"I activate my trap card!" Ganryu announced as the face down card flipped up. "Defense Draw negates the battle damage, and allows me to draw another card from my deck."

However, thanks to Clear World, a holographic image of the card appeared over Ganryu's head, revealing the Pot of Avarice.

"Heh, you walked right into that one Xander," Bravo snickered.

"Shut your yap," Xander announced fitting another card into his duel disk. "And just keep you eyes on your cards."

"Whatever, ya one-eyed freak," Bravo growled waving his hand in the air.

Ganryu raised an eyebrow at the two duelists… The insults didn't seem to really faze the two that much…

Little did Ganryu know that thanks to Vic's strategic planning, he managed to make Xander and even Bravo learn how to communicate in code. Each insult that the two slung at the two alerted them to a certain fact that was either related to their mission or the duel depending on the situation at hand.

It wasn't technically breaking the rules, but it did give the two more of an advantage than before.

**0-0-0-0**

… _Yeah, creepy…_

_And how were the judges taking this as they were jotting down who should win?_

_Well, Maria was barely able to contain her laughter as she wrote down her decision…_

_De Masque was probably the only one who was seriously thinking who should win… And how he was lucky that he lost the coin toss to see if he would enter or not…_

_And Cain? Well, in order to keep this fiction at Teen-rated – his thoughts will remain private… And yet he still managed to make a decision._

"_Seriously Rex, you're way too into this…__" Weevil commented with his head lowered._

_Ignoring Weevil's comments and reading the votes by the three judges, Rex nodded to himself, "__And we have a winner… And that winner is…__"_

Rex blinked a few times before he turned towards the three judges, "Alright, which one of ya didn't bother to put a name on the card?"

"As if you need to ask!" Cain snapped from the desk. "I never agreed to do this crap!"

"… Well that's nice to hear," Weevil sighed with a slap to his head.

"I guess we'll have to improvise then," Rex announced looking over the two cards that had names written on them. "The winner of 'Miss Duel Academy'… Or should I say, winners are…"

**0-0-0-0**

"My draw!" Ganryu announced pulling his next card off of his deck, making another card image appear over his head, revealing the spell card – Swords of Revealing Light.

And then he smirked.

"Great…" Bravo and Xander muttered as several swords of light began to rain down from above, stabbing into the ground around the two grunts.

"… Grandmaster!" Ganryu commanded as the grizzled samurai skidded through the air, slicing his katana through the air a few times. "Attack the Clear Rage Golem!"

Spinning around, the samurai brought his katana down and sliced it through the golem's crystal, however the monster wasn't destroyed! (XLP: 9000)

"… What the?" Ganryu questioned blinking a few times.

"Did you actually think we weren't prepared for something like that?" Xander cackled as he licked his lips. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but thanks to my Clear Wall spell card, you can't destroy attack position Clear monsters. And if the battle damage would be under a thousand points, that damage is dropped to zero!"

"I suppose rats could have an ace or two hiding in their sleeves," Ganryu scoffed with a turn of his head. "Turn end.

"Oh that does it pal," Bravo announced pulling another card from his deck, blinking a few times at it. "I'm getting tired of you insulting us! I'm going to make ya pay!

"I summon Clear Calm Mage in attack mode!"

Another crystal erupted from the ground, this time containing a meditating monk dressed in yellow robes inside of the jewel (1500/0).

"And to end my turn…" Bravo growled throwing his arm to the side, his duel disk glowing brightly. "I'll pay five hundred life points to keep my Clear World out on the field." (BLP: 6900)

And just before Xander could draw, most of the swords of light began to disappear around the two's body. "… I see," Xander cackled pulling his card, as light began to pour over his body. "Looks like those swords will run out before my next turn… Heh!" (XLP: 9500)

Ganryu just kept his eyes closed.

"Well then, since our monsters are all but invincible," Xander sighed waving his hand in the air. "I see no need to waste the cards in my hand… Turn end."

Slowly Ganryu drew, and a smile appeared over his face.

Bravo and Xander blinked a few times at the out of character smile on Ganryu's face.

Then they saw the card that appeared over his head – Card of Demise.

"I set my Pot of Avarice face down," Ganryu announced as the set card appeared next to the other one. "Then, I activate Card of Demise! Allowing me draw till I have five cards in my hand!"

Five orbs of fire erupted over Ganryu's head, flaring wildly as he drew his next five cards – Six Samurai United, The Six Samurai – Yariza (1000/500), Fuh-Rin-Ka-Zhan, The Six Samurai – Nisashi (1400/700), and a trap card called Scrap-Iron Scarecrow.

"That's just great…" Xander growled as Ganryu lifted one of the cards from his hand.

"I'll start by activate the continuous spell card – Six Samurai United!" Ganryu announced as the spell card appeared in front of him. "Now then, I'll continue to summon Six Samurai – Yariza in attack mode!"

A large earthly brown flag appeared next to the Samurai Grandmaster, immediately sliced to pieces to reveal the dark blue armored samurai dressed in lighter armor than his comrades with a spear at his side that he spun at his side (1000/500).

A small light appeared over the Six Samurai United card. But Ganryu merely lifted his hand up towards Bravo. "Now then," He announced as Yariza leapt into the air. "Since my Grandmaster has 'Six Samurai' in its title, I can have Yariza attack you directly!"

"Wait… What?" Bravo asked before the spear stabbed through his right leg, making his eyes widen for a few seconds.

Then it sunk in.

"AAAAH!" Bravo screamed before the spear was pulled out by a chord that was attached to Yariza's waist armor. (BLP: 5900)

Xander's eye widened. '_He's singling Bravo out,_' he thought watching as a small spot of blood appeared at Bravo's wound. '_If Clear World goes, then half our strategy is going down the drain! This is why I told Bravo I should be the one to use Clear World! I told him not to play it but it's like speaking French to a monkey!'_

"That… That really hurt!" Bravo winced grabbing the bloody leg. "I wasn't told about this!"

"Wimp," Ganryu growled fitting his Scrap-Iron Scarecrow card into his duel disk, filling up his spell and trap card zone. "Turn end."

"D-Draw…" Bravo moaned slowly flicking one of his cards off of his deck, his eyes widening at the card art. "… Xander… I… I drew one of the best monsters!"

'… _And why the hell is he getting all the lucky draws?'_ Xander thought to himself.

"But… It's useless like this," Bravo sighed with his head lowered. "I… I gotta end my turn by paying five hundred life points for Clear World." (BLP: 5400)

And with that, the last of the swords disappeared, Xander drew his next card, his eye curving slightly at the card. "… Fine… If you can't use it Bravo, I'll do it!" (XLP: 10000)

"Huh?" Bravo questioned as Xander lifted up his newly drawn card.

"I activate – Exchange!" Xander announced as the card appeared in front of him, flashing the card art before him. "Now, I get to exchange one card from my hand with one card with another player… But since this is technically a three way duel (even though two of us are a team), I have a choice… And I choose to trade with Bravo!"

"Huh?" Bravo questioned as Xander walked over towards him. "But… Why?"

"I'm getting tired of this," Xander snarled holding his hand up towards Bravo. "We would've won this duel already if you had just followed the plan. Now, I'm the one who's going to be calling the shots. Starting right now, select one of my cards!"

"Fine!" Bravo growled plucking a single card from his partner's hand. "But from now on… It's every man for himself."

"You took the words out of my mouth," Xander scoffed pulling the card Bravo drew last turn.

With a scoff, Xander slowly walked back to his field, completely unaware that Ganryu was down on one knee to pet Beck's head, smirking as the pup began to bark slightly.

"Now then, I sacrifice my two monsters!" Xander announced as his Clear Rage Golem and face down Clear Cube (0/0) transformed into two orbs of darkness that flew over Xander's head. "Now, I can tribute summon one of the most powerful monsters in the entire game!"

The two orbs crashed into the ground in front of Xander, sending a cloud of dust flowing into the air in front of him. As the cloud of dust began to dissipate, a new crystallized creature emerged on the scene, this one an encased diabolic knight dressed demonic armor that had several spikes erupting from the chest plate and shoulder armor.

While at the right arm was a demonic curved blade that shot out of its gauntlet (2300/1100).

"Clear Vicious Knight!" Xander greeted as he threw his arms up into the air. "And my monster…"

"You mean 'MY' monster!" Bravo snapped with a stomp of his foot.

"Whatever!" Xander snarled as a powerful dark aura appeared around his knight. "The monster – Clear Vicious Knight – Has a potent ability. If I possess no monsters on MY field other than him, he can gain the original attack points of the strongest monster you have Ganryu! And that's your Grandmaster!"

The Knight unleashed a powerful roar that broke the crystal into millions of shards that fell to the ground, allowing the demonic knight to grow stronger without worry (2300/1100 + 2100/0).

"And now… Attack Yariza!" Xander commanded as the knight drew back it's powerful curved blade, causing the air around the knight's body to focus into a tight pocket of oxygen…

… Sending the attached weapon at the force of a bullet being shot out of a gun!

However just as the weapon was about to slice right through the blue armored samurai's body…

"I activate my trap card!" Ganryu shouted as the ground opened up to unleash a familiar scarecrow made out junk and spare parts. "Scrap-Iron Scarecrow negates one attack per turn… And since you only have one attack, your monster's basically a scarecrow to me now."

The sword collided with the scarecrow, sending a powerful rush of air to sweep through the field, sending dust and crystallized remains around the area.

"You… You bastard!" Xander snarled as his knight stumbled backwards.

"Nice one Xander," Bravo cackled with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Oh like you could've done better!" Xander shot back with his eyes narrowed down at the muscle bound duelist. "You pea-brained dolt!"

"One-eyed freak!"

"Pompadour hair!"

"Idiots," Ganryu muttered under his breath.

"This doesn't concern you!" Bravo and Xander snarled at the same time.

"Oh, don't worry," Ganryu chuckled as he looked at the two goons a plan formulating in his mind as he slowly drew his next card, one of the cards he needed silence at least one of these fools.

**0-0-0-0**

How the hell did he get roped into this?

That was the question on Cain's mind as he turned to the left – Seeing Leo sit next to him, that smug smile all plastered over his face.

And to his right – The Artist Formally Known as Morty.

Apparently, since De Masque and Maria were the only ones who 'voted' for the two 'Miss Duel Academia' winners, they were requested that to step down as judges for the next pageant since they were permitted to become one judge should they win… But since Cain refused to vote, the two that did voted were allowed to step down and allow Leo and the Artist Formally Known as Morty to take the judge's seat.

'_At least this time there will be actual girls,'_ Cain thought to himself as he rolled his eyes slightly at the stage. '_At least I hope it is…'_

"Well, after that weird little contest," Weevil announced with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head. "We are finally ready to begin the main attraction! The real Miss Duel Academia pageant!"

Catcalls and whistles erupted from the crowd, followed by a few yelps of pain from boys getting slapped by their girlfriends.

"Well, we've kept you waiting long enough!" Rex shouted into the mic. "So… Let's get this started with our first competitor! From the Red Dorms we have a first year lass who's made quite a splash since she set foot on the island.

"Meet the lovely Rena Akira!"

The spotlight poured down on the stage once more…

… And just like last time, there was no one coming out from the side of the curtain, making Rex and Weevil sweatdrop.

"Oh for the love of…" Rex muttered under his breath as he stomped over the side of the stage again. "Are we really going to have to go through this… a…gain?"

Rex stopped dead in tracks, his eyes wide open and his mouth gaping open. After a few seconds, a small trail of drool appeared at the corner of his mouth. "W-Wow… I didn't know that it'd be this kind of contest…"

"Rex! You spoke into the mic!" Weevil yelped pushing up his glasses, from where he stood he could clearly why Rex was drooling.

"Uh… R-Right!" Rex yelped walking onto the side of the stage. "Get over here!"

"N-No…" Rena's voice pleaded from behind the curtains as Rex began to pull her out from her hiding spot. "P-Please! I… I don't want anyone to…"

"Sorry about that again folks!" Rex stated, reappearing from the side of the stage, his right hand clutched on an odd bare arm. "But here she is – Rena Akira!"

Pulling Rena out onto the stage, everyone gasped at what Rena was wearing… Which immediately turned into several catcalls and whistles!

'_Oh… This is so embarrassing!_' Rena thought with her face flushed red.

Now… What was Rena wearing to cause this sort of reaction and embarrassment?

It was quite the sight to see that dark blue Japanese school swimsuit that was almost practically painted on her slim body, showing Rena's trim build and small chest. Not to mention her rather surprising nice legs that were quite smooth and creamy. "Th-This seems like a trap…"

Now for the judges…

The Artist Formally Known as Morty rubbed his chin, '_Gotta give them props for going for a classic…'_

Leo couldn't help but smile, his cheeks having a little red dashed across his face, '_… Hmm… I wonder…_' He thought to himself. _'Did Rena have that swimsuit all the time?_'

'_You've got to be kidding me…'_ Cain sighed inside his head.

**0-0-0**

"ARGH!" Bravo shouted as several weapons slashed and stabbed into his body, sending him spiraling back to the ground as his duel disk began to beep loudly. "N-No!"

And with a loud smack, Bravo fell to the ground, Clear World shattering around the three duelists like glass being thrown to a sidewalk, the remains surrounding the three duelists. (BLP: 0)

Xander's one good eye widened as his Clear Wall cracked and then broke, leaving only his face down card and Solemn Wishes card. Thanks to Ganryu's weird combo over the last turn, destroying both Bravo and Xander's field…

… Leaving Ganryu's field with the A. Forces empowering his five samurai – Yaichi (1300/800 + 1000), Kamon (1500/1000 + 1000), Nisashi (1400/700 + 1000/0), Yariza (1000/500 + 1000/0) and Six Samurai Grandmaster (2100/800 + 1000/0).

"… And then there was one," Ganryu cackled as he knelt down to pet Beck's head, not really caring that there were only two flames over his head left. (GLP: 2100)

Xander stepped back… His face down Spirit Barrier was useless… (XLP: 11000)

"And I still have three attacks left," Ganryu announced throwing his hand up into the air. "Yaichi! Kamon! Grandmaster!"

Yaichi slowly drew his next arrow…

Kamon pulled a stick of dynamite from his armor and lit it…

And the Grandmaster slowly lifted his katana over his head…

"W-Wait a second!" Xander pleaded taking a step back, his hands raised in front of him.

"Sorry, but I'm in a hurry," Ganryu stated before Yaichi shot the arrow…

Piercing Xander's right leg, "… AAAAAAH!" Xander screamed kneeling down, to see the stick of dynamite rolling underneath him. "… Oh bugger…" (XLP: 8700)

KA-BOOOM!

Xander was sent flying through the air, his clothes and skin covered with burns, "GAK!" (XLP: 6200)

But that pain was soon forgotten, the Six Samurai Grandmaster appeared over Xander, making his one eye widen in shock and surprise, "N… No…"

Slamming his blade into Xander's shoulder, the powerful warrior sent the one-eyed duelist spiraling to the ground with a loud explosion of dust and smoke flowing through the air. (XLP: 3100)

"GAK!" Xander coughed with a large amount of blood spurting erupting from his mouth. '_Oh god! I… I can barely breathe!'_

All five of Ganryu's monsters struck a pose, their weapons held over their heads with a diabolic look appearing on their faces.

"… This is your last chance," Ganryu stated fitting another card into his duel disk, making the card appear behind his five warriors. "If you surrender now, you won't feel any more pain…"

"… B-Bravo…" Xander moaned turning his head with the remaining strength.

"Y-Yeah?" Bravo muttered, some blood dripping from his mouth.

"… W-When Vic asks what happened," Xander sputtered as he rested his head on the ground. "I… I'm blaming you…"

"Yo-You bastard…" Bravo coughed.

"I… I surrender," Xander sighed as his the holograms began to disappear, the five samurai disappearing in several puffs of smoke as if they were a part of a Super Sentai television show. (XLP: Surrender)

Xander breathed in a sigh of relief…

Only to wince and grown loudly when Ganryu slammed his foot into his stomach, "GAK!"

"Now then," Ganryu cackled as he applied more pressure to Xander's wounds. "You seem to be the smarter of the two dunces here… So how about you spill about what you and your leader – Vic – Are up to?"

"Gah… P-Please," Xander pleaded with tears appearing at the corner of his good eye. "This… This pain…"

"Will continue unless you cough out what I want," Ganryu snarled with a demonic look appearing in his eyes. "Now talk!"

"I… I… Don't know…" Xander sputtered as his good eye began to close slightly due to the pain.

"Hey, gray hair," Bravo coughed out, getting Ganryu's attention as the muscular duelist began to stand up weakly. "I've got a few answers you're looking for…"

"Oh? Really?" Ganryu questioned with his arms crossed. "Then why don't you start by telling me why your boss wanted you two to challenge me."

"… Sure… Just one thing," Bravo coughed. "Xander…"

"Y-Yeah?" Xander asked.

"You're taking the blame for the info leaking," Bravo cackled with some blood coming up in the process.

"B-Backstabber!" Xander snarled.

Ganryu face-palmed. '_Its official._' He thought, '_I'm surrounded by morons… Both friendly and foe...'_

**0-0-0-0**

Rena couldn't be more embarrassed in her entire life, using her arms to cover her chest in a futile attempt to cover up her embarrassment. And yet, the young student couldn't help but look at the other competitors…

… And to make herself blush a little more when Rena slowly compared herself to the others…

After her was none other than Yukino, blushing greatly too, but she had an annoyed look on her face – But, Rena couldn't help but notice that Yukino had a slightly better build than her… And the bright yellow one piece swimsuit that had a slit across her chest to show her small cleavage (a little more than Rena) and one at her trim stomach really pushed that fact in Rena's face.

'_There goes my plan,'_ Yukino thought to herself as she leered at Rena at the corner of her eyes. '_Now my chances to get closer to Lord Riko have gone up in flames… Especially since… those two are standing next to me…'_

Who were those two you might be wondering?

Why, it was none other than Cleo Sol and Luntina (of course)!

When Rena and Yukino were standing next to those two, they couldn't help but feel…

Small…

Although she was slightly embarrassed about this contest, Cleo was actually glad to flaunt her slightly 'matured' and tan body, with curves in the right places that were bound by a two piece swim suit that had a collar around her neck that had a design similar to that of a Dalmatian's spots… Slightly distended, thanks to her properly portioned curves.

'… _Slightly embarrassing,_' Cleo thought adjusting the sunglasses to give a more seductive look to the crowd… Making a few of the boys, including Asche, to break out in harsh nosebleeds. '_But since I'm in this for the long run – I might as well win this!_

'_Still, how am I supposed to win this thing… With HER standing right next to me?!'_

That of course left Luntina…

… And boy, that was quite the sight…

Her slim and very curvaceous body almost completely exposed, Luntina was blushing like crazy. Although her body wasn't anything to be ashamed of, in fact her body was even better than Cleo's, but Luntina's problem stemmed from the fact that her swimsuit wasn't really what she was used to.

If she had her way, Luntina probably would've gone with a swimsuit like Rena's… But since she didn't, she was forced to wear the black bikini top that was held by a metallic ring in between the crevice that was her cleavage (threatening to snap if she didn't take care) and the tight Daisy Duke shorts that fulfilled the bikini bottom that showed off her toned and muscular legs.

'… _Mustang… If you had the slightest hand in this,_' Luntina thought as the blush increased on her face as several camera flashes erupted from the ground. '_I will… No, promise, that you will not be leaving the island with your legs functional!'_

Now, we know what the contestants were thinking (and we can guess what the male readers are thinking), but what were our judges thoughts on this matter?

'… _Tacky, but still quite fashionable,'_ the Artist Formally Known as Morty thought to himself as he wrote down his notes.

'… _Must. Suppress. Nosebleed!'_ Leo thought to himself with his calm demeanor still plastered over his face. '_Keep smiling… Keep calm… Don't lose it man!'_

'_Almost makes me wish I was still with the idiots back at my academy,'_ Cain thought with a slap to his forehead, a blood vessel pulsing on the side of his neck. '_… Almost…'_

Within the crowds, there were several mixed feelings about what was happening on stage. A large amount of guys (and some girls one might add) were cursing that their cell phones didn't have enough storage to keep the photos they were taking.

A lot of the girls were envious of the bodies of two certain Obelisk Girl girls who were in the competition.

But what was really important to note was…

"… Wright, is this an everyday thing?"

"I assure you Croix, I did not have a part in this!"

Nope, not those two.

"… Van, any reason why you're not turning away from the stage?"

"R-Rukia, I… I, uh, gotta support my friend!"

Getting warmer…

"… So, what ya'll think?"

"Hughes, this could get us fired."

"Ah, don't be a stick in the mud, Kryancelo."

BINGO!

"Seriously," Kryancelo muttered with his arms crossed over his chest. "If anyone catches wind of what we did… We'll be canned so fast that…"

"Hence why I took one more precaution without ya knowing," Hughes chuckled looking at his watch. "And since they just finished with Luntina's entrance…"

"Hmm?" Kryancelo questioned turning back to the stage when Rex and Weevil cleared their throats.

"Now, as a surprise to you all," Weevil announced into the microphone. "We have one last minute entry into his little competition."

"She was rather surprised to see her name on the list," Rex admitted reading aloud from a card that he just got. "But, she's being extremely cooperative, so let's all give her a wondrous cheer and applause to get her out here… She's one of the best professors on the island and one that everyone can relate to…"

Kryancelo's eyes widened when it sunk in. "Hughes…" he mumbled as the crowd began to cheer and clap loudly. "Y-You didn't…"

"Oh… But I did, partner," Hughes cackled as an oddly familiar form began to slink onto the stage, making all four of the teenage students turn to the side.

All of their eyes almost popping out of their sockets.

"Professor Maria!"

Compared to the teenage girls, a young attractive woman in her prime was almost too much for the crowd… And the white bikini that clung to her mature and lovely body (obviously showing that the young woman's workout sessions managed to maintain her body's proper size), made Maria push the crowd too far.

Kryancelo was the first to fall due to the quick release of blood from his nostrils. '_The first star you see tonight,_' was his final thought. '_Will be me…'_

**0-0-0**

"… I see," Ganryu growled holding Bravo holding up by his neck. His eyes narrowed to dangerous slits, sending an additional chill to slink around through Bravo's eyes that helped poured the information out of over muscular duelist like water streaming from a glass of water to the ground.

It was quite an interesting plan for sure – Whoever this Vic character was certainly knew how to use what was available to him. By hacking into the duel disks of his minions (Ganryu's words, not Bravo's), Vic was able to reprogram the duelist profiles that were in the devices to have any wins count for Vic.

"So, you going to tell me why he's interested in doing something like that?" Ganryu questioned, his grip starting to leave indents in Bravo's neck.

"Gargh! I-I don't know why!" Bravo sputtered as the colorless world began to rumble slightly. "I… If you want that answer, you'd have to ask him yourself!"

"… I might just do that," Ganryu stated releasing Bravo, allowing the larger duelist to crash into the ground with a loud gasp of air racing through his slightly bruised lungs. "Now then, talk… Tell me where your base is so I can ask that question."

…

Bravo fell backwards, his eyes completely blank.

Slightly concerned, Ganryu knelt down and placed his fingers on the base of Bravo's neck. Definitely a pulse, the big guy must've lost consciousness from the pain that was racking through his large muscular body.

"Damn it," Ganryu cursed under his breath as he turned towards the possibly still conscious Xander. "You still kicking?"

"… Y-Yeah…" Xander grumbled. "B-But don't think I'm going to tell you where our base of operations is…"

"I was only have you give your boss a message," Ganryu growled taking a knee to Xander's side. "Tell him – 'The next time you want to challenge me, skip the small fry and come to face me like a man.' Think you can do that?"

"… I… I'll be sure to deliver it," Xander coughed out.

"Good," Ganryu sighed standing up with his arms crossed. "Now then, get me out of this colorless world… Or I'll be sure to make all three of us…"

"ARF!"

"… All four of us into permanent members."

**0-0-0-0**

Rex and Weevil were out cold, as were most of the men in the crowd.

Seeing four cute girls with their own charms was hard enough to contain, but when you threw in a beautiful woman like Maria in the mix in a swimsuit that was much more revealing than Rena's, Yukino's, Cleo's and Luntina's swimsuits…

… And yet, Maria wasn't embarrassed like the other girls.

"Ahem…" Cain coughed into the microphone as he pulled up the note cards that were at Weevil's hand. "Since the two bumbling idiots are knocked out, and since whatever twisted logic is running this show said we needed one announcer… I, Cain Sonryu, guess that I'm taking over that job.

"Now, according to this card, I'm supposed to ask you all one question that has your name written on it. So, let's start with the first contestant – Rena Akira?"

Rena jumped slightly as Cain held the microphone to her, "S-Sorry!"

"I don't blame ya for wanting to be sorry," Cain admitted with a small blush appearing over his face at the sight of the school issued swimsuit. "B-But still – Your question is as follows: Miss Rena – Have you…"

Rena blinked a few times at Cain's pause.

"… This is all written on the card," Cain sighed taking a deep breath to gather his courage… And blush on his face. "Have you – Miss Rena – H-Have you ever s-smooched anyone before?"

"Huh…!? W-What kind of question is that?!" Rena yelped with a large blush crossing her face.

"It's the card," Cain muttered walking over to Yukino. "Now then – Miss Yukino – Do you have a… A boyfriend?"

"A… A b-b-b-boyfriend?!" Yukino sputtered with her face becoming as ripe as a tomato. "W-What?"

Before things got out of hand, Cain slowly walked in front of Cleo.

"Go ahead shorty," Cleo challenged with her hands on her hip. "Ask away, I can answer any question you've got up your sleeves!"

'… _No remorse for this one,_' Cain thought flicking through the cards until he came to Cleo's designated question. "Miss Cleo – You're a prominent member of the Obelisk Blue Elite – And this question has been ciculating through the male Blues for quite some time now… What is the deal between you and the Blue Student Asche?"

"W-What?" Cleo questioned, obviously not expecting a question that involved her practical servant.

"Next – Luntina," Cain mumbled into the microphone as he walked past the blathering Cleo. "This question is directly from a Die Hard Pain in the back – Can he stay at your house next time?"

"… It doesn't say that," Luntina growled taking the card from Cain's hands, only to have her eyes widen at the writing on the card. "Oh my… It does…"

"Moving on…" Cain muttered under his breath as he stood in front of Maria, tossing the cards over his shoulder. "And… Professor Maria was it?"

"Yes it is," Maria answered back with a smile.

"What possessed you to join this competition?" Cain asked with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head.

"No real reason," Maria answered with a cute grin. "I thought it would be fun… The swimsuits are a different touch, but it's still fun."

"Yeah, that's great," Cain muttered into the mic turning to the crowd. "Now then folks, we'll be deciding who will be 'Miss Duel Academia' so I'll be heading back to the judges in order to decide who the winner will be… So, we'll be right back!"

With the microphone lowered, Cain stuck out his tongue, '_Ugh, now I need to wash my mouth out with soap…'_

**0-0-0**

**Card Stats**

**Clear World / Field Spell / Effect:** Pay 500 Life Points during each of your End Phases. If you do not, destroy this card. Apply the following effects to a player depending on the attributes of the monsters they control:

- LIGHT: Keep your hand revealed

- DARK: If you control 2 or more monsters, you cannot declare an attack.

- EARTH: Destroy 1 face-up Defense Position Monster you control during your Standby Phase.

- WATER: Discard 1 card during your End Phase.

- FIRE: During your End Phase, you take 1000 points of damage.

- WIND: If you do not pay 500 Life Points, you cannot activate Spell Cards.

**Image:** A large blue crystal unleashing a powerful light over a shadowed form.

_Clear World is a promo card that is going to be in Limited Edition Pack 15._

**Clear Vicious Knight / Dark / LV. 7 / ATK: 2300 / DEF: 1100 / Warrior/Effect:** This card is not treated as a DARK monster while it is face-up on the field. If your opponent controls a monster, you can Normal Summon this card with 1 Tribute. Once per turn, if you have no other monster on your field except this card, you can increase the ATK of this card by an amount equal to the ATK of the monster with the highest original ATK on the opponent's side of the field until the end of the turn.

**Description: **A large diabolic knight with several spikes erupting from its armor with a devilish clawed blade on his right gauntlet.

**Clear Wall / Continuous Spell / Effect:** If 'Clear World' is not face-up on the field, destroy this card. As long as this card is face up on the field, Attack Position 'Clear' monsters cannot be destroyed by battle. Reduce any Battle Damage less than 1000 from a battle involving a 'Clear' monster to 0. You can destroy this card to reduce all Battle Damage from a battle involving a 'Clear' monster whose ATK is greater than 1000 to 0.

**Image:** A large crystal blocking a powerful dragon from flying through the air.

_The previous two cards were used by Yusuke in Yugioh GX._

**Clear Calm Mage / Dark / LV. 4 / ATK: 1500 / DEF: 0 / Spellcaster/Effect:** This card is not treated as a DARK monster while it is face-up on the field. When this card is destroyed as a result of battle, you may destroy one face up monster on the field and force your opponent to discard cards from the top of their deck equal to the level of the destroyed monster.

**Description:** A small monk dressed in yellow robes meditating inside a large crystal.

**0-0-0-0**

**Cain:** Finally, we'll end this damn contest…

**Vic:** And we'll get started on the real action! Now my ghouls! Take up your duel disk and strike in the night!

**Maroon, Orange, Xander, Bravo, and the Artist Formally Known as Morty:** YES SIR!

**Ganryu: **Pfft!

**Chibi Mustang:** I'm more interested in getting my hands on those pictures…

_**Next time – **__**Chapter 63: Beauty and the Colorless Beasts**_


	64. Chapter63:Beauty and the Colorless Beast

_**Light and Darkness…**_

_**If you were to consider the main properties of these two elements – They are there to balance each other. Two sides as the same coin as you keep hearing…**_

_**But what about the in-between?**_

_**Why are things automatically contrasted into light or darkness? Good or evil? Selfish or righteous?**_

_**The would isn't as black and white as people like to think. **_

_**There are countless shades of gray in between the lines, and yet, people can't see that. I have every intention to show those shades, even if I have to rip apart each and every one of the fools who think they can best me. **_

_**Colorless world…**_

… _**Heed my will…**_

_**0-0-0**_

_**Chapter 63**_

_**Beauty and the Colorless Beasts**_

_**0-0-0-0**_

"Um… H-H-How long are we going to stand up here?" Rena asked holding her arms in front of her chest.

"Just stand on the stage and keep smiling," Yukino muttered under her breath, the light reflecting from her glasses to cover her blush.

"It feels like it's been forever since they begun the judging," Cleo growled with a blood vessel appearing on the side of her head. "I don't mind the attention, but still, it feels like I'm actually a statue."

"Deal with it," Luntina said between her false smile, her face burning red from the embarrassment. "I-If I can stand it, then I know for a fact you can deal with it…"

"Girls, you're still young," Maria giggled throwing her hands behind her head. "You all have nice bodies, and you're all getting your own fan bases – So live it up!"

"… Was that supposed to help?" Rena moaned with tears rolling down the sides of her face.

It had been a good twenty minutes since the three judges began to talk over their five choices, much to Cain's displeasure. And the crowd of students, well, some of them were talking amongst themselves, others were trying to keep their eyes off the stage so they wouldn't get slapped upside their heads by their girlfriends, and others…

… Well, they were still taking snapshots with their camera phones.

"Hey!"

Everyone turned to the head of the stage, seeing none other than Cain standing in the middle of the spotlight with a microphone in his hand. "Now that I have everyone's attention… After 'careful' deliberation, a winner has finally been chosen."

The crowd roared loudly, making Cain lift his arm up to make sure he wasn't overpowered by the sound.

"Anyway…" Cain coughed before he fully spoke into the microphone. "Drum roll… Please, I guess."

It started slow, but then the drum roll began to beat faster and faster, louder and louder… Making the sweatdrop appear on the side of Cain's head, "… And now, I give you your Miss Duel Academy – Miss…"

That's when the lights on the stage turned off, save for the one that hovered over Cain's body.

Then, other lights lit over the five girls behind him, dimming down until one single light was showing the winner of the pageant…

"W-What?!"

"N-No way!"

"I guess it's better than me…"

Rena blinked a few times as she looked left and right, only seeing the dark stage around the ring of light that had covered her in the last moment.

"H-Huh?" She questioned with the blush growing on her face.

"Miss – Rena Akira," Cain dully announced into the microphone. "Give a hand to our big winner… I guess."

Rena's eyes went wide as the crowd of students in front of her erupted into applause. With her face completely red, Rena slowly lowered her head as she tried desperately (and failing) cover her self up.

And how were the other contestants dealing with this?

'_Damn it! My plan!'_ Yukino screamed in her head.

'_H-How could I lose to her?'_ Cleo thought with tears appearing at the side of her eyes.

'_Well… That was a waste of time,_' Luntina sighed in her mind as she walked past the clapping Maria. '_Better find Mustang now and get his beating over with…'_

'_Morons… All morons,_' Cain scowled as he walked off the stage.

**0-0-0-0**

It wasn't long until the stage was cleared off, and the students were enjoying the festival with the warm dusk light at their backs.

Save for a handful of students…

"… So, you both couldn't defeat that Samurai punk with the specialized decks I provided?"

With the added physical wounds, Bravo and Xander were knelt down in front of Vic, who was seated in a large comfy black chair with an automatic back massager that was working over time. "And you both had your asses handed to you?"

"Y-Yes sir," Xander and Bravo murmured under their breaths as they lowered their heads.

"Idiots…" Vic moaned, mainly due to the massage chair working on his lower back.

Of course, Bravo and Xander didn't know that, so they were a little confused by the moan that left their boss's mouth.

Flay, Orange, Maroon, and the Artist Formally Known as Morty weren't going to tell those two about that…

… It was too hilarious.

"Oh well… I suppose it was to be expected," Vic sighed, leaning back into the chair a little more. "Do not worry about it…"

"Huh?!" Everyone but Vic gasped in the room.

This didn't go unnoticed by the boss who crossed his hands, "… What is the matter?"

"W-Well, sir," Orange muttered pushing up his new shades. "You usually yell your brains out at us when one of us screws up… And then you get into the physical pain…"

"True, but this time is different," Vic chuckled, his mouth guard moving with his chuckling. "Save for Morty and myself, all of you have lost at one time or another. But as I have said beforehand – Now that you all have done your part…

"I am now lifting the bar on what you all may do and use."

Everyone in the room blinked a few times at Vic.

"If you don't mind me being so blunt," Flay questioned raising an eyebrow at Vic. "But, why?"

Vic didn't answer; instead, he stood up from his seat, cracking his neck in the process.

Slowly, Vic walked past Xander and Bravo, headed straight towards the desk that held his laptop on it. Pulling a drawer open, Vic slowly pulled out what appeared to be a large black brief case. "Why? Why do anything? To gain something… and I intend to gain something, no matter the cost.

"Gentlemen – I give you access to my personal collection of cards. Feel free to improve your personal decks as you see fit. Then, I'll give you your personal targets…"

"Uh… Some of us are wounded here," Xander muttered, struggling to stand up from the ground. "H-How do you expect us to duel in that colorless world again so soon?"

"Heh…" Vic cackled as his eyes curved slightly.

**0-0-0**

The evening sun pended over the island, but the lights from the festival kept burning bright, especially at the café that was made…

"Cheers to Rena!" Rukia announced holding up a glass of orange drink into the air.

"Here! Here!"

Although she was back in her school uniform, Rena couldn't help but feel embarrassed at all the attention she was getting. Not that it was like this during the pageant, but still to have everyone toasting and cheering her name.

Besides, Rena knew that her dad would kill her if he every caught wind of her dressed like that, she'd never hear the end of it.

Shaking that thought from her head, Rena looked from her seat to see everyone in the café, all the friends she made since she came to the academy almost eight months ago…

… All the changes she's seen in people…

Van and Rukia were sitting next to each other, it was almost as if they were an official couple now-a-days, and like all freshly made couples, they spent all their time together. And gagging at their side was none other than Kimatori, since she was a little kid and all.

But of course, Klein and Koji were watching the two from afar… Well, Klein was, Koji was just sighing about his brother.

Rena was surprised to see Cleo there, but, seeing Asche getting an ear full of Cleo's yelling… It was obvious to see that Asche had dragged (Begged more likely) to come to the party.

And then there were the first three Obelisk Blue duelists that were nice to Rena (besides Leo), Tony with tears in his eyes as he sipped a lemonade…

'_I didn't think that he cared so much for that contest…_' Rena thought, not realizing how far off she was with Tony's tears.

… Meanwhile, at the same table was none-other than Luntina and Riko, who had Sen standing behind the revival duelist, all of them leering at the crying Tony. Rena had always wondered if Sen was a duelist, or for that matter a student to the school.

'_Maybe I should ask sometime…'_

One face that Rena never expected to see was a masked face. De Masque apparently was quite the hit at the party and managed to make quite a few other girls who were around him laugh loudly from his apparent jokes.

Yet another person Rena had to talk to…

But there were a few faces that Rena failed to see… One belonged to a certain short, white haired visiting student, more than likely, he was trying to find his peer – Mustang.

'_Oh! I-I forgot about Mustang! He's still hiding in my room!'_

Still, there was a mini-fridge in the room, so it's not like Mustang would starve or die of thirst.

Back to the missing faces, Ganryu and Leo were no where to be found in the vicinity of the party. But then again, Ganryu not being at public events was not really anything new. But Leo, well, Rena knew for a fact that he was walking around – After all he did win one half of the 'Miss' Duel Academia cross dressing pageant…

… Did his duel with Mao really affect Leo so much that he wouldn't smile his innocent smile? That he would be there to help Rena with his odd advice? Or even to pull one of his quick appearance acts?

'_Is the Leo I know gone?'_ Rena thought swirling the fruit punch in the glass she handled with care. '_… And… And I still have to say something to Ganryu…'_

"Hmm, deep in thought are we, Rena?" Leo asked leaning resting his arms on the back of Rena's chair.

"Yeah, I suppose I am," Rena replied before she sipped her drink…

… Then it sunk in…

Rena spat out her drink, her eyes widening in shock and despair as she turned her head around to see the snickering Leo behind her. "L-Leo?! Where in the world did you come from?!"

"I have transcended through the ages," Leo answered holding his hands up in a dramatic fashion. "Helping those in need of help in order to ascend this mortal plain and into a higher one…"

"What?" Rena muttered with puzzled eyes popping on her face.

"I thought you won't get that reference," Leo chuckled crossing his arms. "No harm though…"

"I guess some things won't change," Rena sighed under her breath as she lowered her head. "So, where have you been hiding for the past few days?"

"… Well, I've been thinking myself," Leo answered quickly, his gaze turning away from Rena and to the lanterns that were strung around the support beams to the makeshift café. "Thinking about my reason for coming to the academy…"

"Are… Are you regretting your reason for coming here?" Rena asked standing up from the chair.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not regretting my decision coming here," Leo replied with that warm smile appearing on his face. "I wouldn't trade anything for the time I've had with the gang here. But still, I think…"

"Leo?" Rena questioned blinking a few times at Leo.

"Forgive me," Leo sighed running a hand through his longer black hair, it looked like he would need a haircut sometime in the future. "But Rena, do you mind if you could meet me outside in a few minutes? I need something to discuss with you…"

Rena's face tinted slightly before she gave a slight nod.

"Thank you," Leo muttered under his breath before he turned and walked away into the crowd.

Rena gulped with a slight increase in her blush appearing on her face…

… Unknown to her, a familiar purple haired duelist had overheard Leo's request…

A few minutes later…

The sun had begun its decent to the west, and sitting at one of the nearby benches, Leo merely smiled to himself as he watched the stars slowly pop into the darkening sky. Truly, it was a majestic sight – And with the cool sea breeze whipping through his hair, Leo couldn't help but close his eyes and enjoy the touch of the salty air against his skin.

And then he smiled greatly, "… Hmm? Trying to give me a taste of my own medicine, Rena?"

Standing up from behind the bench, Rena rolled her eyes, "Dang it! And I thought I'd actually get the drop on you!"

"You'd have to work on your footsteps," Leo advised with a laugh following. "Anyway, thanks for coming…"

Rena immediately stepped to the side and sat next to Leo on the bench, "Not a problem…" She said as she placed her hands on her skirt. "So… What did you talk about?"

"… Do you remember that boat ride we took to get here?" Leo asked peering up into the sky again.

"That was… Quite a while back," Rena muttered rubbing the back of her head. "I remember talking to you on the boat, and it was way back when my deck was lost… Until Klein found it…"

"Indeed," Leo chuckled placing his hand on his chin. "From that day, I've learned a lot about you Rena… From your personality to your past – Some good and some bad…"

Rena lowered her head slightly, remembering the duel between her father (or Skull Flame as it were) and De Masque. She still had a few tears when she thought about that duel at night… But she knew that her dad still loved her with all his heart.

"But, it always occurred to me, that I was probably a mystery to you and the others," Leo continued, his face pointed towards Rena. "And I've been mulling over that fact as well since my defeat with Mao… So…

"I decided that I am going to tell you guys everything… And I needed to start by telling you…"

"Leo…" Rena sighed under her breath. "We all have skeletons in the closet, some more than others. You don't have to tell me any of your secrets if you don't want to."

Leo sighed, placing his hand over eyes, '_But it's a matter of not if I want to…_' He thought. '_It's if I'm able to. Perhaps now isn't such a good time to tell her…'_

With a smirk, Leo threw his arms behind his head, looking up into the red sky, "… Quite a wondrous sky tonight… Wouldn't you say?"

"I guess it is," Rena added looking up. "Anyway about your secrets… If you really want to tell me one, you could tell me about how you can appear out of no where."

Laughing loudly, Leo could barely breathe or even get enough time to actually say the following, "Ah, ha, sorry Rena…" He chuckled. "But that's one secret that I might just take to my grave…"

"Aw man…" Rena moaned lowering her head.

Time passed and the two friends continued to talk about what had happened over the last few months, both the good and the bad, and even some of the more embarrassing parts that Rena would've preferred to have forgotten.

All the while, neither of them were aware of a certain purple haired young man watching them from a distance…

**0-0-0**

Night soon blanketed the entire island, and with the festival wrapping up for the day, students were slowly beginning to return to their dorm rooms, while others were trying to have some more personal time…

But the two at the bench…

"Well then Rena," Leo yawned standing up with his arms stretched over head. "I think it's about time we returned to the dorms… Would you like an escort to your dorm room?"

"Thank you, Leo," Rena said getting up from the bench, dusting off her skirt. "But I think 'Miss Duel Academia' is more than capable of getting back to her dorm on her own."

"Very well," Leo chuckled giving Rena a quick bow. "Then I shall take my leave – Have a wonderful evening, and I'll see you in the morning."

Rena merely waved Leo goodbye as he walked into the night, the lights from the festival showing his silhouette until it disappeared. '_Well, I guess I should get going too…_'

Just as Rena was about to turn around, she was stopped when a familiar purple haired, purple dressed young man appeared in front of her, making her jump slightly. "W-Whoa!"

"Sorry about that!" the Artist Formally Known as Morty apologized placing his hands together with a carefree smile appearing on his face. "Didn't mean to scare you!"

"T-That's alright," Rena gasped under her breath. That's when she raised an eyebrow at the smirking Morty, a question mark appearing over her head. "Um…"

"Yes?" Morty questioned fitting his hands into his pockets. "Anything I can do to help you?"

"Um, yeah, I know you were in that competition earlier this morning," Rena admitted rubbing the back of her head. "But, you seem real familiar for some reason or another…"

"Hmm, maybe I just have that kind of familiar face?" Morty suggested with a shrug of his shoulders. "Or maybe you've seen me in a painting of some sort? Perhaps I'm famous and I don't even know it? After all, I was named – The Artist Formally Known as Morty – But you can just call me Morty for short."

"Uh… Y-Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's not the case," Rena murmured.

"Oh! Maybe you seen me with one of my other surnames?" Morty suggested with a bright smile appearing on his face. "Although… Some of them don't make sense…"

"How so?" Rena asked… And a moment later, she instantly regretted that…

"Well," Morty mused holding up his hand to count on the fingers. "Purple Branch Boss, Vio, someone called me the Space Cowboy a few times, Franklin, Prince, I think…"

"I get the point!" Rena yelped holding up her hands.

"S'alright with me," Morty chuckled placing his hands on his hips. "Actually, I'm glad I ran into you, Miss Akira. I had a little bet with some of my colleagues, and I was wondering if you could help me settle said bet."

"Um… Depends on what the bet is…" Rena replied taking a step back.

"Oh. Oh!" Morty gasped waving his hands in front of him. "Don't worry! Don't worry! It's nothing of the nature you're thinking of!"

Rena couldn't help but blush.

"You see, since I'm one half of the winning duo of the competition," Morty explained pulling his backpack off of his shoulders. "My pals were curious and wondered who would win in a duel. Mister Duel Academia or Miss Duel Academia?"

"Um, not to correct you," Rena stated with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of her head. "But, wouldn't you also be 'Miss' Duel Academia?"

"True… But even though I am me," Morty started with his hand resting on his chest. "Even I like to remember that I am still a man, so for all intents and purposes – I will only be addressed in that fashion when it concerns my Duel Academia title. But I digress…

"My peers are interested in which one of us would be a better duelist… And in order to cease their constant pestering on the subject…"

"Oh, you just want to duel?" Rena asked with a relieved smile appearing on her face. "Well, I don't mind dueling… But can it wait till morning?"

Morty could only smile in reply… As a small dark gray energy began to flow from his feet into the ground, immediately draining the color from the grassy area. "Well…" He started up rubbing the back of his head. "You see, I really don't have a choice in the manner… My peers are really harsh with their comments…"

"Actually, I don't have a duel disk," Rena pointed out, not noticing that the color all around her was starting to disappear.

Opening up his backpack, Morty revealed a pair of duel disks, "You can borrow one of mine!"

"T-Thanks," Rena muttered pulling out one of the devices. And as a habit, she did carry her deck with her today. "Well, I guess one quick duel won't kill me."

Little did Rena know…

A few moments later, both Rena and Morty were armed with their duel disks and shuffled decks, standing a few feet away from each other with the oddly dull light from the lamps lighting over them.

"Duel!"

"Ladies first, I always say," Morty said pulling his top five cards from his deck as Rena did the same. (MLP: 8000)

"Thanks, I guess," Rena muttered looking over her sixth card. "I summon Learning Elf in defense mode!" (RLP: 8000)

In a flash of light, the book loving elf appeared in front of Rena, crouching down with her robes laying on the ground to read her book (1400/1500).

"And then, I'll set one card face down," she continued as the set card appeared behind her elf. "So, that's my first turn."

"Thus allowing me to draw," Morty announced clicking off his sixth card. "And I'll match your monster for mine! Come on out – Clay Sword Soldier!"

The ground erupted in front of Morty, building up into a large Japanese samurai made entirely out of clay. However, the sword that the monster held was made of real steel (1750/0).

"Clay Sword Soldier!" Morty continued snapping his fingers. "Since you've appeared on the field, why don't you go introduce yourself to Miss Duel Academia's monster! And don't forget to introduce your sword!"

Spinning the sword over its head, the soldier made of clay charged towards the elf and immediately sliced the elf in two.

"Nice try!" Rena announced pushing a button on her duel disk, making her face down card flip up to the famous Axe Raider underneath a few level markers. "But you activated two effects with that attack! First comes my elf's ability! When destroyed, I can draw one card from my deck!"

And so she did. "Then comes my trap card – Flat Level 4! Now both of us can special summon a level four or lower monster from our decks!"

"Very well," Morty chuckled as a card popped out from his deck and into his fingers. "Then I choose my Clay Spear Soldier!"

The ground erupted into another clay samurai, only this one was armed with a sharp spear as it's name implied (1500/0).

"If that's the case, I'll choose Thoroughbred Elf!" Rena announced as the fighting elf leapt overhead and landed on the concrete ground with a battle cry (1800/1500).

"Hmm… Quite the artistic move," Morty cooed taking two cards left from his five card hand. "Not only refreshing your hand but your field as well.

"So, then I'll set two cards face down, and end my turn."

Rena drew her next card.

"Well then, I'll summon the Wonderbeat Elf in attack mode!" She announced slapping the card onto her duel disk.

In a gale of leafs, a new elf appeared in front of Rena with the leafs, this one a muscular elf dressed in a leather jerkin and cap with a pair of large battle axes in both of his hands (1700/1600), the warrior spun the axes in his hands before he crossed them.

"Hmm… Another elf, eh?" Morty questioned raising an eyebrow. "I guess archtypes are quite the scene now-a-days."

"You've got two monsters that are similar too," Rena pointed out Morty's contradiction.

"Oh! So I do," Morty muttered under his breath…

"But that doesn't matter," Rena said holding her hand out. "But now, Thoroughbred Elf! Attack his Clay Sword Soldier!"

Pushing off the ground, the fighting elf spun through the air, slamming his foot directly into the Clay Soldier's head, sending it flying through the air as the rest of the clay soldier was shattered into the ground.

And yet, Morty's life points were untouched.

"W-What?" Rena questioned before a ghostly claw wrapped around her body, making her eyes widen. "H-huh?"

"You're not the only one with a strategy," Morty chuckled pointing towards his revealed trap card. "You see, Clay monsters lack the ability to damage either of us, so you can hurt me involving them, and I can't hurt you.

"But, my trap can fix that quite easily. You see, my Soul's Backlash allows me to used the released spirit that was sealed in my clay monsters against you. Each time a Clay monster is destroyed, you take three hundred points of damage."

The claw snapped around Rena, squeezing her tightly in the shadowy claw, "Aah… AAAH!" (RLP: 7700)

'_Hmm… Looks like the damage is real here,'_ Morty thought with his arms crossed as the ghostly hand released Rena, allowing her to fall to the ground to catch her breath. '_I guess I'm glad I use Clay monsters…'_

"Wh… What was that?!" Rena gasped taking in several breaths.

"I just told you, my dear," Morty sighed running a hand through his purple hair. "That was my trap card – Soul's Backlash. And unfortunately, this world loves to make the damage much more notable."

"W-World?" Rena stuttered getting back to her feet…

… Finally realizing that the color was no longer around the two duelists. "This… This is that Colorless World isn't it?!"

"Ding, ding, ding!" Morty chuckled with quite a few claps of his hands. "Congratulations, my dear. You are correct-o-mundo! This is indeed the Colorless World, granted to me by…"

"Vic Vanhemer, right?" Rena guessed, rubbing her neck at her neck.

"… Hmm…" Morty was taken back a little, he wasn't expecting Rena to know about her boss's name. "Two for two I suppose, congrats, my dear."

"Ugh," Rena mumbled under her breath. "I really didn't want to get wrapped up into another mess like with my last two encounters…"

"That's too bad," Morty stated as a card popped out of his deck. "But anyway, since you destroyed my Sword Soldier, I get his effect as well. Allowing me to add one spell or trap card from my deck with 'Clay' in its title and place it into my hand."

Holding the card up, Morty waved it around to reveal a majestic castle on the card. "So my Clay Masterpiece Castle will be my choice…"

"Oh yeah?" Rena stated as Morty tossed the card into his hand. "Well, I still have another monster out on the field… Wonderbeat Elf! Slash his Spear Soldier!"

With a loud battle cry, the axe wielding elf ran across the field, and sliced the two axes right through the Clay Spear Soldier's torso, sending the pieces through the air.

"Must we go over this again?" Morty asked shaking his head. "I don't take damage from your attack… But you'll take damage thanks to my Soul's Backlash."

The shadowy claw reappeared around Rena's body, squeezing her tightly, making her wince in pain. (RLP: 7400)

"But wait!" Morty announced as two mounds of clay began to build themselves up next to the two elves. "There's more! Since my Spear Soldier was destroyed, you gain two Clay Tokens to your side of the field!"

As the shadowy claw disappeared, the two mounds of clay built up into two unarmed Clay Samurai (250/250 x2).

"Heh, quite the ability," Morty chuckled waving his hand slightly. "Especially since it allows me to express more of my creativity…"

"You're not the only one with a monster effect to use," Rena pointed out as she rubbed her slightly bruised arms. "You see, for each other monster with Elf in its name, my Wonderbeat Elf can attack again!"

Morty's eyes widened as the Wonderbeat Elf appeared in front of him, spinning the hand axes in his hands before he took a swipe at Morty…

… However, Morty bent over backwards, barely dodging the blades of the axes, however the life point damage was still caused. (MLP: 6200)

"D-Damn!" Morty cursed snapping up. "That almost took my nose off!"

"You were choking twice already," Rena countered.

"… Touché," Morty mumbled as Rena pulled another card from her hand.

"I'll set one card face down," Rena announced as the set card materialized behind the four monsters on her field. "And end my turn."

"Oh, so sorry, but I can't allow you to do that now," Morty announced pushing a button on his duel disk. "I activate my trap card – Just Dessert!"

Another ghostly hand erupted from the ground, this time aiming straight for Rena's neck, grasping tightly to make her cough loudly. "Gah!" (RLP: 5400)

"For each monster you have on the field," Morty explained flicking some hair from his eyes. "You take five hundred points of damage for each monster on your field. And since you have four monsters, that's a total of two Gs down the drain."

"T-That's a cheap shot…" Rena coughed out.

"All's fair in love, war and duel monsters," Morty retorted pulling off another card from his dueling deck, giving him five cards to work with. "Or didn't you remember that from the several duels you've been a part of?

"Like with Dias or with the Yokai?"

Rena blinked a few times, "W-Wait a second…"

However, Morty ignored Rena, lifting up his duel disk to snap the field card zone open, "Sorry! No time!" he shouted fitting a card into the slot. "For now, I can activate my field card – Clay Masterpiece Castle!"

The ground began to rumble, making all four of Rena's monsters stumble about as a large amount of earth erupted around the two of them, building and building higher and higher, shifting and churning until it had formed into an exotic Japanese styled castle – From the Edo Era – with several Clay Samurai statues built all around the two duelists.

"Welcome to my masterpiece!" Morty announced with his hands raised up into the air. "Truly one of the more beautiful and dangerous cards in my entire deck!"

"Wait a minute!" Rena requested holding her hand up. "What did you mean before? With Dias and the Yokai?"

"Hmm? I suppose you wouldn't know…" Morty mumbled under his breath. "But… Dias… Beck… I knew them both. After all, I was a duelist in their employ beforehand. In fact, I remember being ordered to defeat two of your friends… Although, I was only half successful in performing those tasks."

"W-What?!" Rena gasped taking a step back.

This character not only worked for Eternity Angelo (she had no clue who Beck was), but Dias as well?

"If I remember correctly, the first one I was ordered to duel against," Morty thought out loud as he tapped his chin a few times. "Was one of those competitors in the contest today… I can't remember his name, but I do know that he happened to run E-Heroes…"

"Van?" Rena gasped.

Morty snapped his fingers, "There we go!" He laughed with an embarrassed look appearing on his face. "That was his name! Yeah, I beat him good… He sure did put up quite the fight, but still…

"The next person I was ordered to fight was that fancy boy you were talking to before I showed up. Unfortunately, I was defeated by his angelic tactics – So he was able to defend himself quite nicely."

"You dueled against Leo?" Rena thought, thinking back about Leo being a particularly strong duelist… Probably being a better duelist than she would ever be.

"Relax, he managed to defeat me," Morty replied looking over the last four cards in his hand. "He crushed my strongest monster and managed to defeat me with a monster known as a Cyber Angel. Sure, I had the lead, and my ultimate combo out, but he managed to use that own strategy against me.

"I had hoped to use a psychological attack on him as well, telling him the origin about my clay cards. I would think that I'm not really cut out as a villain, although I had him shaking slightly when I asked him a single question…

"… Is that girl your girlfriend?

"Although in this situation – Is that guy your boyfriend?"

Rena's face turned ripe as a tomato, even more so than when she was in the swimsuit competition in the morning. "W-What?!"

"Of course, he denied it," Morty mused as he tapped his foot on the ground a few times. "Saying that the two of you were just friends. But, unlike other people, I can read between the lines, my eyes are able to see the truth…

"And your face tells me that you sense that there's a deeper connection between you and 'Leo' than just friends! You two are just unsure of what you know! Afraid to admit your feelings to each other – And for what?

"Rejection!

"Do you have feelings for anyone?"

Rena gulped slightly… Could this purple haired duelist be right? Did Rena have deeper feelings for Leo?

"But," Morty sighed shaking his head before he plucked another card from his hand. "We've wasted enough time! I summon Clay Scout Soldier!"

From the clay castle grounds, another clay samurai appeared before Morty, this one waving a large banner with the kanji for earth on it (700/700). "Unfortunately, this monster isn't for attacking… As his name suggests, he's a scout for the Clay army that resides in my deck.

"I'll end my turn with two cards face down… Your move – Miss Duel Academia…"

Rena slowly drew her next card, '_He says he's not cut out as a villain… But he clearly knows how to pull out the stops with the psychological attacks…_

'_But… What if he's right? What if me and Leo have a deeper connection than friendship? N-No! Leo is Leo and we're just friends! Besides, I have… I have more important things to worry about than…'_

'… _She's starting to tense up again,_' Morty thought keeping his eyes centered on Rena. '_So there is something deeper for me to play on… Teenagers are always the easy ones to pull this on. So many insecurities.'_

"I… I summon Obnoxious Celtic Guard!"

Leaping from the castle walls, the green armored elf swordsman landed on the ground, drawing his sword from it's sheathe (1400/1200) with a scowl on his face.

"More elves?" Morty questioned running a hand through his hair. "I bet that they're normally enough to handle most duelists… But I'm not like most duelists…"

'_That's a stretch…'_ Rena thought looking at the field. '_This might hurt me… But it'll hurt him a lot more in the long run!'_

"Obnoxious Celtic Guard!" she announced holding her hand up. "Attack that Scout!"

With a powerful jump into the air, the elf swordsman slashed his sword down onto the Clay Samurai, shattering the monster into millions of clay shards.

"Hmm," Morty chuckled as he crossed his arms. "I see you have yet to learn your lesson, Miss Duel Academia – Now, you've started a dangerous chain reaction! First, my trap card!"

Rena gagged as the ghostly claw gripped her throat, making her claw at it. (RLP: 5100)

"Then, there's my Masterpiece Castle!" Morty announced as the two Clay Tokens on Rena's field began to grow larger (250/250 + 100/100 x2). "Each time a Clay monster is destroyed – My castle gains a Clay Counter. And for each of these Clay Counters, all Clay monsters gain one hundred attack and defense points!"

That's when a second Clay Scout Soldier (700/700 + 100/100) emerged onto the field, waving his banner over his head. "And finally, my scout allows me to special summon another clay monster from my deck or hand, as long as it's level doesn't exceed two."

'… _And I'm betting more of these clay monsters fall in that category…'_ Rena thought looking over her four card hand. "I… I end my turn."

"Hmm… A wise move I suppose," Morty admitted pulling another card, now holding two cards. "But then again, not making a move can be more damaging than a poorly executed move…"

That's when Morty's face down card on the left lifted up, "Case in point," He explained as the first Clay Scout Soldier appeared (800/800). "Since you failed to destroy any of my cards, at least without repercussions, I am no able to activate Limit Reverse. This trap allows me to special summon a monster with one thousand or less attack points from my graveyard…"

The first Clay Scout fell to the ground, only to build up more and more, "Thus allowing me to tribute my monster for something much more… Bigger…"

The clay built itself taller and taller until it formed into a multi-armed, black armored clay soldier with a yellow mask that has the look of anger on it (2200/2200 + 100/100). "The Clay General of Thunder in attack mode!"

Rena took a step back at the monster.

"Personally, I don't know why he's named that," Morty stated out loud. "He's still an earth attribute, rock type monster. Not that I'm complaining since he can perform as a powerful warrior – Which is more than I can see about your Wonderbeat Elf!"

Spinning all of the weapons over its head, the powerful clay monster flung all of the weapons at the surprised axe wielding elf, shattering the monster into millions of leafs that flew through the air. (RLP: 4500)

"Uh…" Rena muttered taking a step back.

"Heh, I know about Obnoxious Celtic Guard's ability," Morty replied flicking some hair from his eyes. "I doubt there isn't a person who knows this game who doesn't. But don't worry, I'm sure I can provide something for the next turn…

"But for now, I'll end my turn."

Rena gulped, looking at the apparent lock that her opponent had put her in…

But, deep down, she knew that wasn't the reason why she was nervous, neither was the fact she was in that Colorless World…

Rather, it was the question that Morty had asked beforehand…

"_Do you have feelings for anyone?"_

Rena slowly reached for her deck…

Not knowing that she and Morty weren't the only two in the Colorless World tonight…

**0-0-0**

**Card Stats**

**Wonderbeat Elf / Earth / LV. 4 / ATK: 1700 / DEF: 1600 / Warrior/Effect:** In addition to a normal attack, this card can attack during the same Battle Phase as many times as the number of additional 'Elf' monsters on your side of the field.

**Description:** A large muscular elf dressed in a leather jerkin and cap wielding a large hand axe in each hand.

*_Note, the following card was used by Tenma Gekkou _

**0-0-0-0**

**Rena:** -Blush- T-This is too much…

**Morty:** Aw, what's the matter? Can't handle the truth?

**Rena:** …

**Morty:** That's what I thought… But why don't we take a break? We've got quite a set of duels going on!

_**Next time – On the Artist Formally Known as Morty's Perfect Masterpiece Art Hour – Final Episode: **__**When an angel cries tears of blood! **__**Can the Artist Formally Known as Morty finish the painting before the final feathers fall to the ground?**_

**Rena:** W-Wait… Does that mean that?

**Morty:** Draw!

_**Next Time: **_

_**Chapter 64: Fallen Angel**_

**Author's Note:** And as I mentioned last chapter, there would be a drawing of the winner on my Devart page – So, if you wanna see Rena dressed in a swimsuit, check the link in my profile to my DeviantArt account. And be sure to review and comment both the chapter and the picture.


	65. Chapter 64: Fallen Angel

_**I've been in deep thought for a while now… Considering what Mao had said to me, and why it had shaken me to my core. Still, I stand here confused as to why it shook the very foundation as to why I am here…**_

_**I'd like to think I found that answer, but maybe I'm still searching underneath this façade that I have developed over the years. **_

_**Still, at the moment, I'm being tested to see if I truly have changed or not… I guess if I have changed, it will become apparent or not…**_

_**The time for words has passed…**_

… _**Now is the time for me to face myself and my opponent in battle…**_

_**DRAW!**_

_**0-0-0-0**_

_**Chapter 64**_

_**Fallen Angel**_

_**0-0-0**_

With his footsteps echoing over the cobble sidewalk, Leo kept his hands in his pockets with his eyes closed. Not that it mattered if he kept his eyes open or not, the shortcut that he was taking through the darkened path was basked in darkness.

And despite the fact that there were a few barrels and crates around him, Leo only walked in a straight line, not even coming close to the obstructions that would get in anyone else's path.

Still, in Leo's mind, he was at war, contemplating whether to really consider what had transpired only minutes ago…

"_But, it always occurred to me, that I was probably a mystery to you and the others," Leo continued, his face pointed towards Rena. "And I've been mulling over that fact as well since my defeat with Mao… So…_

"_I decided that I am going to tell you guys everything… And I needed to start by telling you…"_

"_Leo…" Rena sighed under her breath. "We all have skeletons in the closet, some more than others. You don't have to tell me any of your secrets if you don't want to."_

Was it the right decision to not speak?

Should Leo have kept his secrets to himself?

There was so much to say… And yet, Rena didn't want… No, she didn't feel the need to learn of those secrets.

'… _Why?'_

That was the question that was on his mind, a question that had plagued him for many a nights.

"Quite a predicament…"

Leo stopped dead in his tracks and snapped his eyes wide open, blinking a few times at the leaning figure up against a stack of barrels…

… Slightly bruised and bandaged, there stood none other than Maroon, a pair of duel disks underneath his arms as he leered at Leo behind his tinted glasses.

"Evening," Maroon stated pushing himself away from the barrels, keeping the duel disks tucked underneath his arms.

"… Same to you, I suppose," Leo replied standing up straight.

"A lovely evening to say the least," Maroon continued standing directly into Leo's path. "A clear night, the salty breeze, and even the festival's noises drawing to a close – Now if only we each had a sweetheart under our arms, we'd have the perfect evening."

Leo couldn't help but blink a few times at the maroon haired teen, "Is there anything I can do to help you with?"

"Well, actually there is, Mr. Leonardo Childsman," Maroon answered pulling the duel disks from under his arms. "If you would be so kind as to put this duel disk on your arm…"

Maroon blinked a few times as he realized that Leo was already behind him, walking away, "H-How in the…?"

"I don't have time for this," Leo replied walking away from the surprised Maroon. "So sorry…"

That's when Leo stopped, his eyes widening very, very slightly…

Some how, Maroon was standing in front of him, this time with one of the duel disks strapped to his left arm – Deck already loaded. "I'm afraid I can't let you do that Mr. Childsman."

"… Looks like I have a few more copycats running around the island," Leo mused tapping the side of his head a few times with his pointer and middle finger. "I don't know how you managed to find out my secret technique…"

And just like that, Leo disappeared right in front of Maroon's eyes, only to materialize (not literally) behind the maroon hair colored duelist. "But I have too much on my mind to really take an interest in this… So you'll have to go bug someone else…"

Leo failed to realize that with each step he took, the grass was starting to lose its coloring.

"I'm afraid you don't get a choice in the matter," Maroon growled running past Leo, to stand before him. "Either you face me…"

"Trying to threaten me, now?" Leo sighed with a shake of his head. "Tsk, tsk, it's become quite sad what's becoming of this world and its people…"

"I'm not threatening you," Maroon retorted waving his hand up slightly. "Perhaps that cute little brunette is still back at the bench…"

Of course, if the Artist Formally Known as Morty was doing his job, then said brunette was probably already dueling against him…

… And from the leer that Maroon was getting from Leo was any indication, '_Hook, line, and sinker…'_

"You will not lay a finger on Rena…" Leo growled holding his hand up. "If you want a challenge…"

Maroon tossed the disk up into the air, allowing Leo to grasp the device quickly and locking it over his left arm, pulling his deck out from his pocket. "Then you just got one!"

"Most excellent," Maroon stated pushing a button on his duel disk, making the deck shuffle inside the device. '_I may not have been able to beat the Mao character… And maybe I didn't get the chance to even duel against that Riko guy…_

'_But I know for a fact that I can at least have a chance to beat this guy! Especially since I run a deck that's much more efficient in defeating a deck like his._

'_Don't worry brother… I'll beat this guy and use Vic to find out what happened to you!'_

And with a loud beep, Maroon held his duel disk up into the air, "Are you ready?"

"But of course," Leo retorted as the borrowed duel disk hummed to life.

"Well then…" Maroon cackled as both duelists fanned off their first five cards.

"Game on!"

**0-0-0-0**

Meanwhile…

Standing atop of the Ra Yellow dorm's roof, Vic slammed his foot into the guard bar at the roof's edge, his purple overcoat billowing in the wind behind him. Slowly he raised his hand up in front of his face, his fingers wrapping around the cough-guard at his mouth.

"Tonight…" Vic mused pulling his hand away along with a shake of his head. "I can feel it in my bones…"

Pushing himself off the guardrail, Vic spun on the roof on the tip of his boot until he took a few steps with his arms raised. "I can feel a rush pulsing through my veins! With each tick of the clock I can feel it beating in my heart, beating faster and faster!

"Such excitement!

"Such joy!

"Such pleasure!"

Craning his head up towards the moon, Vic slowly lifted his arms up, allowing his shadow to run across the roof, "So, go my soldiers of the colorless world… Bask this island in the countless shades of gray and spread the fear through everyone who would get in my path to greatness…

"So them the shades of gray that are hidden to this world…"

**0-0-0-0**

"Since you're the one who challenged me," Leo stated holding his hand up slightly. "Feel free to make the choice of who goes first…" (LLP: 8000)

"Don't mind if I do," Maroon stated…

And then snapped off the top card from his deck…

Making Leo blink a few times as several feathers seemed to appear at Maroon's side.

"But before we begin," Maroon sighed pulling his glasses off of his face, his eyes narrowed down at Leo. "I have a question… You run those angels, right? Airknights if I'm correct." (MLP: 8000)

"Perhaps you are," Leo said simply, running a hand through his hair. "And perhaps I'm not…"

"Don't try to fool me," Maroon cackled holding up one of his cards over his duel disk, hovering it over the glowing colored card zones. "I've read the reports concerning you while I was recovering from my… Last mix up…"

Leo couldn't help but take note of the sweatdrop rolling down the side of Maroon's head that dripped down to his shoulder, "H-However," Maroon coughed shaking his head. "That's beside the point, I have prepared for a chance to face against the Airknights – After all…

"They are the bane of my monsters' existences."

"What?" Leo asked blinking a few times.

"I summon Sangan in attack mode!" Maroon announced.

Emerging from the colorless ground was none other than the three eyed, orange furred critter popped onto the field, squeaking loudly as it blinked several times (1000/600).

"And for good measure, I'll place one card face down," Maroon announced as the face down card materialized behind the small critter of a monster. "And end my turn as such!"

Slowly, Leo drew his sixth card, turning it over in order for him properly view it, '_It's obvious he wants me to attack Sangan… But, does he want to destroy it to get a monster or does he want to activate his face down card?'_

Maroon only tapped his chin a few times, thinking over several things at the same time, '_… Did I leave the curling iron on?'_

'_Well, if he wants to offer it to me,'_ Leo thought to himself before slapping a card onto his duel disk, making countless feathers erupt in front of him. "Then I'll gladly accept! I summon Airknight Saber in attack mode!"

The feathers disappeared to allow a handsome, blonde angel with a nobleman's sword that he swung a few times through the air (1700/1000). However, unlike the previous times this monster was summoned, this handsome angel had narrowed his eyes down at Maroon and scowled at the colored hair teen.

"Saber!" Leo announced throwing his hand up into the air. "Attack Sangan!"

Spinning the blade in his hands a few times, the blue robed angel flew through the air, twisting around before he brought the blade down and shattered the three eyed demon. (MLP: 7300)

"I don't think I have to tell you what Sangan is capable of," Maroon stated as a card popped out into his hand. "So thanks for the free card…"

'_I don't know what he's got planned,'_ Leo thought looking at the five other cards in his hand. '_So, I'll have to use my cards sparingly…'_

"I'll set one card face down! And end my turn!"

Maroon was silent as he drew another card from his deck, giving him six cards to work with. But that was quickly changed when he pulled a card from his hand and slid it into the disk, "I activate the spell card – Holy Blight!"

Another card popped out from Maroon's deck, allowing him to turn the card around before he fitted it into his duel disk's graveyard, "This card allows me to send a light attribute fiend type monster from my deck to the graveyard – And I'm allowed to draw two more cards from my deck!"

'… _Is he searching for something?'_ Leo thought as the face down on Maroon's field began to flip up.

"Next, I'll run my trap card," Maroon continued as Sangan reappeared on the field (1000/600), squeaking loudly. "The trap card – Limit Reverse! Which allows me to special summon a monster with one thousand or less attack points… But don't worry, he's not staying for too long, I release the monster…"

Sangan squeaked loudly before shattering into millions of pixels that flew through the air. "In order to summon – Angelo Nelo General!"

From the pixels that were the remains of Sangan, countless white feathers began to fly through the air, clumping together with a dark aura surrounding them… Then, the feathers erupted away from each other, forming into a large bulky golden armored knight with angelic markings and wings pouring from its back. The knight slowly floated to the ground, drawing its mighty, yet sleek sword through the air (1500/1000).

"What is that?" Leo questioned blinking a few times at the weird monster as Maroon pulled another card from his deck, thanks to Sangan's effect.

"This… This is an angel," Maroon exclaimed with his hands lifted up into the air. "And one of the most dangerous kinds of angels you'll ever see…"

"An angel you say," Leo said pointing towards the armored demonic knight. "But I can clearly see that it's no angel…"

"Oh, but it once was," Maroon answered back as his graveyard slot began to glow brightly. "But, it's just a stained angel… A once proud being that had sacrificed it's purity in order to save its comrades… Your Airknights…"

"… Oh?" Leo questioned tilting his head slightly to the side.

"And he's not the only lost soul," Maroon continued as he pulled a card from his graveyard slot. "He's the General, and when he's successfully advanced summoned, I can special summon a fellow of the fallen… Arise…"

Several other feathers erupted from the ground, this time clumping together into a large, bulky silver knight dressed in angelic armor with a large shield that was shaped in the form of two wings with a large javelin in its hands (1000/1000). "Angelo Knight!"

'… _He must've used that as fodder for his Holy Blight card,'_ Leo thought as his Airknight Saber lifted his sword up in a defensive stance. '_And if he was willing to work hard to get those two cards out, he must have a plan…'_

"Next comes my Angelo Knight's effect," Maroon continued as two more bursts of feathers erupted into the air, forming into two more Angelo Knights (1000/1000 x2), both of them raising their javelins into the air. "When it's special summon, I can special summon all other copies of it from my deck in attack mode!"

'_This is a rush style!'_ Leo thought in his head as he took a step back.

"Next, I activate the spell card – Demon War!" Maroon announced as a powerful aura erupted around all four of his armored angels. "For each fiend and zombie type monster on the field, my fiends gain two hundred and fifty attack points… And since there are four monsters so far…"

All four of the fallen angel armors lifted their weapons into the air, empowering the monsters (1500/1000 + 1000/0) (1000/1000 + 1000/0 x3).

"That's over eight thousand points!" Leo muttered lifting his duel disk up like a shield.

"Angelo Nelo General!" Maroon commanded as the general lifted his wings up high into the air. "I give you your target… Destroy the Airknight Saber!"

With countless feathers flinging off its body, the demonic angel spun around to bring its sword down on the angelic warrior…

"I activate my trap card!" Leo announced as a powerful barrier erupted over his field, blocking the sword. "Negate Attack!"

"Fine… I can wait," Maroon cackled pulling two cards from his hand. "I'll simply set these two cards face down… And the carnage has only started…"

"Your lines sound like a bad terminator parody," Leo sighed as he drew, pulling his hand up to five cards.

"Perhaps," Maroon chuckled flicking his hand through his name-sake's colored hair. "But look at the field… I've got four powerful monsters and you've only gotten your pathetic Airknight… I think I've earned the right."

"Insult my monsters once more," Leo stated pulling a card from his hand. "And you'll regret it as much as you'll come to regret threatening my friend… I'll make you eat your empty threats…"

"Hmm… I wonder about that," Maroon stated pushing a button on his duel disk, making the face down card flip up. "Well, I'm not limited to battle damage – I activate my trap card, Solar Ray!"

All four of the angelic armored knights crossed their arms over their chests, their armor glowing brightly until the light made Leo and his Airknight Saber lift their arms up to dampen the light slightly. "This trap card is so powerful, that for each light monster that I possess on the field, you take six hundred points of damage!"

Leo's eyes closed as the light continued to get brighter and brighter for each second that passed, making him stagger backwards as his duel disk beeped loudly, "U… Urk!" (LLP: 5600)

"… Still think I can't back up my threats?" Maroon asked fitting the trap card into his duel disk's graveyard.

"I'll be the first to admit that I overlooked your strategy," Leo sighed shaking his head slightly. "But we've just started this duel… And I've not yet begun to fight!"

"Now look who's using movie quotes," Maroon muttered rolling his eyes slightly at Leo.

"I summon Seraphim Gunner in attack mode!" Leo announced, not listening to Maroon…

Countless feathers fell from the sky, allowing a new angel to descend from the colorless skies above, this one draped in a blue cloak that covered her body, save for her head of long blond hair and large wings. And from under her cloak, the angel produced a long silver gun, thus giving her the name (1800/1200).

"You'll have to do better than that," Maroon growled looking at the monster.

"I intend to," Leo replied holding his hand up towards his newest angel. "You see, when summoned, my Gunner gives me a choice. I can either select her attack or defense, and for each other Fairy monster I control, she gets three hundred points…

"And just for kicks, I'll choose her attack!"

A powerful aura appeared around the angelic gunner, allowing her to smile as the energy continued to course through her veins (1800/1200 + 300/0).

"Er…" Maroon smirked sheepishly… Sure, he'd probably lose a little of his boost, but he'd be able to gain the advantage back very soon… After all, one monster won't be able to make much of a dent…

"Next," Leo announced pulling another card from his hand, "I activate the equip spell card, known as Cestus of Dagla, and equip it to my Airknight Saber!"

With his weapon shattering into millions of feathers, the Airknight Saber simply lifted his hands up, allowing the feathers to reform around his hands and form into a pair of golden curved blades that were held tightly in the angel's grasp (1700/1000 + 500/0). "And to start off… Seraphim Saber! Attack one of the Angelo Knights!"

Flying backwards into the air, the gun totting angel lifted her weapon up and fired off several rounds that landed directly into one of the angelic armored demons' chest plates, making the monster explode into millions of lit ablaze feathers. (MLP: 7200)

"And…" Leo announced pumping his fist up into the air. "Since one of your demons in angel wool fell in battle, your other monsters lose some attack points!"

Maroon stepped back slightly, his face tightening into a scowl as his Angelo Nelo General (2500/1000 – 250/0) and remaining two Angelo Knights (2000/1000 – 250/0 x2) weakened slightly.

"And that makes your demons even weaker compared to my Airknight Saber!" Leo announced. "Attack another one of the Angelo Knights!"

The blade wielding angel flew through the air and slashed right through one of the remaining two Angelo Knights, shattering the armor quite easily. (MLP: 6750)

"And, thanks the Cestus," Leo explained as his Airknight flew back to his side of the field, a light aura flowing over Leo's body. "I gain life points equal to the damage you received just now." (LLP: 6050)

But that wasn't what Maroon was snarling about, rather it was the fact that his two remaining demonic angel armors were weaker than before (2250/1000 – 250/0) (1750/1000 – 250/0).

"I'll end my turn," Leo announced as a pair of set cards appeared behind his two angels. "With one face down… And thus, I'll leave it to you."

"Bad move," Maroon growled snapping off one of the cards from his deck, giving him five cards to work with. "Because of that move, I'm now angry… And you won't like me when I'm angry!"

"… Can you please stop with all the movie quotes?" Leo sighed rubbing his temples. "It's not like I'm asking a lot… Just to please let up on the references, it gets really annoying, really fast…"

"Last time I checked," Maroon snickered pulling the card he just drew in front of his face. "I wasn't forced to follow your requests, besides, last time I checked, I'm the bad guy. Just try to make me stop."

"If you want me to try," Leo said lifting his duel disk. "Then I'll more than glad to do so."

"But you'll have to wait till next turn," Maroon stated slapping a card onto his duel disk, making countless feathers erupt from the ground at his feet. "You see, since I possess two light attribute fiend type monsters on my side of the field, I am allowed to normal summon this monster from my hand without tribute!"

The feathers rushed through the air, whipping around and clumping together in order to form into a large angelic looking warrior... Save for the fact that his steel feathered body revealed the black chest plate and demonic face. With one large golden wing on the left side of his body, it was a wonder how this monster was even floating. Its right arm was covered with a black shield while in its left claw was a long golden saber with a wing design on it.

The demonic angel screeched loudly (2400/2000 + 750/0), empowering not only itself, but the Angelo Knight (1500/1000 + 250/0) and Angelo Nelo General (2000/1000 + 250/0) in the process.

"Meet One Winged Nelo Angelo," Maroon introduced lifting his hands up high into the air. "One of the key monsters in this deck… And one of the most dangerous to boot! Allow me to show you – Attack the Seraphim Gunner!"

Raising its wing-like sword, the demonic angel flew through the air, prepared to bring down it's bladed wing down on the gun wielding angel…

"I activate my trap card!" Leo announced as a powerful glass barrier appeared around his two angels. "Mirror Force will destroy…"

"Sorry, but I still have my own face down card," Maroon countered with his trap card flipping up, allowing a large Swiss army knight appear in front of the glass barrier, shattering it. "For the mere cost of a thousand life points, I can activate my own trap card – Seven Tools of the Bandit!" (MLP: 5750)

With the glass barrier no longer protecting her, the angelic gunner was sliced in two by the demonic angel, shattering the monster into millions of feathers that flew through the air and past Leo, sending him skidding backwards. "U-URK!" (LLP: 5000)

"Next!" Maroon announced as his armored general flew in front of him. "Destroy that Saber!"

With a loud screech, the armored demon stabbed his sword into the surprised angel's stomach, shattering the angel into millions of feathers. (LLP: 4950)

"And now…" Maroon cackled as the last monster on his field stomped across the field and lifted his javelin up into the air. "Direct attack!"

Leo's eyes widened just as javelin slashed down his chest, making his eyes widened as the weapon cut… Yes… Cut through his uniform and slice down his chest, a spurt of blood erupting from the entry wound. "AAAAAHHHHH!" (LLP: 3200)

As the knight pulled away, Leo couldn't help but fall to his knees, his eyes dulling over due to the pain with his jaw clenched tightly.

"Do you feel it?" Maroon asked licking his lips as his three angelic demons floated around his body. "The hatred? The burning sensation? Perhaps maybe even taste of revenge?"

"R… Revenge?" Leo sputtered gaining a small speck of his consciousness back, which would probably give out at any moment. "But… But I never met you before… T-Today…"

"Well, you're partially correct," Maroon sighed shaking his head. "You see, we knew each other indirectly… After all…

"You were the cause of my brother's distress… And my sister's current condition…"

"B-Brother?" Leo coughed slowly getting back to his feet, shakily but surely. "S-Sister?"

"Allow me to introduce myself," Maroon growled giving a bow towards Leo. "I am Maroon Kazin… The eldest brother of the Kazin siblings, older brother to Russell Kazin and Lily Kazin, and the one that's possibly still functioning properly."

Leo's eyes widened and his jaw slowly began to drop, "W-Wait… Y… You…"

"Yes," Maroon sighed shaking his head, making his hair snap side to side. "You can clearly see why I challenged you to a duel of this magnitude…

"I'm here to reclaim what you took from the both of them!"

**0-0-0-0**

Of course, being on top of the Ra Yellow roof wasn't all that fun (well duh!), so in order to kill some time, Vic was able to view the duels and even some of the conversations that were going on…

And at the moment he heard Maroon say those words…

"Wow…" Vic mused rubbing his chin. "I wondered what Maroon's last name was… And if he was related to that Kazin guy, I can't help but wonder about Orange. Does he have a secret connection to all this too?"

"I guess you'll find out… Eventually…"

Vic jumped slightly, making him spin around, his eyes widening, "You!"

**0-0-0**

"N-Now hold on a minute," Leo groaned as he slowly undid the button on his uniform blazer, figuring that it was a waste of time to wear something that was ruined. "How can you be a Kazin? I never saw you, and I never heard Lily or Russell mention you…"

"I'm not surprised that you don't know about me," Maroon replied flicking his hair away from his eyes. "I may have been the eldest brother, but I was the troublemaker of the three – So much so that I had to be sent to a military academy the year before you actually made friends with my siblings.

"That and the fact even if you saw my pictures on the wall there, you probably wouldn't have recognized me now- I'm a little thinner, my face is a little more wore, and my hair… Well, it wasn't always my namesake's…"

"Okay," Leo sighed pulling the jacket off his right arm, but kept it flowing over his left arm due to the fact that it was kept thanks to his duel disk. "If that's the case, then why didn't you work with Kazin during the Twilight Incident?"

"I wasn't in it for petty revenge," Maroon sighed shaking his head. "At least not until after the whole fiasco. I was in the Yokai after I learned that Russell himself had joined it just for petty revenge against you for our sister's coma.

"I wanted to save Russell… I didn't want to lose my brother like I lost my sister! I wasn't even able to visit Lily for two weeks due to the fact that I was on my own with expenses at the time."

"Then why are you coming after me now?" Leo questioned holding his sore torso. "You just said that you weren't in it for petty revenge…"

"Back then, yes, I wasn't interested in that at all," Maroon answered slamming his fists together. "I wanted to get Russell out before he got too deep to save, and even then I wasn't able to even get close to him because I was a grunt in the organization – And that being the case, Russell disappeared soon after the whole fiasco blew over…

"Taken from his bed while he was recovering…

"My sister's in a state which she can't wake up… And my brother is gone from sight…"

Maroon threw his hand to the side, immediately pumping his fist towards Leo. "And you know what? It was because of you! If you didn't exist, my sister would still be awake today and my brother would be at my side!"

Leo backed up slightly…

"Your very existence is the salt that's being rubbed in my wounded soul," Maroon sobbed throwing his head up into the air. "I just want to erase you from this world! I don't care that if I erase you my siblings won't come back… I just need closure! I need to get rid of you! I want you gone! And I want to be the one to make you disappear!

"I want to make the pain you caused me disappear!

"I need to destroy you… Just like my fallen angels hate the angels that you run! Through their sacrifice for that kingdom they reside in, my monsters were turned into demons… And did they get thanked for what they did? Did they receive compensation for their sacrifice?

"NO!

"They were shunned! They were disgraced!"

"I… I…" Leo mumbled turning his gaze away from Maroon.

"Stuff it," Maroon growled fitting a card into his duel disk, making it appear besides his other face down card. "I have no interest in listening to your excuses… Just be glad that I don't have any other monster to attack you with this turn.

"Judgment will fall next turn…"

Leo slowly drew… Pulling off his next card weakly.

"You know Maroon," Leo coughed looking at his hand of four cards. "I do find myself at the basis of blame for what happened to your brother and sister…"

"Glad to see that you're in agreement," Maroon stated.

"However…" Leo scoffed as he stood up straight, his legs trembling slightly in the process. "While it may be true that I feel that sorrow, I myself made a promise to myself when I learned of Lily's fate… That I would smile and live for the both of us! Never to experience sorrow and smile for the two of us!

"As for Russell… I never forced him to come after me, I wasn't the one who took him away, I wasn't the one who forced him to join the Yokai!"

"Oh! What's this?" Maroon gasped holding his hand up. "The freak speaks! But wait… What's he saying?! All I hear is gibberish!"

"If you won't listen to my words…" Leo stated holding up the card he just drew. "Then I'll make you see my actions!"

**0-0-0-0**

**Card Stats**

**Seraphim Gunner / Light / LV. 4 / ATK: 1800 / DEF: 1200 / Fairy/Effect:** When this monster is Normal Summoned, Flip Summoned or Special Summoned successfully; select either the ATK or DEF of this card and increase it by 300 points for every other Fairy-Type monster you control.

**Description:** An angel draped in a blue cloak that covered her body, save for her head of long blond hair and large wings. And from under her cloak, the angel produced a long silver gun

_This card was used in the Yu-Gi-Oh! R manga._

**Holy Blight / Spell / Effect:** Select one Light-Attribute Fiend-type monster from your deck and send it to the graveyard. Shuffle your deck and then draw two cards.

**Image:** A powerful light engulfing a pair of cards that are lit ablaze

**Angelo Knight / Light / LV. 3 / ATK: 1000 / DEF: 1000 / Fiend/Effect:** This card cannot be released for an advance summon. When this card is special summoned, special summon all 'Angelo Knight' cards from your deck (During the turn this effect is used, all 'Angelo Knight' Monsters cannot attack this turn.)

**Description:** A large bulky silver knight with angelic like armor with a large shield that seemed to resemble wings with a javelin in his hands.

**Angelo Nelo General / Light / LV. 6 / ATK: 1500 / DEF: 1000 / Fiend/Effect:** When this card is successfully advance summoned, you may special summon one monster from your graveyard with 1000 or less attack points (a monster special summoned cannot be used for an advance summon). As long as you possess another monster, this card cannot be targeted for an attack.

**Description:** A large bulky golden knight dressed in angelic armor with a pair of golden wings on its back with a sleek sword in his hands.

**One Winged Nelo Angelo / Light / LV. 7 / ATK: 2400 / DEF: 2000 / Fiend/Effect:** If you possess two or more Light Attribute Fiend-Type monsters on your side of the field, you may normal summon this card from your hand without tribute. When this card attacks, if your opponent activates a trap card, you may destroy one 'Angelo' monster on your side of the field to negate the effect and end the battle phase.

**Description:** large angelic looking warrior... Save for the fact that his steel feathered body revealed the black chest plate and demonic face. With one large golden wing on the left side of his body, it was a wonder how this monster was even floating. Its right arm was covered with a black shield while in its left claw was a long golden saber with a wing design on it.

**Demon War / Continuous Spell / Effect:** For each Zombie and Fiend-type monster on the field, increase the attack points of all Fiend-type monsters on your side of the field by 250 points.

**Image:** Several demons fighting Zombies.

**0-0-0-0**

**Leo: **My, my, my… The author is quite evil lately, pulling another cliffhanger out on everyone.

**Maroon: **… I'd pay attention to what's going on in the duel rather than talk to nobody!

**Leo:** Maroon, I am sorry for had happened to your siblings… But I made a promise to live on, and I shall live on!

_**Next time on Heaven's Fallen Hell – Final Episode: **__**On An Angel and Demon's Wings!**__**Can the noble Leonardo defeat the revenge filled Maroon in battle?**_

**Leo:** Too bad the next chapter doesn't really show us dueling for the main part…

**Maroon:** Wait… What?!

_**Chapter 65**_

_**The Color Orange**_

**Maroon:** … Orange? Are you kidding me?! Him!?! Who's he facing?!

**Leo:** Maybe if you read the script every once in a while, you'd know.


	66. Chapter 65: The Color Orange

_**Throughout history and fiction consistency, if you look towards 'villains' and why they do what they do you'd find that they have a dark past or have an accident that make them into the infamous people they have become.**_

_**Every villain has a story, even those that are just for comedic relief. **_

_**Take Dias for example, his almost his entire family was wiped out and his body was racked with disease that prompted him to seek any method at all to cure himself… Even if he had to cut down several people in order to do so.**_

_**Then there was Eternity Angelo… He wanted revenge on what the world did to him and his little sister, hoping to recreate the world in order to make people's 'masks' disappear (I don't really get it, but then again, I'm not the guy who dueled against him).**_

_**Heck even the goons that work for those two all had their reasons – Kazin, Maroon, Xander, Bravo, Seika… Well, there are more than I can remember, but they all had their reasons…**_

_**So, I can't help but be curious about this guy's reason for joining not just one, but two organizations with shady goals. **_

_**0-0-0-0**_

_**Chapter 65**_

_**The Color Orange **_

_**0-0-0**_

"_You know Maroon," Leo coughed looking at his hand of four cards. "I do find myself at the basis of blame for what happened to your brother and sister…"_

"_Glad to see that you're in agreement," Maroon stated._

"_However…" Leo scoffed as he stood up straight, his legs trembling slightly in the process. "While it may be true that I feel that sorrow, I myself made a promise to myself when I learned of Lily's fate… That I would smile and live for the both of us! Never to experience sorrow and smile for the two of us!_

"_As for Russell… I never forced him to come after me, I wasn't the one who took him away, I wasn't the one who forced him to join the Yokai!"_

"_Oh! What's this?" Maroon gasped holding his hand up. "The freak speaks! But wait… What's he saying?! All I hear is gibberish!"_

"_If you won't listen to my words…" Leo stated holding up the card he just drew. "Then I'll make you see my actions!"_

Leo looked at his card, and the four other cards in his hand with nothing on his field to protect his meager life points. (LLP: 3200)

Maroon on the other hand… All three of his demonic angels screeched loudly – The One Winged Nelo Angelo (2400/2000 + 750/0), the Angelo Knight (1500/1000 + 250/0) and Angelo Nelo General (2000/1000 + 250/0) – All empowered by the Demon Wars spell card, and backed up by another face down card.

And with a scowl on his face, Maroon looked at the single card in his hand. (MLP: 5750)

"I've already seen your actions, Leo," he snarled, his eyes looking as sharp as daggers. "Do you really think your angels can defeat my fallen deities?"

"… Well, I'm going to try," Leo answered slapping his newest card onto his duel disk. "And it'll start with me summoning Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands!"

In a bright light, the silver skinned fairy with almost countless arms and hands sticking out from his body and head (1400/1000) appeared with a battle cry.

"Now, I can pull any ritual monster or ritual spell card from my deck and add it to my hand!" he announced as a card popped off from his deck. "And I choose the ritual spell – Machine Angel Ritual… So why wait to play it?"

A powerful flame appeared behind Manju, taking the creature inside of it as several feathers began to rain down from the sky, "So by sending Manju and an Airknight Shield from my hand… I can special summon one of the Cyber Angels from my hand…"

The flame shattered, releasing the tall daunting form of the blue skinned, multi-armed woman onto the field, her bronze armor glistening in the moon light as she spun the two swords and lance in her hands (2700/2400). "And when summoned, I can use Cyber Angel Dakini's effect to destroy any monster on your field…"

"True, but I get to decide which monster," Marron pointed out gesturing towards his lone Angelo Knight… Only to have the monster shatter into millions of black feathers. "And the weakest must disappear…"

"But your other two monsters lose some of their attack points regardless," Leo pointed out.

Indeed, the powerful aura that was around the One Winged Angelo (3150/2000 – 250/0) and Angelo Nelo General (2250/1000 – 250/0).

"So what?" Maroon chuckled rubbing his nose.

'… _He's not worried?'_ Leo thought looking at the two other fallen angels. '_Do those angels have another ability that I'm not aware of?'_

"What are you waiting for?" Maroon questioned pushing up his shades. "Are you going to end your turn just like that? And allow your hard earned angel be destroyed?!"

Leo looked at the last two cards in his hand and fitted one of them into his duel disk, "I'm not going to take a risk… I'll set one card and end my turn!"

"Of course you do," Maroon chuckled slowly flicking off his next card, giving him two cards in his hand. "Now then… I think it's time we end this charade, One Winged Nelo Angelo! Attack his 'angel'! Golden Wing Saber!"

Stabbing its blade into the ground, the angel like demon flew towards Dakini the saber digging up the concrete, prepared to bring the blade into the Cyber Angel…

"Don't think so!" Leo announced snapping his arm forward. "I activate my face down spell card – Enemy Controller!"

The ground lit up, allowing a large game controller to appear in front of Leo, the chord snapping into the surprised One Winged demon's chest. "A! B! A! Up! Down! B! Left! Right! Move to defense mode!"

A jolt of electricity surged through the angelic demon's body, making the monster take a knee with his single wing covering its body.

"Urk!" Maroon snarled looking at his cards, his teeth barred and ready to rip anything to shreds. "T-Turn end…"

"Maroon," Leo said pulling his next card, his eyes looking at the card art at it.

"WHAT!?!" Maroon snarled.

Leo shook his head, "You have this hatred for me… And I don't blame you for having it."

Maroon blinked a few times.

Clutching the front of his uniform tightly, Leo lowered his head towards the ground, "I hate myself for being responsible for Lily's coma… I hate myself even more for having forget about the entire thing.

"As for Russell… Well, what he did wasn't justifiable, but I can understand why he would do it… If I lost someone who was important, I would make myself take revenge on the thing that caused me to lose that important thing…

Pulling down his shades slightly, Maroon blinked a few times at Leo.

"However…" Leo shouted lifting his head up to reveal the serious look in his eyes. "If I have to, I'll be more than willing to take down anyone who tries to end my life! I'm living for not just myself…

"But for Lily too!"

"You… You don't deserve to say those words!" Maroon roared throwing his arm to the side. "You're the one who stole her consciousness in the first place!"

"… And that is why," Leo stated slipping his next card onto his duel disk. "I have taken to bear this sin on my shoulders, and live my life for not only me, but for all of those who have been hurt by me!

"Dakini! Slay that demon in angel feathers!"

With a powerful leap, the blue skinned, armored angel stabbed all of the weapons into One Winged Nelo Angelo, making the demon screech out in pain before it broke into millions of feathers that billowed into the air.

"And Dakini has another effect," Leo announced pumping his fist up into the air. "You take damage equal to the difference between her attack points and your monsters defense points…"

"Wait… What?" Maroon questioned as the feathers floated past his body and disappeared into darkness. (MLP: 5050)

"Maroon… I am truly sorry for what has happened to your family," Leo said with his eyes closed. "And I…"

"Save it!" Maroon roared pulling off his next card, turning the card around as his eyes widened at the sight of the blue bordered card.

Then a smile appeared on his face.

"Heh… Heh, ha, ha… HAHAHAHAHA!"

'… _That's some poker face,'_ Leo thought with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of his head.

"This next card was a gift from my more… Recent employer…" Maroon stated holding up the card he held. "A card so dark that I must offer up ten stars worth of monsters…"

A powerful dark flame behind the Nelo Angelo General, wrapping the monster into the pillar's flame engulfed body, "So by sending the general I have on the field and the one I have in my hand, I can summon my deck's devil… Go Darkest Sacrifice!"

The dark flame began to recede allowing a new monster to step from the flame, with each step a large demon with the head of horned horse's skull roared loudly. Under its bone like armor are its large muscles with organs showing that pulsated every few seconds, the monster itself stood at least twenty feet tall and has a long tail (3500/3000) that slammed on the ground next to Maroon. "Meet the master of my deck…Hades Excelion!"

"W-What the?" Leo yelped taking a step backwards. "What in the world is that thing?!"

"Oh, this? This happens to be a card that I found deep in my boss's collection case," Maroon admitted with his arms crossed. "You see, he told me that this card was given to him by a man who had a motive similar to mine… He tried to gain something back from a person he hated with all his soul!"

"And was he successful?" Leo questioned gaining some courage.

"Actually… Yes he was," Maroon cackled.

'… _Not good…'_ Leo thought taking a step back.

"I'll end my turn," Maroon announced crossing his empty arms.

"Huh?" Leo questioned. "But…"

"In case you're wondering," Maroon sighed with a smug smirk gracing his lips. "My demon is so strong that when he's summoned to the field, he cannot attack… It takes too much energy from my demon to appear on the field."

"Well, that's a relief," Leo sighed slowly drawing his next card. '_There's… There's something weird about that monster… It's almost as if it's not really a hologram, but rather…'_

"Make your move!" Maroon shouted.

Leo looked at his next monster, his eyes glowering at it. "I set a monster, and then switch Dakini to defense mode!"

The blue skinned angel merely knelt down next to the new set monster, her four arms crossed over her chest and her weapons stabbed into the ground. "I'll end my turn with a set card… So my turn is over!"

A sadistic look peered over Maroon's face, making his already cursed smirk to become more diabolic. "And so begins mine! Draw!"

He didn't even bother to look at the card he drew, instead he just lifted his finger up towards Dakini, "Excelion! Devour that 'Angel'!"

With a loud roar, the large skeleton themed demon stomped towards the surprised blue skinned angelic warrior, wrapping the bony claws around her body and with a mighty snarl, the demon opened it large mouth and pulled the screaming angelic warrior towards its sharp teeth…

Leo turned his eyes away at the last second to avoid the gorging session on his angel, although the sound of snapping bones and tearing armor was enough to make him wince in sorrow.

A loud snarl made Leo turn up to see that Excelion was still standing over his field, its long, blood-drenched tongue pending from its toothed mouth.

"Do you think that it's over?" Maroon snickered as he licked his own lips. "Not a chance… You see, my Hades Excelion has a very special ability. When it destroys a monster, it gets to attack once more! Tail slam!"

With a blinding speed, the large demon slammed its large bone-armored tail into the face down monster, crushing the card until it popped up into brown furred critter with three wincing eyes (1000/600) before it shattered into millions of shards.

"Thanks for that!" Leo announced as a certain card shot out from his deck and into his hand. "You see, that card was Sangan! The very first monster you summoned, so I don't need to tell you what it can do!"

"You make it sound like you're going to be able to use that monster," Maroon stated as Excelion roared loudly once more. "Maybe I need to explain something about Excelion… His attacks have no limit! As long as he destroys a monster first, he can attack once more…

"That means you're his next meal!"

Leo's eyes widened as the demon's claws wrapped around his torso and lifted him off of the ground.

For a few moments, Leo wanted to scream… But his throat had clamped up tightly that he was forced to only stare the demon in its blood red eyes.

"Finish him!" Maroon commanded with a maniacal laugh following.

Slowly, Excelion began to bring Leo closer and closer towards its opened mouth, intent on making Leo suffer the same fate as Dakini…

… No one noticed the single card that popped out of Leo's graveyard at the same time…

**0-0-0**

Back on the real world of the Academy, seated under one of the many trees on the island was none other than Yukino, several tissues scattered around the grassy ground. "Damn it!"

Apparently she was having a hard time adjusting to her loss in the competition… Or maybe there was a deeper meaning to it all…

"Lord Riko!"

… Nope, more shallowness…

With her makeshift (and poorly thought-out) plan to have Lord Riko and herself win the pageant in order to make themselves into an 'item'… But we all know how that plan just blew up in her face.

"It's not fair," Yukino sniffled to herself as she pushed up her glasses to wipe away her tears. "I keep trying and trying and…"

"Trying and trying?"

Yukino nearly screamed when she heard that voice that came from behind the tree she sat at, taking note that there was a long tuft of orange hair that poked out from the side of the tree.

Soon the head that was connected to the hair peered out with his new sunglasses covering his bruised up eyes, "Sorry 'bout that, I couldn't help but over hear someone crying…"

"W-Who's crying?" Yukino said wiping away the tears that had appeared on her face.

"… I'd hate to state the obvious," Orange stated with a flat tone. "But, that would have to be you."

"W-Whatever," Yukino huffed getting to her feet and pulling up the backpack that had the clothes (swimsuit) she had acquired through the pageant (She and Cleo made sure that the competitors would be allowed to keep the outfits at the end). "This eavesdropping was fun and all, but I better get back to the dorms…"

Translation in Yukino's head – '_What a freak! And what's with that hair color?'_

"Now hold on a second," Orange muttered holding his head slightly, revealing the duel disk that he had on his arm. "I really didn't mean listen in on you crying… I was just passing by on my way to the Blue Dorms and…"

"Blue Dorms?" Yukino questioned slowly turning around to face Orange, taking note of his purple uniform. "Are you a transfer student or a visiting student?"

"… Yeah, let's go with that," Orange chuckled with a bead of sweat rolling down the side of his head. "But I'm still a little lost… Can you point me in the right direction?"

"Um, sure," Yukino stated turning left and right to get her bearings. "So, are you sleeping at the Blue Dorms for the festival?"

"Nah, I'm bunking in the Yellow Dorm," Orange answered pushing up his shades. "I just got business with some guy there, I was told to challenge him to a duel… Nothing serious mind you, but still…"

That made Yukino raise an eyebrow, "If you don't mind me asking… Who are you going to duel?"

"Huh?" Orange muttered crossing his arms in deep thought. "Give me a second, I'm still trying to remember his name myself… I think it began with an R or something like that…"

'_Yeah, that really narrows it down…'_ Yukino thought with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of her head. '_Wait a second… Could he be talking about…?'_

"Riko?"

Orange snapped his fingers, "Bingo! That's his name!"

Yukino's eyes widened.

"Thanks miss," Orange chuckled with a large smirk appearing on his face. "I didn't know what I was going to do when I got there… By the way, which way is it to the dorm again?"

With a determined look on her face, Yukino merely stepped in front of Orange, confusing the older man, "Through me."

"… Don't make me laugh," Orange sighed holding his fists up, performing a few muscleman poses that he learned from Bravo. "In case you didn't notice, I'm bigger and have more muscles than you… Besides, it's not like I want to kill the guy, I'm just going to beat him into the ground with a duel…"

Yukino didn't answer, she didn't even blink as Orange stepped up towards her, "So why don't you just be a good little girl, and tell me where the blue dorms are?"

Orange was about to place his hand on Yukino's shoulder, but was stopped when Yukino had wrapped her fingers around his wrist, "Huh?"

"No one…" Yukino growled as her grip tightened very quickly, making Orange's eyes widen. "Talks about Lord Riko like that!"

The next thing Orange knew was that he was on the ground, his back riddled with pain and Yukino standing over him with an enraged look on her face. "Still think I'm a good little girl?"

'_Note to self… Girls know karate!'_ Orange screamed in his head as he quickly jumped back to his feet. "Alright… I tried being nice, now, I'm going to get…"

WHAM!

A fist collided with Orange's stomach, making all the air in his lungs rush out, "GAK!"

"Don't think I'm so nice!" Yukino announced before she spun around and delivered a powerful roundhouse kick to Orange's chest, sending him flying through the air and into a tree.

As Orange slid down the tree, it dawned on him that this was no ordinary girl… Then again, maybe he was still recovering from his duel earlier today. "Man, only a chick give me a migraine this bad…"

Whatever the excuse, the psychotic girl was heading straight for him once more, cracking her knuckles, "Any last words?"

"Uh… Heh," Orange chuckled sheepishly as he leaned up against the tree, using it to get back to his feet. "Challenge…"

"Challenge?" Yukino questioned blinking a few times

Orange lifted his duel disk up.

"Yes," He said pulling a deck of cards from his coat's pocket. "I challenge you to a duel, it matters not to me who I duel… I was just told to duel someone who wasn't in red, so unless I just became color blind, you'll suffice instead of… Um, what was his name again?"

"Riko," Yukino answered reaching into her backpack for her duel disk.

"Right…" Orange said pushing a button on his duel disk, making the deck inside shuffle at a great speed. '_I just need to duel someone… And it might as well be this crazy chick!'_

Soon as both duelists' duel disks lit up, Orange smirked with the dark aura popping under his feet, turning the grass under his feet into a colorless version of it. '_… And I might be able to have some fun here…'_

"So, got a name little lass?"

"To a guy like you?" Yukino scoffed to the side with her arms crossed. "No."

"Great," Orange sighed pulling his five cards from the top of his deck. "Well, in case you were wondering, I get called Orange."

"Orange?" Yukino questioned, blinking a few times. "Are you serious? You're named after a color?"

"You make it sound like it's not normal," Orange pointed out looking over the five cards he held. (OLP: 8000)

"It isn't!" Yukino shouted, not noticing that the trees behind her were now multiple shades of gray. (YLP: 8000)

"Hey, when compared to the rest of the people I knew in high school," Organ refuted as Yukino drew her five cards. "There were girls named Diamond, Heaven, Sapphire, and even Joe, and the guys… Well… Let's just say that next to Orange, the closest normal name was Shelia."

"Are you serious?" Yukino asked with a sweatdrop rolling down the side of her head.

"Do I look like I'm joking?" Orange retorted with a grim look on his face.

"… It's hard to take you serious when you have orange hair," Yukino said pulling a card of the top of her deck, giving her six cards to work with.

"Wouldn't be the first time I've heard that," Orange answered with a loud sigh.

"Anyway, back to the duel," Yukino muttered holding up another card from her hand. "I summon Mystic Tomato in attack mode!"

In a black flash, a large demonic red tomato landed on the ground, sticking out what would appear to be its tongue out at Orange (1400/1100).

"… That's even more wrong than the names I told ya about," Orange muttered raising an eyebrow at Yukino. "And you don't seem like the kind of girl who'd have something like that in your deck…"

"Life's full of surprises," Yukino announced as a set card appeared behind her tomato. "But everyone knows that…"

"Meh," Orange said waving his hand up slightly. "I guess you're right… It certainly was a surprise when I joined high school, you wouldn't believe all of things I saw… People being hung up on flag poles, the massive piercings, and how everyone seemed to turn into vampires right after watching that dumbass Twilight film."

Yukino couldn't blink a few times, "Uh… Yeah…"

"Don't tell me you had a Twilight phase too," Orange moaned with a slap to his forehead.

"Okay, I won't," Yukino muttered.

Liar.

Of course when she first saw the movie Twilight, Yukino was more than willing to dress in black and dye her hair… If her father was willing to cough up the cash to pay for all that, but since money was tight during the time…

… Well, Yukino was more than glad to have a scholarship to get her into the academy a year or two ago…

"… Whatever," Orange grumbled pulling his next card off the top of his deck, and with a swift turn of the card, he slapped it onto his duel disk. "I'll summon Mother Grizzly!"

With a loud roar, the dark blue furred bear stomped onto the ground (1400/1000).

"Battle!" Orange announced as the bear began to charge forward, snarling as it leapt towards the deranged tomato.

'_Great, that means he's searching for something too!'_ Yukino thought as her tomato leapt into the air, its tongue whipping around…

Only to have both monsters collide with each other, shattering like glass in the process.

"Now, we both get a new monster," Orange said as he pulled a card from his deck. "Since your monster was attacked though, you get to decide what monster to summon first…"

'_Great…'_ Yukino thought pulling her deck out from her disk, fanning the cards in front of her. '_That means he could counter whatever I summon…'_

"I summon Black Feather – Mistral the Silver Shield!"

In a several black feathers, a rather large crow flew down from the sky, flapping its long wings to reveal that its face covered with a silver mask with horns jutting from it (100/1800).

"A bird, eh?" Orange questioned holding up his selected card. "Well, I'm not too particular with the skies… I prefer the deep blues of the water, so come on out T.A.D.P.O.L.E.!"

In a splash of water, a large green tadpole popped onto the field, flopping around the field pathetically (0/0).

"… What the?" Yukino questioned. '_I thought he'd go with something stronger than my monster…'_

"I'll then set two cards face down," Orange announced as the two cards appeared before him. "And I'll call it a turn."

'_It's obviously a trap…'_ Yukino thought as she slowly turned over her next card, looking at the next Black Feather monster she drew. '_But… The only way to see if it is a trap, is to spring it!'_

"First," she announced as a black storm swept the field, several feathers. "Because since I have a Black Feather on the field, I can special summon this next monster from my hand!"

Slapping the card onto her duel disk, the large crow like warrior spun its large, black, drill-like spear, screeching loudly as it floated over the air (1700/800). "Black Feather – Blast of Black Lance!"

Yukino was wary, waiting if Orange would spring one of his face down cards…

Orange just yawned.

'_So far… So good…'_ Yukino thought, holding her hand up into the air. "Anyway, my Silver Shield is a special monster, he happens to…"

"He happens to be a tuner monster," Orange yawned as he stretched his arms up into the air. "Right?"

"Um… Y-Yeah," Yukino questioned before Mistral shattered into two rings of glowing green light that wrapped around Blast of Black Lance. "So, I tune my Mistral to Blast…"

The lance wielding crow shattered into several black feathers, wrapping around the rings until a new form appeared in front of Yukino – This one another crow like warrior, only this one dressed in a black metallic armor with gray feathers and a large shotgun with a blade attached to the barrel.

The winged beast spun the weapon around and saluted towards Yukino at its black visor helmet (2300/1000). "In order to Synchro Summon Black Feather – Arms Wing!"

"Impressive," Orange mumbled, pushing up his sunglasses.

"Wait till you see his attack!" Yukino announced, performing an overdramatic pose just to point at Orange. "Arms Wing! Attack his tadpole!"

Just as the armed winged beast was about to attack…

"HOLD IT!" Orange shouted.

'_Here comes the trap!'_ Yukino thought as Arms Wing floated back in defense.

"It's not tadpole!" Orange snapped waving his arms about. "It's T.A.D.P.O.L.E.! Quite a big difference!"

"… What the hell?" Yukino thought as Arms Wing just shrugged. "Anyway, since my Arms Wing is attacking an attack monster, his effect doesn't activate, but that's still enough to make a dent in your life points!

"Attack!"

With a loud screech, the gun totting Black Feather flew towards the tadpole, bringing the blade down at the amphibian, shattering the monster.

"Actually, I think I'll keep my life points the same," Orange replied as his face down card flipped up. "I activate Defense Draw! So all the damage I would've taken is dropped to zero, and I get to draw another card!"

The moment that Orange pulled off his top card, two more cards shot from his deck. "In addition, since you destroyed my T.A.D.P.O.L.E. I get the other two from my deck to my hand."

And just like that, Orange got his hand right back to six cards. "So thanks…"

Yukino looked at her hand, "Yeah? Well, its still my turn," She announced holding up another card from her hand and fitted it into her duel disk. "And I'll set a card face down… Ending my turn!"

"Hmm… And thus begins mine," Orange mused pulling another card, giving him seven cards to work with. "Of course, my hand isn't that impressive, so I'll set one card face down… And activate Card Destruction!"

Yukino's eyes blinked a few times as she fitted the three cards into her graveyard, both of them monsters as Orange slipped all five of his cards into his graveyard. "You sure you want to do that? You'll have pulled over twenty-five percent of your deck out already…"

"Trust me," Orange stated as he looked over the five newest cards he drew while Yukino did the same for her three. "With what I run, I don't intend to use every card in my deck, but I don't need every card in it to beat you, little lass… Case in point, I activate my face down card – Limit Reverse! Now I get a monster with a thousand or less attack points back to my field.

"Of course, I prefer to keep this selection down below zero. So…"

In a flash of light, the T.A.D.P.O.L.E. reappeared on the field, almost squeaking in delight at being back on the field (0/0).

"That again?" Yukino announced as the T.A.D.P.O.L.E. popped into a large amount of water that landed on the ground.

"Oh don't worry, he's just for tribute at the moment," Orange chuckled placing his next card onto his duel disk. "So now, I can summon Des Frog!"

Leaping from the new puddle of water was the same green skinned frog that had given Tony such a hard time the other day, croaking loudly (1900/0). "And since I successfully tribute summoned him, I can special summon all copies from my deck that has thanks to the T.A.D.P.O.L.E. cards I hold in my graveyard, normally that would be three, but since I can only have three, I've got two more from my deck!"

With two more loud croaks, the large duo of frogs appeared next to the original Des Frog, all of them croaking in joy (1900/0 x3).

"Now, I know what you're thinking," Orange chuckled taking his shades off. "Why bother summoning these three frogs? They don't have enough attack points to fend off that overgrown pigeon right there… Well, these frogs have a deadly secret…"

The set card that Orange had placed before he activated his Card Destruction flipped up immediately, making all of the Des Frogs croak loudly with black musical notes appearing over their heads. "A secret called Des Croaking! And when I have all three of the Frogs on the field, your entire field is blasted away!"

Yukino's eyes widened as not only her Arms Wing shattered into millions of feathers, but her two set cards were eradicated as well in the shockwaves…

… Leaving her to face the three large frogs in front of her, with nothing to protect her.

"Ya see what I mean?" Orange asked licking his lips. "Now then… Des Frog one! Attack her directly! Tongue Cannon!"

"Wait, that's its attack name?" Yukino questioned as the first Des Frog's cheeks grew slightly. "I thought that…"

Yukiko didn't get a chance to finish her inquire, the powerful tongue shot from the frog's mouth and slammed into her shoulder, her eyes widening as she was knocked over!

RRRRIPPP!

"AAAH!" she screamed as she landed on her back, not noticing that the right shoulder of her uniform was ripped off, revealing the sleeveless black shirt she wore underneath. (YLP: 6100)

"Des Frog two!" Orange commanded as the next frog charged up its tongue for a similar attack. "Tongue Cannon!"

Just as Yukino was about to get back to her feet, another frog tongue slammed into her body, this time removing the large majority of her uniform blazer. "AAAH!" (YLP: 4200)

'_Oh yeah, I'm starting to really like this world…_' Orange thought to himself as Yukino slowly began to stand up.

Needless to say, Yukino was surprised to see that her blazer was in tatters on the ground in front of her, making her eyes widen at the fact she was only dressed in her skirt and black sleeveless shirt. "W-What the?! What in the…"

"Still my battle phase!" Orange interrupted snapping his duel disk a few times. "And I still have one more frog to use…

"Tongue Cannon!"

With a loud 'ribbit' the amphibian's tongue fired from the frog's mouth this time the appendage wrapped around Yukino's stomach area, making her eyes widen before the tongue began to pull back…

RIPPP!

"Damn it!" Orange cursed as the black fabric floated down in front of him.

Yukino sighed in relief, but couldn't help but blush at her exposed midriff that was under the slightly torn shirt. Thankfully that she was able to keep her decency for the time being. (YLP: 2300)

"Hmm… Still, it gives me an idea of what your body type is," Orange mused with a devilish smirk appearing on his face. "Nice waist you've got there…"

"ACK!" Yukino yelped turning away from Orange. "W-What the hell was that about?! How in the world did my clothes rip?!"

"Don't you think it's obvious?" Orange asked pushing up his shades. "These frogs are real… As are their attacks…"

"Wha?" Yukino questioned, the blush not disappearing. "But that doesn't make any sense!"

"How so?" Orange retorted turning his head to the side with his arms crossed. "Your clothes are ripped off and on the ground in front of us… Well for some of it anyway… But that's still evidence. That and the fact that you were knocked down by three frog tongues.

"Three giant frogs that should be considered holograms!"

"Um…" Yukino muttered the blush on her facing growing deeper with every second.

"Plus, in case you haven't noticed," Orange continued to point out with a lick of his teeth. "The ground, the trees, heck, even the sky… All of it is deprived of color!"

Yukino's eyes widened as she scanned the area…

He was right!

Every way she turned, there was no color, save for herself, Orange and his three frogs.

"Who… What are you?" Yukino questioned wrapping her arms around her cold midriff.

"… I told you," Orange chuckled with his hair falling in front of his eyes. "I'm Orange… A regular guy who was hired for his skills. Rather they be in the dueling department, or the man you want spying on an ex-girlfriend, maybe even just take your place in class and take notes for you…

"I'm a jack of all trades… And I'm damn proud of it!"

"B-But why are you after Lord Riko?" Yukino gulped, but only out of surprise of the orange haired man's declaration.

"… It didn't really matter to me who I took out tonight," Orange admitted throwing his arms behind his head. "I'm just here for the ride and the free Oreos."

"What?" Yukino questioned with a dull look on her face.

"Truthfully, I'm here because of my peer Maroon," Orange explained, rubbing his chin against his thumb. "We were both in the same military school, and he wouldn't shut up about his vendetta he had with some fancy pants guy who had something to do with Maroon's younger sister… He didn't go into details, but I think the guy was a heartthrob and broke her heart or stole twenty dollars from her…

"Hell, I don't know.

"Anyway, when he couldn't take it any more and decided to quit the military… I myself got kicked out for selling everyone's pants and shirts to my old bookie to get some green in my pocket."

'… _That's just weird…'_ Yukino thought to herself with a large sweatdrop appearing on her forehead.

"We were two men on the street, both of us looking for a job," Orange continued. "So, during this time, while I was selling some of Maroon's blood when he was sleeping so I could get some more green in my pocket, we came across this weird gay guy named Beck looking for a few good men…"

Yukino's eyes widened, and the blush could only increase as the mental imagines flowed through her mind.

"Not like that!" Orange quickly snapped. "No! He was the leader of the Yokai group that took over this island a month or so ago… One thing led to another, and we became grunts… Powerful grunts, but grunts nonetheless."

"So… What's your reason for doing this?" Yukino asked with a question mark popping over her head.

"… Ya know…" Orange mumbled. "Now that I really think about that… I think I joined up just for the heck of it… I was really bored during that time, and sure, Maroon's blood got me a lot of money and scalping those Lakers tickets did keep me entertained for a while, but hey, I'm getting paid just to duel against a cute girl…

"And duel her in anyway I choose…"

"… You're sick," Yukino replied.

"Nah, I'm just lazy," Orange said with a shrug as he fitted two cards into his duel disk. "But enough of the autobiography… I'll set two cards face down, and call it a turn… But maybe you should give up… As much as I find tearing off a young girl's clothes, I prefer it when they remove them voluntarily…"

"Sicko," Yukino spat.

"I just told ya," Orange chuckled before something dawned on him. "Wait a second…"

"What?" Yukino gulped, not liking the look on Orange's face.

"… I don't think I'm getting paid for this," Orange muttered out loud.

Making Yukino groan as she fell face first into the ground…

What kind of opponent was she facing?

Slowly pushing herself up (while making sure what remained of her shirt covered her chest), Yukino took in a deep breath and looked at the three cards in her hand.

Not much to really work with… But it was better than nothing.

"My… Draw!" Yukino announced pulling offer next card, her shirt fluttering slightly…

… Giving Orange a small reason to blush slightly.

"I… I activate Black Whirlwind!" She announced as a large twister of black feathers flew around her body, making Yukino's hair and skirt flutter in the wind. "Now, whenever I normal summon a Black Feather to my field, I can take another one from my deck with a lower level!

"And since you have monsters and I don't, I can normal summon Black Feather – Sirocco the Dawn!"

A loud screech erupted from the colorless sky, making all three of the frogs shudder as the crow shaped man appeared on the field, his blue feathered crest billowing through the air as his black wings flapped to keep him afloat (2000/900).

"So thanks to that, I can pull out another Black Feather," Yukino announced as a card shot from her deck. "And I'm thinking Gale of the Hurricane! And since I have a Black Feather on the field, I can special summon him!"

Dive bombing next to it larger counterpart, the smaller green crested black bird figured monster flew around the field (1300/400), squawking loudly as it landed on Yukino's shoulder.

"Now then… Gale!" Yukino commanded as the small black bird shot a pair of air cutters that made the first Des Frog croak in pain as they connected with its chest (1900/0 – 950/0). "Thanks to his effect, I can cut one of your monster's attack points in half… And here's my comeback!"

"… Then bring it lass," Orange chuckled licking his lips. "Bring. It. On!"

**0-0-0-0**

**Card Stats**

**Darkest Sacrifice / Ritual Spell / Effect:** This card can only be used to ritual summon a ritual monster with 'Hades' in its name. You must offer monsters from your hand or field who's total levels equal the level of the monster you are attempting to ritual summon.

**Image:** A young maiden screaming in pain as three dark shadows stand over her.

**Hades Excelion / Dark / LV. 10 / ATK: 3500 / DEF: 3000 / Fiend/Ritual/Effect:** This card can only be ritual summoned by the effect of 'Darkest Sacrifice'. This card cannot be attack on the turn it was summoned. When this card successfully destroys a monster as a result of battle, this card may attack again. During your main phase, if this card is in your graveyard, you may remove this card from play to add one 'Hades' monster from your deck to your hand with a level lower than this monster's.

**Description:** step a large demon with the head of horned horse's skull roared loudly. Under its bone like armor are its large muscles with organs showing that pulsated every few seconds, the monster itself stood at least twenty feet tall and has a long tail

_These two cards were originally used in 'A Tortured Duelist' by Vic._

**0-0-0-0**

**Leo: **Oh my… -blushes-

**Yukino:** NOO! Don't look, Lord Leo!

**Maroon:** … I knew you were lazy Orange, but a pervert?

**Orange: **Hey! All we got are guys in our group! What am I supposed to do?!

**Flay:** How about get a girlfriend?

**Next time:**

_**Chapter 66: Triangle… Of Doom!**_

**Orange: **What kind of title is that?

**Mustang: **Better than 'The Color Orange'.

**Mao:** … Why the hell am I here?

**Flay:** Cause you two are going to be the highlight of the next chapter…

**Maroon:** But we still need to finish my duel with Leo!

**Orange:** And I wanna see more fan service!

**Flay:**-Glares at the two idiots- Shut up!


	67. Chapter 66: Triangle… Of Doom!

_**I honestly have no clue what's going on.**_

_**And with me, that's quite a big deal.**_

_**In case you didn't know, I'm the Die Hard Kaiser, and as a Kaiser for the Pacific Duel Academy, I like to pride myself in what's going on wherever I go. Sure, I may have a rocky past, but still, I'm trying to regain all that I lost beforehand. But now I've lost something much worse…**_

… _**I lost my rugged teenage looks!**_

_**I'm back to being a little scrawny pre-teen! Chibi Mustang if you will… And while I am a cute little guy, I prefer handsome to cute, hands down! **_

_**So here I am, fighting to get back my rugged looks, I'm not sure if I can get back what I lost… But I sure as hell am going to try!**_

_**0-0-0**_

_**Chapter 66**_

_**Triangle… Of Doom!**_

_**0-0-0**_

While the three dangerous duels were going on, Mustang was sighing loudly as he flipped through the pages of a book he found in Rena's room.

More specifically, he found it under her bed's mattress and it had a slight lock on it… Once again, nothing that could stop Mustang from reading the papers within the book, "Hmm… You'd think that a dairy of a girl would be filled with nothing more than names of boys she liked…"

Sometimes Mustang needed to stop watching those teen heartthrob movies…

"But this…" Mustang muttered raising an eyebrow. "This is just…"

The diary was actually a record of all that happened to Rena ever since she came to the island, from the early days her deck had gone missing, to when Dias and his crew had struck, and even the whole Twilight fiasco…

… One pair of words did get Mustang's attention…

"… Big Boss…" Mustang muttered shutting the book as he quickly applied the lock to it.

Hiding the book back under the mattress, Mustang quickly ran to his current abode – the closet – and quickly searched for his duel disk and deck. He needed answers, and he had doubts that Rena would answer him…

… But that's not why he grabbed his disk and deck…

… Before he confronted her, he needed to change. And clothing wasn't what he was going for.

**0-0-0-0**

"Night… A rather arduous and devilish time of the day. Through the dancing shadows and flickers of remaining light, we humans foolishly travel towards these lights like months to a flame…"

Mao sighed as he leaned up against the large main school building of the academy, looking at the counter on his arm… Ninety-seven. "… Soon very soon… Very soon my beloved sister…"

"Ah, the love of siblings…" A familiar cocky voice snickered loudly, getting Mao to lift his head up and away from the gauntlet counter. "Truly it is a beautiful thing…"

Leaning up against the wall by his side was none other than Flay, his oversized sleeveless jacket billowing in the wind behind him. "And an 'oh so sweet' taste on one's tongue to speak of…"

Mao couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at this character, there was something about him… A certain kind of air to this young man, one that reeked with a stench that choked Mao with every breath he took. "… You're not an ordinary person…"

"And neither are you, Mister Overlord," Flay cackled with his arms crossed over his chest. "I know about your little technique when you duel… And I must say, I am quite intrigued about your little… Transformation as it were…"

Mao's eyes widened.

"I believe that you can transform into…" Flay muttered with a hand to his chin. "The Arms Lord… If I am correct…"

"… And you are," Mao growled narrowing his eyes. "Who exactly are you?"

"Who am I?" Flay asked, taking a minute to lick his lips. "Some people call me a thief of years… Some call me the space cowboy… And some people call me Maurice. But my real name is Flay… And like you, I am the top duelist at an academy."

That's when a duel disk came to life at Flay's arm, deck already shuffling inside the device as he lifted his arm up. "So… I figure that the best way to make this stupid festival entertaining at all… Is to challenge a fellow top duelist…"

"Then why not duel the residential top duelist?" Mao suggested, taking out his blood red deck case, and immediately hand shuffling the deck as soon as he pulled the cards out.

"Too easy," Flay answered holding his duel disk up as a shield. "I've heard she's running a RFG deck… And with what I run, I don't think she'd last too long against me… But with what theories I've got on you…"

"You think you can get a challenge out of me," Mao finished snapping his deck into his duel disk, activating the device a moment later. "Is that right?"

"Correcto-mundo!" Flay laughed reaching for his deck. "So… Shall we cut the pleasantries and get right to cutting each other's life points?"

"HOLD IT!"

Both Mao and Flay turned to the side, both of them looking up and around, trying to find the source of the voice until their eyes landed on the small man before them… His once loose scarf, now tied on to keep it from flying away.

"Oh look, a little kid," Flay snickered placing his hands on his hips. "Why don't you run along home, little boy. You're not supposed to be out after dark…"

"Shut the hell up!" Mustang snarled holding his oversized duel disk up. "I'm still eighteen mind wise, and I'm still the Die Hard Kaiser!"

That made Mao stand up straight and look down at the little kid before him, '_Die Hard Kaiser… Of the Pacific Duel Academy… Is this little kid?'_

"And as one top duelist to another," Mustang shouted pointing his finger towards Flay. "I challenge you to a rematch! This time you're…"

Mustang stopped when Flay's hand appeared at his forehead.

"But now you're a runt," Flay laughed flicking Mustang's forehead, making the younger duelist stumble backwards slightly. "And runts need to be…"

"Enough," Mao said in a deeper and darker voice that made Flay stand up straight. "You wanted a challenge Flay? Fine, I love a challenge myself… And since I'm almost finished with what I need to do, I'm going to do us all a favor…

"We'll all duel at once… A three way duel. All of us will have eight thousand life points, and if someone loses all of their life points, the duel will continue between those who remain."

A little taken back, Flay couldn't help but narrow his eyes at Mao, "Oh… And why would I agree to that?"

"… Cause if you don't," Mao growled holding his duel disk behind his back. "Then I'm just going to walk away. I have no desire to face someone who doesn't take each and every duelist serious… No matter how old or young they are."

Pulling his head back, Flay began to cackle slightly to himself as he allowed his hair to fall past his shoulders, "Heh! Fine! I'll enjoy every second of this duel!"

With a mighty leap, Flay was back in his starting position, already pulling off the top five cards from his deck, "You'll just make this duel all the more easier for me!" (FLP: 8000)

Mao was silent as he quickly drew as well. (MALP: 8000)

"Don't think that your tricks will get me like last time," Mustang warned as he quickly snapped his deck into his duel disk, automatically shuffling the cards inside it. "And this time… I'm prepared!" (MULP: 8000)

"Enough talk!" Mao snarled. "Its time to…"

"DUEL!"

Flay immediately pulled up his sixth card, his eyes closed. "Hmm… Tell me Mao… Did you want to make this duel… All the more interesting?"

Mao raised an eyebrow, but remained silent.

Mustang on the other hand, gritted his teeth as a dark aura began to flow from Flay's body, slowly sapping the color of the grass, the building, the trees… Even the sky in the immediate area turned into a colorless version of itself.

Even this got Mao's attention, making him turn his head to the left and right slightly, "… What is this sort of trick?"

The dark aura slowly burned away from Flay's body, allowing him to pull a card from his hand of six, "No trick… Just good old destruction! I set a monster…"

The face down card appeared before him. "And for good measure, I'll throw down a face down. Now… Who's next?"

Mao answered that by quickly drawing his sixth card, and with a nod he spun the card in his fingers, "I summon Snarling Beast in attack mode!"

A loud howl filled the air, allowing a black furred wolf to claw its way on the field, its fur decorated with splotches of blood (1300/1400). "Next, I'll lay two cards in the back row…"

He then crossed his arms. "… Turn end."

"Man, you guys are boring," Mustang sighed as he slowly flicked off the top of his deck. "You need to add a little flair to the duel! Make things much more…"

"Well, you have the first attack," Mao growled with his brow narrowed. "You can make the first 'flair' to this duel."

"Sounds like an invitation to me," Mustang chuckled pulling out a card from his hand. "And I know exactly who to call out! I summon Die Hard Slasher in attack mode!"

In a blaze of green light, the handsome green armored warrior appeared on the field, his sharp bladed claws glistening in a non-existent light (2000/500). "Next… I don't much care for this gray world – So, let's liven this scenery up with the field card – City of the Heroic!"

The ground began to shake and rumble, making Flay and Mao stagger slightly while Mustang stood there proudly as countless fancy and high-tech buildings shot out of the ground, and the sky turned into a thick dark night… The city seemed to be out of a comic book.

"… Well… It certainly added some flair," Flay admitted looking at some of closer buildings. "But what pray tell does this card do?"

Mustang smirked as he fitted a card into his duel disk, "That… Is a secret. But for now… I discard the top card from my deck in order to allow my Slasher to attack your defending monster!"

With a battle cry, the enlarged warrior leapt through the air, bringing both of its claws down on the set monster… Flipping the card up into a transparent angel with a bow and arrow in its grasp (900/400) just in time to get sliced and diced to millions of pieces. "Thanks… That was my Skelengel. And when flipped, I get a draw."

Flay snickered as he drew.

"Fine," Mustang yawned as he threw his arms behind his head. "I'm done with my turn anyway."

"Looks like you are past your bed time," Flay cackled as he drew once more, bringing his hand up to six cards again… However at the last two cards he drew, Flay's eyes curved slightly. "Heh… Well, well, well… Look what I just drew…"

Holding up two of his cards, Flay fitted both of the cards into his duel disk, "Time for my signature combo!"

Mustang groaned loudly, '_Not again…'_

Mao raised an eyebrow as two large fountains sprouted up on either side of Flay, one with a statue of an angel and the other with a statue of a demon on it.

"I activate Spring of Life and Spring of Death!" Flay laughed loudly as the white and dark water began to flow from the fountains respectively. "Now… To benefit Mao, whenever a monster is…"

"I know what your cards are capable of," Mao interrupted with a grim look in his eyes. "One of them heals you by five hundred, the other burns us by four hundred."

Flay had a blink a few times as he looked at the four remaining cards in his hand, "Uh… Yeah… That's right…"

"Wow, he stole your flame quite quickly," Mustang stated with a dull look on his face.

"S-Shut up!" Flay spat slapping another card onto his duel disk. "I summon Inaba White Rabbit!"

In a white flash, the white furred rabbit reappeared, grabbing onto the large metallic statue and pole (700/500). "Now… I doubt I have to tell you guys that this little rabbit is lucky… But you sure aren't!

"Inaba! Attack Mustang directly!"

The pole ignited, sending Inaba flying through the air and heading straight towards Mustang…

… Unaware of the smirk that appeared on his face as he pushed the trigger on his duel disk, "Hate to tell ya this! But I was expecting that! I activate my trap – Spirit Barrier!"

A large wall of energy erupted at Mustang's feet, blocking the flying rabbit's attack and sending it flying backwards.

Flay's eyes widened as his white rabbit landed in front of him, but he quickly narrowed his eyes at Mustang, "You…"

"What's the matter?" Mustang asked rubbing his nose slightly with a large smirk appearing on his face. "Did you actually think that I'd let you get a cheap shot in on me? Not after that same trick you played on me last time!"

"Fine!" Flay snarled as he pulled another card from his hand. "But I know that this little trick will still work! I activate my spell card – Mystic Box!"

Two large boxes appeared on Flay's and Mustang's fields, covering both of their monsters. Flay held his hand up with his tongue sticking out, "And next… I destroy the monster in my box!"

Several swords rained down from the sky, stabbing into the mystery box on Flay's field… Slowly, the doors opened to reveal that the monster inside that was skewered was the Die Hard Slasher, screaming pain before the two boxes shattered, allowing Inaba to appear on Mustang's field. "Heh… So much for that pain…"

"Don't be so sure," Mustang chuckled as an orb of light crashed into his deck. "The effect of my field card activates! When a Die Hard monster is destroyed by a card effect, I get to put it in my deck instead and shuffle it…"

And just like that, Mustang snapped off the top card from his deck. "And I get to draw a new card!"

Flay narrowed his eyes…

"Damn it…" He cursed. "You planned all of this…"

"No, but I was prepared," Mustang answered looking at the four cards in his hand. "Never hurts to get extra credit."

"Good point," Flay cackled pushing a button on his duel disk. "Then I guess it was a good idea for me to add this to my deck! I activate Legacy of Yata-Garasu! Now, since you have a Spirit monster on your side of the field, I can draw two more cards from my deck!"

Quickly snapping off the two cards, Flay nodded to himself as he fitted both of them into his duel disk, giving him two cards left in his hand. "And I'll set both of them face down… And end my turn! Which means my little white rabbit comes on home!"

And just like that, Inaba disappeared into a wisp and reappeared as a card in Flay's hand, "And since he came back… My two Springs activate! First Spring of Life gives me five hundred points…"

The angelic spring glowed brightly. (FLP: 8500)

"And my Spring of Death inflicts four hundred points!" Flay announced holding his hand up into the air. "And I'm sticking with my plan… And inflicting the damage to Mao!"

Mao, who had remained silent ever since his turn ended, merely winced as a dark aura appeared over his body. "… I hope you enjoyed that cheap shot… That's the only one you're going to get." (MALP: 7600)

"Big talk," Flay cackled. "But let's see if you can keep it up…"

"Very well," Mao stated slowly clicking off his next card before he slapped it onto his duel disk. "I summon Snarling Beast!"

'_Another one?'_ Mustang thought as a carbon copy of the blood covered wolf appeared in front of Mao (1300/1400).

"Next… I activate the spell card, Friendly Fire!" Mao announced as the spell card appeared before him, revealing two futuristic soldiers fighting against each other.

"And what pray tell does that do?" Flay asked looking at the weird art.

"I'll show you!" Mao roared holding his hand up. "I enter my battle phase! Snarling Beast! Attack…

"SNARLING BEAST!"

Both wolves on Mao's field snarled at each other before they both leapt at each other, clawing and snapping at each other's necks until they both shattered like glass.

"What the?!" Mustang and Flay shouted at the same time.

"My spell allows me to attack my own monsters during the turn it was activated," Mao announced as two cards shot from his deck. "Which in turn activates my Beasts' effects… Allowing me to special summon one Fire or Dark monster from my deck as long as they have less than fifteen hundred attack points…

"And I choose Arms Crescent and Arms Hiro Senior!"

In two flames, the two armed monsters appeared next to each other, both of them scowling at Flay and Mustang. The first was a small young man with light reddish hair dressed in heavy armor and wielding a large crescent blade (800/1000). The other was a taller man, with dark red hair and light armor with a large blade that rested on his shoulder (1200/800).

"Now, both of them increase their own attack points," Mao explained as a fiery aura erupted around the two armed monsters. "Arms Crescent gains seven hundred attack points for each other Arms Crescent… Which thanks to Hiro Senior's effect, makes him into one! And for each Arms monster on the field, Hiro Senior gains three hundred attack points!"

With a loud battle cry, the Arms Hiro Senior (1200/800 + 600/0) and Arms Crescent (800/1000 + 700/0) seemed to grow more intense, their eyes narrowing and becoming more hardened warriors.

"Arms Crescent!" Mao announced not wasting time as he threw his arm into the air. "Attack Flay directly!"

Spinning the blade around, the armed soldier leapt towards Flay with a battle roar…

"I activate my trap card!" Flay announced as his face down card flipped up, creating a powerful barrier around him. "I activate Mirror Force! So now…"

"Go Seven Tools of the Bandit!" Mao interrupted as the barrier shattered like glass. "For a thousand points, my attack continues!" (MALP: 6600)

Flay's eyes widened as his barrier fell to the ground, leaving him wide open for the curved blade to slice through his body, making him wince in pain as the cold steel slashed through his shoulder, making a small spurt of blood to erupt from his shoulder. "AAAAAAH!" (FLP: 7000)

"Yeah!" Mustang cheered jumping into the air… As best as his currently small legs would allow him. "That took him down a few pegs!"

"Arms Hiro Senior!" Mao continued this time turning his deadly gaze over to Mustang. "Attack the Die Hard Kaiser!"

"Wait… WHAT?!" Mustang yelped as the taller Arms warrior jumped towards him.

Mustang's eyes widened as the blade crashed right in front of him, his scarf sliced in two and falling to the sides as Mustang was barely able to jump out of the way. (MULP: 6200)

"WHAT THE HELL!?!" Mustang snarled with his eyes narrowed as the two Arms monsters leapt back to Mao's field.

"… This is a three way duel," Mao admitted on the spot as he closed his eyes as he fitted two cards into his duel disk. "I'm free to attack you two as I see fit."

Mustang was about to chew out Mao… When he noticed something… He wasn't getting smaller… And Flay wasn't getting older!

'… _I think I found another loophole in his power!_' Mustang thought to himself as he slowly reached for his deck. '_Unless he's able to inflict the damage himself… The age transfer doesn't work!_

'_I can work with this!'_

"My… Draw!" Mustang announced plucking his next card off the top of his deck. Looking at the card, a large smirk appeared on his face as he quickly slapped another card onto his duel disk. "And to start off, I'll bring out a pair of my own blades! The Die Hard Dual Blader!"

In a flash of light, another handsome man appeared on the field, this one with long shaggy blonde hair dressed in ripped street clothes and wielding a pair of white katanas. When the man smiled, a bright glint appeared from his teeth (1450/1100).

"Next, I'm going to give him some wheels," Mustang continued fitting another card into his duel disk as a loud engine roar erupted from the imagined city. "With the equip card, Over Drive!"

Erupting from building's was a large futuristic motorcycle, prompting the Dual Blader to leap high into the air, mounting the vehicle in a cool and over dramatic matter (1450/1100 + 300/0).

"… Nice entrance," Flay commented.

Mao didn't even seem to care for the exuberant monster or the flashy motorcycle, since he didn't bother to even open his eyes.

"Hmm… If you liked his entrance, then you'll love the role he's playing!" Mustang announced as the motorcycle riding monster revved the engine a few times. "Cause thanks to his initial effect, he can attack twice in a battle phase! And unlike tall, dark and serious over there…"

Once again, Mao didn't seem to care about the comments made about him.

"I'm going to focus both of the attacks at you!" Mustang announced holding his hand up like a gun.

With a rev of the engine, the motorcycle riding Die Hard monster zoomed across the field, drawing one of the two swords that were clamped to the side of the bike in the process, prepared to cut Flay down to size…

"Humph, did you forget I still had a face down?" Flay sighed making a reach for his duel disk. "In fact, I'll…"

"I activate Over Drive's second ability!" Mustang interrupted as he lifted up his duel disk, revealing that the life point counter was beginning to drop. "So by paying five hundred life points, until the end of the damage step, your traps can't activate!" (MULP: 5700)

Flay's eyes widened once more as the motorcycle zoomed past him, making him blink a few times until a spurt of blood erupted from his right leg. With the burning sensation flowing through his body, Flay roared out in pain. (FLP: 5250)

"And I'm not done!" Mustang announced with a snap of his fingers, making his duel disk beep loudly. "I'm going to attack once more… And pay another five hundred life points to make sure you don't do anything to stop that!" (MULP: 5200)

Once more, Flay yelled as cold steel slashed his body, this time at his back, this time making him fall to his kneed, taking several deep breaths. (FLP: 3500)

"It's only the end of the second round," Mustang stated as Dual Blader skidded to a stop, still keeping the engine warm and roaring. "And you're already on your knees!"

Flay lifted his head up, his breathing still a little labor, "Oh… Trust me… That fact will soon change…"

"Whatever you say," Mustang stated fitting another card into his duel disk, making the card appear before him. "I set one card face down and end my turn."

Gathering what strength he had in his legs, Flay stood up… Shaking as he drew his next card… Maybe facing two powerful duelists at the same time wasn't the best idea… Throw in the fact that his hand wasn't looking so good…

But as he stood up, a small pendant that was hooked around his neck fell from his shirt, "… Time for me to get serious…"

**0-0-0-0**

"_Hmm," Morty chuckled as he crossed his arms. "I see you have yet to learn your lesson, Miss Duel Academia – Now, you've started a dangerous chain reaction! First, my trap card!"_

_Rena gagged as the ghostly claw gripped her throat, making her claw at it. (RLP: 5100)_

"_Then, there's my Masterpiece Castle!" Morty announced as the two Clay Tokens on Rena's field began to grow larger (250/250 + 100/100 x2). "Each time a Clay monster is destroyed – My castle gains a Clay Counter. And for each of these Clay Counters, all Clay monsters gain one hundred attack and defense points!"_

_That's when a second Clay Scout Soldier (700/700 + 100/100) emerged onto the field, waving his banner over his head. "And finally, my scout allows me to special summon another clay monster from my deck or hand, as long as it's level doesn't exceed two."_

'… _And I'm betting more of these clay monsters fall in that category…' Rena thought looking over her four card hand. "I… I end my turn."_

"_Hmm… A wise move I suppose," Morty admitted pulling another card, now holding two cards. "But then again, not making a move can be more damaging than a poorly executed move…"_

_That's when Morty's face down card on the left lifted up, "Case in point," He explained as the first Clay Scout Soldier appeared (800/800). "Since you failed to destroy any of my cards, at least without repercussions, I am no able to activate Limit Reverse. This trap allows me to special summon a monster with one thousand or less attack points from my graveyard…"_

_The first Clay Scout fell to the ground, only to build up more and more, "Thus allowing me to tribute my monster for something much more… Bigger…"_

_The clay built itself taller and taller until it formed into a multi-armed, black armored clay soldier with a yellow mask that has the look of anger on it (2200/2200 + 100/100). "The Clay General of Thunder in attack mode!"_

_Rena took a step back at the monster._

"_Personally, I don't know why he's named that," Morty stated out loud. "He's still an earth attribute, rock type monster. Not that I'm complaining since he can perform as a powerful warrior – Which is more than I can see about your Wonderbeat Elf!"_

_Spinning all of the weapons over its head, the powerful clay monster flung all of the weapons at the surprised axe wielding elf, shattering the monster into millions of leafs that flew through the air. (RLP: 4500)_

"_Uh…" Rena muttered taking a step back._

"_Heh, I know about Obnoxious Celtic Guard's ability," Morty replied flicking some hair from his eyes. "I doubt there isn't a person who knows this game who doesn't. But don't worry, I'm sure I can provide something for the next turn…_

"_But for now, I'll end my turn."_

Rena shakily looked at her four card hand, mostly from the questions and the real damage she was taking… And her field wasn't the greatest either. With Obnoxious Celtic Guard (1400/1200) and a single set spell or trap card on the backfield… Well, when compared with Morty's field, things could've been better. (RLP: 4500)

The entire colorless field was surrounded by a castle made of clay – The Clay Masterpiece Castle with one counter on it, allowing the field card to empower the Clay General of Thunder (2200/2200 + 100/100) and the Clay Scout Soldier (700/700 + 100/100) on Morty's field – As well as the two Clay Tokens (250/250 + 100/100 x2) that were resting on Rena's field. With Soul's Backlash and another face down card, Morty's field seemed to be well secured along with his Life Points. (MLP: 6200)

Of course, with his barrage of serious questions about relationships with friends coupled with the real damage factor…

It was easy to see who had the advantage at the moment.

"Are my questions too much for you?" Morty asked reaching into his pocket with his free hand, not bothering to look at the three cards he had left. "Is that why you dodge the questions? Thinking that the answers that may lay and wait for you aren't the ones you want?"

Rena gulped as she took a step back.

But Morty didn't stop.

"Tell me something," Morty chuckled pulling out a small coin from his pocket, flipping it a few times with his thumb. "Do you even realize that you're in the middle of a Love Y?"

Rena had to blink a few times in confusion, "… A 'Love Y'? Um… W-What is that exactly?"

"Heh, I don't blame you for not know about it," Morty sighed catching the coin. "It's a rare situation in love, even rarer than the love triangle. In a Love Y, there are three separate parties who was either the seekers or the objects of a single person's affection… And that would be the person of the center of a Love Y…

"FYI, that means you."

"W-What?!" Rena gasped. "B-But I…"

"You don't even realize it," Morty snickered crossing his arms. "Most of the time the center piece only recognizes one of three… Of course, yours is a very interesting case. You've got one objective party, one seeker party and one who's on the borderline of both of those types."

A large blush ran across Rena's face, making her turn away from the purpled haired teen, "D… Do you k-k-know who's who in the L-L-Love Y?"

A large warm smile appeared on Morty's face, "… But of course… Too bad I'm not going to say who until the end of this duel.

"For now, it's still the beginning of your turn."

Rena shook her head.

Morty was right, this was a duel… And a dangerous one at that. Then again, ever since she joined the academy, almost every other duel seemed to be one that controlled her fate.

"I… I summon Arch Elf Dancer!"

A shower of pink petals floated over the field, allowing a rather cute and exotic elf dancer to grace the field, her pink hair bouncing about as she smiled greatly (0/0) at the Obnoxious Celtic Guard.

"Hmm?" Morty mused looking at the monster. "Well… I'll give ya points on originality…"

"Just wait," Rena stated with a smile on her face. "As long as my Dancer's on the field, she increases the attack of all Spellcaster, Warrior and Beast-Warrior monsters by four hundred points!"

With a cute twirl and dance, the Arch Elf Dancer (0/0 + 400/0) created a bright aura that flew over herself and the Obnoxious Celtic Guard (1400/1200 + 400/0).

"… Impressive," Morty mused with a coy smile on his face. "But, you realize if you attack my monster, you'll only be causing yourself damage, while giving my monsters more attack points..."

"That's why, I'm switching these tokens to defense mode," Rena announced as the two Clay Tokens took a knee in defense. "And I'll set two cards face down… Turn end!"

Morty could only chuckle as he drew his next card, "Hmm… So young, so naïve… Do you honestly think that defending would help? I activate my trap card, Final Attack Orders!"

Rena's eyes widened as both of the Clay Tokens stood up, both of them ready to fight.

"I know that people love to defend with what I give them," Morty chuckled fitting another card into his duel disk. "And so, I give them a little bit of my own tough love, and speaking of tough… Clay General of Thunder! Attack the Clay Token!"

Spinning around the multiple weapons in its multiple arms, the large black armored clay monster leapt through the air…

"I activate my trap card!" Rena announced as two large cylinders appeared over her head. "Go! Magic Cylinders!"

Morty's eyes widened as the clay general was sucked into the first cylinder, but then was spat out towards him… Taking all four of the weaponry themed attacks to his body and making him skid back with a loud grunt. (MLP: 3900)

"N… Not bad at all…" Morty coughed out holding his chest from the blunt instruments that were used to attack him. "B-But… You realize of course, this means war…"

"Um… C-Can I ask a question?" Rena requested as she fitted the Magic Cylinder card into her graveyard.

"Sure… I don't see the harm," Morty replied with a bright smile on his face as he fitted another card into his duel disk.

"Why are you doing this?" Rena asked.

"Hmm?" Morty muttered raising an eyebrow. "You'll have to be more specific…"

"I mean this duel…" Rena clarified looking at the walls behind her on the Clay Masterpiece Castle. "Why are you putting me through this torture both physically and mentally… I doubt that you're just the kind of person to be a nutcase who gets his kicks by torturing people."

"… How right you are," Morty sighed flicking the coin he pulled out earlier. "I don't want to put people through the ring of fire, but I don't have a choice any more. I'm in too deep, at this point I can't even see the light any more… So, I'm taking the only path that I can see."

'… _I kinda hoped to get him off balanced with that question,'_ Rena thought with a sweat drop rolling down the side of her head. '_There goes that idea…'_

"It's still my turn," Morty continued only to catch the coin in his fingers. "However, I've already set the two cards that I needed to set. So, my turn's done."

Rena slowly reached for her deck, slowly flicking off the top card of her deck… '_But… His trap is still a problem, if I do what I'm capable of this turn I'll take more damage, but at least I won't take as much…'_

"While you're thinking," Morty chuckled pushing a button on his duel disk. "I activate my trap card – Just Desserts!"

Rena's eyes widened as a large pair of ghostly hands appeared around her body, immediately squeezing her neck and making her gag loudly. (RLP: 2500)

"That puts us about even," Morty chuckled fitting the card into his duel disk's graveyard.

"Ugh… E-Even?!" Rena yelped rubbing her throat.

"It's an eye for an eye," Morty replied with a shrug. "Anyway still your turn."

Rena slowly looked at the card she drew and raised an eyebrow at it, "… I summon Arch Elf Archer!"

In a flash of light the small chibi elf archer appeared on the field, her blonde hair billowing slightly as she held up her large bow and arrow (500/300 + 400/0). "And guess what? She doesn't have to attack any of your monsters! I'm having her attack you directly!"

Morty merely raised an eyebrow as the small, child-like elf pulled back on the string of the bow and let the arrow fly towards him…

… Only to be caught in his free hand. "… When you have family in archery, it's good to learn how to catch flying arrows before they get close to you." (MLP: 3000)

"… I don't even want to know," Rena muttered fitting another card into her duel disk. "I had a feeling you were weird when you looked happy dressing up in a dress on stage…"

"And that'll be a memory that I'll never forget," Morty laughed loudly as he drew another card, giving him two cards to work with this time. "Of course… I tend to remember quite a bit of information when it comes to fun…

"All the duels I've had here on this island will also be wrapped in my mind as well… And I'll show you why! I send my Clay Scout Soldier to the graveyard…"

And just like that, the second Clay Scout Soldier began to build itself up with blue colored clay, "Thus allowing me to add another counter to my Clay Masterpiece Castle, but more importantly, allowing me to summon my Clay General of Ice!"

The clay finished building up, this time revealing a clay soldier with several spikes jutting from its body (1900/1900 + 200/200), saluting to the Clay General of Thunder (2200/2200 + 200/200). The two Clay tokens on Rena's field though seemed to shake slightly (250/250 + 200/200).

"Next up… Clay General of Ice! Attack one of the Clay Tokens!"

Holding up the two daggers, the smaller general leapt towards the smaller token, prepared to slice it in two…

"I activate my trap card!" Rena announced as the face down card flipped up. "And its call Staunch Defender! Now you can only attack my Obnoxious Celtic Guard this turn! And both of your monsters are too strong to destroy him!"

"Fine with me!" Morty laughed spinning around as his Clay General of Ice leapt through the air, aiming at the elf swordsman now. "You'll still take damage!"

The Celtic Guard's eyes widened as he quickly brought his sword up, blocking the two daggers… But the General was quick enough to kick the guard in the stomach, sending him skidding backwards. (RLP: 2200)

"And since I have to attack," Morty sighed as the Clay General of Thunder charged towards the recovering elf. "Attack her elf once more!"

With barely enough time to recover, the guard blocked the two initial attacks of the General… However, since the general had two more arms and two more weapons, both of them slammed into the Obnoxious Celtic Guard's legs, sending him back to the ground. (RLP: 1600)

"Uh…" Rena muttered.

"I commend you on being so tenacious, Miss Rena," Morty chuckled as his two Generals crossed their arms at her. "But sometimes you need to stop. Take a look at the field – I've got two powerful monsters, and sure you have three more than me, but two of them are tokens and the others aren't really that impressive.

"Even if you do summon something stronger, if you tribute my tokens, my monsters will get stronger and you'll take three hundred points of damage if you destroy these two big guys. And I'll give you a spoiler… These two monsters' effects don't kick in until they get into the graveyard.

"Finally, I still have one face down card on the field… Its not another Just Desserts I promise, but it could be something even more dangerous than the other traps I've played so far…

"And each of us has only one card in our hands …"

"True…" Rena stated pulling a new card into her hand, turning it around, Rena's eyes brightened. "But then again… I've got something on the field that you haven't seen yet…"

"Oh? And what pray tell would that be?" Morty questioned raising an eyebrow, looking at the face down card.

"… My Arch Elf Dancer," Rena stated slowly lifting her hand up into the air. "Is no ordinary monster…

"… She's a tuner!"

Morty couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "… What's a tuner?"

**0-0-0-0**

**Card Stats**

**City of the Heroic! / Field Spell / Effect:** Whenever a monster with 'Die Hard' in it's name would be destroyed by a card effect and sent to the graveyard, return it to your deck instead (The deck is then shuffled). Then draw one card for each monster returned this way.

**Image:** A huge city with multiple buildings that you'd normally see in comic book hero stories.

**Die Hard Dual Blader / Earth / LV 3 / ATK: 1450 / DEF: 1100 / Warrior/Effect:** This card may attack twice during the battle phase.

**Description:** A young handsome man with shaggy blonde hair. A blue shirt covered with a black vest covers his scarred arms. His black pants are ripped and in his hands are two light katanas.

**Over Drive! / Equip Spell / Effect:** This card can only be equipped to a monster with 'Die Hard' in its name. Increase the attack of the equipped monster by 300 points. When the equipped monster attacks, by paying 500 points, your opponent cannot activate the effect of trap cards until the end of the damage step.

**Image**: A heavily armored motorcycle with multiple weapons attached to it.

**Arch Elf Dancer / Earth / LV. 3 / ATK: 0 / DEF: 0 / Spellcaster/Tuner:** While there is a face up 'Elf' or 'Celtic' monster on the field, this card cannot be attacked. Increase the attack points of all Spellcaster, Warrior, and Beast-Warrior monsters on your side of the field by 400 points.

**Description: **A real cute pink haired elf girl, her hair tied up in twin tails with flowers on her hair and loose black clothing that shows her cute figure.

**Arch Elf Archer / Wind / LV. 2 / ATK: 500 / DEF: 300 / Warrior/Effect:** This card is considered as a Spellcaster monster in addition to a Warrior type monster. This card can attack your opponent's life points directly.

**Description:** A young, chibi, elf girl with shoulder length blond hair covered with a green spiked bandana with a matching green tunic, armored gloves and boots. In her hands is a metallic, green bow with an arrow armed on it.

Clay General of Ice / Earth / LV: 6 / ATK: 1900 / DEF: 1900 / Rock/Effect: Negate all battle damage involving this card that is done to you. Each time a token monster is destroyed while this card is in your graveyard, you may destroy one spell or trap card on the field.

**Description:** A small clay soldier with multiple spikes emerging from his shoulders, shins and in his hands are two crystal daggers.

**0-0-0-0**

**Rena:** Time to show what I can really do!

**Morty:** … Come on, what's a tuner?

**Mustang:** Because now…

**Mao:** …

**Leo: **I will not stand by…

**Maroon:** Grr…

**Yukino:** And be treated like dirt!

**Orange:** -drools-

_**Next time, the four duels reach their climax! With Rena against the devilish artist… Leo against the Fallen Kazin Sibling… Yukino against the Perverted Gun-For-Hire… And Mustang and Mao against the master of age…**_

_**Who will come out on top? And who will fall beneath the cracks?**_

_**Next time…**_

_**Chapter 67: Climax**_


End file.
